Meet Liz and Terry at the #SOBCon hashtag to talk SOBCon.
Meet up with your SOBCon friends or make some new ones! Join us for the fun!
We’ll be sharing secrets and swapping strategies. You can bet on that.
Share your SOBCon memories and blog posts again.
Hear more about SOBCon Colorado and get your questions answered.
Don’t worry, I’ll make sure Terry doesn’t sing … yet.
Liz
Todd Hoskins chooses and uses tools and products that could belong in an entrepreneurial business toolkit. He’ll be checking out how useful they are to folks who would be their customers in a form that’s consistent and relevant.
If you are in business management, there will come a time that you either have to interact with or hire an attorney. The time I’ve spent discussing contractual minutiae with lawyers now could be measured in weeks rather than hours.
Fortunately, of the four guys I grew up with, one is an attorney. The other three are an investment banker, a doctor, and a plastics engineer. Quite lucky, especially considering the engineer is also a car enthusiast who tells me what’s wrong with my aging automobiles. Money, body, car, and the law – I’m covered.
But I’m limited in how often I can get free advice from my buddies. Good thing that not all legal issues require the services of an attorney, and that’s why I love LegalZoom. For entrepreneurs, LegalZoom not only gives you a library of standard forms, it files them for you with the appropriate entities.
For example, if you are looking to incorporate, LegalZoom will ask you all the necessary questions to complete the paperwork (think TurboTax). LegalZoom will not only file the paperwork with your state, it will also give you the option of applying for a business license and allow you to submit the required annual report. Bylaws, resolutions, and agreements – if it’s standard legal fare, LegalZoom likely will allow you to get it done more quickly and more cheaply.
Think you may have some intellectual property or an invention worth protecting? LegalZoom will allow you file a provisional application for a patent, or do a patent search and apply for a utility patent.
I have used LegalZoom twice in the past four years, and found it both affordable and easy.
Summing Up â Is it worth it?
Enterprise Value: 1/5 â If you can afford to employ a corporate attorney, you probably don’t need LegalZoom
Entrepreneur Value: 4/5 â Doesn’t do everything, but for a startup saves time and money
Personal Value: 4/5 â Wills, divorces, power of attorney, real estate leases, even bankruptcies
On a phone call last week, my friend, Zena Weist and I were discussing incidents such as the Motrin Moms and the Nestle-Greenpeace crises that happened last year or similar circumstances when a person or a group attacks another online.
That conversation reminded me of a negative blog post a few months ago that a fairly known blogger wrote using my name in the headline with two other key words as a obvious SEO ploy to get traffic. I say that because he ignored similar situations with other folks and didn’t attempt to ask me about the event. Nor did he respond to any conversation about it.
These sorts of confrontation can evoke a passionate response.
In the fast web culture, our senses get heightened by the idea that a wide audience of people we don’t know can be reading that bad press about us. It’s only natural to want to to set the record straight.
It’s at times like those that I try to remember this saying,
The more I want to run, the better it is that I walk slowly and with thought.
Passion rarely fuels grounded thinking.
Of course, a great social media team is hired to be mature and is prepared with a plan to handle a crisis such as those I just mentioned. But a knee jerk reaction can foil even the best plans. Realize that it’s happening. Often we sense a bad conversation before it’s really gone wrong. It might be our mood or the mood of the person we’re talking to. Unconsciously we rise to the bait and respond by making things worse.
So … Breathe. Before your hands touch the keyboard to respond realize that you’ve got a few minutes to go with your best reaction, not your fastest one. Take time to think of your best options. We can’t take back a bad response, but we can reconsider our options before we act like a jerk.
Of course, the best response is to be solid about what you stand for, willing to listen to questions about it, and open to other’s concerns. Then when things get confrontational, you can simply point out that the behavior, not the discussion, is inappropriate.
Have you ever been blindsided by a negative blog post? How did you handle it?
–ME “Liz” Strauss
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Mike and Larry (not their real names) had an idea. It was simple. When they came to me they had already figured out to enlist other folks by inviting them to be partners, experts, and heroes and their idea became a fabulous reality — a great first success. After their event, we talked about how to leverage their success into something longer and more lasting.
They had so many ideas! Their ideas were all over the place.
Whoa!
We stopped to take a strategic look at what was already at their door and where natural managed growth might go. We started with this model to guide the plan.
Mike and Larry had developed an online webinar that had gained a huge following of fans — a core group of online small business folks, particularly pr and marketing people. We named them “old product” and “old customers” to remind us that we were focused on expanding both the product line and the customer base. Doing the same thing for the same people only leads to slow death
Ideas are good, but it’s hard to choose which will take you to the place you want to be, if you don’t know where you want to go. On the other hand, knowing where you’re going is irresistibly attractive.
All you need to get started is two questions: Who’s in your core audience and what is the first thing you will offer them?
I can’t wait to hear.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
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Every commander knows that on the field of battle we want to be on the higher ground. Every brand manager, every business owner should really be thinking the same. In order to grow a brand and business, we have to know our position before we can advance.
Position is relational. It’s part property — what we own. If we own more and manage more we become more visible, more audible, more amplified.
Position is part expertise — what we know and can do well. Keep learning. We’re constantly offered opportunities to learn new strategies, skills, and techniques. It’s also good to teach. Teaching builds position and visible expertise.
Position is part perception, packaging and communication — what others see. If we live the values we want to be, then people see, perceive, and know us as those values. Do you live and talk a clear message? Do you hear and encourage other people to pass on that message about you?
Position is part the networks and relationships — how we interact with the industry. Do you have a brand and a business that attracts others to you?
Use this checklist to build yourself a view of your current position.
where you stand Are you standing on solid ground? Is your foundation connected and stable?
where you’re seen Are you visible in the places that you need to be to meet the people you want to meet?
where you’re heard What’s being said? Who is listening? Who is talking about you?
where you’re investing How do you invest your expertise and time?
Think through where your brand and your business is right now. Find a question that stopped you, that made you think longer than the rest. Work that first. Once you’ve worked most of them through, you can plan a campaign that truly leverages your position, plays to your skills, and advances your position toward higher ground.
Position is all opportunity. Knowing where we stand lets us see the possibilities of where we can go.
Which question offers the most opportunity for you?
–ME “Liz” Strauss
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As long as Iâm willing to do a little searching, I find that I can get reliable answers to all of my business questions. I have yet to ask a question that hasnât been responded to on someoneâs blog.
Thatâs what we bloggers are here for, right? To provide quality content. But when we read other peopleâs helpful information at no cost to us, what do we do to add to the discussion?
I feel like Iâm back in my school days here. Think about this. When the teacher delves into geophysics and you hear Charlie Brown lingo, you should ask for clarification. So, when you read a blog that doesnât explain a topic clearly, donât be embarrassed to ask the blogger for additional insight.
Did you ever have the teacher that had each student go around the room and name their favorite something? I think I was in elementary school when we named our favorite animals in front of the class. (At the time, my answer was cats). I remember thinking this exercise was stupid and a waste of time. Yes, I thought this as a 7-year-old.
I didnât know it all, either. My teacher was preparing us to do at least one thing: socialize. Blogs are a key component of social media. Commenting about our favorite something from a post or sharing some other personal knowledge generates discussion. It makes this social media social.
Teachers make mistakes. When I saw a teacherâs math problem didnât add up – literally – I let her know quietly and tactfully. I was not about to risk my parents making a visit to the school to hear about their mouthy daughter.
When we see a problem with a bloggerâs data, we should let the writer know and do so quietly and tactfully. Even if it isnât a technical error, we should air our concerns because once again, we get to engage in a social conversation.
Questions, comments and concerns help us to learn more. Thatâs why our teachers throughout our years and years of school encouraged them so much. We remember what we talk about. We make connections. We build on this foundation.
Not to mention, the teacher feels his job has been worthwhile when he sees his students responding to his direction. Bloggers, too, feel that sense of worth when people respond to their posts.
Of course, these responses must only contribute to a meaningful discussion. None of that âNice postâ or âGood jobâ stuff. Sure, itâs nice to be complimented, but a few dozen of those a day can amount to nothing more than spam. I cannot tell you how many spammy comments I donât approve per day and from the exact same website!
Since I donât like words full of nothing, why would I give them to someone else? We bloggers have to stick together and truly talk to one another. We can learn so much from one another, but only if we open our mouths, or rather move our fingers, and converse.
How do you engage your readers in conversation?
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Terez Howard operates TheWriteBloggers, a professional blogging service which builds clientsâ authority status and net visibility. She regularly blogs at Freelance Writing Mamas . You’ll find her on Twitter @thewriteblogger
Thanks, Terez!
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!