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Soulati-'TUDE!

About Negative Blog Comments

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A boatload of bloggers has been following Mitch Joel’s lead and talking about how they blog. There have been some wonderful posts that look inside many bloggers’ strategy from Mark Schaefer, Gini Dietrich, Jason Konopinski, and others. From what Ken Mueller discovered over at Inkling Media when he posed that question to some of us, people seem to get out the keyboard and just write already.

Me, too. No notes, just thought processes in ideation all the time taking up valuable brain space. Since blogging began for me two years ago, everything is a story, everything has an angle, everything is blog fodder.  It’s maddening, and I read science fiction at night to shut down.

About Negative Comments

So, rather than follow Mitch Joel’s challenge to share how I blog (oh, maybe I already did that), I want to look at a very intrinsic part of blogging that makes the world go round. It’s comments, but it’s not the type of comment you might think.

Detractors and bot spammers and people with some real negativity are showing up in comments. This has happened to me when I post on a national level, and it’s no fun. It also happened last week over at a client site, JD Match,  where someone named Bob asked me if I didn’t have anything better to do than to blog about something that detracted from making the world a better place.

Over at Spin Sucks yesterday, my friend Jenn Whinnem wrote a post about her employer, Connecticut Health Foundation and how it measures success. A headline adjustment caused the headline to imply they were measuring ROI; her article didn’t really address that. The comments came out of the gate fast and aggressive. For a guest blogger who rarely blogs to feel that angst on the receiving end, it’s not fun when you’re on the firing line.

There is a range of emotions I experience when I read a negative comment the first time. Let me try to share what they are and see if you have experienced any of the same:

1. Immediate lack of confidence. Did I write something wrong? What did I say that didn’t sit well? Should I go find it and switch the language?

2. Angst. Darn it, I hit publish too quickly; I was in a squirrely mood and it showed in the flip tone. I needed to let that post sit over night.

3. Anger. The urge to launch back with a slew of discourteous words is so tempting I fire off a retort then come to my senses and delete and rewrite something as smooth as silk pie.

4. Relief. After I reread the negative comment, I realize while it’s directed at me, it’s not about me. It’s about the commenter who likes to bring discomfort to bloggers in their own community.

Managing negativity in a blogging community is one thing. When you write at a national level, it’s expected. If you’re a guest in someone else’s community with a guest post, there ought to be respect. Well, heck, there ought to be respect anywhere, but that’s a bit lacking at times, isn’t it?

At Michelle Quillin’s house today over at New England Multimedia, I’ve written a guest post, 10 Tips To Handle Negative Blog Comments. I’m certain her community will be nice to me as a guest, and I’m hopeful, too, the 10 tips will prepare someone for how to manage a bit of angst in comments.

Now, it’s your turn…how do you manage detractors and dissenting comments?  Please share so we can all learn.

 

 

 

13 Tips To Create Remarkable Content

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Everywhere I read, I see this word, “remarkable.” I believe it’s launch into stardom began with Seth Godin; I’m giving him that credit anyway. In a book I’m reading on Inbound Marketing by Hub Spot, the authors substitute “remarkable” for “unique.”

Be remarkable = be unique.

We’ve all spoken about the echo chamber. Today, I read four iterations on the same topic in re Instagram and Facebook. Each was different, but were they remarkable? I think remarkable is in the view of the reader; I’ve not seen a checklist for remarkable writing, have you?

All Bloggers Are Unique

Over at Erica Allison’s house I wrote a guest post about my learnings from a post I wrote on pink slime. It wasn’t received as expected, so I learned and wrote about it. In comments on that post, Michelle Quillin of New England Multimedia and Erica each suggested there’s a graciousness that comes when I stick my neck out with opinion while watching the sparks fly. Somehow, I re-position and opine again, but I have this eagerness to be current and on top of issues that are unfolding in real time.

Erica said she perhaps misses the boat on hot-button issues because she fact finds and analyzes and ensures she has an opinion based on proof points. Then she sits to write her post that takes a deep dive into the vortex.

Who’s remarkable? Neither. I’m a risk taker and she’s not; I share opinion based on wide review of readings and not supported by finite fact. I source a national story and go from there. Erica finds all the information until she can substantiate her content and button it all up.

So, is it possible to develop remarkable content? Unique material that no one else is writing about? Nope, I don’t think so, but we can at least strive to take a remarkable approach — a new and singular angle, be the first out of the gate with thoughts, be strong and confident in statements sprinkled with proof points and facts cited by reputable sources.

Is this remarkable? Nope, it’s smart.

If someone has told you bloggers have to create remarkable content to stay published or go national or get ranked on a list, that’s bogus. On the flip side, if someone, named Jayme Soulati, shared this list of smart tips for bloggers who strive to be remarkable, I’d say that’s #RockHot:

13 Tips to Create Remarkable Content

1.Read, read, read all the national publications you can get your hands on for current events, stories on an industry, material that interests you.

2. When a story appeals to you as blog fodder, tear it out! Jot a note in the margin with the story idea so you don’t lose it. (I wrote five pitches to a client for blog posts; when I opened up Smart Money, two of the  topics were featured stories in the magazine! So, trust your instinct about topic development.

3. Do not read your favorite bloggers every week and expect they will deliver current news. You need to get your news from journalistic sources along with your favorite bloggers.

4. Once you’ve learned the style and voice of your favorite blogger, you might be able to glean a bunch of current news from their writings. Is it credible, cited, sourced, trustworthy? Some bloggers will dive into an issue (I’ve seen Shonali Burke do this stunningly well), and you can trust it’s the real McCoy. Gini Dietrich always provides current news with a twist; you can find her over at Spin Sucks.

5.  Take a story that interests you — perhaps it’s the Zimmerman case unfolding as we speak or the new trial of John Edwards set to begin shortly, or the issue of transgenders being permitted to compete in the Miss Universe pageant, or women still barred from the Masters — and follow this issue with all the nuggets of information.

6. Form an opinion about a current event that is based on proof points, supporting evidence, documentation, citations, and, most importantly, your impression.

7. Write about it. Tell your community you’re going to follow this issue as it unfolds and ask them to follow with you. Get thoughts that percolate in the community; ask for opinions and honor them.

8. Honor your community’s emotions and take their pulse. Ponder all types of commentary. If you’re fortunate to have a community like the one here, the comments are not banter; they are thought-provoking and stimulating.  Not sure how I, queen of banter, have been able to develop such an intelligent community, but I’m grateful!

9. Craft and mold these insights into deeper, more remarkable content that has been “community-sourced.” I learn so much more in comments than I do just writing unilaterally. If you haven’t cultivated a community, let me know, and we’ll see about making that happen for you…not sure how I do it, it just happens.

10. Ensure your content is sprinkled with links to  your favorite bloggers or others with content you need to support you. Cite other sources that are reputable and provide background information as proof points for your opinions.

11. Publish regularly and before  you do, DO NOT read your favorite blogger and then go write your story! Write your story first and then go read the A-lister and see if you can include a link in your post.

12. So much of blogging is about trying to be original, authentic AND remarkable in an echo chamber amongst millions of bloggers striving for the same. When you hit your stride and find your voice, then you will surely begin to feel remarkable.

13. Embrace the ebb and flow of life and know that life happens. Blogging is a journey, and it perfects with time and practice. If the need arises, go dormant awhile and reawaken  your mojo. I promise, it will come back.

So, how do you create remarkable content? Simple; by creating a remarkable you.

 

Producing My First Video With Animoto

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I just got a tip about Animoto from Scott Quillin (am I giving away your trade secrets, Scott?) of New England Multimedia. As part of our package to redo my site and integrate the blog inside, he was going to take all my cool world-travel snapshots from the website and package them into a slide show/video.

I had no expectation what that would look like; in fact, it made me nervous. Late two nights ago, Scott turned me loose on Animoto. I first attempted the free unlimited :30 clips; then I upgraded to Plus and finally took the nosedive to the Pro version (all in 30 minutes) to create this video below — Hire Soulati Media.

I used my own photography to create each screen shot — I’d like Sean McGinnis to watch for some pickle action in this movie!  I added text to tell the story and transition to each image. Where there were too few images, I combed my collection for something else handy, but went off to Fotolia to purchase three extra images. (I also love Fotolia for blog images, website photography and now my first professional video.)

I also owe a huge thanks to eCairn for the image of my cloud tag shared in a blog comment recently by Arthur Huynh. If you haven’t checked these guys out; they’re worth a few visits. eCairn is doing some amazing work in the sector.

With no tutorials or hours spent trying to figure out what to do, I built my minute-long movie in about five hours total (tweaks, embedding code, waiting for software kinks, buying images, writing text, etc.) The initial phase of the project was the most fun – selecting a background template and music to coincide with the images. The Pro version provided the most versatility with these important elements – more templates in high definition and certainly hundreds more songs to choose from.

I had no idea what I was doing; had never done anything remotely similar. It was like making a scrapbook – you look at a blank canvas and start. I’m going to try my hand with a few more of these, and then take a closer look at client needs. Animoto is a wonderful find; I hope you’ll check it out, too.

And, Scott? I think you unleashed a monster.

Eight Key Learnings About A Blog’s Back End

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It’s been dark here for about a week as I decided to give myself a birthday gift (yep, it’s today!) and finally integrate my blog into my website – kinda like an all-in-one package, It’s only taken me two years to complete this phase of the journey – what do you think? Thanks to New England Multimedia for all the hard work to make it happen, too.

This redesign and integration of the blog with the website (so each has the same look and feel) doesn’t happen overnight – unless you’re absolutely brilliant and can jump ahead about 10 growing pains.

Understanding your back-end or the inside of a blog is important to knowing how to build your blog. You need to consider the following as you grow and take your blog to the next level:

  • Hosting. When bloggers start out, it’s really easy to jump onto WordPress.com, Blogger, or other free’ish platform and begin blogging in five minutes. I did that and had my first post published in 20 minutes, but it felt wrong.  I didn’t want to market a third-party platform while I was blogging; I wanted to brand myself in my own house.  That means you should self-host your blog on a domain name you own and purchase a hosting package alongside. You can do that on Posterous or Tumblr, too.
  • Domains/Branding. This is tricky and takes some thought. If you’re blogging for fun, then it becomes more for business, think through what to call your blog, your company, your domain, and all your social media identities, too. (That’s also branding.) When you get too creative and have a name for Twitter, one for your blog, one where you work, and a different domain name, then no one knows what you’re marketing or where to find you. Right, AlaskaChick?

I registered Soulati.com many years ago and had no idea how I’d ever use it. I had no website and it was pre-social media. When I began blogging two years ago, I titled the blog Soulati-‘TUDE! and registered it on soulati.com. The branding was simple, and people knew it was me.

  • Design. Here’s the rocky pathway. Premium WordPress templates are wonderful, yet they take some tech knowledge to launch. Free WordPress templates are, well, free. You get what you pay for. I have paid for Thesis, Genesis, and Headway along with some skins for the latter. (I’ve been running two blogs.) I’ve tried a few freebies, too, and immediately saw the limitations.

Finally, I engaged with a tech person who helped me grapple with the existing themes. After a bit, he offered to design a fresh skin for me with my input. I loved it because it was totally different. That stayed in place nearly nine months or so with many tweaks to update and keep things fresh.

Mind you, the blog design never synched with my website! I spent money redesigning my website with a new logo mark I love, but the blog didn’t match. So, I never promoted my website; ever. I promoted the blog url because that’s where 99.9 percent of the activity was. My website was flat; no analytics or SEO; and no visitors.

  • Analytics. Everyone knows how much I’ve left this area of the internet alone. I wasn’t in the business of monetizing my blog, or wanting to earn new business. Having a blog that didn’t match my website was an embarrassment. I knew that until I did something about it, I’d continue to be in the dark; no inbound marketing for me.
  • Developers. To take the next leap, I knew I had to work with someone who knew what they were talking about. I am so glad I created a relationship with New England Multimedia on Twitter because it was a no brainer to invite them to help me. Scott produced this new house in two weeks; I was intricately involved, of course, but the process was give and take – beautiful.  I invested some coin, but what it got me was integration and a trusted advisor.
  • Commenting  Systems. I already received a question why I switched from Disqus to LiveFyre. As I explained, LiveFyre is a BMW and Disqus is a Cadillac. They’re both sweet, but Livefyre is going to work the comments harder for me and keep the community growing.  (Besides, I get to rack up points faster…heh.) I love the responsiveness of the LiveFyre team, too. I wrote a tweet calling for help in a Sunday evening, and, lo, they were all over it. Very impressive.
  • Software/Backups/Hosts. Another reason you elect to go with a larger developer when you’re serious about growing your blog is because that team needs to know about software on the back end. There are back-ups, copies to make, developer sites to create and play with, uploads, kinks, plug-ins, and more to grapple with. No web host is the same; there will be hurdles. If you don’t have confidence in your business partner to deliver on the back-end, you’re as good as dead. No blog functions without tech glitches. (That may be a very good reason to stick with Blogger or WordPress.com, if you’re afraid of IT!)
  • Plug-Ins. When you start anew, take a look around the plug-ins on your favorite blogs. What are they using? Is it cluttered? Do they need to have both Digg-Digg and Sociable? What’s your view on Buffer, as it’s becoming more popular? Instead of throwing plug-ins on your blog just to be trendy, dissect these and think of how your visitors will use them.  Considerable time was spent between Scott and I on this topic. I was educating him more on the usages of the plug-ins and their importance, while he was cautioning me on load times (and did we really need to have another one to slow down the site?).

These areas may give you some food for thought. I glossed over each, but if you’d like more info, please ask. And, BTW, welcome to my new digs! Happy, happy to have you.

Bloggers Have Influence

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Breasts Are Not Partisan

Whether you blog for business, personal, or just to rid your head of too much chatter (as I do), bloggers have influence. The influence I speak of is not based on Klout score or being paid to endorse a product. This type of influence is about words online with communities commenting and furthering debate.

Late last week, the nation watched the Susan G. Komen public relations debacle unfold. Bloggers I know held back before writing; others decided not to write at all. As the situation became stickier, it was the responsibility of bloggers to dive in and report, communicate, address the problem, and suggest solutions. Communities responded in droves.

Never mind how you felt about the decision. What I’m pointing out here is the age we’re in when people the likes of you and me have the opportunity and the power to reverse poorly made business decisions, that reek of inside politics aired on the national stage.

This case is a text-book example of social media marketing at its finest. It’s also an example of an organization that misunderstood the power of constituents and bloggers (as one of the primary factions) with other social media channels to influence a reversal in business that will affect (not impact…wrong word) Komen’s brand long term.

Just how many bloggers elected to write about this issue last week? Google search for “blogs” with keywords “Susan G. Komen, Planned Parenthood” delivered some 63 million sources (from all types of media). Regardless of the accuracy of this number and whether it is skewed to bloggers alone, the nation was abuzz.

The voices rang on all social media channels pushing at Susan G. Komen and Nancy Brinker (its founder). Facebook got slammed; Twitter streams and Google+ were all abuzz with this news of the day. Bloggers cannot take total credit for the change up by Komen. But, they should be proud of their interest, reporting, sharing, and the cascade of news delivered across multiple networks within communities.

Whenever you ask yourself, “Why am I blogging?”  Think of this situation and know your words are important ones for your community. At a time when the light bulb is blinking for many an organization, heed this – do not shy away from sharing your twist on today’s news. Many people rely on information from their channels. Bloggers have influence and credibility, especially when they have built a reputation for solid and factual reporting of the angles.