I’m re-reading Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. One of the habits he espouses is to “begin with the end in mind”.

He invites readers to go through an exercise where you close your eyes and imagine you are at a funeral. Lots of people you know are there – family members, friends, colleagues, and people you know from various community organizations They are speaking about the person who has died. Then for the kicker – it’s your own imaginary funeral.

Covey then invites you to consider what it is you would like them to say about you and your life. What kind of husband, wife, father or mother would you like their words to reflect? What kind of friend? Look carefully at the people there and think about what kind of difference you would like to have made in their lives.

This is his metaphor for “beginning with the end in mind.”

It’s incredibly easy, through the busy-ness of life, to get caught up in activity traps, working harder and harder at climbing the ladder of success, only to discover your ladder is leaning against the wrong wall. It’s also possible to be busy – very busy – without spending time on things that really matter to you.

If you were to carefully consider what you wanted others to say about you in the funeral experience, you would have YOUR definition of success.

Knowing what really matters to you makes it easier when deciding what to spend your time on.

A strategy that works for me is to set aside time to periodically consider those activities that are going to help me get there and commit to making time for them.

Committing to spend time on those gives me a real sense of satisfaction and of being in control. It’s very empowering. Hard work and not easy, but rewarding.

Photo credit: Garry – www.visionandimagination.com

I serve as the communications manager for a government agency. I also volunteer public relations support to a local non-profit school dedicated to supporting students with learning disabilities.

The staff and board appreciate my services – or so they tell me . It’s mutual however, because I get an awful lot out of it as well:

• I’m treated as a valued member of their management team
• I’ve met new people and made new friends
• I’ve honed my skills and experienced what it would be like to work as a PR consultant full time
• I’ve also made a number of contacts which may help me down the road

I didn’t think about any of this when I initially offered to help. I’d recently completed a six month intensive program in public relations through Royal Roads. It was a great program and I was anxious to put in practice some of what I’d learned. I happened to share this with a friend over lunch. One thing led to another, and I ended up volunteering and am happy I did.

I could  list more benefits, but you get the idea. Helping others helps YOU!

If you are presented with an opportunity to volunteer your time to a worthy cause think about how you will be helping others, but remember that you will be rewarded for your efforts too.

Photo credit: kevindooley

Ever wonder about the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org?

When I first started blogging I decided on the WordPress platform, but didn’t know whether I should use WordPress.com or .org, nor did I really understand the difference between the two. This was a personal project of mine so I couldn’t just dial up the IT folks. I had to figure it out on my own. WordPress.com seemed much simpler so I settled on that. However,  I wondered at what point I would want or need to switch to WordPress.org.

Then along came Raincoaster and a helpful presentation at WordCamp Victoria!

WordPress.com features:

Easy to use, but no extra plug-ins or customizable themes:

WordPress.com is free and I found it relatively easy to set up. Everything is taken care of including setup, upgrades, spam blockers, backups, security, etc.  But to keep it simple, there are certain limitations. You must use one of their existing themes, and you can’t add plug-ins. (These are add ons that help your browser perform specific functions like viewing special graphic formats or playing multimedia files.)

Tags give you more Google juice:

Tags let you assign words or short phrases to a post to make it easier to classify what the post is about. WordPress posts can have up to roughly ten tags.  The Global Tag listing at WordPress.com aggregates all published posts attached to any particular tag. According to Raincoaster, tags are the biggest advantage of WordPress.com and why you get more Google juice with WP.com than WP.org.

You can fund raise and sell things, under certain conditions:

You can add a PayPal button and sell your products if you are an artist or an author. Non-profit groups can raise awareness and money for a specific cause.

No RSS stats or Google Analytics:

It’s difficult to know how many people subscribe to your blog on WordPress.com because it’s not compatible with Google Analytics. However, you can get good stats by getting a Feeedburner account – it’ll give you RSS info. And you can also get some stats on your readers via Quantcast.

Social bookmarks:

Want to add a row of social bookmarks to your blog post? I really like Get Social, and it works on WP.com.  It was developed by a cool dude, Hillel Stoler who lives in Tel Aviv.

Widget tips:

Consider adding a “Recent Comments” widget – it’s great for loyalty. People like to see their comments in the sidebar. And instead of “Top posts,” which is dictated by WordPress, you can use a text widget and create a “Favourite posts” widget – and you get to decide which posts to include.

WordPress.org features:

Requires more technical knowledge to set up and run:

With WordPress.org, the software is free, but you need to install it and upgrade the

Julien Smith will be our featured speaker at Victoria’s Social Media Club on January 20th!

Julien Smith is co-author with Chris Brogan of Trust Agents, a New York Times and Wall Street Journal best-seller that has been singled out on Amazon.com as one of the top 10 business and investing books of 2009.

To quote Julien and Chris:

“This book is your guide to a new form of power broker–web natives who trade in trust, reputation, and relationships using tools you may never even have heard of. You will learn what you need to look for in such an agent for your business or how to become one yourself. Trust Agents is your guide to the deep end of meaningful relationships on the web.

Our goal is to help you build influence, improve reputation, and earn trust.”

Since its launch in August, Trust Agents hit:

• the New York Times bestseller list (#13)
• the Wall Street Journal bestseller list (#8)
• the Amazon top 100 list (#30)
• the Amazon Best Books of 2009 list (for business and investment).

Event details:

• Wednesday, January 20th, 6:45 – 9:00 pm
• University Canada West, 950 Kings Road, Victoria BC
• $5.00 admission

Sponsors:

This event is being held in conjunction with the Third Tuesday cross-Canada tour, and we are grateful for the generous support of  Joe Thornley and Thornley Fallis, Morningside Estate B and B, Level Ground Trading, University Canada West, and of course our speaker, Julien Smith.

*** Please note that we are holding our meeting in January on the third Wednesday, and at a new venue.

Photo of Julien Smith: Chris Brogan

If you’ve heard all the hype but are still not convinced there’s any real point to Twitter, Shel Israel’s book called Twitterville may be a good place to start.

It’s written in the same easy to read style as Naked Conversations, his book on blogging which he co-authored with Robert Scoble.

Shel describes how Twitter started out as a way for the Odeo team to keep in touch with their software developers, how the idea quickly caught on amongst the staff and their friends, and how the team successfully launched Twitter in March 2007 at South by Southwest (SXSW) on a shoestring budget.

He then goes on to offer plenty of practical advice for businesses who want to become respected members of the Twitter community. And through numerous examples and interesting case studies, he demonstrates WHY companies need to be involved.  His examples include business, government, non profits and personal branding. He’s very encouraging, and does a good job of demystifying Twitter.

For those who have been on Twitter for awhile, you’ll enjoy reading about some of the great Twitter stories:

• @JamesBuck, a University of California photojournalism student and new to Twitter, who tweeted the single word “arrested” after coming to Egypt to photograph the food strikes. Word spread on Twitter, someone contacted the U.S. State Department, and within 24 hours, Buck’s government had intervened and he was released from jail.

• @JKrums (Janis Krums), twenty-three, of Sarasota, Florida, who was on a ferry near where US Airways Flight 1549 landed in the Hudson River, and took the now famous photo.

• @cathybrowne, who while sitting at her computer in Silicon Valley, advised Portland media that @JeanAnnVK (Jean Ann Van Krevelan) who she followed on Twitter, had been stuck onboard an American Airlines flight in Portland for several hours without reprieve, waiting for a break in the weather before taking off.

• @JessicaGottlieb, a “mommy blogger” who was offended by a Motrin ad targeted at new moms. #MotrinMoms became the top Trending Topic in Twitterville that weekend and the controversy spread to other social networking sites and mainstream media before Motrin became aware of it on Monday morning.

• @scottmonty, chief social media officer for Ford, who held off a mob of misinformed Ranger fans and deftly averted a PR crisis.

• @ConnieReece, now chief social media officer for New Media Lab in Austin, Texas, who used Twitter to raise tens of thousands of dollars for cancer patients through the Frozen Pea Fund

The Global Language Monitor recently announced that “Twitter” was the top word of 2009 based on its annual global survey of English words and phrases that appear in the media and online. Twitter came in ahead of, in order,  “Obama,” “H1N1,” “Stimulus” and “Vampire.”

As a communications tool, Twitter has gone from zero to ten million users in just over two years.  Twitterville is a great way to learn how you can best jump onboard and become part of that conversation.

Google launches Real Time Search Results

Google recently announced it was adding live updates from social networking sites such as Twitter and FriendFeed to its search results page. That means that in addition to news headlines and blog posts, you can also see a dynamic stream of real-time content.  Click on “Latest results” or select “Latest” from the search options menu to view a full page of live tweets, blogs, news and other web content scrolling right on Google.  Depending on the topic, the live search results may show up ahead of a company’s official website.

This is a nice feature if you’re looking to find out what people are saying about a current hot topic.

Challenging however, if your organization or business is the subject of that conversation.

What does it mean from a reputation management perspective?

Say someone has a beef with your organization and decides to vent on Twitter. Others join in reporting similar experiences. Until now, this would have stayed on Twitter. Then someone else, unaware of the first person’s issue, searches on Google for your website to get product information. In addition to the product information, they may also see the live twitter stream of complaints.

If you’ve ignored social networking sites until now, not sure of their benefit, or reluctant because of the time involved, this move by Google has changed the game. You can no longer sit back.

A good way to start would be by familiarizing yourself with three sites that help you track what people are saying: Twitter Search, Monittor, and Social Mention. Twitter search lets you see what people are saying on a particular topic in real time; Monittor is a Twitter search engine that lets you track three phrases at a time and limit your searches to a specific geographic region;  and Social Mention has a feature whereby you can receive updates of mentions by email.

These are all good ways to monitor what others are saying about you. Make it part of your routine, the same way you monitor traditional media sources. And it’s a good way to break in to social media.

Photo credit: alex-s

Tiger Woods has been in the news lately – for all the wrong reasons.

And he has so far offered no real explanation for the bizarre circumstances surrounding his car crash early Friday morning.

Many are curious, but say he is entitled to the privacy he has requested.  I disagree.

Tiger Woods reportedly earns $110 million (US) a year in endorsements. Everything from his own line of Nike clothing, TAG Heuer watches, Gillette razors, NetJet planes, to Gatorade sports drinks. I believe he owes it to his sponsors to explain the events that occurred and address the issues, or risk tarnishing his own brand and those of his sponsors. Broadcast networks may be impacted as well, particularly if he pulls out of more tournaments.

The longer he waits, the harder it will be to turn things around. The story will continue to gather momentum, and be a bigger story than it has to be.

In PR lingo this is called taking control of the story and getting out in front of the issue. By not talking, he is allowing others to speculate on what happened and dominate the conversation. Quick response is key.

Tiger would do well to take a page out of David Letterman’s playbook. Instead of a vague statement that left many questions unanswered, Letterman broke the story about his own infidelity and even cracked a few jokes at his own expense.

Photo credit: Getty Images

Images are an important component of your blog post because they add interest, often reinforcing your written message.  They’re also a way to attract the search engines to your site.

When you upload a photo to your blog, most blog systems will give you the option of adding an alternative title. Often the existing title, if you’re importing a photo you’ve found on Flickr for example, is just a string of numbers.

I’ve tended to skip over this step, but won’t anymore, after hearing Ross Dunn’s SEO presentation to our Social Media Club last night.

The problem according to Ross is that a string of numbers is not search engine friendly.

You’re better off to use a more descriptive title such as:

• image of man reading newspaper, or
• picture of person at computer.

There’s a much greater chance that this will get picked up by sites such as Google.  And in addition to the SEO benefits of a descriptive title,  visitors to your site who have images turned off will appreciate it, as will those who use assistive technology to surf the net.

Use a title that’s meaningful, and don’t stuff it with keywords.

With your images appropriately titled, people searching for specific images may end up coming to your site. If it’s inviting and your popular posts are easy to find, there’s a good chance these passersby may stay and look around.

Good luck, and I hope this gets your blog some additional traction.

Photo credit: pedrosimoes7

One question that often comes up when people get involved with social media is, “Where should I spend my time?” Like anything new, it can seem rather daunting at first, just trying to get up to speed.

Rest assured, many of us are in the same boat. And as popular as social media is, those of us involved are still the early adopters.Yes, there’s lots to learn, but it’s also a great time to jump in and get involved.

In a recent post Chris Brogan came up with a handy formula on how to divide your time:

• 1/4 for listening: This involves setting aside time to read other blogs and find out what others in your niche or line of business are saying. This is how you find out what’s on the horizon, and get inspiration for your own posts.

• 1/2 for connecting: This involves leaving comments on other blogs, tweeting links to articles you like, and sharing items on sites such as Digg, Delicious, Stumble Upon and Friend Feed.

• 1/4 for creating: Creating content is every bit as important as connecting. This can involve anything from setting up a blog, posting photos about a recent event to Flickr, or posting something funny you’ve read on Tumblr.

I think Chris is spot on in terms of his suggestions for allocating time.

My personal strategy is to try to read 25 blog posts a day (through my Google Reader account), participate in Twitter and leave comments on 2-3 blog posts a day, and post to this blog twice a week.

What about you – where do you spend your time? do you feel there are places within social media NOT worth spending your time on?

Photo credit: moriza

This is the third of three posts based on my presentation at WordCamp Victoria. You can view all of the slides on Slide Share here.

How to get your message out effectively:

Writing effectively with a clear message will help signal to your readers what your blog is about. If you peak their interest with an enticing headline and offer them something of value, they are more likely to read your post. No mean feat given how hard it is to catch someone’s attention these days.

Here are some suggestions to make sure you get read:

Focus on your reader: Ask yourself, before each and every post, “Will this appeal to my readers? Why should they care? How will they benefit?”

Know what you want to say: Rather than sitting down at the keyboard to immediately craft your post, take a few moments to think about what it is you want to say. That will help you focus and narrow down your topic. Personally I like to put pen to paper and do up a very rough draft long hand. Once I’m at the computer it goes very quickly, since its almost like a second draft. That’s my style – do what works best for you.  I admire those who can just sit down at the computer and write.

Write a good headline: According to Brian Clark of Copyblogger, eight out of ten people will read your headline, but only two out of ten will read your post. He has put together an awesome series of posts on writing killer headlines over on his blog.

Keep it short and simple:  Follow the KISS principle – keeping your posts short and simple, with one idea per post. There’s nothng wrong with a 200 word post, particularly when you’re trying to build up the content on your site.

Be your own editor: Use simple everyday words, and cut out unnecessary words. Instead of “accomplish” use the word “do”; instead of “endeavour”, use “do”; and instead of “utilize”, consider replacing that with “use”

Appearance matters: Layout and white space is just as important online as it is in print publications. Images add interest. Subheadings and highlighted text help readers quickly scan your post.

More resources: I highly recommend checking out Brian Clark of Copyblogger. You’ll find some great posts on plain writing, landing pages, keywords, and headlines. Another resource is Garr Reynolds of Presentation Zen. He focuses on – of all things – presentations. The info there will help you with your blog. One example is his post on photo sources.

Photo credit: Unhindered by Talent