The toughest step is the first one
After 9 years, I am wrapping up this blog and this business. I’m taking the time spent on Birmingham Blogging Academy to invest in my career.
I do so with the satisfaction of having created a free resource to help bloggers of all backgrounds in their work. I’ve shared a part of my hard-won knowledge in writing, marketing, social media, public speaking and other topics in these 521 posts.
They’re not going anywhere — I keep all my online pieces intact for my own reference and for anyone who needs a little nudge.
My career started with journalism, but it always had an element of marketing. I took that part with me to the next step, consulting.
This has been a fun and challenging stage in my career. I’ve spoken across the country, worked with some great clients (and a few frustrating ones) and tried everything from building a news site to founding a social media organization to running an annual conference. With varying degrees of success, and lots of failures from which to learn and grow.
What I want next is to apply my digital marketing skills and experience on a full-time basis for a great company, big or small, near or far. I’m available to work locally in Birmingham or remotely for any organization (I’m not looking to relocate at this time).
While I’ve applied to a handful of jobs, I haven’t reached out to my network. I’m going to engage my friends and acquaintances more fully now that I’m cutting back on consulting. I’m confident that together we’ll match me perfectly.
I’ll also set up a micro site for my resume, references, portfolio and more details on what I’d like to do. Let me know if you want access.
The company I want to work for values and trusts its workers, allowing them to be bold, talk frankly and make mistakes. It keeps customers and fans at the forefront of everything. And it employs a group of smart, diverse people who may not always think alike, but do manage to collaborate in exciting ways.
(If you work at such a company, don’t be shy — reach out to me.)
When I first started consulting in 2009, I read Alan Weiss’ “Getting Started in Consulting” [aff. link]. One of the most valuable things I learned was that some consultants cycle back and forth between working a full-time job and independent consulting. I can see myself working another 10 years in the right full-time job, and then re-engage my entrepreneurial side by resuming my consultancy. We’ll see.
For now, I’ll work on getting work. As a thoughtful, deliberate and curious professional, I’m going to boost marketing for the right company.
(I may be also take on a few limited projects and speaking engagements, depending on my availability.)
Thank you for reading my work over the years. For giving me words of encouragement. For weird YouTube comments and laughing at my jokes. For using my services and telling your friends. And for making me a better communicator, a better listener, a better marketer and a better blogger.
Keep blogging.
The 2017 index to posts
Photo: Andy Montgomery (CC)
The year is almost over. So what did we learn in 2017? Take a look at all 51 of my posts, organized by category.
Blogging
- How to find your blog’s focus
- Death of a blog
- Spring cleaning for sites and blogs
- Video: Are you a socially savvy real estate agent?
- Blogging: New angles for old topics
- Beyond how to make money at blogging
- Talents and blogging
- The minimalist blog
- Is ‘17776’ the future of storytelling?
- In the beginning: Revisiting blog posts for fun and profit
- Weird but fun places to blog
- 61 ways I’ve used blogging
- How celebrities blog these days
- The perfect scheduling assistant for busy bloggers
Social Media
- Harnessing Twitter’s power with TweetDeck
- The new new new LinkedIn
- A smarter way to respond to tweets
- Embracing the Twitter thread
- An ongoing dilemma: Facebook as a news source
- Hard questions about Facebook, from Facebook
- Tweet tweet! Live-tweeting with style and substance
- What’s the next big social media network?
- Video everywhere, including Facebook page headers
- Wade Kwon’s resume … in 10 tweets
- Smart ways to use (up to) 280 characters on Twitter
- The little social network that couldn’t
Digital Marketing
- On the diminishing importance of headlines
- Digging deeper into the words we all use differently
- Determining the right social networks for marketing
- The post I’ll promote till the sun collapses
- Get a second opinion
Writing
- The habit of writing
- A rule of thirds for writing
- The virtue of brevity in writing
- Exercises for keeping writing skills sharp
- Comfortable language
- Do you need courage to write?
- Are we making enough time for writing?
Last but not Least
- Email defense
- Email offense
- Make plans for WordCamp US 2017 and 2018 in Nashville
- What podcasts are on your playlist?
- Who’s killing it and where?
- The 2-minute panelist
- No excuses
- Let’s go to Y’all Connect 2017!
- 500 posts!
- Auto-play videos are (still) ruining websites
- Video: Let’s share our why-how-what
- Communicating intent in customer service
- Raised on radio
Also:
- The 2016 index to posts
- The 2015 index to posts
- The 2014 index to posts
- The 2013 index to posts
- The 2012 index to posts
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The perfect scheduling assistant for busy bloggers
Nudgemail is a wonderful free tool to set reminders for yourself. And it’s really easy to use.
Send an email to nudge@nudgemail.com with the subject “Tomorrow” or “December24” or “nextweek.” The body of the email can be whatever you want, such as a note to pick up the dry cleaning, or to follow up on a call.
The service auto-emails you on the date you picked.
This turns out to be a great way to save ideas and other things for blogging. I’m always on the lookout for material for certain blog posts: holidays, events, conferences and so on.
If I want to write a blog post about a conference in March, I’ll probably aim for publishing in early February. I could create a draft post and save it for the next 2 months, but I still might forget to finish and publish it.
But if I send myself a Nudgemail for Jan. 25, I can be ready to go at the right time.
When I stumble across a great post or video related to Halloween, I don’t want to share it in December. So I’ll write a quick Nudgemail with the video link and time it for Oct. 24.
I can use it to remind myself to check on the status of a guest post, alert other bloggers of system downtime or check if the last part of someone else’s series has been posted.
Sure, I could use a document for saving ideas, or a note on my calendar or to-do list. But since I try to keep those areas relatively simple, I think Nudgemail is the perfect alternative. Set it and forget it. I check my email at least once a day, so I will see any note I send myself.
A few tips on using Nudgemail:
- When specifying the delivery date in the subject, don’t use spaces. “Dec28” and “december28” will work, but “December 28” will not.
- The date can also be part of the email address: Send to Dec28@nudgemail.com or tomorrow@nudgemail.com.
- Don’t send attachments: They won’t come back (which sent me scrambling when I had already deleted the document weeks earlier).
- If a client asks me to follow up in 2 months, I’ll reply and also BCC to february18@nudgemail.com.
- It’s a great way to send reminders to yourself when you’re at an off-site meeting and need to take action once you get back to the office. Send an email from your phone to 330pm@nudgemail.com.
- Set up your app to flag any emails from nudgemail.com as high priority, so they won’t get lost with all your other messages.
The service has a FAQ page that’s well worth your 5 minutes.
I’ve found emails to myself from a year ago that keep me on track today for my blogging. Once you start using Nudgemail, you’ll wonder how you got by before.
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The little social network that couldn’t
Time to check in on our old friend, Google Plus.
It’s like the lame punchline to a joke that’s 6 years old.
I’m “active” on Google+ in a couple of ways:
- My blogs are set to auto-post links to new posts through my personal Google+ account.
- I manage a Birmingham-focused Google+ Community which just turned 5. It requires little more than admitting new members, taking down spam and posting a few posts per week. All told, maybe 10 minutes total needed every week.
That’s it. I’m probably putting too much effort into it as is. At best, Google Plus is driving 1 percent to 2 percent of traffic when looking at all social referrals to my sites.
Even a casual Google search doesn’t turn up any results for Plus posts on the first page. Weak.
The Web interface is terrible. I gave up on the iOS app a long time ago.
So no interactive value with real people. No more SEO juice. A lousy user experience. What’s left to do?
Not much. I’ll leave my outposts in place, though the value diminishes daily. It shows how difficult it is to launch the Next Big Thing when it comes to social media. Mighty Google has struck out. At least twice.
Time to up my Ello game …
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Notes on Google’s last big Plus update in January
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How celebrities blog these days
Photo: Thomas Leuthard (CC)
Celebrities are just like you and me. They have things they want to say about their day, or their politics, or their causes.
What’s interesting is how they share those longer musings: a tweeted link to a Facebook post, or a tweeted link to a screenshot of a TextEdit file as an Instagram post (or to drop the middleman, a wordy screenshot posted as a Twitter pic). Almost never a video announcement. Sometimes a thread of tweets.
Is this really the best way to “blog” with all the tools at our disposal?
Not that platforms matter to muckety-mucks. After all, when they say something newsworthy, media outlets will share their words on websites, TV shows and their own social channels. I can’t count the number of news articles I’ve read that are a few sentences coupled with celebrities’ embedded social updates. Or watching a report on television with shots of tweets or Instagram posts.
And I’m not a fan of reading celebrities’ 500-word releases and apologies via Twitter-hosted screenshots. Yet, this is the world we live in.
I’d be delighted to teach a celebrity to use a blog for these purposes for a reasonable fee. But we all know celebrities will use the most convenient tool on hand. Why blog when we can jot a note on a phone or in an Instagram caption?
If we’re tempted to do as the stars do, remember that blogging on an actual blog makes it easy for anyone to read and share. It enhances SEO and contributes to an inbound marketing plan.
And it can even be done from a phone (though I hate trying to type on that keyboard).
Let celebrities blog like lunatics. Give me a proper content management system instead.
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Are we making enough time for writing?
Photo: Walt Stoneburner (CC)
I’ve made more time for reading over the last few years. Why haven’t I made more time for writing?
I don’t love the writing process. I love being done with writing. It takes some effort on my part to get going: right mood, right topic, right amount of time.
I’ve put off writing back to a friend for 4 months, even though a thoughtful letter takes about 20 to 30 minutes for me. I often write posts and newsletters on deadline.
But reading I attack joyously. I tear through books, Facebook posts, articles, long articles, really long articles, audiobooks, comic books, email, Twitter threads and more every day.
I do need to make more time available for writing, even for fun. Time spent writing is a good investment: It hones my craft. It gives me a creative outlet. It uses important parts of my brain.
And it helps me stand out as a professional and a person.
Something for me to consider for 2018. And hopefully, for you, too.
Good writing doesn’t just happen. It takes work and effort.
But mostly, it takes time.
Let’s make more time for it.
• • •
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Smart ways to use (up to) 280 characters on Twitter
Hi, I still use Twitter. Every day.
I don’t expect people to come rushing to this social network just because it added 140 more characters to its updates. But I hope Twitterers will pay closer attention to constructing tweets for maximum readability.
That’s why I’ve provided a few ideas on using the 280-character limit to stand out.
Because I share so many links, I like to give a sufficiently in-depth preview so followers can save time if they don’t want to click. I spend a few minutes pulling the talking points out of the story, or even a notable quote.
It’s definitely a better way to tag relevant users, such as YouTube users featured in my weekly Birmingham video roundup.
I’ve shared at least one 140-character recipe, so I hope to see a few tweeted recipes soon. (Funny how those quickie cooking videos that were all the rage on Facebook in 2016 never made an impression on Twitter.)
I definitely did not consider online gaming, but here ya go.
https://twitter.com/BryanDisagrees/status/928661298300235776
I find Twitter deeply weird and funny and often irritating (thanks to the political climate), but still a place to play and communicate and interact. I prefer to tweet with as much brevity as possible, but the temptation to share a little more info is always calling me.
At least this aquarium has stuck to its 140-character guns …
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See more examples on my recent weekly Twitter log.
Wade Kwon’s resume … in 10 tweets
Click on this tweet to see the thread with my resume in 10 tweets.
Can you sum up your work experience in 10 tweets?
Video everywhere, including Facebook page headers
Taylor Swift’s Facebook page
Your brand could be a little more dynamic on Facebook.
When customers visit your page, add a video to the header. They play automatically, but silently, giving visitors the opportunity to see a product demo, hear a message from the CEO or take a tour of your business.
It’s easy to do: Click the “Change Cover” button on the header image and upload a video. It should be at least 820 pixels long by 312 pixels tall, 20 to 90 seconds in duration.
See it in action on Taylor Swift’s page, or the Y’all Connect page, either on desktop or in the app.
Try it today.
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Do you need courage to write?
Photo: John (CC)
Writing comes easy to me. But it wasn’t always the case.
Forgetting those painful first steps has made it harder for me to coax potential writers out of their shells. After all, I wouldn’t hand a trumpet to random strangers and expect them to belt out a short melody.
The art of music is more than blowing air through a horn, just as the art of writing is more than just writing words down.
During a few presentations, I’ve asked audience members to write a haiku on any topic they pick. I figured 17 syllables wouldn’t be taxing for anyone.
But I was looking at it all wrong.
To read aloud your contrived poem to the potential of great humiliation by everyone within earshot is a terrible risk. Better not to do it at all.
And so, maybe only one or two hands would go up to volunteer their work.
Even privacy offers no such security blanket. I had assigned a blogging student what I thought would be an easy homework assignment: Create a free blog on any platform, set it to private, and write one entry per day. That entry could be “To be, or not to be.” It could be a random word. It could be a single typed character.
The goal was simply to get her in the habit of writing daily blog posts, even if the posts were gibberish. She never posted once.
I forget the courage you must muster to put (digital) pen to (digital) paper. Without it, no amount of writing coaching or skill-building exercises will help.
I don’t know what it takes to try to write. I remember how silly and foolish I feel when starting any new activity: weightlifting, walking on a treadmill, cooking, replacing a part in my car. But I acclimate and move on.
Most of you will never find the courage to write that first sentence. The risk of failure or shame far outweighs the opportunity to develop a vital talent.
For the rest, do it. Write an anonymous nonsense comment below. Vanquish your timidity.
Only then can you begin to develop a callus on your writing muscle.
• • •
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61 ways I’ve used blogging
Here are 61 ways I’ve used blogging (not even counting reading/commenting on others’ blogs) for my personal and professional lives:
- jokes
- personal growth
- public accountability
- report news
- share videos of me
- long lists
- promote talks
- teach
- ask questions
- recap TV shows
- make new friends
- share opinions
- lose weight
- gain weight
- be transparent
- document a relationship
- live-blog TV events
- interview people
- selling products
- promoting others
- book excerpts
- movie reviews
- talk politics
- demonstrate features
- tell secrets
- share ideas
- spark a discussion
- exercise my creativity
- review goals and progress
- link out
- show off Birmingham
- portfolio
- serve as writing coach
- provide a forum for guest bloggers
- practice writing
- learn CSS
- learn WordPress
- complain
- procrastinate
- practice journalism
- cry over typos
- hold contests
- show off
- practice creating headlines
- publish scoops
- surprise readers
- surprise myself
- break my site
- write ebooks
- compile videos
- raise money
- recap vacations
- revisit the past
- practice humility
- make (most) deadlines
- post job listings
- improvise
- fend off comment spam
- become healthier
- become smarter
- become wiser
How have you used blogging?
Comfortable language
Photo: Andrea Wright (CC)
The courthouse in Monroeville, hometown to Harper Lee,
author of “To Kill a Mockingbird”
One of my all-time favorite books continues to provoke modern audiences. Harper Lee’s masterpiece “To Kill a Mockingbird” has been removed from Biloxi Junior High School’s reading list as of last week.
District vice president Kenny Holloway says, “There is some language in the book that makes people uncomfortable, and we can teach the same lesson with other books.”
That’s a shame. While I get that books often use words we might avoid in casual conversation so as not to unnecessarily hurt others, they inspire discussion about who we are and what we could be. Context makes a big difference: Does the author intend to illuminate the human condition, or merely poke blindly at people’s sensitivities?
It’s a purely subjective exercise. One district’s standards might not represent every parent in the area. Certainly not when it comes to evaluating literature and language and decency.
Students from that school won first place at the National Beta Club Junior Convention in June in Orlando in the Book Battle. The competition involves an hourlong written test on 12 books, including Mark Twain’s “Tom Sawyer” and Markus Zusak’s “The Book Thief.”
I should note that both of those books have also faced upset parents and removal from curricula around the country.
While some students thrive when presented with challenging literature, others will never the know the joy of Lee’s insightful writing, the pain of a community ripped apart by fear and hatred.
We as writers must choose our words very carefully. Not so much as to avoid censure or offense, but to connect with our audience, even in unsettling ways. That is the human condition.
Our language must ring true, even if the ideas presented make for an uncomfortable audience.
• • •
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What’s the next big social media network?
Photo: Modup.net (CC)
Social media is where the money is at, right? So rather than passively wait for the Next Big Thing, I’m going to build my own.
I call it Doodad.
Because hundreds of social networks already exist, mine will need to stand out somehow. The huge selling point for Doodad will be passivity. What could be simpler?
Photo: Fdecomite (CC)
A tiny implant in your forehead will take care of everything. Just place the Doodad on a table or other flat surface, then bang your head rapidly onto the device for installation. Easy!
Because you’re lazy, you don’t have to go through a cumbersome registration process. Doodad will crawl through your existing social media profiles, create your account and log you in automatically.
Doodad’s forehead cam captures every moment of your day, including photos, selfies (every time you pass a mirror), video, infrared (for nights) and X-ray (people behind walls should be transparent). Your best (and worst) moments will upload to the network for everyone to see. Bonus: Start livestreaming whenever, wherever — in 3D and 4K using 5G.
Checking Doodad requires nothing more than blinking: Your timeline feeds directly into your brain, with images and sound available during blinks and whenever your eyes are closed.
Stop fretting over composing updates. Doodad scans your thought patterns and posts them in Outbursts. Hate the driver who took your parking space? Worried about your hair? Crushing on your bartender? Panicked over a persistent mole? It all goes online in milliseconds.
Even replies and comments no longer need your conscious effort. By scanning your brain’s lizard impulses, along with thousands of previous comments, Doodad formulates the harshest retort before you can form an opinion and posts it in your friends’ updates. Finally, all of the digital shouting and bickering without wearing out your keyboard.
The EgoBoost option allows you to target your updates to those who dare disagree with you. Automatically share your platitudes on hunting, child rearing, nuclear power, GMOs, charter schools, that neighbor who leaves the curtains open, water rights, taxes and millennials to those jackals who really need to hear it from you.
Play games, watch crazy viral clips, send private messages and creeper notes, gasp at everyone’s ugly kids, take in a few (hundred) ads, complain, beg for Likes and shares, subtweet. Best of all: It’s completely free.
And if you have privacy or security concerns about Doodad, don’t worry. It will post those publicly as well.
Doodad is the perfect social media channel for you because it does all the work. All you have to do is breathe.
Sign up today!
Weird but fun places to blog
Photo: Oran Viriyincy (CC)
People blog in the weirdest places.
They probably wouldn’t even call it blogging. But it is, even if few recognize the genre.
A friend of mine evacuating Florida with his family (and a neighbor family in tow) took time out from driving for hours to update all of us on Facebook. He wrote long posts, he answered questions, he received Likes and comments.
He’s blogged before, but has moved on given the limits of his schedule. Still, a lot of people found themselves reading his ad hoc posts from the road.
You blog where you feel like it.
Certainly many Twitter users have composed threads (complete with photos, links and videos) that — when combined — make for a … blog post. I liken it to a Tumblr post chopped into so many pieces.
You blog where you feel like it.
I’ve seen long essays contained in one or more screenshots, then shared on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook. That’s a blog post, too, albeit one that’s not searchable.
You blog where you feel like it.
When users string together photos and videos (really short ones) into Instagram Stories and Snapchat Stories, guess what? I had Instagram power user Russell Hooks document August’s Y’all Connect conference on our Instagram channel, and naturally, he put together a great Story with glimpses of the day.
I would count that as a blog post, one that I would’ve stumbled over trying to film and share it.
You blog where you feel like it.
These corners of the Internet are worth exploring. They open up even more options for companies that want to reach fans and customers in different ways. A lot of corporate blogs are stiff and no fun — but sharing ideas and information through these alternate channels could be the spark badly needed.
Crafting a great message is important. How we deliver it is as well. Let’s take a closer look at those weird spots and understand how we can best infiltrate them.
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Where to start blogging right now
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Raised on radio
Photo: Robert Ashworth (CC)
What is radio?
If you had asked me growing up, it would’ve been a handful of local stations on AM and FM, with a few extra AM stations at night. Every house had multiple radios: portable ones, clock radios, giant stereos, factory models in cars, even pocket-size ones with optional earphone.
For a lucky few, listeners could pick up nearby pirate radio stations (I still love to watch “Pump Up the Volume,” a 1990 Christian Slater flick about a high schooler’s secret basement broadcasts). The 1990s gave rise to satellite radio, with Sirius and XM providing hundreds of channels of music by genre.
The early days of the World Wide Web provided a new DIY format: Internet radio. Listeners could use an app such as RealAudio or connect directly to streams from all over the globe. Nowadays, we can connect through our computers, phones, tablets, car wifi, smart personal assistants (Alexa, Google Home), smart watches and probably a few other devices I can’t remember.
Radio is also:
- Recordings of broadcasts made with an app.
- Podcasts by anyone.
- Podcasts of radio broadcasts and shows.
- TV shows of radio programs.
- Streaming services (Pandora, Spotify).
- YouTube streaming.
I ask about radio because it makes us think about how communication technology grows and evolves. Terrestrial radio may be the original, but many of us listen to music and talk throughout the day on formats never imagined in decades past.
What is television? What is texting/instant messaging? What is blogging? We’ve seen this newer channels transform into unexpected variations.
We may not be able to pin down a simple definition for radio, but we can adapt to the formats. We can come up with creative ways to monetize the formats, through advertising, sponsorship, membership and more.
As long as people have ears, they can tune in. Are we tuned in?
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In the beginning: Revisiting blog posts for fun and profit
Photo: Mon Œil (CC)
I’ve lost count of my blog posts. It’s probably around 7,000, but the exact figure doesn’t matter.
I should go back and read what I’ve written.
I spent a week reading through a friend’s blog in chronological order. She started in 2004, a year before I did. It’s fascinating to see this glimpse into her life, preserved online for as long as she keeps it open.
Failing to heed my own advice to re-read our own old posts, I will devote reading time to my library of posts on multiple sites. I may cringe, I may find typos, but it’s an exercise in measuring growth as a blogger and finding the gems among the dross.
What are the benefits for brands revisiting their old posts?
- A training exercise for new blogging team members.
- Compile for white papers and ebooks.
- Share in social media as evergreen info.
- Inspiration for new posts, including updated best practices.
- A hearty laugh.
- An evaluation on whether posts reflect the brand then and now.
- A closer examination of all reader comments.
- A renewal of our vow to serve readers, fans and customers through better blogging.
- Creating permanent pages for the most visited posts.
- A re-evaluation of marketing strategy based on past performance.
Be fearless and dive into the archives. Bloggers should invigorate their institutional memory. After all, we did it all for posterity, right?
P.S. For WordPress bloggers, this simple hack makes it easy to read in chronological order from the very beginning.
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Communicating intent in customer service
Photo: Mike Mozart (CC)
I think about customer service. Like, all the time.
I consider it from the receiving end, talking with company reps, chatting online, dealing with clerks in person. Each encounter tells me this brand cares about me (and often, does not care about me).
And I consider the customer service I give. Is it meaningful? Does it reflect my brand? Are my intentions clear?
I’ll use an example most of us deal with on a weekly basis: gas stations. Most of the customer service we experience at these stations is average: We show up, we pump gas, we pay, we leave. We might grab the receipt, we might run in for a beverage, we might squeegee the windows.
Our customer service isn’t shaped by full-serve attendants (except New Jersey and Oregon) or really much human interaction at all. But we have clues all around us.
When I must run inside to get a receipt from the clerk, he’s friendly and accommodating. But it’s still an inconvenience, especially when the same station consistently has a broken receipt printer at the pump. Where is the love for the customer?
When the squeegee bucket is bone dry or missing the actual squeegee, what does this tell the regulars? Or a screen blaring infotainment and ads while we’re pumping gas?
People aren’t dumb. We know when we’re considered suckers who need gas vs. human beings who want to spend money with the best businesses. We pick up on subtle indicators to understand our role as customer and exactly how brands hold us in esteem or contempt.
As brands, we may not always understand how our customer service relies on every touch, every encounter — from the moment a customer pulls up our website or walks past our display window. But we must try.
Customer service, like reputation, takes a long time to establish well and only one little mistake to ruin. We communicate it through our signage, our facilities, our greeting and our follow-through.
Let’s spend a little more time thinking about how we communicate that service intent and how we can improve in all the little things.
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Exercises for keeping writing skills sharp
Photo: Laura Blankenship (CC)
Writers who focus on specific areas of writing need ways to keep their skills sharp. If all we write are grant proposals or marketing emails or white papers, we may stumble when having to switch up.
As a former newspaperman, I had opportunities all the time to write in different ways: newsroom memos, headlines, photo captions, employee assessments, committee report, opinion piece, teasers, briefs and more. It’s good training and forces writers to think about their audiences and their needs and expectations.
Alas, I don’t have a rag to publish these days, so I’ll have to push writers to come up with exercises to practice their craft. One game is “Six-Word Stories”: Participants craft a good story using exactly six words.
- Threat of hurricane ruins beach trip.
- Old dog thinks he’s a pup.
- Nuclear warriors worry their weary citizens.
- The football bounced between the players.
- He popped the question. She squealed.
- Bored pupils awaited the ringing bell.
- Zombies killed time more than brains.
- Self-driving cars sped along without passengers.
I gave myself 5 minutes and came up with eight stories. (I kept tripping up because I’m used to counting syllables, not words, for my daily haiku.)
Writers don’t need specific assignments, just a blank space to fill with words. They take the time to hone their craft, even when merely exercising their creativity.
Keep writing, and tell me about the best writing exercises.
• • •
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Tweet tweet! Live-tweeting with style and substance
Live-tweeting an event is deceptively easy. Many do it, few excel at it.
We see it during popular TV shows and awards shows, about football games and breaking news. The best live-tweeters provide context and multimedia content that’s easy to follow and digest. I insist on having a designated live-tweeter for events I hold — it’s basic customer service.
To do it right at a conference or meeting, follow these tips.
Jen Barnett takes a break from live-tweeting Y’all Connect
earlier this month to share an update on Facebook Live.
• Be prepared. Have a schedule of the event on hand, plus a list of speakers including Twitter names and links to their resources. Keep a charger and backup battery on hand: Live-tweeting may give few opportunities to charge up, and no power means no more tweets.
If you’re serving as the official conference social media rep, set up a back channel with organizers to share event news, such as changes in schedule and rooms or announcements about wifi and breaks. Log into the event’s Twitter account (and other social channels if needed) to test everything.
Pro tip: Have a text file with a few canned tweets and schedule if needed. These copy-and-paste nuggets can thank sponsors, mention upcoming sessions, promote sales and so on.
• Tweet selectively. It’s easy to fall into transcribing a talk, but it’s better to summarize or snag the most helpful tips. If followers want a play-by-play, point them to a livestream.
This forces live-tweeters to pay attention and make judgments about what to share. It also opens up some good options. I’ve tweeted interesting slides; links to articles, videos and books mentioned; even editorialize on the information given by the speaker.
Pro tip: I’ve found it easier to live-tweet from a computer rather than a phone. It allows me to have multiple tabs open, and do quick Google searches for resources mentioned by the speaker. Plus, I type faster than I text.
• Help with hashtags. Following the event hashtag yields plenty of tweets available for retweeting. Elevating the other live-tweeters in the room is important: It shows they are being heard and puts other perspectives front and center. I also use retweeting to give myself a little breather during sessions.
Naturally, use the event hashtag for all your tweets. And include other relevant hashtags.
Pro tip: In addition to following the hashtag, monitor other key searches, such as the event name, event Twitter handle, replies and DMs. The live-tweeter has an opportunity to answer questions about the seminar as well as basic event info (where the bathrooms are, if slides will be available, etc.).
• Have fun. Live-tweeting is a tremendous opportunity to talk with a lot of people at once. We can provide needed info to both people who couldn’t attend as well as guests sitting next to us. Having fun can be infectious.
It also allows our personality to shine (even when tweeting officially on behalf of the event). Live-tweeting shows that we care enough to put the info out there and field questions in real time.
The tradeoff is that it requires focus and discipline, which takes quite a bit of mental energy. We’re almost always on duty, which limits our chance to network. And it requires finesse, balancing all the information and opinions with the needs of followers.
Try live-tweeting, and see if it doesn’t help you earn new followers and elevate your own status. Yes, it’s an ego boost, but service is really the key component. By sharing what we see and hear, we can amplify the lessons online and provide a record of any event worth documenting.
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Video: Let’s share our why-how-what
Video: “How Great Leaders Inspire Action” by Simon Sinek
A simple inversion of how we sell our brands can lead to much greater success.
So argues marketing consultant Simon Sinek in his 2009 TEDx Talk, “How Great Leaders Inspire Action.” He takes the basic elements of how we define our companies — what, how and why — and explains how they resonate with customers.
Using the Golden Circle, Sinek points out that starting with why defines a purpose: “People don’t buy what you do — they buy why you do it.”
I could tell you that I’m great at blogging and digital marketing, or I could share my why: I want to help companies communicate smarter and more efficiently.
Those brands that believe in smart and efficient communication will find me. Then I can show how I do it and what the results are.
Watch the video and try it out with your own marketing plans.
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Want to work with a communicator focused on
your company’s goals? Contact me today …
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Birmingham Blogging Academy 