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?