Developing Online Platforms, Building Community
We all want to be bigger than we are. Sadly, growth is complicated. Becoming a giant – no matter your field – takes time, diligence, and attention to goals. Where do we begin? Where do we stop? How much is enough, or too much? Which kind to focus on? Personal, professional, physical advancement? Growth requires effort [...]
If you’re serious about keeping your business human in the face of social media, you need to set expectations. Not just for yourself – but also for your clients, employees, and employers. Everyone functions better with expectations set. Your clients need to know when you’re available – and when you’re not. This one’s easy; hours [...]
If you are a knowledge worker – whether a marketer, a programmer, a blogger, any other form of writer, a critic, a human resources professional, support personnel for a company, or even a cook – you have one purpose inextricably tied to all your public activities, on and off the web. You are here to [...]
Microsoft bought Skype this morning. I expect the deal has been in the works for some time, but I think it’s a good move; market potential for new versions of Windows and Office is dropping due to saturation and consumer comfort with ever-better versions of both (I’ll be hard pressed to move off of Windows [...]
When I was learning to ski for biathlon in the mid-nineties, I didn’t start with expensive, awesome tools. My first skis weren’t full-capped Rosignols, my first boots weren’t high-end Solomons. My skis, boots, and poles were hand-me-downs. We called these hand-me-downs rock skis because they’d been chewed up with use, and having lost bits of [...]
One of the debates bloggers suffer under is the debate over Voice. If you work for a company, do you act the company puppet, and portray yourself as all business, all the time? Do you go rogue and make yourself heard as a source on the inside lines? What we forget is that each blog [...]
When I published 5 Ways to Make Every Blog Post Count two days ago, I knew it’d get retweeted. In fact, I believe I said this: And it did. But I didn’t get more traffic than I normally do – for a lot of reasons. Specific to the post; I knew it was linkbait, but [...]
I’ll be part of the Modern Earth Tweet Team attending the Manitoba Quality Network Excellence Conference this time next week. As we’ve done at other events, Modern Earth Web Design is deploying half a dozen Earthlings to platform journalism at the conference under the hashtag #qnet2011. We’re covering the entire day, beginning with the keynote [...]
Sometimes, the best way to get at a resource is by digging a pit and pulling it out. People have been doing this for some time – but is it appropriate for bloggers to be approaching their niches the way some mining companies approach environmental conservation; with scorn, disregard for wasted effort, and their eye [...]
