My Twitter Account as an Infographic

I thought I'd share this. I thought it was pretty unique.

Empowering Women to Negotiate

While having lunch at a local sandwich shop I had the pleasure of running into Pattie Porter who works as a conflict resolution specialist for her company, Conflict Connections. She's handled a variety of large projects acting as a mediator, a negotiator, and instructing large companies how to manage conflict at all levels. I admit, it's an industry I don't know a lot about. I took the opportunity to chat with her and discovered that a workshop was coming up in June that I just had to share.

Here's Pattie sharing a little about herself, her experiences, and the workshop itself.

Register for the Women in Negotiation Workshop, June 2nd & June 9th.

If You Can Write An Email, You Can Write A Blog

Nothing shares your passion, enthisasm, your emotions, like a personal email to someone. When we write to our friends and family we tend to let our guard down a bit and write as humans, sharing our experiences. In a recent Twitter chat, it was mentioned that email, having replaced hand written letters, is a form a content creation that comes from the heart. The concept should be taken to another level, the blog.

No where else do more people struggle with the tone and approach than with the blog. Should it be serious? Should I only talk about business and professionalism? Can I be funny? There seems to be a lot of fear, especially in the realm of the business blog. It's a discussion that I'd like to take a look at briefly.

The Start of A New Personal Project

When I was in high school there was never an issue with activity. I was in sports, clubs, and personal live on top of the day to day rigor of academics. All in all, I had the energy and the time to make things happen. In college that energy shifted to late night studying, late night munchie runs, and then some. There was a lot less physical activity and a lot more long nights of studying, work, and exams. I paid a dear price in terms of my health and it's something I have yet to recover from.

Yesterday, May 1, I started a personal project, and the project is ME. I'm the canvas and my actions are the stroke of the brush. I'm on a mission to win my health back. I've gained a lot of weight, I've lost a lot of time, and because I love my wife and three kids, I'm doing this for me and my longevity (of course provided nothing happens to me in the interim).

As a blogger, media mixer, content creator, and social media advisor, I find most of my day is spent in front of a computer or on the phone. This is why I'm making the switch to a more active lifestyle and I invite you to join me on the journey. 

I call my project "Everyman's Fitness." It's for the everyman, all of us, to join, participate, at the very least reflect on. I plan on doing a video and a snapshot of my daily intake over the next 90 days and then see the results.

We'll see where his journey takes me.

Marketing, Online Strategy for Social Media, and ROI

Too often I share links I find interesting on Twitter, Facebook, and even on a few bookmarking sites, but I'm never sure if I'm covering all of the possible places that people might find content.

Today I got to thinking about how I share my content and thought that perhaps having a daily post (I'll try to keep it going) with useful links I've found throughout the day might be interesting for those that are not online all the time or might have missed some valuable content.

Here are a few links regarding social media, business, and online strategy that I think you'll find interesting along with a contest that was shared with me via one of the Twitter chat I attended, #getrealchat.

1. Four Questions With Guy Kawasaki: Enchantment, Influence, and Marketing to the Rest of Us
2. Three Steps to Generating Higher ROI From Content Marketing
3. Three At-a-Glance Guides for Mastering Social Media
4. CONTEST: Name the Planes! FREE Bahamas Vacation Contest!

I'm a huge fan of MarketingProfs, and I spent time catching up on their newsletters, which I highly recommend. There will be varying content on these posts, some with more links, some with less, but all something I think you all should be reading.

A huge thanks to Pam Moore, "the Marketing Nut", who shared this contest on behalf of her airline client. 

Online Media and Timing Your Interactions

I just wrapped a great chat tonight, #journchat, where the topic was focused on timing of content creation and the posting to attract people to that content. It was probably one of the most contested topics that I've been involved with in my short time with Twitter chats, but it was interesting to see the varied responses to the generalizations being made, and the specific metrics to individual people and their niches.

Dan Zarrella of Hubspot was the guest for the chat and he had some great things to say on the idea of social media, timing of content, timing of marketing that content, and the return from different times of the day. While I see the value of strategically timing the content to hit maximum engagement, it also seems to take the idea of being social, and removes the authenticity. I can see both sides of the argument, in my experience, businesses can't plan their future on relationships alone, there needs to be some kind of measurable return. Below is Dan's Hubspot presentation, which he linked to during the chat.

I'd like to hear your thoughts on the idea of timing your content, do you measure and plan with that in mind?

The Science of Timing

View more presentations from HubSpot Internet Marketing

Owning Social Media Is NOT Your Job

Nothing is more frustrating than talking to someone who completely takes over the conversation, giving little to no time to share your own insights and thoughts. We've all met someone like this in life and we all make the effort to refrain from engaging with them. To say that we'd rather not speak to people like that is an understatement. If this is unacceptable for your real life engagement, why would it be any different online?

This is something I see all too often. In the world of online engagement, the conversation is real, the people (more often than not) are real, the only thing different is the medium through which the conversation is being channeled. Still, we're seeing marketers overreach their authority by claiming full control over social media channels on behalf of a company. This completely neuters the overall depth and insight your company could be capable of.

Content Rules and You Can Too

I'm currently rethinking my process of creating content and looking into new approaches to engage with my audience both on this site and a variety of ventures that I participate in. The role of content creator is one I take pride in, since I look to develop ideas that are engaging, shareable, and educational.

That is why I'm so happy to have Content Rules (affiliate link), which was delivered over the weekend. The book, as stated in the title, speaks to two things. First the idea that content rules the internet, but are we really creating the type of content that attracts? Secondly, there's "rules" to creating content, though I use that term loosely, but suffice to say, there's things that can make your content pop.

Show Support for Content Creators

Long before Social Media Club existed with their "Learn, Share, Grow!" slogan, a lot of us were already of that mindset. Perhaps that why social engagement came so naturally to us. We've never been ones to hoard information, but rather, show others how to embrace it, use it, and cultivate a community around what we're doing. From the days of IRC chat rooms, message boards, newsgroups, and the like, we've all surrounded a common interest, invited other like minded individuals to join us and had many conversations.

Despite the growing number of social sites, the idea is still the same, only now we can do it in video, audio, photo, or text format. The idea is the same, the tools we use to convey our messages have changed. This particularly interest me because as someone who creates content, I also spend a great deal digesting content others create. I spend time on other blogs commenting, watching videos and commenting, enjoying photos from events that people are posting and so on. It's important for me to be engaged and it should be for you too.

Embrace A Content Creator

That being said, who will you support today? Remember, a great many of us create content and wonder sometimes if anyone sees it...better said...if anyone cares? If you have a favorite blog you visit, read and leave a comment. The next YouTube video you watch, leave a comment. Show people that you're engaging with their material and you might be surprised as the relationships you can forge.

I'd like to share someone I'm supporting and if you're a fellow lover of food, then you'll love what Daniel Delaney is doing with his videos covering a wide range of topics from curbside food to exploring unique and interesting foods everyday for 2011. He's doing an amazing job in iTunes, and I encourage you to support his efforts if you like his videos. Here's a taste of what he's doing.

Expanding Knowledge, Increasing Value

This week has been an eye opening experience for me, and while I'm well versed in a lot of what's happening in social media, I'm  never one to say that I know it all. I think that's why I leave the expert off my title when I introduce myself. Taking a page from Social Media 101 by Chris Brogan, I tend to consider myself a guide, and advisor, taking people from point A to B to C, exploring, and always learning. The buck never stops with me.