What We Do: DIY Content Syndication and Promotion
There are now so many ways to get your word out, that every blogger has to make the decision: how far and wide do I want to distribute my content? Do I want it to be automated or selective? When do I start to feel like a spammer, not a sharer? Which tools are really effective, and which are just taking my content for free? How do I track my words, once I’ve set them free? How do I still protect my content? What about audio and video? We’ll be talking tools like Twitter, Facebook, kirtsy, StumbleUpon, Digg, Qik, Utterz: all of which can be either well-used…or abused. –from the Blogher website, the panel summary on which I’ll be speaking
Hard to believe we’ve only got two weeks until Blogher, y’all. Registration closed yesterday but I’m seeing a lot of Blogher ticket giveaways over on Kirtsy…if you want to get in, there might still be a way!
I’ll be speaking this year about DIY Content Syndication and Promotion (see the first paragraph of this post for more on what that means). Thought you might want to pre-think this out with me…
1. Get to Know Your Tools Beforehand
Someone asked me yesterday about how to use applications such as Twitter to reach out to customers. The first step, I honestly believe, is to get comfortable as an individual using the tool first. Don’t hop on in CEO-mode and think you’re going to learn the ropes in 24 hours. This goes for any social networking site. Invest time with the tool and it will serve you well. These two weeks before the conference would be a good time to start learning Twitter, Plurk or any other platform you might want to explore. Plug for Socialthing! — if you want to see a steady stream of other people’s updates (Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, etc) in one place, you might give it a go. I have 1 million Socialthing! invites (I, uhm, know someone on the inside), so send me an email or leave your addy in the comments here if you want one.
2. Twittetiquette
The next question, once you’re confident using the tool, is typically, “How do I begin to develop community or buzz around my brand?” Tara Hunt has a great guide to Twitter for companies that may spark some ideas…including a substantial list of “stuff to tweet about.” Some companies to follow that get it right, for the most part, are BrightKite, Zappos and JetBlue. Check them out for good practices.
For the most part, remember that if you’re using a tool, be it Facebook, Twitter or Vimeo strictly for marketing purposes, you’re likely going to be following thousands and be followed by like twenty-three people. That’s worst case scenario. Opening up the dialogue is a commitment and takes work. Companies are hiring evangelists in many cases to keep up with all of these information streams…it can be a little like Pandora’s box in the beginning, well worth it for keeping in touch with the people using your product or service.
3. Good Practices (Online + IRL)
Be Accessible: Stale tweets/status updates need not be replied to publicly, use direct messages for that. Be Prompt: Avoid the problem of stale tweets altogether. Subscribe to mobile updates and have your outreach person/evangelist monitor the stream. Be Helpful: Answer questions honestly. Questions you can’t answer? Promise follow up and then…you guessed it…follow up.
4. What Do I Do to Increase My Reach?
This year’s Blogher theme is “Reach.” The question on my mind is not just how to increase my reach but, more importantly, who do I want to be reaching? There’s no secret recipe to getting people to your blog. Invite them, share your enthusiasm, visit theirs…
Last year after Blogher I wrote a piece that stirred up some emotions about blogging being dead complete with a photo of the Macbook that didn’t make it out of our house fire (never been accused of understatement). I was wrong and right. The blogosphere has honed its collective focus a lot over the course of 2007-2008. Blogs have raised design standards and “personal brand” has become a buzzword, for better or worse. This year at Blogher I trust there will be a lot of talk about how to “brand” ourselves…which leads me to my next point.
5. Be You. You, You, You. Plant Seeds, Grow Flowers…
Me: “I’ve been working on this for over a year now and I can’t seem to do it, Paul. I can’t summarize myself in a few words!”
Paul: “Gwen, step back from the ledge. You’ll never be able to do that…and you wouldn’t want to. You can’t sum yourself up and that’s not the point. Put yourself out there and listen to what people respond to. Let that give you direction.”
Me: “Well, dang. Ok, so I don’t need a really killer tagline?”
Paul: “You think people will stop reading if you don’t have a tagline?”
Me: “Oh.”
You are not your blog (seems obvious now, but doesn’t during the insanity of the conference). You aren’t your tagline (although I’ve seen a few witty ones that sum people up pretty well). You aren’t your company (even though it might feel like a marriage sometimes, it’s not). When we meet at Blogher we’ll be introducing ourselves and becoming friends based on shared interests…I kind of think of it like phenotypes. You and I pair up and match on certain interests, we create a red flower. I meet with another person later in the day with another set of interests, we create a purple one.
The point is, we’re co-creating our realities. Blogher is about planting seeds. Let’s see what we can grow together.
Stretch, reach, breathe, release, repeat. Who knew blogging helped you burn [brain] calories, too!?
Three years ago today Patrick and I opened the doors to Yoga Garden in Yokohama, Japan. I’ve seen it grow, I’ve seen the students become teachers, I’ve witnessed some of the most heart-opening changes in the studio (and in myself) over these past three years. My first business, created with one of my best friends. Here’s to many more, y’all…and an invitation to live your passion (as well as a funny story during which I fall…hard):
Like many of you, I was in elementary school when I started playing video games. I remember that grey box, by today’s standards an unwieldy hunk of retro plastic…the cartridges were more than double the size of my tiny hands. I’d slide Duck Hunt in with a click and shoot ducks with a plastic gun to my heart’s content.
Flash forward twenty years. Two years ago I stood in line at Yodobashi near Yokohama station with hundreds of beskirted Japanese schoolgirls…all of us awaiting the release of the highly anticipated Nintendo DS Lite. We were standing in line because there was a good chance they were going to sell out within the day. We didn’t want any ol’ DS. We wanted the bubble gum pink one. And it was worth waking up at 5:30 in the morning to queue up and get one.
When someone contacted me last month on behalf of Nintendo, my inner skeptic kicked in and thought, “it’s probably a joke.” A few follow up emails revealed it wasn’t a joke at all. Would I like to be a Brand Enthusiast for Nintendo? Absolutely. To kick off my year as a Brand Enthusiast, we had our Nintendo Party this weekend and it was an absolute blast.
Nintendo + Brand Enthusiasm
I’ve been a Brand Enthusiast for many companies through the years, I just didn’t know what to call it at the time. When I went to the UK to study abroad I bought a pair of earrings to celebrate my departure. They were from a (at the time) tiny company called Holly Yashi. Very early in my trip I went to a movie theatre and emerged minus an earring. I mourned the loss briefly—I had loved those earrings. Got back to the States many months later. Went to Light Years in Chapel Hill, where I’d bought the earrings. They said they’d contact Holly Yashi and see if they had a replacement pair for me. Not only did Holly Yashi replace the missing earring free of charge, they gave me another pair to compensate me for my loss. They created a proud, loyal Brand Enthusiast immediately…I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve recommended them since.
There isn’t one thing or another that makes you an Enthusiast (or Evangelist for that matter)…but I will tell you this, women are awesome at it. We remember brand names, we remember stories. Nintendo is the first company to approach me using the words “brand enthusiast.” There’s no catch. I don’t have to blog about it, but I want to because all of this intrigues me. I don’t have to post photos, but I am because the venue was stunning, the girls had a great time and it shows…I loved that they got a chance to let their guards down, learn something and have a good time doing it. I don’t have to fake enthusiasm for my DS (ok, I have two…my DSs) because I actually enjoy playing it (them).
Nintendo + Parties
The party was a lot of fun. The venue was in Denver at a place call the Strategy Loft. We went inside to be greeted by the four seriously hard-core gamer girls that would help out during the night (I momentarily stumped them on one of the puzzles I was working on). We got charm bracelets and found out how the party would work. Then we got a glass of champagne and got to “work” playing games. More than three hours passed and it felt like it had only been half an hour…it was time to go home already!?!?
I felt like a six year old playing Guitar Hero for the first time…you couldn’t have pried it out of my hands if you’d tried (apparently there’s vid floating around out there to prove it). You have to use an extension pack which does slide around a bit (presumably they’re working on that aspect of it) but playing on the dual screen was more fun than the full screen version. Mostly because no guy could come up and try to force me to give up the guitar so he could play it on Expert (you know who you are and yes, you should feel guilty). I felt like the assistants in black went out of their way to show the girls they could do it on their own.
An empowering introduction to gaming for the girls that never had. A happy reminder that it’s ok to loosen up, let our guards down and have fun for the girls that already play. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a puzzle to get back to…
A current meme in the tech world is as insidious as spam and twice as malicious. It can be summed up in a single word: fail.
Last week Firefox released the latest version of its browser, Firefox 3.0. Their goal was to get the most software ever downloaded in a single 24-hour period. The servers crashed with all the folks downloading it. That’s when the insults started flying. Suddenly Firefox, the browser many of us techies are using and enjoying for free became an object of scorn, a virtual whipping boy.
Technology has long been a spectator sport. Those that don’t “get it” often watch from the sidelines, trying to understand what we’re doing. This meme concerns me because:
-The word “fail” is dismissive. It’s arrogant. It says, “I declare it failed; therefore it failed.”
-There are no absolutes. There is good and a measure of success in every attempt. What if we honor that in the people around us? What if we encourage what is working rather than scornfully dismissing what isn’t?
-The word “fail” leaves little wiggle room for a person (or company) to “improve.” It doesn’t say, “you messed up. Let’s see you do it better next time!” It says, “Fail. Nothing to see here. Move on.”
-Declaring someone or something else “failed” makes us feel better about ourselves, doesn’t it? If it’s “them” or “that” which “failed” we don’t have to look at ourselves to discover areas in which we, too, might be falling short.
We’re in a New Media world. Here, we could learn from Old Media. Approaching problems with balance takes courage. Dismissing an individual or company (startup or otherwise) as FAIL might temporarily give us a sense of power. In the long-term it hurts our community because it doesn’t leave the door open for us to explore what it is about the company that failed. A movement or community that isn’t exploring is a dog chasing its own tail. We’re bigger than that, y’all.
Wordcount: 359
(MicroBells are quickies. 300-500 word posts, they are considerably longer than twitter’s 140 characters but shorter than my usual page long posts. Let me know what you think about this new format!)
I’ve been facing considerable stress recently. Some of it’s low-level project-related distress, some of it’s higher-level (which I’m typically excellent at managing) eustress. I’m a devout GTDer, nearly two years in…I find it typically helps with the day-to-day minutiae, for high level (metta) work, I practice yoga and meditation.
My first serious yoga teacher told me she never listened to the radio or watched television. “If it’s important enough, someone will call me.” I thought it was crazy. Now, I understand that what she was doing was minimizing distractions. It allowed her to focus on the things that matter.
Yesterday at yoga we did an intimidating abdominal/leg strengthening series. You move from Warrior 3 into a one-legged squat. Remind me to show you sometime when we’re playing drinking games. During this excruciating set, on the second side, Mariah calmly says (of the intensity): Identify it, acknowledge it and let it go!
This admonishment did nothing to make the intensity diminish. It wasn’t meant to. It did, however, put the posture, and my life, momentarily, in perspective for me. I identified where it was most intense (outside of my right hip/glutes), acknowledged it (yes, ok, I HEAR YOU!! You’re a leg!) and let it (sort of) go.
Yesterday I met with a techie friend. He confided that when the intensity of things calms down a bit (perhaps in a few months?) he’d like to start doing yoga. Yoga is best practiced when you’re stressed, irritable, inflexible and overweight. Don’t wait until you get to your ideal level of happiness, flexibility and size to start practicing. Everything you learn on the mat is transferable immediately to “real life.” Some of the stress melts away. The rest you can learn to work with.
Wordcount: 299
{Microbells (thank you to @kitch for the name! You win a coffee!!) are new bite-sized pieces of Gwen Bell. Since sometimes all you really need is a nibble. 300 words or less. Yummy!}
My flickr stream stats, with more than 2,000 uniques in a single day, the day of the Caroline Collective Opening Party, are testament to the fact that Houston is onto something. I took the weekend to go explore what that “it” is. To discover the je ne sais quoi that makes Houston an up-and-coming city. Named Best Place to Live in 2008 by Kiplinger’s, one needn’t look far to discover what they’re getting right.
Yet many of my friends, when they heard that Houston was in first place expressed disbelief. Houston!? What could Houston possibly have going for it? I thought it was all strip malls and interstate?
Well, yes…and. The and is what I want to explore here. The food and the people and the events and the conversations to be had. You won’t be disappointed if you visit Houston and you know the right folks. Houston takes real good care of its visitors.
The Food: An Eclectic Mix of Whatever Ya Like
The first day I got into Houston Monica Danna, event planner extraordinaire with a penchant for sharing the joys of Houston with strangers (she’d probably call them friends-in-the-making) took me to Chuys. She had quesadillas and I had enchiladas. The art deco displayed haphazardly all over the walls coupled with the enthusiastic patrons made the stress of my arduous two hour journey from Denver to Houston well worth it.
Throughout the weekend I had the pleasure of attending a number of Houston’s finer establishments. We went to Leon’s on Friday night and danced the night away to 80s country tunes by Vinyl Ranch. I was like, “retro country? I’m in it to win it!”
I didn’t actually see food but I smelled it. There were rumors of food. You’ll have to ask a Houstonian if they do actually serve food. We drank $2 LoneStars. I wore a plastic cowboy hat. What more could you want out of your first night in a new place?
I had some coffee at Diedrich’s a couple of times. We had some interesting interactions with wheat- and sugar-free muffins (in the words of one taste tester: “If I threw that thang against the wall it woulda bounced off!!”). One morning a few of us enjoyed the deliciously dipped Texas French Toast at The Breakfast Klub (where everything on the menu with the letter “c” in it was replaced with the letter “k.”) The last night I was there we went to Benjys which was totally killer. Have the salmon tacos.
The Main Event: Caroline Collective Opening Bash
I have to say, I’ve never been part of the planning of an event for +/- 500 people. It was a first for me to imagine the number of hours, people and behind-the-scenes conversations that must take place in order for an event of this size and caliber to be pulled off.
Because I was staying with the event planner I got an inside view of what it takes to make a party really come together. You have to balance the seemingly mundane (What if we run out of toilet paper? Who’s going to handle trash bags?) and the high level questions (Are the vendors there? Well then where the bleep are they?!?). Monica handled questions, problems and changes to schedule with ease. And managed to look smashing at the event. I mean, she’s basically my hero.
The actual event was well-attended, upbeat and funny. I met some of the coolest folks. The Bloggess, Gary Vaynerchuk from Wine TV, Alexis Bledel—all of these people seemed to be the similar IRL to the “characters” they portray online or on tv. The creative energy was palpable as photographers circled the perimeter and djs Dave and Phil dropped the hot hot beats. Founders Matthew and Ned seemed to be thrilled, dancing and entertaining guests all evening. (Thank you, guys!!)
The event lasted several hours and the party continued with an after-party hosted by Gary Vaynerchuk at Corkscrew. The wine bar was lovely, outfitted as it was with solid oak paneling and an intimate back room where we had our private gathering. Bottles were on hand, the wine flowed, conversations gathered steam. Monica and I talked with Gary about branding, a subject close to both our hearts, and we wound down as the bar announced last call.
The People: I Left My Heart with You Gals in Texas
I fall in love pretty easily. When I travel I find myself in an even more open, vulnerable state with people. I fell in love this weekend.
With Monica, her kindness, hospitality, ease with people and herself. With Maggie, her honesty and ferocity. With Happy Katie, her laughter and willingness to be herself. With Michelle, her ability to crack open anyone’s heart with a smile. With Imelda, her lovingkindness towards others. With Stefanie, her get-er-done attitude and honest evaluations. With Hala, her modesty and gestures. With Tiffany, her ability to make you feel completely at ease. With Annelies, her wit and humor. With Laura, her we-are-going-to-rock-this-completely-out-starting-today-ability.
What an incredible group of women. These girls made the trip extraordinary. I can’t overstate what meeting and getting to know them better, in the case of the couple I knew before, meant to me. Houston is blessed to have these lovely ladies in their presence. I am blessed to call them friends.
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