When the blogosphere works

I just happened upon something really happy – it’s a cliche, it’s nothing new – but it reminds me about the power of blogging and why we’re here – either personally or for business.

Here it is: Heather Armstrong just had a new baby. A beautiful, healthy girl – Marlo Armstrong.

(the cliche is twofold: 1. babies, puppies, duh, and 2. everyone loves Dooce – told you, nothing new)

If you don’t know Heather Armstrong – she’s also known as Dooce. She writes a phenomenal blog with 4.9 MILLION pageviews per month, sells advertising for a lotta, lotta money, got a major book deal with Simon & Schuster, wrote two books, has been featured on every major news outlet you can imagine, received numerous awards and on and on.

I titled this post, When the blogosphere works because after live tweeting her labor and then announcing her new babe on Twitter and her blog, Heather has wracked up 2,463 comments on that post to date. I didn’t read them all – but I scanned through the majority and they’re all sweet, kind, supportive, joyful variations of: Congratulations! Her name rocks! I’m so happy for you! Thank you so much for sharing these pictures and your experience with us!

The blogosphere has worked, and Dooce has worked it, because she has created a community of love and support around her. These commenters/readers are here for the long haul. They feel like they know Heather. In short, they are her people. In the world of marketing, she’s acquired lifelong customers, trust, a relationship. They’ll buy the next book and the next calendar and the next…

Dooce represents the dream of many bloggers that I know. She’s one of, if not the biggest, bloggers of her kind out there. How did she (and how can you) do it? To follow her example, here’s what she’s done well:

1. The shock factor. There’s no denying that Heather has been raw-er and naked-er than most. What will she do next? brings people back.
2. The real factor. Raw and naked really only work when it’s real. This is a genuine sharing and reveal of a woman’s fascinating and hilarious life as a recovering Mormon in Utah.
3. The voice/brand factor. Pure, recognizable and comfortable. Like your favorite shoes that make you look hot and feel good all at the same time.
4. The intent factor. When Heather started her blog, blogs were not what they are today. She started the blog in 2001 to rail against her boss, who fired her as a result. She inadvertently coined the phrase, Dooce – check wikipedia, it’s there. And it’s always interesting to compare the people who ‘fell into’ this sort of success as opposed to the ones who ’set out to make it happen.’
5. The writing factor. Heather Armstrong is an incredible, phenomenal writer – it can’t be denied.
6. The creativity factor. Heather takes hilarious pics of her dogs. She has a monthly post/letter to her first daughter that captures the events of that month. She uses video, audio, images, words. She rotates mastheads every month and people wait to see what’s next. This point could fill up pages.
   
7. The ear factor. She’s done well because she’s listened. Oh? People like the daily Chuck? (pics of her dog) Then I’ll make a calendar and sell it on my site. In the end, she’s listened and given the people what they want in a multitude of ways.
8. The IRL factor. Heather goes to conferences and meets people, in real life. Is she available? Can you talk to her? I don’t know to what degree. But sadly and realistically, it’s impossible for someone with that kind of traffic and everyone wanting a piece to connect one to one. Has she stayed wide-open via her blog? Yes. And some people, like Chris Brogan, remain engaged as often as humanly possible as a practice…you decide what you want to do.
9. The hope factor. If Dooce can do it, so can I. She’s an American rags to riches success story. And many others have experienced this kind of success or a portion of it. Too many to count want it.

I, for one, was thrilled by the outpouring of love for the Armstrong family today. It showed me that the blogosphere does, indeed, still work.

Image courtesy of eyefruit

Un-Selfishing your Presence

When I was about 7 years old, we got my dad the best Christmas presents ever…three new Atari games: Frogger, Pitfall and Space Invaders. The brilliance of our gift was that we looked like great kids, my older brothers and I, but we weren’t at all because my dad didn’t play with Atari - we did. So, in effect, we bought the games for ourselves.

They weren’t really the best presents ever, they were the most selfish presence ever.

Cheesey as it may be, this little fable teaches us an important business lesson – and it’s simple. Whether you’re a company or a freelancer or a whatever you are, you have to do some marketing, right?

When you (and your copywriter) create your outreach message – make sure that you:

• Listen to your audience first.
• Find out what they want.
• Answer their questions.
• Solve their problems.
• …as opposed to yours.
• Because this isn’t about you.

If we’d listened to my dad, for example, we would’ve found out that he really wanted cheesey music a Loggins & Messina record (literally vinyl), a toy for his mid-life crisis Mazda RX7, Cardinal’s baseball tickets or a cigar…not Frogger. Not even close.

The result for us was lousy allowance rates, fewer trips to get ice cream and some eye rolling…what’s yours?

Image courtesy of sokabs

Irony. It’s so twisted.

As my good friend, Sarah, likes to say, “You can’t make this stuff up.”

Irony, according to my favorite dictionary (courtesy of Apple) is ‘a state of affairs or an event that seems deliberately contrary to what one expects and is often amusing as a result.’

Miss California, by way of irony, has recently given us quite a bang for our buck. While preaching against gay marriage in the name of the holy church and bible, it’s been uncovered that:

• Her bible and religion don’t scoff at young women taking off their clothes and posing for nude photographs, but do oppose loving people making a lifelong, serious commitment to one another and raising families.
• She lied when she said the first set of nude photos that were released on the internet were the only ones.
• The breasts God gave her simply weren’t good enough and she had to get new ones.
• She violated her Miss California contract by not revealing her nude pictures to the pageant committee.
• Her declaration against gay marriage (the rights for which somewhere around half the population of her state support) does not toe the line of representing fully the state she has been honored to represent.

And then…Donald Trump lets Carrie Prejean keep her crown. My head is spinning.

Personally, I’m not into this plot at all. It has politics and loud ick factor…but no substance. You’re right, Sarah, we would never make this up – it’s just too…banal.

Writers, we can do so much better than this…can’t we?

UPDATE: Like Manna from Heaven – me and Keith Olbermann are one. I just found this and nearly fell off my chair. Thank you, Mr. Olbermann, for speaking up so eloquently:

Image courtesy of Wasabicube

Twitter Baiting

No, I didn’t say, ‘twitterbating’ – that’s another topic entirely.

Twitter baiting is the Twitter equivalent of link baiting – wherein people lure bloggers, visitors or companies to their site through a variety of tactics. According to Rob Sullivan on Search Engine Journal, link baiting sounds like black hat (or dirty and sleazy) SEO, but it’s actually just the process of getting other sites to link to yours.

Link Baiting is just like fishing. You publish a new page on a topic…and set it free on the web. Hopefully others pick up on the content as fresh and interesting and link to it. The article is the bait, and the link is the catch.

You just witnessed link baiting, as a matter of fact. Rob wrote a good article, and I quoted it and linked back to him.

It must be noted that some folks do fish for links in a bad way – with false claims, antagonistic or controversial content.

The Twitter Translation

So how does this convert to Twitter? Well, people are using their tweets to lure people to their sites, of course. Not for links only, but also for traffic, body counts, retweets, buzz. Twitter baiting happens in the following ways:

1. Controversial or attention-getting tweets
2. Contest, challenge or giveaway tweets
3. Asking for retweets
4. Misleading tweets that tease X and deliver Y
5. Plain, old-fashioned, good quality content

Sometimes it’s good: when the tweeted link leads to a quality site offering high value and solid information.

Sometimes it’s bad: sending you to product pushing sites, scams or long sales letters (or just junk).

Wait. And Eureka! Either way, Twitter baiting really isn’t that far from Twitterbating after all! I mean, it is all about self-pleasure…right?

Is Twitter Baiting good or bad? Is it all in how you do it? Is it simply the nature of the beast?

Image courtesy of Aaron_M

SEO vs VEO vs Social Media: Which is More Important?

According to Wikipedia, Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” (”organic” or “algorithmic”) search results.

So what’s VEO? Visitor Enhanced Optimization is the practice of making sure that your readers can enjoy, understand and relate to your blog, site, content, message, call to action and more. For example, you can’t dump keywords into your site copy if the paragraphs they sit in don’t make any sense. VEO is about building relationships and trust with your visitors. It’s about offering quality content, value and information.

If you only do SEO – link, metatags, keywords, etc. and it brings you good search rankings – but you don’t have good content, readable content, interesting content – then why would anyone stay? Why would they come back?

On the other hand, if you have great content and VEO – but you don’t metatag your site or the site map is difficult for the search engines to read, etc…it’ll be harder for people to find you, but if they do find you, you’ll have a good chance of getting them to subscribe and possibly hire you or buy your product.

SEO and VEO really do work in concert with each other. I think they feed each other well. And, truth be told, the search engine algorithms strive to mimic the human mind. They’re not just looking for links or keywords.

Could you change your search rank by being social?

What about social media? How do you classify social networking? Is it in a class of its own? And can you build a strong readership, a nice Alexa rank and good search engine results if you replace hardcore SEO with a blog that you use well and a large, positive presence on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn?

At the end of the day, I think that using all three components will get you the farthest. But…

1. If you hate networking and just can’t be social like that – use VEO and SEO.
2. If you’re a born networking and you love promotion, building relationships and connecting – use VEO and Social Media.
3. If you want many one-time visitors with no punch or staying power – use SEO and Social Media. I feel quite strongly that losing the VEO will destroy you. There’s just too much good stuff out there and people can smell crap a mile away.

I’m tempted to say that Social Media could replace traditional SEO if you’re really good at working the networks.

Think about it: Are 20K followers on Twitter that adore you and feel like they know you better than thousands of dollars worth of keyword research and placement? I think so. And that’s because I’m a proponent of relationship and ‘word of mouth’ marketing. I also believe that if you’re an expert in your field, the keywords you need are going to naturally fill your site.

Of course, SEO can be good and full of quality, But, some SEO gets a deserved bad rap – because it’s black hat, or dirty pool, and to be honest it isn’t “natural” or “organic” – it seeks to reach a goal of high rankings without taking the reader into consideration. I suppose the spammers on social networking sites are the same – but they don’t usually come out on top, do they? I, for one, give them the big old BLOCK.

Bottomline: traffic drives your search engine ranking. And good content drives traffic. Social media has given us, the writers and readers, the opportunity to have a say in what sites are popular or not. The writers can populate with good content, the readers can share the site with social bookmarking and networking – even through email.

To answer my original question, ‘Which is more important?’ I’m going with this order:

1. VEO: have the goods

2. Social Media: build relationships, market, manage your PR, promote, be real

3. SEO: follow the basic guidelines and best practices, making it easy for your site to be searched, ranked and found

Image by alborzshawn

How to Get a Ratings Bump Without George Clooney

So, ER is finally winding down. I have to tell you that I haven’t watched the medical drama since George left the set. I have that thing where you believe you have every illness that happens on the show (even gun shot wounds, which last I heard aren’t a communicable disease). What’s that called? Oh yeah, hypochondria.

But, I dealt with it for Clooney.

Anyway, for the end of the series, ER brought all of the heavy hitters back, the original cast: Eriq La Salle, Julianna Margulies, Anthony Edwards…and, yes, George.

I was just standing in my kitchen daydreaming about Hollywood, as I often do. And, I was imagining the producers of the show finding out that everyone was coming back – George Clooney, in particular – and how they must be thrilled to get the ratings bump.

And, it occurred to me that what us bloggers deal with – the highs and lows of stats, the rare superstar post, the prized guest post or the coveted mention on a bloggeratti’s blog – isn’t so different from this television phenomenon.

Their episodes are our posts. Their guest stars are, well, our guest stars. Their feature on the Today Show is our feature on Chris Brogan’s blog. The ratings bump sometimes disappears in a flash, but sometimes the audience stays, grows, builds. We both win awards – though ours isn’t quite as prestigious…yet. But, we’re getting there.

So, if you can’t get George, what do you do for this ratings bump? Here are some ideas:

1. Bring in a guest blogger who has a wide audience in a field that will be valuable to your readers, but won’t take your readers away.
2. Same as above, but make it an interview.
3. In either case, ask your guest to mention the appearance to their readers.
4. Write something really good about a very hot and current topic.
5. Guest post or be interviewed on someone else’s blog and meet their audience.
6. Have a social media network that supports you and shares you (because you do the same for them).
7. Provide information and value – give the people what they need!

Okay, chime in – your ideas always dazzle…

Image from Wikipedia

Your Personal Brand Doesn’t Belong to You

No matter how hard you work to build your personal brand, it won’t be airtight. Not everyone will get the impression you’re hoping to express.

Do you remember English class back in the day? One of my all time favorite teachers, Miss Riddle – swear to god, ask my mother – is the one that first implanted the concept of poetry on my brain. Not the rhyming or the rhythms – but the meaning of the poetry. And then, Dr. Puhr – the one who turned me into a feminist – explored the meaning of prose, of stories, of novels.

Both of these women showed me that, when interpreting someone’s writing, there is no one answer and essentially there is no wrong answer. The color purple could represent the heart of a woman, the ‘fount’ of a woman, bruises, emotion, the sky, femaleness. It could be just one of those things or it could be all of them, to another reader it could represent something that you and I – even Alice Walker – never dreamed of.

The analysis, the interpretation – all depends on us. As readers and be-ers, we attach our histories, our very souls, our experiences  to what we read and see. And from there we create our own understanding. It may not be what the writer intended – but it isn’t wrong. It’s real. As in ‘interpreter-based’ reality.

When you’re creating your identity for your self, your business, your work – you, just like a writer, craft your words and your message with a specific intention and meaning. But your clients and customers, just like readers, will bring themselves fully and without excuse to their interpretation of who you are and what you represent.

Your personal brand, therefore, is not singular or definitive – and I’d hardly call it your own.

Image courtesy of Earth and Eden

How NOT to Get Screwed (like I did)

I got taken. I was had. Screwed six ways till Sunday.

I’ve exhausted legal options, appealed to a conscience this ‘person’ doesn’t have and now completely accepted defeat. But I’m going down swinging – hiding under a rock is NOT my style. Instead I’m sharing what I learned – with the strong intention that I don’t want this to happen to you, ever.

Oh, and do all of the things I’ve listed below, because I did ‘some‘ but that wasn’t enough. Slime is slippery and you have to work hard not to get covered in it.

11 Ways to protect yourself from scum

1. Google the company and the person. Dig deep and follow up if you find something bad – even if it’s just one thing.

2. Did you get that? I mean really DIG. Even the biggest slimeball can have proper looking LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, etc. accounts filled with tons of upstanding followers – and these listings will show up on Google first. It’s frighteningly easy for scumbags to appear to be good people.

3. Get references and call them. Find out who these reference people are and make sure they have no vested interest in giving a good referral.

4. Ask for proof of success. Demand real numbers. If they won’t show them, they do not have them.

5. Don’t buy the privacy/non-disclosure argument – it’s likely a big old smokescreen. If they can’t show your their work or tell you what they’ve done and claim it’s because of privacy, I’ll bet you a lot of money that they’re lying.

6. Read the fine print.

7. Get everything in writing. All of it.

8. Document everything – all conversations, promises, agreements. Email is a great tool for this. Beware that phone conversations, which aren’t typically recorded, mean nothing legally.

9. Ask your trusted network for their insights, opinions, experiences. Twitter is really, really, really really good for this.

10. Listen to your gut. There are actually thinking cells in your gut and they are very smart. Pay attention to yellow flags, red flags and that intangible ‘feeling’ that something isn’t quite right. This is the time to trust yourself.

11. If it looks to good to be true…You know I like to stay positive, but…there is something to that old saying. I’m not saying it can’t be true, I’m saying, ‘If it looks to0 good to be true, do your homework and make sure it is that true..and that good.’

Good luck…and my lawyer said that I can’t write mean truthful anything about the scumbag that got me, but I can tell my friends all about him in casual conversation. So, feel free to call me: 413-281-6013 anytime…I’m always up for a friendly chat.

Oh, and DS: Karma’s a bitch, baby.

Image courtesy of Toasty Ken

A World Wide Rave, by David Meerman Scott

There are a lot of marketing books out there. A LOT. In case you haven’t noticed.

When I was lucky enough to receive an advanced copy of David Meerman Scott’s new book, World Wide Rave, I knew it would be good – I’m a huge fan. But I didn’t know how good.

What’s a World Wide Rave? According to D.M. Scott:

A World Wide Rave is when people around the world are talking about you, your company, and your products. Whether you’re located in San Francisco, Dubai, or Reykjavík, it’s when global communities eagerly link to your stuff on the Web. It’s when online buzz drives buyers to your virtual doorstep. And it’s when tons of fans visit your Web site and your blog because they genuinely want to be there.

David Meerman Scott is all about authenticity and being real as THE way to get anywhere online and via social media. And this book walks you through the process of creating your own world wide rave without ever selling out or enabling your inner car salesman.

World Wide Rave showcases fascinating examples of things people are doing to make an impact. And, he doesn’t pick superstars – he picks real people that we can all relate to. And they’re doing real things – not outrageous, just inspired – that we can all do.

Case in point: reading D.M. Scott’s book was a huge impetus for me to finally write my How to be a Successful Copywriter ebook and start my One-on-One Intensive program…and take action on a multitude of other projects. I’m telling you, this book doesn’t make you think, ‘Yeah, right, but I can’t do that.’ It makes you get up and go.

Besides how fast and thrilling it is to read, how easy the ‘work’ is to do, how much sense every sentence makes – the book itself is it’s own World Wide Rave – each book comes with a cover poster. D. M. Scott has sent out the call for folks to take pictures of that poster all over the world…a world wide rave of World Wide Rave. And, of course, it’s going like gang-busters.

Here’s one of my money shots and, no, you may not make fun of my hat:

Check out the rest of the pics from around the world (and from on top of my car) here.

And buy this book. It hits stores March 3rd.

Also, hear it straight from the author: The David Meerman Scott Interview.

A Few Fun Ways to Cover Your Ass

I’m not the only one, right?

I’m not the only one who has that little voice in my head that sometimes preys on my fears and messes with me, but mostly provides me with invaluable insights and guidance…right?

And, I’m not the only one who sometimes blatantly ignores this voice, tells it NOT NOW! I”m busy! and goes about my business with an uneasy, ‘but what if…’ feeling…right?

For the last two weeks, I’ve been living on a steady diet of my Macbook, adrenaline and dark chocolate (with a little soup thrown in for good measure). Amongst other things, sleep has been missing. But last night, I hit a wall and decided to go to bed at 8:00 pm.

When I got into bed, my little voice said, ‘Where’s your Blackberry? It sure would suck if it started ringing and woke you up!’ No one’s going to call…it’s fine, I said. My excuse? I was really warm and it was snowing outside. (Though the phone was in my dining room and I don’t have to go outside to get there.) Then, I fell asleep quickly and easily for the first time in, like I told you, weeks.

The phone rang at 9:30.

The phone rang at 10:15.

It’s the loudest, most obnoxious ring you’ve ever heard so that I don’t miss calls from John Stewart, Ellen, Arianna Huffington or Random House (in that order). I also would answer if Oprah called. Or Anderson Cooper.

Oh, and Silas started barking at 4am – anyone want a dog? Just kidding, Silas, I would never – but that’s another story. The point is that my good, long night of sleep was ruined. I am not good at being woken up, my mind starts racing and writing and worrying – and I have a hard time falling back to sleep.

So, I started thinking that scenarios such as this arise in life and work, and that while that little voice is sometimes ignored, there are other factors at play. It all comes down to covering your ass. How can you avoid ruination?

Here are some ways that I cover my own:

1. I just published an eBook. No matter how many times I edited the thing, I found a new mistake. So, I added a simple line in the book:

Oh…and by the way, I’ve tucked some adorable typos into
this book. If you can find them, you get a prize. Something fun
like a link and a shout out on my blog.

Voila, ass covered. If there are typos, they are now there on purpose and everyone’s happy.

2. I have a LOT swimming around in my head: business, creative, family – don’t you? The best ass saver in the world is a machine that not only remembers everything, but also shows me instant search results at the hint of a word cue from me. My tool is my Macbook. In every single application, I can type any word or words into the search bar to find anything I’ve worked on. Doesn’t matter if it got filed wrong or if it was last year. Did I mention the search results are instant? As in, they show up as I type.

3. Always pack food, water and floss. Even if you’re just running into town for a quick errand. If you don’t, chances are that you’ll end up hungry, thirsty and with food in your teeth.

4. I ask for as much information as possible to be delivered to me via email. Many times, especially when meetings are scheduled weeks in advance, I forget all of the details. This applies to countless other situations. But, if everything is documented in my email, I can do a search (see #2) for that topic or name, and read the whole story – re-acclimating myself to the details, actions and expectations.

5. Be completely honest all the time. I’m not trying to sound like your mother, really, I’m not. But if you are completely honest 100% of the time, you will never waste any time, or screw up a relationship, by trying to remember what you said, who you said it to or when you said it. Or so I’m told.

6. Back up. People, if you aren’t backing up your work on your computer, I simply can’t keep talking to you. Do it.

7. Turn off your phone before bed. I’m sure that Ellen will leave you a message…and why would she call in the middle of the night anyway?

Your turn because there must be a zillion more ways to cover your ass, and I’m exhausted from all the not-sleeping.

How do you cover your ass? Go.

(p.s. this post is dedicated to my buddy, James Moreau)