Tag Archives: Technology

Set Parameters To Stay On Top Of Your Blog

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© Photo: Dave Stokes/Flickr

We all know what it’s like to sit in front of a blank page or computer screen, trying to come up with something to say while the time just ticks away. Believe me, every blogger goes through this. To be quite honest, every other week as my turn to post rolls around, I feel I have too much to do and nothing interesting to say. Yet, every week, miracle of miracles, I sit down and I write a post.

Actually, it’s not such a miracle. Despite all the reasons I can come up with why I can’t write my post each week, there is one thing that keeps me going. It’s the fact that Mary and I sat down when we started blogging and set some parameters.

We’ve already touched a bit on how to personalize your blog’s focus, and we’ll be covering content in greater depth soon, so I won’t address what to write about here. Instead,  let’s look at some of the other essential decisions you’ll need to make at the outset:

Frequency of posts: 

There are many theories about how often you should post if you want to grow a very large audience, but my philosophy is you won’t grow ANY audience if you quit! When we started Two Point Uh Oh!, we decided on one post a week, or two posts a month for each of us. We felt this was a commitment we could keep no matter how busy we were. Even though this still seems too much at times, having made the commitment keeps us on track.

Be ambitious while also remaining realistic about your resources of time and energy. Start with what you can manage, get the feel for blogging, and then grow from there if you feel the need.

Length of posts: 

Free coiled tape measure healthy living stock photo Creative Commons

©Photo: D Sharon Pruitt/Flickr

You’ll find as many opinions about the length of posts as you will about the frequency. As far as I’m concerned, the length of posts depends on two things: your natural inclination, and your audience.

For example, we’re pressed for time and our audience learns better if we deliver focused posts. Therefore, our guiding principle on Two Point Uh Oh! is “long enough to be thorough, but short enough to be digestible,” a rule of thumb that fits our needs and the needs of our readers.

If you’re a writer or a historian, you might love writing in-depth essays, and your audience will probably appreciate an involved discussion. If you’re a photographer or a designer, you might be better with images than words. If that’s the case, post a photo with just a line or two of text. Your visually-oriented audience will love you for it!

The best way to stick with blogging is to make sure your blog fits who you are while also serving your audience. With a little experimentation, you’ll find the right length for you.

Posting Calendar:

Mary and I make sure to discuss the topics we want to cover, and we establish a blogging calendar a few weeks in advance. We know, for example, that our series on blogging will run at least another two posts. As I write this, I know that we’ll be covering how to find topics and create a calendar in a couple of weeks. Knowing what we have on our calendar helps me in the writing of this current post by allowing me to cover less information in greater depth.

Tone:

Every blog has its tone. I’d call our tone “information through storytelling.” It’s a tone that suits the blog and fits our personalities. It’s authentic to who we are and it’s in alignment with what we’re trying to accomplish.

You, too, have a unique voice, a personality. Your readers want to see that you’re a real person who can speak to them in a natural voice. If you can find a tone that is professional, natural to you, and in alignment with your content, the actual writing will become much easier. All the blogs we’ve mentioned in previous posts are great examples of authentic tone. Study them if you want to get a better feel for tone. (Click on the “Blogs” category link in the right sidebar to access the posts.)

Delivering Value

When you first start blogging, you might be tempted to look for a quick return on your time investment. When is that first client going to contact you? When will more business walk in through the door?

As we saw with every blog example we’ve looked at so far, a good blog isn’t about what it gets–it’s about what it gives.

Stay focused on what you’re giving your readers. Make sure you’re delivering immediate value. This could be useful information, a new perspective, or simply a beautiful image or a light moment to brighten your readers’ day. You’d like your readers to come back to your blog frequently, wouldn’t you? Then give them reason to want to!

Blogs Aren’t Built in a Day

Construction site Masshouse Lane / Albert Street - Construction site Keep out - sign Finally, manage your expectations. I’m not going to lie to you and tell you blogging is easy, or that you can do it in twenty minutes. Blogging takes planning, and it requires work. Building a readership is a lengthy process, and seeing a return will take some time. If you set your parameters and stick with them, you’ll see that blogging will become easier–or at least more of a reflex. You’ll also start to have small successes, such as the first time a reader posts a comment or your blog or someone compliments you on a post, and that will encourage you to continue. Once we start covering social media, you’ll see how the content of your blog will become a powerful tool to help you build your network and your expertise. So stick with blogging–and stay tuned for more!

Three Common Website Myths

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If you’ve been following this blog from the beginning, you’ve probably figured out by now that Web 2.0 is all about interaction. But there are so many possible ways to interact, so many places to be present online, that it’s hard to not feel overwhelmed. Where do you start? How do you organize your online presence? With a home base.

In Paris, there is a kilometer marker in front of Notre Dame Cathedral. Considered the center of the city, it is from here that all distances are measured in France.  Your home base is your kilometer zero. All roads will lead from here and back to here.

Your Website Is Your Home Base

©Photo: Serge Melki / Flickr

Your website is your piece of real estate online. This is where you can hang your shingle and let people know who you are and what you do. Your home or welcome page, your service or product page, and the page that tells us about you all serve this task. If you decide to add a blog, you’ll be able to showcase your expertise, take a point of view, and establish a voice—all of which can help you grow a following. If planned well, your blog will become a trusted source of useful information that will entice your target audience to keep coming back. Blogs drive traffic to your website, and they also provide you with content to share on other sites.

My clients often groan when I suggest a website. They’ve either had bad experiences in the past that they don’t want to repeat, or they fear the technology.

Uh oh!

Let me debunk the three most common myths that my clients have:

I can’t afford a website.

© Photo: AMagill / flickr

Most small businesses don’t need fancy or expensive websites. They need a website that is simple and elegant and that works on mobile devices (such as a smartphone or an iPad). There are inexpensive website platforms that allow you to create a basic website without much technical know-how. Most of these platforms have many of the tools you’ll need already built in. This website, for example, uses WordPress and costs us under $20 a year. If you really feel unable to get started on your own, consider hiring a consultant to walk you through the setup. Once you see how it’s done, you’ll be able to take over.

I’m too technologically challenged to run a website.

Between the advance of technology and the boom in website demand, simple, user-friendly options such as WordPress have become the norm for small businesses. You can run a website without any special technical knowledge, and if you have a question, you’ll find answers in your platform’s user support section or in the user forums. An inexpensive way to get over any fear of technology is by hiring a professional to get you started and to train you. That keeps your costs low while empowering you!

© Photo: Search Engine People Blog / flickr

I just want someone else to run my website for me.

Having a great webmaster who knows your business and also knows what they’re doing is a luxury. But if your business requires regular and timely updates, this can get expensive. Your friend who initially set up your website may not be able to drop whatever they’re doing just because you have an urgent request. Don’t be surprised if you have to wait a long time before they are available for you. This means you’ll always have to plan far in advance. If you want your customers to see  your update on the first of March, for example, make sure your webmaster knows about it four weeks before that! Unless you can afford to pay a webmaster, learn how to do it yourself. You will have a lot more flexibility–and fewer headaches!

With these three misconceptions now firmly debunked, you should be ready to roll up your sleeves and start building your website. Next week we’ll be discussing domain names and hosting services. Stay tuned!

Six Key Ways We Communicate With and Without Web 2.0

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Photo by Sure2Talk

Evolving technology has always shaped the way we communicate.

Imagine a love letter being penned by a young suitor in the 19th century. His fingers grip the quill, his mind searches for the perfect words to express the power of his emotions. Imagine the moment three weeks later when his beloved tears open that very same letter with breathless anticipation. Romantic, isn’t it? I can almost feel myself swooning.

Fast forward about a hundred years. Imagine two young lovers before the advent of email or cell phones. They call each other on their landlines at the same time every day. Sometimes they do their homework or listen to the radio, but often they simply enjoy being silent together. That’s romantic, too, isn’t it?

Now imagine those same teenaged lovebirds today, texting one another sweet nothings via their mobile phones in the middle of class. This modern-day version of note-passing, like its pen-and-paper predecessor, drives teachers up a wall. But teens? They think it’s romantic.

As the times and technology change, so does the way we communicate. But as the examples above show, communication itself is not about technology—it’s about the human interaction.

Below, I’ve listed six key ways we communicate in our business lives. I’ve also listed offline and online methods of delivering that communication.

1.   Publishing and Distributing Information

Businesses publish information to update existing customers and to let prospective customers know who they are, what they do, and where to find them. Offline methods of delivering this information include printed brochures, articles in trade or professional journals, books, and printed newsletters, postcards, invitations, or special offers sent through the postal mail. Today’s online counterparts are websites, downloadable media kits and e-brochures, blog posts, online articles, ebooks, slideshare presentations, videos, as well as emailed newsletters, postcards, and invitations.

2. Networking and Building Community

Whether in a formal business setting or in a more relaxed, social environment, meeting new people and staying in contact is an integral part of communicating. Offline occasions for networking and building community include industry events, conferences, the office Christmas party, or the weekly golf game. They can also include church groups, charity events, or your child’s music recital. Online counterparts include the social networks, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. They also include blogs, groups, and forums created around a cause, a charity, or a shared interest. Just as in real life, some online platforms are focused on business, others are more social, and either can lead to unexpected connections and opportunities.

3. Establishing Expertise

How do you stand out amongst your competitors? By showing the world that you’re the go-to expert in your field. Offline occasions include writing books and articles, teaching and mentoring, delivering talks and presentations, speaking at graduations, and sitting on juries. Online counterparts include writing ebooks, articles, and blogs, posting video or slides from your live presentations, creating a podcast, teaching a webinar, or answering and asking questions in industry-appropriate forums and groups.

4. Collaborating With Others

If you have a large project you’re working on, a group or  association you want to create, or a cause you want to promote, you need to communicate with your collaborators. Offline occasions are limited to face-to-face meetings, telephone exchanges, faxes, or postal mail. Online opportunities are much broader and include online meetings, wikis, shared documents, chat and instant messaging, groups, forums, and email. Another advantage of online collaboration is that you’re less restricted by geography. Collaborators can be in other cities or even in other countries.

5. Keeping Up With Your Industry and Sharing Information

No matter what business you’re in, you need to keep up with the latest happenings. Offline resources include chatting with colleagues, attending conferences, talks, presentations, and events, or reading trade publications. Online counterparts include writing or reading blogs, exchanges on the social networks and in online groups, and using content curation and aggregation tools. Web 2.0 allows you to track the latest news as it’s happening and to share it quickly and easily with others.

6. Listening and Responding to Customers

Web 2.0 has revolutionized the relationship between businesses and customers. In the not so distant past, a customer with a complaint would be forced to follow the protocol established by the business. Their options were limited: call the customer service line or go stand in line somewhere. Today, they have many more options—and they use them. They can contact a business publicly via their Twitter feed or Facebook page. They can read reviews on blogs or forums before purchasing, or write their own reviews. If they are happy with the way their complaint is handled, they will often express their gratitude. People don’t expect businesses to be perfect, but they do expect responsiveness and a willingness to help them when there’s a problem. Businesses who get this make it easy for their customers to reach them offline and online, and they set up monitoring tools to alert them of what customers are saying.

By putting the emphasis on communication rather than on technology, you can begin to see the parallels between offline and online communication tools. Just like today’s texting teen has a lot in common with our 19th century letter-writer, a printed brochure has a lot in common with a video on the home page of your website. Hopefully this makes it easier to begin to understand what might be right for your business. As of next week, we’ll begin looking at some of the technologies themselves. In the meantime, feel free to continue the list. Did I miss anything?

As United found out in the video below, frustrating your customers by not responding to them in a timely and satisfactory manner can result in a song being written about you. Uh oh!

Hello, I’m Alexis and I’m a Webaholic

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As we’ve said before, TwoPointUhOh is not about re-creating the tons of social media information already online. We’re about clarifying and simplifying that information for people who are just starting out.

How many of us are building profiles online? That’s how many different ways there are to go about it. The question is, What’s going to work for you? Honestly, that depends on who you are, what you’re trying to accomplish, who you want to reach, the learning curve you’re facing, and how you feel about the process.

In short, there are several variables with many possible combinations and one common denominator: YOU.

We’re here to help you define those variables for yourself and to identify a strategy that feels right and works for your business.

Our Philosophy

We believe context is important, concrete examples are indispensable, and story is the best way to learn. What better place to start than with our own stories?  This week I’ll introduce myself. Next week will be Mary’s turn.

Bear with me as we seemingly take a detour. Sometimes the longer path between two points is more enriching than the shorter one.

From The Personal…

Growing up, my family moved a lot. I lived in New York (twice); Athens, Greece (twice); and the then divided city of Berlin, Germany (also twice). As a college student I moved to Paris (for the first time), and then to New York again, where I stayed for 8 years. Then it was back to Paris (for the second time), and Frankfurt and Cologne, Germany (once each) and finally Paris for the third time. In between there were trips, endless trips (my father was a pilot with Pan Am).

Håkan Dahlström Photography

Four countries. Four languages. Four cultures. Twenty plus moves. Change and starting over is what I was weaned on. The result? A lifetime of not really fitting in anywhere. I struggled to make sense of the world around me, no matter where I was.

I used technology to stay in touch with friends and family all over the world. From the telephone and letters, to the fax machine and email, I was all over it. As Web 2.0 began to emerge, I jumped on board from the start. Soon I found myself enrolling in online classes, joining forums and writing groups, and meeting like-minded people. No longer bound by geography or hampered by language, I could find and converse with my tribe wherever they were.

What liberation!

By the glow of my iMac

For someone like me who’s always been a little bit everywhere but never really anywhere, the Web became a way of connecting far-flung dots. Several years before Facebook or Twitter, I was finding old friends and making new ones.

I was hooked on Web 2.0.

…To The Professional

In 1994, when I was living in Paris for the second time, I started to hear about portable careers—careers that could move with you wherever you went. This spoke to me, and I began seeking out portable work: teaching, translating, writing. Sure, each time I moved I’d have to find a new customer base, but I felt that was possible. Wherever I’d been, I’d always found a sizable Anglophone expat community and the companies and organizations that hired them. This was the early days of Web 2.0, and my mind was still thinking locally.

Between 1996 and 2002, I lived in Germany, where I trained as an Alexander Technique teacher, a mind-body method of centering, connecting, and feeling more whole. (You can see why I needed it, right? If you want to know more, click here.) To support myself, I worked as a translator. The Web allowed me to translate from home, do my research, and deliver my jobs by email. I could support myself using my language skills and I could set my own hours around my training course. Further, by the time I moved back to Paris in 2002, my customers were comfortable with assigning work and accepting delivery over the Internet. As long as I was in the same time zone and could receive a wire transfer, they were happy to keep working with me. My portable life just became smoother.

Professional consistency was now possible—at least theoretically.

Scattered

I still had two problems. One, I didn’t love translating. Two, I couldn’t get myself to do any one thing exclusively, no matter how much I loved it. I still can’t. If I don’t have variety and new challenges, I lose interest very quickly. I used to think this was a byproduct of my upbringing, but now I believe it’s innate. It’s who I am.

Back in Paris, I worked on building a teaching practice while also trying to build my writing career so that I could drop the translating. I networked online, I networked in Paris, and I said yes to just about everything, including unpaid work and community volunteering. I developed a habit of having multiple irons in the fire, several balls in the air, and lots of spinning plates.

Before long, I was stretched too thin. I became scattered and surrounded by broken plates and dropped balls. My online presence reflected that.

Uh Oh.

Some stuff had to give.

Photo by Openroads.com

Anchored

The 2.0 tools I used to create and promote my webseries.

In an effort to take greater control over my projects and my own direction, I decided to produce a web series called My Bitchy Witchy Paris Vacation. I wanted to showcase my work to the entertainment industry in the US—and I succeeded. Much to my surprise, however, creating the web series also had the effect of anchoring me here in Paris. This I had not anticipated.

Through the two-year process of writing and producing Bitchy Witchy, I realized I had become comfortable(ish) navigating France. I also realized that I had been living as if I’d inevitably pick up and move again. For seven years, I had been waiting for the proverbial second shoe to drop.

Was it possible that I was done starting over from nothing? Could I actually stop tearing up roots and focus instead on cultivating the seeds I had planted?

What a freaky little concept.

But it’s grown on me.

Under One Umbrella

Today my professional life is made up of writing, consulting, and translating for the entertainment industry, and teaching (Alexander Technique, screenwriting, storytelling, and building an online presence). In addition, I work on my own creative projects.

It’s still a lot of different things, but they fit together. At the heart of everything I do is story. At the heart of story is infinite variety and challenge.

Photo by ^riza^

Oh yeah. I could stay here a while.

My goal now is to shape an online presence that reflects one business with multiple facets and to create a home base (a company) from which I can venture out (to clients here and abroad). I’ll be sharing my progress on this blog.

Web 2.0 Takeaways

How is this long story useful to you? What does this mean in terms of Web 2.0? I don’t really know, but this is what I got out of it:

  1. Web 2.0 is a communication tool, much like the telephone.
  2. How you use Web 2.0 will change over time. The tools will change and your needs will change.
  3. How you use Web 2.0 depends on who you are. This includes your history, your needs, your level of comfort with technology and social networking, and your personality.
  4. Web 2.0 can help you connect to your tribe wherever they may be.
  5. Web 2.0 can bring you full circle. You might venture out far and wide only to land back home.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “Life is a progress and not a station.” With apologies to Mr. Emerson, I would say the same about Web 2.0.