I have been using feedly for over 3 years and consider it to be one of the most important tools in my workflow. Let me show you why…
Here are some screenshots from the mobile version. Click the image to enlarge…
Well? What are you waiting for?
If you’re waiting for your fear to go away, you’ll be waiting a long time. If you’re waiting for a personal digital coach to help with thoughts, tools and tactics for transformational thought leadership, your wait may be over! Use the contact popup to connect…
If you’re a freelancer like me…
…you might be interested in a freemium engagement tool called vcita:
I’m using vcita on this blog and I can hook you up, too! Comment below or contact me through the vcita form…
Tools for Tuesday; Hootsuite
Why settle for being a rockstar on one social network when you can amp multiple platforms all at once? Please give me 5 minutes of your life…
Here’s what posts added via the autoschedule feature look like in the publishing queue. You can click the image to enlarge…
Related articles
- Hootsuite Professional Review (business2community.com)
- Why HootSuite Can Claim to be the Most Comprehensive Social Media Management Tool in 2013 (famousbloggers.net)
- Hootsuite Tips & Tricks: Part 1 (socialsolutionscollective.com)
- Gremln: HootSuite with a hint of business. (entre528.wordpress.com)
- HootSuite: The Ultimate Social Media Dashboard (mhfideaboard.wordpress.com)
- Three Reasons Why I Love HootSuite Pro (inspiretothrive.com)
- 4 Social Media Content Management Tools That Won’t Make You Sweat (business2community.com)
- Is Automated Social Media Software Worthwhile? (famousbloggers.net)
Step into Your Starring Role
Earlier this year I ‘discovered’ the ‘imposter complex’ thanks to my yogi Jackie Dumaine. The more I learned about it the more I understood why I haven’t finished my epic book on ‘Becoming Known’. I believe, you see, that if you can name it you can ‘fix it’. If something has a name, that means you can google it and find tools to help. There are a few reasons why my book remains 70% completed — one of them is that as soon as you put your thoughts into words and declare your expertise in an area, someone smarter can come along and prove that you’re a moron…
A few days ago, Tanya Geisler [the author of the following quote] was kind enough to track me down in Twitter and share her TEDx Women talk on the same subject — how I missed this, I’ll never know but as the Buddha said ‘when the student is ready the teacher comes along‘. She says:
Ever since November 2012, I knew that there would be a moment that my TEDxWomen talk would be available for all to see. And that I’d need to find a way to share it with my corner of the world. That is, YOU. I’d love to say that I was excited, but the reality is, I’ve been a little, well…nervous.
I mean, I KNEW I’d be proud of it…I spent weeks (and weeks) preparing, researching, training, practicing, finessing and getting it under the requisite 18 minutes. And I KNEW the content would be good…I know the Impostor Complex like the back of my hand.
But asking everyone, YOU, to go check out my TEDxWomen talk is just…so…selfish, right?
Me, me, me, me, me.
I’ve started and stopped this very post about 15 times. Each time I approached with this question:: “what huge, massive, COLOSSAL value can I bring to my readers AND STILL let them know that my talk is available for viewing?”…as though the two were mutually exclusive.
So I’m about to take a leap of faith. The huge value of this post IS my talk.
Whoa. Whoa. Whooooooooa.
That seriously just kind of took my breath away. The sheer audacity.
But there it is.
My friends, I know A LOT about the Impostor Complex. So much so, that I am indeed becoming an Authority on the topic.
I’m claiming that.
In my perfectly imperfect talk, I’ve outlined a process that moves us from feeling like an Impostor to feeling like an Authority. I use it with my coaching clients, and in my own life. It’s also the backbone of my Step into Your Starring Role program.
If you ever, EVER struggle with the Impostor Complex, then you WILL get value from watching this talk…because I wrote the talk for you.
And now, I leave it in your loving hands, and will go and celebrate (an ever-important step in the process, you’ll see) by busting my Kid out of after-school care early for an ice cream cone.
Because
I did it. I really, really did it.
And if you want to do it too, you can and will too. ”How do you begin? The answer is simple: you decide to.” – Anne Lamott
And maybe, just maybe this will guide you::
Source: Quite Simply…my TEDxWomen Talk | Tanya Geisler – Step into Your Starring Role
Can I recommend you take the time to watch her talk? I just did…
I believe that the danger and the opportunity of social media and transformational thought leadership is walking the fine line and finding the ‘golden mean’ between imposter syndrome and narcissism. This is such an important impediment to transformational thought leadership that I’m going to start a resource page here. I’ll keep adding to it so come back often…
After the fact; applying ‘Einstein’s Razor’ to transformational ‘thought leadership’ marketing…
Earlier this week I had the opportunity to speak to a group of interior designers about how to become known on the Internet. It was one of the most enjoyable presentations I have given in a long time because 97% of the audience were lovely females from co-eds at UWSP to practicing interior designers, but I digress…
Many people in this audience were new to social media and it quickly became clear that the primary focus should be what’s the least amount of tools and work I can do to get started in the social media space. The conversation around that topic inspired me to come up with the following diagram and the explanation that follows it. I hope you find it useful…
Questions? Feedback? Comment below or connect with me so we can talk about how this applies to you and your situation…
By the way, here’s a copy of my opening presentation…
…and a link to my notes…
Tools I use: Chrome and Chrome extensions
Here’s my current winning lineup…
Information is NOT power [unless you harness it effectively!]
Now that you’ve decided that you want to begin blogging for all the RIGHT reasons, you need to think about how you’re going to be your mind so that you will be able to your blog. For the past 6 1/2 years I’ve used tool called Google Reader which Google and its infinite wisdom has decided to kill. That doesn’t stop me from continuing use it for the time being because I know I’ll be able to export my data and import it into the next RSS reader I choose to use. Much more important than tool are the thoughts that you use to guide what you put into the tool…
If my goal is to be recognized as a thought leader in my industry I need to think about questions that people in my industry are asking and think about positioning myself as a solution the answer. In order to do this effectively, at a basic level I simply need to ‘out-search’ and ‘out–aggregate’ the best thinking on my topic I can find. I can either share their thinking as is or use it to fuel a thoughtful blog post that will demonstrate my expertise in my field. Ultimately, I have the possibility of getting found in search if I do a good job of finding and sharing good information.
I use an RSS reader to track the sites, the searches in the sources that help me to continue to develop my expertise. In my vocabulary sites are just that; key websites that everyone in my industry rates. This methodology may sometimes render some useless information however if I’m using my RSS reader well it will make all that much difference as long as I don’t subscribe to too many sites. On the other end of the spectrum we have searches. Anything that I can search for in Google I can turn into Google alerts which I can then read in my feed reader. This is particularly useful because I can make my RSS reader deliver exactly what I want to find no matter what it is on a consistent basis. Sources are industry or thought leaders whose opinions I respect and whose words I don’t want to miss. I can use a tool like Topsy to ferret out industry leaders and track them in my feed reader.
Here are some of the thoughts and tools I use for harnessing information:
This is a dynamic list of my top tools for information management. Bookmark it and check back often, especially if you’re looking for a Google Reader replacement…
http://storify.com/livingbusiness/tools-for-information-management
What is a blog?
What is a blog? It can be everything and it can be nothing. As the Bard said “Nothing is good or bad but thinking makes it so”. During my blogging career, I estimate that I have created between 15 and 20,000 blog posts on every topic from A-to-Z — most of them, unfortunately, ineffective…
In this next phase of my business I’m attempting to become more mindful and intentional about what I’m doing online and why in this post is an attempt to unpack blogging from that perspective; more mindfulness and awareness of why we actually do social media and what we can expect from the effort.
What blogging isn’t…
A get rich quick scheme. If you are thinking that this was one of those articles I think you’ll be happier somewhere else on the Internet. But if you’re looking for deeper insight into what blogging is from perspective of mindfulness and intention and what it can do for you then please read on… Continue reading “What is a blog?”
If you’re looking for helpful tips on managing your WordPress.com blog, look no further than lorelleteaches.com; it’s a fantastic WordPress resource for WordPress.com bloggers…
In 2005, WordPress became modular separating the design and architecture from the core programming code.
Today, a WordPress Theme contains files called template files that hold the architecture of the site and template tags, code that initiates actions within the site and data from the database. The design is applied through a stylesheet, holding the instructions for the colors, images, and look and feel of the entire site.
This tutorial covers the basics of the structure of a WordPress Theme and standard customization options.
The Structure of a WordPress Site
Like all websites today, a WordPress site contains a background area, header, sidebar(s), content area, and footer.
The background area is considered the canvas that the site’s structural and design elements rest. It is usually a solid color, pattern, texture, or a design that does not overwhelm the rest of the content and design elements.
The header area…
View original post 3,510 more words
…from Pawan Deshpande of Curata:
Note: I recommend the thinking about curation but not necessarily the tool Curata. Comment or connect to talk about how this applies to your situation…
Sometimes, I think I post more about how much I love Twylah than the folks at Twylah do. Whether that’s true or not, I’m a huge fan and the main reason why is Twylah is the only social networking tool I know of that actually adds Search Engine Optimization [SEO] to your domain simply by tweeting. Still, if the DNS manager of your domain host is unfamiliar territory you may not be getting the maximum value out of Twylah and Twitter. I talk you through it here…
So, in summary, the three things you must do are:
- Use Twylah
- Add the Twylah widget to your WordPress sidebar
- Host Twylah on your domain
Questions? Feedback? Comment below or connect with me so we can talk about how this applies to you and your situation…
Related articles
- Why Twylah is my ultimate lifestream repository… (e1evation.com)
- Getting Things Done [GTD] for blogging and bloggers (e1evation.com)
- “Freeing information from jobs” UPDATED 10/8/2012 (e1evation.com)
- 3.5 tools for effective content marketing in the #socialera (e1evation.com)
The Tools David Allen Uses to Get Things Done
Lifehacker curated this story from The Atlantic:
GTD guru David Allen recently spoke in an interview with The Atlantic about all the things that keep him organized and productive. He uses a combination of low-tech tools and digital applications to accomplish what he says is the number one thing people need to do to gain control over their lives: “externalize” all the stuff thats coming in.” Full story at:The Tools David Allen Uses to Get Things Done.
Go to the source if you’re interested in David Allen’s approach…
Me? Here’s my list of GTD tools. Almost all electronic and besides the hardware, free or freemium and completely cross platform:
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Zemanta for WordPress.com
Posts with images get twice the engagement of those that don’t. This weekend, learn to use Zemanta in WordPress.com…
Full story at: ZEMANTA | Zemanta plugin for WordPress.com.
Here are a couple of free tools that can help you track and fix your internet brand and get it back on track…
Have Questions? Feedback?
Jason Boog recently wrote:
As digital content multiplies online and on our devices, our risk of “information over-consumption” increases.
In his new book, The Information Diet, author Clay Johnson shows how we can improve our information consumption and create a healthier diet while exploring the Internet.
On his site, he outlined four simple tools for creating a healthier media diet. We’ve linked to these resources below–how do you manage your media diet?” Full story at: Do You Suffer from Information Over-Consumption? – AppNewser.
Here’s a trailer from Clay Johnson’s book [which I highly recommend by the way]…
The tool that he did not mention is Google Reader. Google Reader is a tool that you can use to create your own virtual newspaper by tracking the sites, searches, and sources that are important in your world. Before I read Clay Johnson’s book, I subscribe to thousands of different sites. After I read his book, I started to develop a theory that I should use Google Reader to focus only on topics that would fuel my expertise and I got rid of a lot of different feeds.
Simply put, I think Google Reader is the single most important tool in my content marketing arsenal. I use Google Reader to make the information I need flow to me instead of searching for when I need it. Google Reader is also consistent with Getting Things Done [GTD] principles. it serves as a collection bucket for what I call just in case information. Gmail is my collection bucket for just-in-time information but Google Reader is the place where I collect information that is not related to relationships and revenue.
Let’s review the GTD diagram:
Not only does Google Reader serve as a collection bucket for all of my just in case information I can use it to process my news for publishing purposes. GTD principles would tell me if I can curated in 2 minutes or less us do it. If it takes longer than that different from later. Google Reader also serves as a ‘context’ for news and I can use it to stay focused. That way, when I’m doing e-mail and doing e-mail and when I’m reading news I use Google reader.
The following is kind of a longish tutorial about Google Reader from a GTD perspective. I’m pretty certain that if you take the time to view it and apply it, will change your world like it did mine…
Questions? Feedback?
Friend and client Nilofer Merchant just published a new book “11 Rules for Creating Value in the #SocialEra”. In Chapter 7, “Capture” she talks about one aspect of what she calls ‘levers of value’ and how social can be used to create and deliver work…
Work is freed from jobs. This means that human resources change when most of the people who create value are neither hired nor paid by you. And competition has changed so that any company can achieve the benefits of scale through a network of resources: for example, designing a product from anywhere, producing it through a 3-D printer, financing it communally, and distributing it from anywhere to anywhere.
Merchant, Nilofer (2012-09-12). 11 Rules for Creating Value in the Social Era (Kindle Locations 665-670). Perseus Books Group. Kindle Edition.
Along those lines, I want to share a couple of tactics I use to get other people to do my ‘Personal News Aggregation’ work by creating what I refer to as a ‘Personal News Agency’…
In this screencast I focus in on examples using Twitter, Pinterest, dlvr.it and Twylah to create Search Engine Optimization [SEO] value for your website by leveraging the things other people share…
UPDATED 10/8/2012: Hey, in the video above I struggled with getting an rss feed from Twitter. Thanks to @socmedsean, here’s how to do it:
Okay…here are the details. Start with getting your RSS feed. Twitter still provides access to their RSS feeds via the following URL:
http://search.twitter.com/search.atom
Twitter allows you to customize your search queries by adding certain parameters. Check out this great post on Sociable.co to learn about the Twitter RSS parameters. Basically, by customizing the RSS search, the following RSS search gives me all of my tweets:
http://search.twitter.com/search.atom?q=from%3Asocmedsean
(the %3A is the URL encoded representation of the @ symbol)
and I can further refine that RSS search to only show those tweets that include “http”…which means that the search would return all of my tweets that also included links
http://search.twitter.com/search.atom?q=http%20from%3Asocmedsean
(the %20 is the URL encoded representation of a space)
and finally, I could further refine the search so that it didn’t include retweets by simply telling the search to exclude any tweets with “RT” in them.
http://search.twitter.com/search.atom?q=http%20-RT%20from%3Asocmedsean
NOTE: The order in which I put the parameters is very important. The from has to come last or it didn’t work properly and the %20s are critical. If your feed isn’t working, check that it is similar to mine above.
via Shhh…Don’t Tell. You Can Still Post Your Tweets to Other Platforms | Social Media Today.
Comment below or connect with me so we can talk about how this applies to you and your situation — I can show you how to deepen your expertise using the strategies and the tactics I talk about in the screencast…
By the way, I highly recommend Nilofer’s book!
Here’s a reminder of some of the basic principles…
- Save Gmail for ‘just in time’ information…
- Use Google Reader for ‘just in case’ information…
- Use ‘Priority Inbox’
- Use Getting Things Done [GTD] principles for processing your email…
Questions? Feedback? Comment below…
Buffer rocks! Here are a few reasons why…
A few weeks ago, I did an epic post on ‘supercuration’ tools — here it is, just in case you’ve misplaced it. Tops on my list of those tools is Buffer, a great freemium app that takes much of the pain out of curation and sharing. Here’s my take on it and why I think it belongs in YOUR social media workflow…
Questions? Feedback? Here’s a link where you can get started…
Before and after; Nilofer Merchant site ‘TBO’
What is TBO you ask? Why ‘total beauty makeover’ of course! Wednesdays are the days we talk about high-performing websites at elevation and today I like to share with you some recent work that I did for friend and client Nilofer Merchant…
I enjoy telling people that I have worked with Nilofer since the days when she was a mere mortal when our paths crossed at Apple in the late 90s. Since then, Nilofer has gone on to become an author, corporate director, and speaker while I became a humble social media mechanic. About 18 months ago, Nilofer had a ‘brochureware’ website and was blogging on Posterous. I ask ‘what’s a nice girl like you doing using sites like these’? Nilofer considered my question and came back a month or two later asking if I could guide her through the process of consolidating her Internet presence on WordPress. The picture you see above was the result of our first collaboration and it served her well for almost a year…
A month ago Nilofer approached me with the idea of giving the site a total beauty makeover in preparation for her September 12 book launch of 11 Rules for Creating Value in the #Social Era. Nothing could have made me happier because helping Nilofer promote her thinking is truly a labor of love!
As we talked about the new site we both agreed we wanted something simple and straightforward that would accurately communicate her brand. We chose a simple but powerful WordPress theme that would showcase images reflecting the different aspects of Nilofer’s brand. I really wanted the website to “get out of the way” so that people could see how beautiful SHE really is. I wish I could take credit for the images but she worked with Cooper Bates Photography to get what we needed and their images really carry the site. It was pretty easy going from that point forward; here is the result of our collaboration:
What about you? Does your website accurately reflect the beauty of your brand? If not, I’d be happy to work with you as well! You can use the contact form below to connect…
‘Non-modal’? You’ll have to watch the video! :-D
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Bright, shiny objects! 
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