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Class with Masters Degree Students at CityU London – A Year Later …

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If You Don’t See Me Monday Morning

Last year I had the distinct pleasure of presenting a class to the masters degree publishing students at City University London, School of Journalism. This year, we’re doing it again.

The journalism school at City University London, — which “has accrued legendary status within the media,” according to The Independent — will be the setting for a transatlantic conversation on social networks, online business, and digital publishing. Course Director of MA Publishing Studies, Mary Ann Kernan, arranged for her MA students in the Work Placement Module to meet virtually with publishing veteran and social web strategist — Liz Strauss (um, me) — in the university lab.

The purpose of the class is to explore the values of digital publishing in this time of rapid change just as students begin their own “placement blogs.”

The Students: The group is masters degree publishing students, faculty mostly from the Journalism School, and other university attendees interested in the subject. The City University of London Work Placement class enrollment is half male, half career changers, with several world citizens. They’ve have a thorough grounding in the strategic impact of digital on the publishing industry; several will be doing digital projects on their imminent placements at firms such as: Penguin, HarperCollins, LittleBrown, a literary agency, CUP, Haymarket Mags, Sage, Wiley; in a variety of depts and potential roles.

Preparation — the Application and Equipment: The meeting will be via Internet, using the lab’s Adobe Connect application, my dual screen PC, and the City U’s lab equipment. Every student will connect via his or her own computer. Last year after several hours of attempting a full connection, the video only worked in one direction — from the UK to the US. We weren’t quite sure what caused the problem. The audio was up and working. The chat was fully functioning. We moved forward. This year, it appears that all is in working order for the connection.

The time will be roughly 8:00 a.m. in Chicago and 2:00p.m. in London.

Class Content — Last year the class was an exciting conversation with the next generation of digital publishing professionals. We discussed the use of blogs, Twitter, the variety of e-commerce opportunities for publishers. How one year has changed the conversation. This year the content has shifted to:

  • How social platforms work and work together and how the cultures of each are unique. Also where blogs fit in that equation.
  • Integrated strategy, tactics, and campaigns for individuals, communities, and mass audiences online and off.
  • Digital natives versus online cultural natives.
  • b-to-b, b-to-c, and b-to-n.
  • Repurposing content.
  • Brands as publishers.
  • Mobile tech.
  • Questions to drive their dissertations.

Today will be my third City University of London session. The first was 2008 ( with both the school of Journalism and the Cass Business School. We look forward to continuing our ongoing relationship as we both learn more about each other and how the technology can serve us across the Atlantic.

It’s virtually thrilling.

Any questions?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Watering Ideas at the Reflecting Pool

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A Guest Post by
Pamir Kiciman

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Browser tabs are great. Emails, tweets and feeds update so you can switch tabs and see what it is. But what happens when you switch in the middle of a juicy post, mindmap or other creative jaunt? You break continuity at the mercy of an insatiable beast. And breaking continuity can spell disaster for your output.

Ideas are ephemeral. The act of putting them down is a way of preserving them. The mind already computes at high speed and distraction is just too easy. I often wish I didn’t know about ALT-TAB (I’m a PC) which easily switches this in-progress Google doc to that third-party app which just dinged!

After all, it’s the real-time web and it HAS to be important.

What was I saying?

Ideas and the Mind

Fortunately the mind can be harnessed. In fact its real power becomes available only when it is. Why? Because the mind is layered and each layer has its own fluctuation. To get to the layer where ideas are generated, surface fluctuations have to be stilled.

Say you’re a diver and your favorite body of water is very turbulent one day, so you don’t go in. On another day conditions are perfect and you dive. When you do, you find treasures that couldn’t be seen from the surface.

The mind’s fluctuations are called brainwaves. There are four basic brainwaves: beta, alpha, theta and delta, each with its specific cycles per second. Brain states are a combination of these with one or two emphasized depending on the state.

Delta is sleep, but also the deep unconscious (darkest ocean depths). Theta is serene, meditative awareness (depths sunlight penetrates). Alpha is relaxation and comfort (floating atop gentle currents). And beta is conscious functioning in the world (driving to the ocean).

Some ocean creatures that live where sunlight doesn’t reach have bioluminescence which is a wonder to see. The unconscious (delta) may be dark but it stores treasures. In theta we access some of that, and all our creativity. Alpha relates to fantasy and visualization. Beta is logical thinking, problem solving and external attention.

Trouble with beta is that too much of it leads to a churning of unfocused thoughts. And without alpha there isn’t creative recall, for alpha is the bridge from reflection to output.

Single-tasking is actually a form of reflection. The reflective mind is concentrated and unified, making use of logical processes and intuitive ones. To produce anything, everything has to move in the single direction of that thing. Multitasking is like being a jack of all trades, but master of none.

Flowing with Ideas

An idea won’t reach fruition unless you engage the “reflecting pool.” You may not even craft the idea at all. For example, “attentional-blink” happens when two pieces of information are given in rapid succession and the brain doesn’t process the second one because it’s still thinking of the first. You have to flow with an idea and follow it.

The reflective mind is a flow state, which can also erect a dam so an idea can concretize. Often reflection takes place best at times other than the moment of creation. In fact, it’s way of life, an orientation. Your accumulated reflections establish a resource from which you draw at the time of production. There’s in-the-moment reflection too, but without a cultivated well this dries up fast.

Inner and outer stillness engenders reflection, and dipping daily into an alpha-theta state solidifies it. Really good ideas are submerged. The inmost layers of the mind will gladly let them surface but you have to be present. If you’re gasping for oxygen in the infostream, you can’t be present.

There are some apps below to ‘force’ reflection and one-pointedness, but in the end this is an internal discipline that must be developed. Interiorizing the mind is where ideas are watered. Here are some ways to do so:

  • Look into the distance
  • Look at nature or a cityscape
  • Watch the sky or sunrise/sunset
  • Watch and/or listen to water
  • Look at inspirational images
  • Turn on a fountain
  • Use a rain stick back and forth
  • Play a drum with a steady beat
  • Read wisdom literature
  • Learn breathing and relaxation techniques
  • Learn meditation

I’ll be monitoring this space so please use comments to give your input and ask questions so we can dive deeper together.

Useful apps:

—-
Pamir Kiciman, BA, RM, CHt is a Classical/Original Usui Reiki Teacher, Meditation Coach, Healer. He writes at the Reiki Help Blog. You can find him on Twitter as @gassho.

Thanks, Pamir! I’m going to take my time exploring those tools!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

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Do You Interview People Who Offer You Work?

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You’re Asking Questions Too — Right?

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We often walk into potential work conversations thinking the person offering work needs convincing that we can do the job. But wait a minute. Not every job, not every contract is a great fit. Work situations are mutually beneficial. That’s why there’s compensation involved.

What about making sure the fit goes both ways?

In a 2008 Harris Interactive Survey, respondents were asked to describe their affection for their current position based on the following responses: I like my job so much I’d marry it; I like my job enough, I’d date it seriously; It’s ok, I’d date it casually; I don’t like it, it won’t last long; or I hate it, I want to break up with it immediately. Key findings show that employees lack deep affection for their current position:

  • Only 9% of all survey respondents said they love their job so much they would marry it.
  • Conversely, 14% of respondents either hate their job so much they want to break up or they don’t like it and it won’t last for long.

A 2009 Harris Interactive Survey on job satisfaction might make us think even harder about needing a little convincing ourselves. A few questions of our own could save us from being among …

  • 36 percent of workers [who] said they believed top managers acted with honesty and integrity
  • 29 percent [who] believe management cares about advancing employee skills
  • one-third of all workers [who] feel they have reached a dead end at their jobs

If we know value our investment going in, we’re more likely to be among the lucky…

  • 20 percent [who] feel very passionate about their jobs
  • less than 15 percent [who] feel strongly energized by their work
  • 31 percent (strongly or moderately) [who] believe that their employer inspires the best in them.

Clients can also make or break how we satisfied we are with our work. Joseph Carrabis describes the main bad client behaviors include

  • dangerous or risky business decisions.
  • disregard of your suggestions in favor of their own research or opinion.
  • Unmanageable and / or inappropriate behavior.
  • refusal to make decisions while demanding that you make them.
  • Lack of respectful communication, preparation, participation

And don’t forget the clients who stretch, break, or fail to keep contracts.

Building a strong professional personal identity is a safe guard as well as a concrete career strategy. We can steer clear of obvious bad fits and check more deeply those that interest us.

Become self-aware. Gaining an objective understanding of your abilities, preferences values and interests is a fundamental step in determining the best career fit. Career Vision suggestions for increasing job satisfaction

Whether we’re looking for a company or client work, honesty is the best policy.

It is best to be honest about who you are and what you want from a job. Honesty will also create a better match between you and your new employer. What’s the sense of faking it through a series of job interviews, just to take a job you don’t like or that doesn’t suit you? You’ll just end up repeating the entire process as you look for yet another job! Careerbuilder.com

A great working relationship matches a person’s skills, potential, goals, and personality with the needs, potential, goals, and culture of the business. A great working relationship – career or contract — starts with three questions. The boss or client wants to know …

  • Can this person do the job or project?
  • Will this person do the job above expectation?
  • How will this person fit with the team or culture?

We should want to know three things too …

  • Can this person and this company support a position or project like this one?
  • Will this person see, lead and manage my work in ways that allow me to excel?
  • Is this a company culture that is a good match for me or my business?

The first pair of questions is objective — about ability, experience, and resources to execute the job? The other pairs of questions are subjective — about attitude, passion, personality and values. It’s tempting to reach for a “right” answer. The right answer is being convinced that the value exchange goes both ways.

When we know our unique value, conversation about aligning goals and values becomes natural and fluent. We trust people to understand us, because we know what we’re saying is true. Discussing competence, resources, and needs becomes an honest test of the strength of the potential relationship.

How do you interview people who offer you work?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

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SOB Business Cafe 01-15-10

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SB Cafe

Welcome to the SOB Cafe

We offer the best in thinking — articles, books, podcasts, and videos about business online written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the titles to enjoy each selection.

The Specials this Week are

Remarkable Communicaton
The problem with putting so much you into your business is that there’s a finite amount of you.

in over your head
I don’t know about you, but I was pretty stupid when I was younger. I really believed that I should only do what I feel like at the moment, not what I really cared about in general. I wasted several years of my life as a result of it– sucks right?

Altitude Branding
When you think of social media roles, chances are you think of a community manager or the oh-so-generic “social media manager”, which is usually some function of the marketing department managing strictly social media programs. But there are loads of other potential roles that can integrate or represent social media alongside other business areas.

Diva Marketing
Candy button As I began building the deck (I often like to mix slides with conversation. People learn differently and PowerPoint offers a visual media.) candy dots ran through my mind. I thought it would be fun to include an image of candy dots to help illustrate the strategy trail.

Jonathan Fields, Awake at the Wheel
The questions lobbed across the table…

What impact do you want to have? And, on whom?

I sat, for a moment, like a dear in headlights.

Seth’s Blog
The first stand is run by two kids. They use Countrytime lemonade, paper cups and a bridge table. It’s a decent lemonade stand, one in the long tradition of standard lemonade stands.

Related ala carte selections include

Ian M Rountree
Stabbed myself with a screwdriver at work the other day. Hurt like hell. It’s better now – well, getting better anyway, that’s what a week of antibiotic cream is for. …

Yes. It stung. Yes. My hand is totally useless for now. Why do I say this taught me a few lessons?

Sit back. Enjoy your read. Nachos and drinks will be right over. Stay as long as you like. No tips required. Comments appreciated.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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What Influence Could Push You to the Magic that Is Missing?

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It’s old news and I think we all know …

If we’re not adding value, we’re taking it away.

So we’re busy adding value, doing great things, working, building, being productive. We want to get on with what we know how to do well. We do something that adds to the big thing and it gets bigger and better.

Somewhere near every one of us is someone who thinks differently. He or she is smart as we are, but has different experience or a different view of how things work. He wants to add his own extra value. She has reasons to care and contribute. He might not know the process, the culture, or the traditions. One’s a coworker. One’s a customer. One’s a big brand client.

Most come with a job. We have to include them.

The temptation often is to move forward. Try to ignore them or keep them from the core of things. Add our value and show them when we’re done. That makes it hard for even the most collaborative and curious to find the right way to join in.

But what if we invite them? What if we ask these different thinkers to sit beside us, to invest in our quest and be part of the process?

They’ll bring ideas, thoughts, and opinions. They’ll influence what we’re doing. They will challenge our assumptions. People who think differently make us uncomfortable … and that can make communication and progress seem a lot slower.

The more different we find someone’s experience and thinking, the more we should consider his or her questions and reasoning. It’s the best safety net and idea test in the population. We love and understand our own thinking. Agree with the guy who thinks unlike us and we’ve got something hot cooking.

That difference — in their experience, how they see things, and how they do things — is added value we might be overlooking. That influence could the the one thing that pushes us to add the magic that was missing.

When do you invite a different influence to be part of what you’re doing?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

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A 12-Step Strategy to Fit Your Blog into the Social Web

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How Does a Blog Fit into All of This?

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Once upon a blogosphere, people on the web connected and talked through text, audio, and video, linking from blog to blog. That linking made a community of people who were related by content and conversations on those same blogs.

Then about 4 years ago, the blogosphere got interested in social media tools. Microblogs and social networks were new ways to reach out, connect, and talk. The blogosphere was evolving …

  1. As the blogosphere grew up, some members stood out. They were fluent, proficient, had abilities as practitioners and teachers. Their subscriber lists grew faster. Their voices were heard first and sounded louder. People started looking up to them. Smaller groups formed around what they said.
  2. As the blogosphere grew out, some members built new tools, new sites, and new communities. The businesses offered new things to do, new places to meet, to ways to interact. People looked out for others who even more like themselves. We had new choices. The larger community split off into more like-minded groups.

The effect has been that the community has diversified into smaller groups and spread out. The conversation is bigger, but it’s no longer concentrated on our blogs. The new sites and communities, the speed, mobility, and breadth of the tools attracted even more people to the check out this social web community.

Some of these folks found that they could be a part without having a blog.

Millions of people are spending their time on the social sites. They will out their many profiles with a to Facebook or LinkedIn. The commitment is lower and requires less editing.

How does a blog fit into all of this?
Having a blog was a having a home in that community — a place people could visit, get to know you, engage with you and your ideas.

It still does.

In fact, a blog is even more foundational. Have you noticed how noisy the Internet is? When people visit our blogs they can come in from the huge noise of the larger conversation stream. A blog can offer a respite. They get room to breathe and a chance to share a larger thought. But it’s time to step back, think strategically, and adapt to how people act now. Habits have changed.

According to PostRank study from 2007 to 2009 which followed 1000 of the most engaging feeds, they found:

  • 30% more people are engaging in the social web
  • less than 50% of that engagement is happening on blogs … it’s moved to social sites.
  • trackbacks linking blogs have dropped from 19% to 3%
  • Twitter, Friendfeed, and Facebook and other social sites have gone up from less than 1% to over 29%
  • Blog posts have a longer life-span. In 2007, 98% of the engagement occurred in the first HOUR. In 2009, only 36% of the engagement takes place in the first DAY.

Unless you’ve just started blogging, you’ve probably noticed some of that — fewer visitors than last year, how the conversation has moved away from the comment box to the social sites. But you might have missed how quickly more people are coming or that our post are lasting longer and reaching farther.

That calls for a serious new strategy as the Blogosphere evolves into the Social Web.

A 12-Step Strategy to Fit Your Blog into the Social Web

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Your blog numbers might be down, but the engagement in what you do and think could be growing exponentially. The bloggers and blogs that do well offer outstanding and meaningful content that is in tune with where folks engage naturally and easy to read and share with their friends.

Here are 12 Steps to consider to refit your blog to the Social Web.

  1. Mark your place … Find the tools you need to measure where your blog is today. Some include: Google Analytics, Woopra, Quantcast.com, Alexa.com, Technorati.com PostRankAnalytics,and Compete.com Identify and track information so that you have a historical marker.
  2. Do Reconnaissance … Use the tools and study conditions to find where your main audience spends their time. Look beyond Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Find the niches. Learn their habits. Starter tools include: Google Alerts, Search.twitter.com, addictomatic.com, and topsy.com Internet’s Largest Twitter Tools Resource List.
  3. Watch, Listen, and Make Alliances … Be constantly aware of what other people are doing. Ask for help. Turn great conversations into content. Invite savvy bloggers to write guest posts on topics they know more about.
  4. Clarify Your Identity / Message … Who are you and what do you talk about? In this fast-paced trust economy, people want to instantly who you are. Design and content need to say who you are. Does your design look like everyone else’s? Content is the main context of your web identity. It establishes your authority and your expertise. Google loves new content to index. People love new ideas.
  5. Define a Consistent Workable Plan … Identify 4-8 key niche topics you’ll write about and 4-8 types of blog posts you favor. You might make a blank monthly grid with the types across the top and the topics down the side. Even a loose plan — one that allows you to respond to new ideas and unexpected events in your area of expertise — will make the blogging work more predictable to you and more accessible to your readers.
  6. Use Best Practices … Save time by brainstorming several ideas first and later writing several drafts at one time. Then, you’ll have “almost ready” blog posts captured when you need them. Link out, cite, and promote others at least 6 times more than you promote your own work. Understand when sharing your work is passing on value and when it’s being a pain.
  7. Test Constantly … When and where will you publish? How often? Which days? Which time of day works for your audience? Should it be more or less than one a day?
  8. Mind the Details … Write outstanding headlines over outstanding content. Take more time than ever before making sure your ideas are sound and attractive. Target them to your niche. Loyal fans will see, read, and share.
  9. Network and Connect … Plan time at social sites and commenting on other blogs. Divide that time between people who do what you do and your ideal customers. Start conversations online and off. Be interested and interesting. Look for reasons to offer a hand.
  10. Innovate New Forms … Try a “Twitter trackback.” When you reply to a reader’s comment, take the link back to him or her. A quick tweet saying, @ReaderX I answered your great comment [link] promotes the reader as well as your reply.
  11. Feed the Content Community … Write content and answer questions wherever your readers are. Engage people where they are. Don’t hide all of your ideas and expertise on your blog. As Google starts indexing more social sites, this can only work better and better.
  12. Invite People Home … Constantly add resources and repackage content to readers to explore your archives again. When it’s appropriate, invite people back to see other things you’ve written or to make sure they don’t miss something they’ve said they need.

Having a blog is even more important now that the blogosphere is evolving into the Social Web. Blogs still offer the place where we can “go deep,” expressing thoughts with clarity and conviction, where we can talk and engage under our own terms of service. A power strategy can leverage your blog to grow your web presence, your business, and your brand.

What other strategies are you using to fit your blog into the Social Web?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

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