Archive for July 2006

Stock investors always say, “Diversify!” Imagine if you had all of your stock in one company and it went bankrupt. This scenario is what happened after the dot com crash.

Putting all your eggs into one basket labeled “email newsletters” can also spell disaster. The eggs might meet the same fate as Humpty Dumpty. But if we split up the eggs into a few baskets and one falls, we still have two to fall back on. Other kinds of baskets such as your Web site, blog, snail mailings and feeds can support your newsletter and help you build better relationships with prospects and clients.

Other online tools

We have a diversity of options available for building relationships through Web sites beyond the static sites that rarely change or get updated. Not all businesses advertise or market on TV, radio, newspapers or billboards. Why not? Because those vehicles may not be the best way to reach their target market.

While we might think, “Online is online. Once you get there, you can do everything.” That’s true, but as with kinds of egg dishes, people have preferences, likes and dislikes. Here are the tools we can use to connect with prospects and clients:

* Blogs
* Feeds
* Bulletin boards/discussion forums
* Wikis

When companies use tools like these to interact with the community, it makes them more accessible, puts a face behind the company. These also help keep the site regularly updated with fresh content, which is always a good thing, especially with search engines.

Blogs invade businesses

Weblogs aren’t just for telling our sob or life stories anymore. Blogs, as Weblogs are better known, can be online articles, essays, entries, diaries and journals. A typical blog contains entries displayed in order from most recent entry on forward to older entries.

When a blogger posts an entry, users can read and comment on them when that feature is available. Most blogging applications come with comments, but the blogger might choose not to use them, monitor them or leave it open for anyone to comment. They can delete comments, especially when they’re offensive or comment spam — comments from spammers who post repeated comments with links to sites to increase their search engine results.

CEOs, CIOs, vice presidents and many others have joined the blogging revolution to give a voice to their companies. Topics range from commentary on the industry, insight into strategies and advice on general business practices, to name a few.

While the decision on whether or not to blog and who should blog for the company is an article of its own, here are the basic requirements to meet when blogging:

* Add a new entry at least three times a week.
* Discuss topics rather than just linking to others.
* Read other blogs.
* Provide valuable information to readers rather than just about your company.

While successful blogs have broken these rules, they’re not common. Whenever you release a new issue of your email newsletter, blog it. It’s an opportunity to reach an audience that might not otherwise find out about the newsletter. You can read more about business blogging in these books:

* Blogging for Business: Everything You Need to Know and Why You Should Care by Shel Holtz and Ted Demopoulos
* The Corporate Blogging Book: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know to Get It Right by Debbie Weil (coming soon)
* Naked Conversations: How Blogs Are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel
* Blog Marketing by Jeremy Wright

Feeding with feeds

Rather than coming to the Web site and reading a blog, some people read the blog through a news reader, feed reader or aggregator application. Such applications can be downloaded and used on your computer, like FeedDemon, or are Web-based, like Bloglines. News readers make it possible to read all of your favorite blogs and online content in one place.

While news feeds were originally associated with blog content, they can be available for any online content. You may have seen the RSS or XML icons, text along the lines of “Syndicate this site” or a button that says you can subscribe with a specific feed reader service or application like Bloglines, MSN Alerts, MyYahoo! and more.

(Note: If you’d like to know more about feeds, here’s an article on feeds.)

Next time you go to a Web site, look for the feed. Any page on a Web site can be a feed, but a feed isn’t appropriate for just any old content. The best kind of content for creating a feed is regularly updated, including newsletters, like this one that has an RSS icon in the upper right-hand corner.

Take advantage of feeds and reference other content. If you have a feed for your newsletter, in its contents, reference something new on the Web site or a new article you’ve written.

The trick to spreading your eggs out is to have all of your content point to each other, business cards included. Business cards can have URLs to the Web site, newsletter and anything else that’s appropriate and fits on the small card. A long URL won’t go over well. Instead, use a URL shortening service, as many don’t cost anything.

Opening the doors with forums

Forums — also known as bulletin boards, discussion boards, discussion groups and message boards — offer an online meeting place where users can discuss topics. They don’t have to be logged into these forums at the same time. Forums typically require registration to avoid abuse, but some let users post anonymously. To use a forum, all a user needs is usually a Web browser, a sign on ID and a password.

To keep things under control, forums might have moderators who have the ability to edit or delete messages and remove user access. Unlike a blog, a forum allows anyone to start a new discussion. Only the bloggers can start a new topic in blogs, but most blogs come with commenting features to involve the readers.

When an interesting discussion occurs on a forum, reference it from within a newsletter or a blog to get others involved. Many businesses use forums so users can help each other with product problems and questions. Experts might also be assigned to track the forums to help when no one else can.

Colleges and universities with online classes might use forums so professors and students can interact and discuss course-related materials and projects. Do a search for “forums” and see the diversity of topics covered including hobbies, business, careers, industries, games and more. Companies also use forums so teams can collaborate or build a community among employees whom might be near and far.

Wikis take collaboration a step further

Wikis, like forums, involve multiple users who can start a discussion or topic. But unlike forums, wikis allow users to edit other people’s content. A person could create a new page, and another person — who has more information — can add onto the original article and make changes.

While anyone having the ability to edit anything sounds like a recipe for disaster, it doesn’t happen often. Wikis can be protected with a password to prevent potential problems. Wikipedia is a giant wiki thanks to its 13,000+ contributors who manage over 1,800,000 articles in 100+ languages. Over 960,000 of those articles are in English.

Pages in a wiki connect to each other through links. Creating a link in a wiki depends on the software used. A link could be created with a simple [This is a link] (brackets around the item to be linked), *This is a link,* or some other way. Working with a wiki resembles using a word processor.

These, like forums, come in handy for team collaboration. A software development team could use a wiki to document features and show how to use them. A marketing team could track its projects and updates with a wiki. The options for collaborating with a wiki are many.

Deciding on which tools to use

Blogs, feeds, forums and wikis have many features that impact your decision on which to use. Also, organizations that develop forum, blog and wiki software list the application’s features on their Web sites. You can check them out to help figure out what you need.

Keep in mind that content management systems (CMS) and communications management systems come with these tools built in. Even if a CMS that best fits your needs doesn’t come with a tool you want, you can always add on with another product.

In any case, you might find one, two or none of these communications tools works for you. No matter which you chose, it’s about seamlessly putting your information into more than one basket and reaching as big an audience as possible.

The i’s have iT. And some of us have had e-nough talks about the current trend of little i attached to words… iPod, iLife, iPhoto, and so on. He’s annoyed with the use of “i” particularly not e as in email, ebook…

i’Ve searched for other iWords and so far, all of them are related to Apple / Mac products. iDVD, iMovie, iWork, and iTunes. There are a handful of sites that use the i-word because they’re about Apple, Mac, or iPods. How can iForget?? iPaq! iPaq (2000) has been around longer than iPod (2001). But the article points out other iWords I’ve missed:

At a Target store the other day, the culprits included iWake (clock radio), iHome and iHome2go (clock radio and portable alarm with speakers), iCarPlay, iCable, iTV Link, and iPack. The last of these is a ‘computer backpack with integrated smart fabric interface.’

Then there was iPax, whose box promised, like some digital-era Caesar, ‘iStore, iCharge, iDownload.’

iCan understand why he’s annoyed with “i” more so than the “e” — because of its narcissistic tendencies. But this trend isn’t going away. In fact, we’ll probably see other letters of the alphabet getting their own wOrds.

How good is your boss? If the person resembles the average boss — probably an OK boss. Neither awful or great. According to Kate and Dale, only one boss out of every 20 is what they consider “gifted.” Those with bosses new in management have to be patient as the boss has to practice to get better with management skills. A manager can have all the training background (management programs, internships, MBA, and so on), but almost nothing can help prepare for a management role better than doing the job. Catch-22. When you’re new, you’re not going to be good. But you’re not going to be good without practice.

My first job out of college was a one-year management training program with a government agency. The program included working in three different areas, classes, and field trips. Over the years, I read many books on management and business. I also participated in a two-year management program for a non-profit organization and took several graduate courses. In spite of all of this, I know I wouldn’t be a good manager until I actually do the job.

10 ways to train your boss to give you the support you need might help. You might want to check out the discussion the follows the article. Not crazy about the way the comments work in TechRepublic, but it’s worth overseeing the usability challenge to read the comments.

I want to thank the folks especially Sally H. behind ChangeThis for accepting and publishing It’s a Big Blog World Out There: Five Quick Tips to Building a Better Blog. I’ve been nervous about its release because I feared the manifesto was too simple, not forward-thinking, and not a true manifesto — three areas that aren’t my forte (and that’s pronounced “fort” not “fort-ay.” I’m guilty of using the latter until I read an article that straightened me out).

I appreciate those who took time to provide positive feedback. Thanks to these emails, I can relax. Of course, now I feel the pressure of writing high quality entries in this blog every time.

Funny, I was working on the PowerPoint feature when I came across this old post on corporate blogging from 2004 especially the following:

Corporate blogging is going to grow and become as commonplace as having Word and PowerPoint loaded on our PCs. They might not be called blogs, but the concept is similar and they will be used for:

* brainstorming
* creating, editing, and approving docs
* status reports / updates
* doc library
* staying connected with customers / clients
* marketing and news updates to public

I was surprised by my own post as it predicted how blogs would become an integrated part of business.

Over the last few years, comments have popped up on how PowerPoint ruins many presentations. That’s backward. Presenters ruin presentations by using PowerPoint. PowerPoint isn’t the criminal here. The crime comes from people not using creativity in designing their presentations. Weird Is Good (near the end of the article) took a ingenious approach in a lecture on the Civil War. Here’s a quote:

Now I had the leisure to ramp up my presentations. I clicked on the PowerPoint icon and wandered into the realm of digitally enhanced oration. Most historians consider images, bullet points, and film clips show-biz flash. If old-time audiences could sit and listen to Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas discuss slavery for hours without photos or outlines, why can’t modern students endure a lecture about their debates without the indulgence of eye candy?

I sympathize with those retro sentiments. We have all watched computerized slide shows induce brain-deadness in otherwise vibrant human beings. They stare blankly at the screen and repeat every word that pops up there like zombified parrots. Instead of revolutionizing academic presentations, PowerPoint has — and this is a true miracle — dulled them further.

Jon T. Coleman, the professor who wrote the article, put “punk” in the PowerPoint as he discussed facial hair. Yes, facial hair.

I use the tour of Civil War facial hair to teach two lessons. The tour is a fun way to demonstrate how to raise a historical question, find a thesis, and formulate an argument. It’s an exercise in essay writing.

But it’s also a goof. I’m not really interested in discovering why generals and politicians on both sides of the most deadly struggle in American history grew such fabulous whiskers. I wanted to do something strange and pointless with PowerPoint. And in so doing, I hoped to make academe a little better.

Not weird. Imaginative!

Doing Presentations Right

Maybe it would help to treat every presentation as if the computer or device that contains the presentation will die minutes before the presentation begins. You have a backup computer? OK, what if that backup dies, too? Not likely? Regardless, the point is to avoid letting PowerPoint be the presentation. If you need inspiration, Metaphorically Selling is a great resource for coming up with innovative ways to present information.

Good speakers use PowerPoint or whatever application as a complementary tool to their presentation. But too often, presenters succumb to PowerPoint like a boss I had in the past would would read the slides and then add a little commentary before moving to the next slide. Edward Tufte declared PowerPoint is evil because of presenters like my boss. Boomberg’s Andrew Ferguson shares his beef with PowerPoint.

How often do we get to use creativity? A presentation offers the opportunity to exercise our imaginations and put it to good use. MasterViews provides many resources, tools, and ideas for creating successful and memorable presentations. Next time you need to do a presentation, rather than thinking of how much work it is and how it interferes with your busy day — consider it an opportunity to do something different and stand out.

Seth Godin started a debate over small businesses versus entrepreneurs in his blog. Follow the trackbacks and the debate spreads. The fruits of the debate began at SmallBusinessBrief.

Everyone is right and wrong. Both sides have people who are happy and people who aren’t happy. I think the service group doesn’t necessarily fall in either category and it’s where I belong. I want to remain a one-person business, but this doesn’t mean I won’t grow. I want to grow, but without sacrificing morals and client happiness.

Obviously, one-person businesses face different pressures. For one, if I am not working, I’m not earning. Well, maybe I earn a little bit from ads, but not enough to cut my work hours. I would’ve stayed in the corporate world if I wanted to earn good money without the pressure of finding clients and getting a paycheck even when things get slow. As of this month, I’ve been a full-time freelancer for one year.

I never expected it to be a smooth ride. I deal with a diversity of clients and it’s easier to get criticized because you’re the only one doing the work. In the corporate world, I was part of a team and we created the product together. Plus, I rarely got to connect with our clients.

I’m happier since making the switch because my life is more well-rounded. With three kids, I’ve got more flexibility in getting them where they need to go or stepping in when something comes up. I volunteer more than I have in years. Plus, I take tennis lessons and play mahjongg once a week. Until I retired from the corporate world, I had little social interactions.

I’ve finally reached where I want to be in life: balancing and enjoying my personal and work lives. You may have heard about Americans having fewer friends. That was me until one year ago. Now I feel like I’ve settled down and feel like I belong in this community. No more thinking, “I’ll make more friends later. I’ll do volunteer work later. I’ll take up a sport later. I’ll make new memories later.” As far as I know, we’ve got one life to live and I want to live it now not when my kids move out.