Share and the readers are yours

For a long time, I always found difficult to organize my posts and content for my blogs. Because always in a harsh competition against time, my desire to have an interesting and update blog being countered by my problems to deal with difficult professional and personal tasks. Hence, the focus on sharing link, instead of offering fresh and insightful ideas and content.

My chance started when I realize how important is not only to offer original content, but also to share direct experience. It is not always a need for a different style, but a concentration of your professional lessons learned and the importance of sharing. We are more likely to follow and be interested in what others did before us, about life testimonies. It brings a slice of life and authenticity to our words. From the point of view of the author, it brings ideas easily and offer many opportunities to expand your horizon. If you are a writer, a speaker, a consultant, use as often as possible the argument of the previous experience. Looking back, it is how you can inspire and create a direct connection with your readers or listeners.

Focus on who you are and only when you know exactly what do you stand for you will be able to influence the others and create role models and try to improve the world by your modest but necessary contribution. A life worth living.

Facebook+Skype-Love

The Skype platform will be incorporated to Facebook, allowing users to have real-time dialogues and conversations. I don't know yet how it is possible to have a selective choice of your Skype details: maybe you don't want to share all the information with all your Facebook friends? Or you want to use it without being bothered with various unwanted calls.

I discovered yesterday the last version of Microsoft Windows Live, newly launched and a bit controversial in terms of security. As a simple user, I discovered elements allowing a better organization of the contacts, the introduction of the video messages and the possibility to select your conversations. I will try to find and test more features over the week-end.

Geopolitics of Twitter

Here is a good article about Twitter in Brazil, outlining various trends and explanations for the high level of popularity of this social platform in this part of the world. I would like to read, and write too, more socio-political explanations about using social media. This is my to-do-list for this week-end.

More learning

The discovery of the week: Training Magazine Network.

E-Medical

Using social media for improving and promoting the medical practice: http://www.meditrafix.com/

Digital Action

A couple of random but important ideas following a couple of discussions I watched last days and some lessons learned from my own experience:

- If you want to get a digital identity, try to find any opportunities to expose your blog and posts. Look for blogging competitions, blogging carnivals, posts of interest for the topics you are covering. Register to events - online and offline, ask questions, network as much as possible with potential pen pals. Don't only be present, but let other people acknowledge your presence.

- Don't start without a plan: Where do you want to be in the next week, month, year - stats, network? Who are your most important competitors? Internet is covering the whole world, and you could establish a wide area of standards, according to the geographical area or only interests. But, beforehand, you have to know where exactly do you are and what resources do you have.

- Ask yourself: Is your domain covered enough? What's lacking? Try to make a difference: by the style, ideas, design, frequency of the posts, availability to dialogue and quick answer to comments.

- Check permanently if your objectives are reached? Maybe do you need a reorientation, or a completely new strategy...

- Be permanently updated with news from the industry. Be among the first to report about what it is going on. You are not a journalist, maybe, and as long as it is you are your own boss, it is no pressure to report a couple of minutes after you are back from an event or even, if you have the proper technology, during the event. But, if you are reacting as a journalist, writing fast and good, you are simply increasing your chances to get visibility.

- Identify the type of social media appropriate to amplify your online presence. For a corporate, professional blog, LinkedIn and other professional networks are useful. For a knitting blog, Facebook and Twitter are the best tools for getting popularity and possible customers.

- Look for partners and potential guests to share their experiences and expertise. Try to keep a certain coherence regarding the domain of the partners, and overall, an identity of your blog. Maybe beyond your blog on social media, you have the hobby of cooking. Instead of buzzing the posting with recipes, it is better to focus on aspects related to the impact on social media on cooking - for example, or if the passion is overwhelming, open a blog dedicated exclusively to this hobby.

Wish you, my readers, a relaxing and insightful week-end. Good networking!

London calling: The first Europe Internet week is approaching

Where? London

When? 8-12 November

What? Here is the program.

An interesting agenda, covering specific issues, as the publishing for children, the impact on various scientific domains, on health and pharma sector. For those unable to attend - my case - there will be fragments of discussions and conclusions available on Twitter and, hope, some registered presentations to be delivered after.

Consumers will share everything

The trends for the next decade, by Lisa Gansky, via Forbes.

Use the right link

I will not have enough of sharing my passion of writing. About everything and, if possible, all over the day, and most part of the night.

The difference when I am writing for the web is that I need and I can to offer more than a couple of words about something. I have the huge opportunities, without bothering the reader too much with extensive and long long, very long, posts, to share an impressive amount of information.

How? Through the links I am connecting and documented my words. And this aspect it is available for any kind of writing. Take, for example, a post about foreign affairs: I don't need to write memoirs about war in Iraq - a random example - as long as I can provide, delicately and discretely, a link to a study about the current situation, or the evolution in the last five years and of the history of the country. Or, if I am posting a link about playground, I can offer to the reader not only my review about the playground, but also the link to the place I am talking about. It is a matter of reliability but also of concision and of interest to offer to your readers information at high standards.

You don't write what you want to write, because you are the master of the words, but you are trying to answer as much as possible to the interests and gaps of information of your readers. And, at the end of your 2-3 paragraphs posts, they are opened many doors and showed many possible paths to improve their knowledge. Or, of course, to react to the information you are posting.

Welcome in the world of dialogue!

Where's your pic?

When I am looking to the overall aspect of my blog, I might say that from the design point of view, I don't like always what I see. Too grey, nothing to catch your view except some articles and links. I guarantee everything - or almost everything - is extremely interesting and brain rewarding. But, on the other side, something is missing. And, how it is happening - hope not only to me, very often, I co-partenered with the idea for hundreds of days but I was unable to apply it accordingly. And the idea is: I need a more visual presentation of my blog(s). I can trust my words and like them. But, without an image, my writing might be a simple narcissist exercise. Do something to catch somehow your audience! Blogs and, in general, social media, is for busy people, or for people in a big big hurry. Use as many cards as possible to bring them in, and offer them a promise of something different. Starting with the design of your blog, or Twitter page or the feed of your Facebook page.

Here was my starter-of-the day conclusion! Have a good one and lots of readers and comments.

Using Twitter for personal mining

My short good-morning lecture, about personal branding and our public image on the web.

PS: Welcome to my post nr. 100!

Speed is everything

Speed or die, this is the conclusion of the one-hour webinar of David Meerman Scott on Real-time marketing and PR, I attended a couple of minutes ago. I am so happy to hear from the part of the experts the advices I am obsesively share with my clients and colleagues.

A couple of ideas: Think fast and react with the speed of the Internet. Offer to the journalists what they are interested in - and not, as it is the case often what you, the PR person, would like to hear. A communications expert is never on vacations - it's as you would pretend you are effectively thinking only 8 hours the day (which might be true for many people, whatever the level of their education). For crisis management: Create a real-time system in place including social-web monitoring, website analytics, marketing studies. When the crisis occurs, all you have to do is to react, following a well-practiced path - even only at the theoretical level.

Another new interesting aspect I've learned about was that, if the bureaucratic and decision-making system might be to complicate, in order to not be override by the situation, you can assume the risk of communicating as an individual, as an expert - via Twitter or blogposts - separated of the "we" required for corporate communications. It is risky, of course, but it is how the real professionals are tested.

Now, have to go, some other professional requests to be processed in very real time.

Autoresponder

An useful way to better manage your contacts and to create substantial connections - the autoresponder system. A matter of etiquette and politeness, at the end of the day.

What social media contact would you put on your business card?

A good question, I didn't figure out, even I prepared a new pack of 100 business cards only one month ago.

I will not put my Facebook, as it is mostly designed for friends, relatives, acquaintances, not exclusively for business purposes - despite the fact that I am posting many links and conversations of professional interest. I will mention, for sure LinkedIn, my blog and, last on the list, the Twitter account - even here I mixed many personal interests with the professional ones. A lot of space, isn't it?