I received this message from Andrew Dechellis on my contact form this week:

Hey man I have a question, I was wondering if you could help me out with. I am going to be interviewing Jordan Romero (youngest person to ever climb Mt Everest – 13yrs old, completed in May 2010). I have writing in my past but never really have interviewed anyone before. Any tips or pointers you could shed light on would be great, or any articles you’ve read would be awesome. Thanks.

Andrew

Tips for Doing Killer Interviews

It seems like the skill of interviewing is becoming more and more important now that every human and business can publish content online.  Do you interview people?  If so (or if no), what would you add?

It seems that almost every company out there is trying to figure out the art of blogging and how to do it right for business.  There are tons of benefits for the organizations that can make it work for the long haul.

We’re starting to see more and more companies take a collaborative approach to corporate blogging.  Rather than naming a dedicated company blogger, or a set of individual bloggers, taking the collaborative approach calls for multiple contributors from various levels within an organization to submit content on a single, company-owned platform.

Most of these blogs will also highlight each individual contributor to take advantage of the essence of humanization that is created in having individual voices present.

Some of my favorite examples of well-focused and consistent business blogs include the following:

• Hubspot’s Inbound Marketing Blog
• Junta42′s Content Marketing Institute (I’m a contributor)
• GSW’s What’s Your Digital IQ
• Incept’s Conversational Marketing Blog (Client)
• Kodak’s A Thousand Words
• What’s the Diff? by QuickenLoans

Collaborative blogs make sense for companies in that the approach spreads the content creation workload across multiple individuals, making it much easier to maintain a higher frequency of posts.  Another benefit of multiple contributors is that your blog’s readers gain a variety of perspectives from within your company.  Each contributor typically has a unique set of experiences and stories to share, which in turn can make the depth of your blog’s content increasingly rich.

So how do you get there?

The most important truth for a company to consider is that no matter what fancy technology you implement, blogs will never write themselves.  That said, a great place to start (even before forming your content strategy) is to build your team of collaborative corporate bloggers.

6 Essential Steps to Build a Collaborative Blog Team

• Start Small - Don’t try to shoot for the moon on your first attempt at launching a collaborative blog.  Selecting a core team of 3-5 dedicated contributors, who will deliver content regularly, is better than a team of 20 contributors who struggle to keep up with the publishing requirements.  Set a goal for each member of the team to produce one post each week to start.  Once your team members get comfortable with that schedule, kick it up a notch.
• Balance the Team – Build your collaborative blog team with individuals from different levels and departments within your organization.  Not everyone needs to come from the marketing or sales departments.  A balanced blog team will include company leaders, customer service representatives, operations folks and maybe even individuals who work in the accounting department.  It’s also a good idea to look for contributors who already understand the blogosphere.  While experience in copywriting is a plus, an understanding of how blogs and social networks operate is much more valuable.  Finding contributors who are avid blog readers and commenters will ensure that your team has, at least, a basic understanding of how blog content is typically formatted.  Pay special attention to employees who already write a personal blog; they can prove to be a very valuable asset to your team.
• Pick Good Administrators – Make sure to select one or two collaborative blog administrators who take on administrative duties as a core part of their responsibilities at your company.  At times, these folks may need to spend a greater amount of time working on blog tasks, since they will act as a bottleneck for final approval on all posts.  For this reason, it’s a good idea to keep the number of administrators to a minimum.  Administrators will have full access to all areas of the blog, so selecting someone with previous technology experience is a good idea.  Finding an administrator with experience in search engine optimization is also a plus.
• Design a Workflow Process – I’m always careful when using the phrase “editorial calendar” in blogging because the blogosphere is very dynamic.  Trends and topics can change on a daily basis and it’s important that your blog content stays relevant to the conversations happening on the web.  Building a high-level content strategy, and assigning focus areas to your contributors, is a good way to stay focused yet agile.  Also, be aware that there are tools available that can help administrators manage the process of post submissions so you don’t have to chase team members around with emails and spreadsheets.
• Subcontract with a Proofreader - This is one of the best decisions a company can make in terms of time management.  In most cases, your blog administrators will have loads of other tasks on their plate while also trying to manage the team and keep content flowing.  While proofreading each post for grammatical and spelling errors is absolutely critical to your success, it’s often a major time suck that can be overlooked.  It’s a good idea to seek out the services of an experienced freelance copywriter who can serve as a proofreader and content flow editor to lift this burden off your admins.  Most of these individuals will offer an affordable price per page model.
• Develop Blog Team Mastermind Groups – Consistent coaching and discussion on what’s working and what’s not is valuable for any blog program.  Setting up weekly or biweekly mastermind sessions – during which your blog team can get together to discuss strategy, challenges and content ideas – will keep the momentum going.  You might consider having these sessions over morning coffee or boxed lunches.  These mastermind sessions are also a good opportunity to bring in outside resources for training, such as SEO consultants, social media specialists or writing coaches.  Making an investment in improving the knowledge base and skill level of your blog team will pay dividends almost immediately.  Always keep in mind that company turnover might effect your collaborative blog team, at some point in the progression.  Accordingly, it is important that team members have the ability to get newbies up to speed quickly.

Are there any steps you feel I’ve missed?  What would you add?

Here are two questions to think about:

1. If social media and blogging were popular when you were a student, and there was a program to teach you how to use these tools, would that have signed up?
2. Do you think it would have had an impact on your career path?

The Social Learning Lab at Hi-Point

My friend, Shane Haggerty, believes that the impact would have been exponential.

That’s why he’s doing it right now.  At the Ohio Hi-Point Career Center, Shane is teaching a select group of students how to proactively and responsibly use the social web to build their individual presence, and with it, build a presence for the center itself.  Shane is building a human business team.

The student bloggers at Hi-Point Journeys are worth your attention.  The program itself and the students, led by Shane, are challenging the status quo in education.  They’ve built a laboratory to help them experiment with education strategies that leverage social media and the Interwebz.

This video is just over 16 minutes in length, which (by my own standards) is way too long for a single blog post.  However, the trouble is that every time I try to edit it down, I feel like I take away from Shane’s story of this amazing project.

To make it manageable, I can simply suggest the following:

• Make sure your speakers are turned up
• Pretend this is a podcast
• Push play
• Listen and go about doing what you need to get done

I also want to tip my hat at Oxiem Marketing Technology, as well as Tom Williams and Innogage.

As Shane mentioned, Oxiem is the development partner behind building the web platforms on which these students operate to produce their content.  In my opinion, they are one of the best firms at integrating social media, SEO and web design in Ohio.

Tom comes in with his product, Innoblogs, which plugs into WordPress to create a back-end workflow system to manage collaborative blog teams.  I like it a lot, and accordingly, use it with a few of my own clients.

(I’m writing about these folks because they are doing great work.  For the record, I’m not affiliated with either Oxiem or Innogage, but we do sometimes work on projects together, openly.  Also, Hi-Point is not a client.  Shane is simply leading educators towards social media adoption in the classroom.  And that’s worth talking about.)

What do you think?  Should social media education be taught at the high school level?

As a blogger, sometimes new ideas for posts flow like a river.  At other times, however, your brain can run dry for days.

Part of blogging is realizing and accepting the fact that, on occasion, you will get stuck.  Another part of being a blogger is finding ways to get yourself unstuck and continuing to feed the system with your content.

Stuck or not, your audience awaits.  They read and subscribe and tell other people because they want to read what you will type next.  Attention spans, however, keep shrinking. If you keep them waiting too long, they will simply move on.

One of the tricks I use to get unstuck revolves around LinkedIn.  As a community and a communication tool, LinkedIn allows me to get directly to the humans that make up my target readers.  LinkedIn is now up to 70 million members across the globe, and is typically used by professionals of all shapes and sizes.  In terms of finding my audience, it’s a pretty safe bet that they are users.  Here are some of the things I do when I get stuck:

5 Tips for Using LinkedIn to Develop Blog Content Ideas

• Ask questions and get answers to seed questions around your topic areas and gather qualitative feedback.  Pay attention to the comments that folks leave.  There’s oftentimes golden-nugget ideas that can easily be turned into entire posts.
• Build and launch polls for more targeted questions, or for current topics of debate, around your focus area.  Not only does this give you a good feel for where potential readers stand on any given issue, but it will also deliver you a list of new readers to send your finished post.  The graphics that LinkedIn produces (with results) also make great images to include in your post.
• Launch a discussion on specific groups around the topic you want to write about.  In doing this you will be the facilitator of that conversation.  This approach will take some time, but also give you the chance to connect one-on-one with new, potential readers.
• Send InMail or use Introductions to connect with people who might make interesting interviewees for your blog.  This is also a great way to get the ball rolling in relationship development with interesting people by using the social graph.
• Use TripIt to set up video interviews with interesting people who will be within a cab ride of your next distance meeting.  This also doubles as a great way to build relationships with the folks who fit your business’s customer profile.  Why?  Most people will say yes to giving you 30 minutes to interview them on their business and what’s important to them, before they will give you time to pitch them on what’s important to yours.  Don’t ever cheat this one.  Get the first meeting for the interview and a relationship.  Ask for the pitch well after you’ve had time to get to know the human.

How else do you use LinkedIn to come up blog content ideas?

Photocredit: the talented Becky Johns

While I was finishing up at BMA Engage, Chris Stone sent me a tweet asking:  “What are the 10 blogs you read every day?”

It’s a great question, but one that is in no way answerable in 140 characters or less.  That being said, it is a great idea for a blog post.  Thank you, Chris.

It’s important to keep in mind that not every one of these bloggers post every day, but I do read them when there’s something new up.  I read a crazy amount of blogs.  It’s my job to stay up on the conversations; but I also read because bloggers and blogging fascinate me.  I truly enjoy reading what people have to say.

Most of my everyday blogs get delivered to my inbox via email.  It’s easy, and it makes sure that I don’t skip or miss anything without a look.  For other blogs that I read (but not all the time), I’ll typically subscribe to via Google Reader.  Brogan would probably say that reader is a great tool for leveraging the convenience of Anywhen.  Click that last link to figure out he means by that term.

The 10 Blogs I Read Every Day (And Why)

These blogs are listed in no particular order.  This list is not a ranking, as each blogger delivers a different type of conversation starter.  All are good at what they deliver.

Chris Brogan – I found Chris’s blog by chance, sometime around 2004.  Chris and his content first piqued my interest by using social media for more than just fun.  Even today, I still get tons of value and entertainment from his posts .

HubSpot – Brian Halligan and his team of contributors at HubSpot are, by far, one of the most valuable blogs on the web today.  Want to learn how marketing is changing and how to change with it?  Read this blog.  HubSpot is one of the very few blogs that deliver multiple posts each day on a consistent basis.  And it’s not all business.  They have some fun too.

Michael Hyatt – Hyatt is the CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers and writes on values and leadership, just cranking out some damned good content.  In my mind, Michael has really cracked the code in terms of the balance between personal branding and company branding.  He and his content are inspirations to me on so many levels.

Convince & Convert (Jason Baer) – Aside from being an uber-cool guy, Baer sits at the top of the list of interactive agency marketers in business today.  He’s an amazing influencer and his style sits somewhere in between Brogan and Solis, in terms of charisma and analysis of trends.  His content is also entertaining as hell.

Brainzooming – Mike Brown is one of the best business strategists in the game, in my humble opinion.  I’m privileged to have many opportunities to work with him.  Mike brings an actionable take on strategy that is rooted in his more than 25 years of experience in the corporate world.  His content is creative, innovative and always gets my gears turning.

Seth Godin – Seth’s blog, like many of yours out there, has become a staple in my life.  What I really dig about Seth is his ability to name concepts and make them memorable.  A lot of the stuff he writes on is not new information, but I think Seth has the ability to say it better than just about anyone else out there.

Shel Holtz - Shel is my organizational communication influencer.  He’s an ABC (Accredited Business Communicator) and an IABC Fellow, which is the highest honor you can receive in that organization.  Shel always calls it really like it is.

All Facebook (Nick O’Neill) – This is the unofficial authority on just about everything that is happening with Facebook.  I have no idea how Nick gets his insider information on the world’s biggest social network, but he does.  And he shares it with everyone.  All Facebook is simply an amazing resource.

Darren Rowse – A.K.A Problogger, Darren is my favorite blogger who blogs about blogging.  He’s truly a master of all things content and just a really cool guy.  He’s also a expert on photography, which is something I’m getting into on the personal side.  I love this blog.

Brian Solis – Solis is defining things like SMO, Social CRM and just about every trend that’s worth looking at in the online space.  Here’s a tip: If you want to get all the latest research without paying thousands of dollars for subscriptions to big name research companies, read Brian’s blog.  It’s always excellent and his analysis is worth your time.  He shoots a good photo too.

Blogs I Read Anywhen

• Artie Isaac - Artie started me on the path of being a blogger.  His style, content and perspective are so valuable.
• Chris Penn – Chris is brilliant and understands the true meaning of ROI (real Return on Investment) and how to get there.
• C.C. Chapman – C.C. is one of the most creative guys I’ve ever met and currently works with Campfire NYC.
• Jeremiah Owyang – Jeremiah is probably the most respected Internet strategist in the game today.  Read his blog and you’ll know why.
• Paul Gillin – Paul is another marketer who I highly respect.  He’s written a few good books as well.
• Linda Stone – Linda is simply on a different level in terms of her experience and take on technology.
• KD Paine – KD is the best in the business at measurement.
• Jacob Morgan – Jacob’s perspective on social media and people is uncanny.
• Dan Schwabel – Dan is one of the pioneers of personal branding.
• Jason Falls – Jason is a killer social media strategist and does amazing work.
• David Meerman Scott – Read his blog now.  David’s newest work is centered around the idea of real time.
• Brian Clark – A.K.A Copyblogger, Brian has one of the most widely subscribed to blogs on the web today.
• Mashable – An aggregate of just about everything that is happening in online business.
• Cheryl Harrison – Cheryl is a friend and Columbus native.  She’s snarky, funny and always pushing the envelope.
• Lindsey Nobels – Lindsey works with Michael at Thomas Nelson.  Her content is fun, values driven and just good stuff.
• Justin Kownacki – Justin is a smart dude with contrary opinions and a rather interesting take on sociology.
• Dad-o-Matic – This is a blog that I love reading.  (I’m a dad.  What can I say?)  When I have something of value to add, maybe I’ll even submit a few posts.

Phew, those are mine.  What blogs do you read?

(Photo credit: The incredibly talented Becky Johns.)

Just so you know, I’ll be producing blog posts from the BMA Engage Conference this week in Chicago.  It’s going to be a killer conference, with all of the content focused on B2B marketers and how they can leverage emerging technologies to reach their audiences.

Here’s a look at what I’ll be using to bring the content to this blog – and to you.  I hope it, in the very least, gives you some ideas on stuff you might go out and add to your own media production arsenal.

Here are the links to what’s in my Mobile Media Production Studio.  The products are in no real particular order, and I’ve only included links to the fun stuff.  There are plenty of options out there on things like cables, card readers and whatnot.

• Swissgear Synergy Notebook Carrying Backpack (LOVE this backpack.)
• Moleskine Folio Book (My playbook.)
• MacBook Pro (Want to do media better?  Buy a Mac.  Enough said.)
• Kodak Zi8 (Wonderful product.)
• Kodak Zi8 0.45x Wide Angle With Macro (Modification Style) Magnetic Lens + Cronies Micro-Fiber Cleaning Cloth (Makes a wonderful product even better.)
• Flip Mino Camcorder, 60 Minutes (Black) (I’ve been using this for over a year.  Dependable.  Compact.  No complaints.)
• Kodak EasyShare MX1063 10.3MP Digital Camera (Not terrible, but not the best in terms of quality and flexibility.)
• Targus 6″ Table-top Tripod (Cheap, solid and effective.)
• Novatel – Wireless MiFi 2200 Intelligent Mobile Hotspot – Black (Verizon Wireless) (Wish I would have purchased this long ago.)
• CPG20 GRID-IT! Organizer (Awesome product.)
• Windscreen for Tie-Clip Microphone (4-Pack) (Basic, but essential, for good close-up audio.)
• Sony ECM-DS70P Electret Condenser Stereo Microphone (Really great quality audio from this mic.)
• Olympus ME-52W Noise Canceling Microphone (Small, excellent quality and super handy.  I use this mic most often.)
• Radioshack Universal Cassette Recorder Microphone (More of a backup than anything else, but does the trick for interviews.)
• Hands-Free Tie-Clip Omnidirectional Electret (Great for capturing interviews or your own video content.)
• Vanguard MK1 Tripod (Light, simple and sturdy.  Sometimes difficult to get level on certain surfaces.)
• Audiovox Surface SURF260 Screen Cleaner Combo Pack (Good deal and works really well.  Mine has lasted about three months now.)
• Sony ICD B300 64 MB Digital voice recorder – (Great for quickly taking notes on-the-fly, as well as when driving.)
• Final Cut Express 4 (GREAT software, but I’m still working through the learning curve and not yet as proficient as I need to be.)
• iMovie (Not mentioned, but I use it all the time because it’s fast.)

What do you think?  What have I missed?  What would you add to the backpack?  I might have some room…

A few months ago, Jessica Simpson (no, not that Jessica Simpson) approached me to do a sponsored web conference for her company, ConferencePlus.  I liked her vision.  She was focused on developing a series of content that would help her customers with some tactics that were outside of the core products and services that her she and her team currently provide.

Thus, the idea for B2B Blogging 101: How to Use Your Blog to Drive Traffic to Your Online Event was born.  The event will take place tomorrow and is completely free for you to sign up.  In full disclosure, I’m getting paid a little money by ConferencePlus for my time in designing the content and presenting.

With that said, if you’re trying to figure out how to make a B2B blog work for your business,  here’s why I think you should register to attend:

• We’ll start with some business blogging basics like the anatomy of a blog, a breakdown of some of the CMS platform options and the case for on why B2B businesses should consider blogging
• We’ll explore two main genres of B2B business blogs and the advantages and disadvantages to each approach
• We’ll talk about how to get started building out a targeted keyword strategy with terms and phrases that will draw the right audience to your blog presence, as well as some of the tools that are available for you to use
• We’ll dive into some tips and tricks for creating relevant content with the right frequency it will take to move the needle.  For the purpose of this web conference, we’ll focus on how to best use a blog to drive registrants to your online event.
• We’ll cover some basic strategy, tactics and tools for distributing your blog content through social media outposts in a way that will drive inbound traffic to your blog
• We’ll discuss the process of using your keyword strategy and WISIWIG tools to optimize your blog with keyword-rich copy and metadata so that, over time, search engines will index your content
• Finally, we’ll cover a few ways that you can convert your blog readers into registrants and attendees for your online events

Some of the case study examples you will see will see come from my own experience in blogging here at NateRiggs.com.  Others include tips and tricks I’ve picked up over the years from blogs like ProBlogger, HubSpot, Michael Hyatt and a slew of others I follow.

My Background in B2B Blogging

I first started business blogging around 2007 when I worked for a technology start-up, called BestTransport.  The blog was co-authored by Bob Parsley (my boss) and myself, and it was a valuable learning experience.  Prior to that, in 2006, I had dabbled in WordPress, building out a simple personal blog as a tool to keep my extended family updated on pictures and happenings around my wife’s pregnancy and the birth of our son, Kaden.  Back in those days, WordPress was a shadow of what it is today.  The open source movement was just gaining momentum and things like widgets and plugins were still fairly clunky.  At times, it was frustrating to use.

Around late 2007, I started this blog (as ChasingChange) on Google’s Blogger platform, with the goal of using it to help my efforts in B2B business development for Young Isaac.  But a funny thing happened.  I got hooked.  After year one, I migrated my content back to WordPress, on a suggestion from Jake Stoops (he blogs at Agent-SEO).  Widgets and plugins had improved to the point where it just made sense.  I had started to out grow the functionality that Blogger provided and needed a CMS that would allow me to dive deeper into search optimization and do more in terms of content variety and visitor conversion.

Today, my blog gets somewhere between 3,000 to 4,000 unique monthly visitors on average.  While my Feedburner subscriptions tell me that I have around 125 subscribers, my repeat traffic numbers in Google Analytics are showing that about 1,200-1,300 of you come back on a regular basis (Thank you, by the way.  I’m glad you read!).  As it stands today, my own contact form generates somewhere around 3-5 new leads per month, with about half of that number being qualified and sales ready leads for the consulting and speaking services I offer.  Almost 100% of my business is focused on B2B companies.

Are they bigger blogs out there that are doing better?  Sure.  Is my blog serving my needs as a B2B consultant?  I would say so.  Can I still improve, tweak and adjust for better results?  Absolutely.  Business blogging is a dynamic process rooted in continuous improvement.

Want to Learn How To Move the Needle with a B2B Blog?

Over the past few years, I’ve learned this medium and how to make it work pretty well for B2B objectives.  While I’ll always be learning, I have things I want to teach you so that you too can find ways to apply blogging in your business.  Tomorrow’s web conference with ConferencePlus is a chance for you to get insights, tips, tricks and tools that help you take your blog up a notch and drive attendees to your online event.  It’s FREE to attend and will last about an hour.

What do you say?  Will you register for the event?

Related show

• Nate Riggs:
  Nate Riggs
• Events:
  2010 Speaking Events
• Date:
  Tue, May 25th
  
• Time:
  12:00pm
• City:
  
  Nate Riggs in
  Online Webinar
• Venue:
  B2B Blogging 101: How to Use Your Blog to Drive Traffic to Your Online Event – Sponsored by ConferencePlus
• Country:
  US
• Age restrictions:
  All Ages
• Notes:
  This is a FREE Webinar to attend and has been sponsored by ConferencePlus
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And I’m back.

Thanks to all of you who tweeted, commented and left personal messages over the past three days, in support of my family and me, as we said goodbye to Maka.  The service was truly beautiful.  The music was outstanding and I know Maka would have been in tears at the sound of the St. Matthew’s Woman’s Chorus (which my Aunt Jane leads), as well as the Epworth United Methodist Choir, which Maka founded and led for 32 years.

My brother, Nick, Uncle Dale and the pastor, who served with Maka at Epworth, all told wonderful stories about her life and the gifts she gave of herself.  I think Maka would have taken comfort in knowing that a church full of people shared laughter and smiles, as we recalled some of the moments of her life.  My Maka was an entertainer.  Laughter is what she would have wanted it.

One of the most moving moments for my family and I was seeing the Epworth Choir sing for her one last time.  Marie, now the conductor, took her old role as the accompanist as the choir stood in front of the Maka’s casket and sang their hearts out.  All of us could see her there, keeping time with the circular motion of her arms.  It was beautiful, and it’s how I will always remember my Maka.

Getting Back in the Game

It’s amazing how much can happen in a 72-hour period.  I was honored to have a video posted by Darren Rowse on the Problogger How To Blog Series this past Friday.  I look up to Darren and have found numerous tips and tricks from reading his posts.  Have you subscribed to Problogger yet?

This week is going to be slammed with projects in the air, including the following:

• Getting ready for the Ohio Growth Summit 2010.  I’ve been working with Mike Bowers and Tonya Wilson on the strategy for online presence building.  Special props need to be given to Gina Bericchia for taking the lead on execution of the project.  She’s a talented up-and-comer you should be watching.  A lot of what you are going to see for #OGS10 will be her work.  I’ll be building what might be the largest Brand YOU panel yet, as well as working on a presentation to show small business owners a massive list of technology tools that can impact their business.
• Preparing a big talk and panel at the Ohio University Schey Sales Symposium.  A group of students and faculty at OU (as well as myself) have been working to develop a strategy for the event by building a Human Business Team.  You’ll hear more about these talented folks soon, but they are totally rocking it on execution!  Check out the blog they are building.  It’s good work.
• Preparing a webinar in partnership with Conference Plus.  The topic?  B2B Blogging 101:  How to Use Your Blog to Drive Traffic to Your Online Event.  Ironic, huh.
• Catching up work with clients including Brainzooming and Ft Hays State University, Residential Finance, Incept and Audio Messaging Solutions.  Doesn’t seem like a big list, but when you play both the roles of CEO and the janitor, your time gets scarce.
• Beginning Phase Two changes on my blog.  Deeper pages.  Tweaking conversion points.  Trying new experiments.  Measuring.  Experimenting again.  Do you see the cycle?
• Writing more blog posts, because I literally have a back log of ideas I want to share with you.  Hopefully I’ll get one more out today.
• Digging into a new project with Neal Roberts, Joe Bilyk and a few others.  I’ve not talked about our ideas yet, but I think you might be surprised by this one.  It really has nothing to do with social media, but everything to do with building communities.  Can you guess what it is?

That’s my list for the beginning of this week.  What’s yours?  What are you working on?

You might think of this as cheating, but I’m stuck.

Why am I writing about how bloggers can deal with writer’s block?

Because as I sit here in my hotel room in Fort Hays, Kansas, getting ready to partner with my buddy, Mike Brown, and friends at Brainzooming – for what might be the the biggest group social media strategy session I’ve been a part of so far – I am utterly and completely stuck.

Here’s how I’m trying to fix it:

• Write a post about how you plan to get unstuck from writer’s block.  It sounds silly, but it might help loosen the blockage.  Plus, everyone has different solutions for helping them get unstuck.
• Visit you Google reader and see what other bloggers are writing about.  Find a way to add something or go deeper on what they’ve written.
• Visit a store or restaurant and observe.  Find someone or something that pops out to you, then write about why it stands out.  I did this with an email I received from PromoWest productions last week.
• Go back through some of your recent posts.  Read the comments and find a nugget of content to expand on.  Give your reader(s) some props for helping you get unstuck thanks to their idea.
• Pick up your Flip or Kodak Zi8 and find someone to interview.  Maybe it’s a family member or coworker.  Maybe it’s the guy at the front desk of your hotel.  Whoever it ends up being, write 2-3 questions, point, shoot, listen and expand on what they say.
• Write about a place you’ve recently visited.  Why was it important?  What was the local scene like?  Why should your readers care?
• Write about something personal.  I mean really personal.  Tell us something about you we never would have guessed.  (These type of posts are usually the scariest to write, so be ready to get out of your comfort zone.)
• Go to your mobile phone and if you use apps, pick one and write about what’s good and bad, and what you would do to improve it.
• Write a list of things that you think might help people complete a task or get better at something.
• Write about a customer experience that stood out.  Good or bad, let your readers in on what they can expect when visiting a local business in your town.

What do you do to try and get unstuck when blogging?

The BlogPaws conference in Columbus, Ohio last weekend was one of the better social media events I’ve been to in the past year.

To come up with what I write here, I often reflect on my own experiences as a social media user, event attendee, business owner, and even a consumer.  Yesterday, I started dissecting what it was that made BlogPaws stand out for me.  There’s a lot we as marketers and event promoters can do to make the experience a purple cow experience for everyone involved.

#1 – Create Norms by Targeting a Niche Audience

Conferences are all over the board these days and yet I see more social media events moving towards a niche model.

BlogPaws was no different in that it was directly positioned towards pet industry bloggers.  That type of focus did a few things.  For one, it brought passionate, like-minded individuals together in an environment where they could just be themselves. Everyone was tied together by two interests: a passion for blogging and social media and, more importantly, a deeper passion for their pet companions.

It’s not every day you sit in a breakout session and listen to a speaker present on blogging and tweeting from the persona of her cat.  At other more general social media conferences, this might have been seen as strange.  But at BlogPaws, people got it.  It was just part of the norms created by the culture the event.  And guess what?  It worked.

#2 – Book Speakers That Engage With the Community

As a speaker, one of the things that bugs me is when speakers are booked for a conference, but only show up for their session, and then skip out as fast as possible.  Sure, sometimes you end up having a busy schedule and have little control over where you need to be next.  I get that.  Trust me.  But the best and most memorable speakers, in my opinion, are the ones that stick around, attend other sessions and make time to really connect with the audience.  That type of speaker is worth paying for because it creates a better customer experience for both attendees and sponsors.

Fellow speakers, this is a call to action directed at you.  If an event is kind enough to want to give you the soapbox, please make every effort possible to stay and hang out.  Those extra minutes of engagement could mean the world and maybe make all the difference to an attendee who admires you.  It will benefit them and also benefit you long-term.

#3 – Get the Right Sponsors

There were a few things that impressed me about the sponsors at BlogPaws.  First, they understand the nature of the people they were in front of.  They knew we were bloggers and they knew we had something of value to offer them.  I didn’t experience one single vendor or sponsor company who was pushy in the least bit.  The sponsors seem to all come with the same mission in mind: exchange value by offering information (what bloggers want) and focus on building relationships (what bloggers really want).

Kodak was uber-impressive.  They were involved in just about every giveaway, but the information they offered the community of attendees was out-of-this-world.  In one of their well-designed  handouts, they even shared the complete social media policy as food for thought.  I found this particularly valuable since that’s often the focus of work with my own clients.

Kodak also had a relevant and creative offer at their booth – a technology that gets the red eye out of pictures of your pets.  In the context of a pet blogger conference, that makes perfect sense.  Hat tip to you, Kodak.  Nice work.

#4 – Relevant and Memorable Swag

As much as people like to say that conference swag isn’t really important, it is.  Why?  Attendees take swag home and comb through it after the festivities have ended.  In a way, the swag you leave with them will create a memory and an impression.  The best swag is something that attendees can use and keep for a while.

Sometimes getting too creative with your swag can actually diminish it’s value to an attendee.  The real value to a sponsor or the event is when you attendee looks at your swag multiple times, not just on the first impression.  As I write this post, I’m drinking coffee out of a mug I received from CatsAgainstClay.org, a non profit focused on creating awareness around some of the dangers present in the products we use with our cats.  I’m a blogger, and I just gave them a link to what I think is a really neat, and well-designed website.

Get the point?

#5 – Focus on Customer Experience

My dog, Lenny, is a rehab team rescue who came to live with me when his time ran out in the shelter.  It wasn’t that the shelter was bad, just that resources are limited and there are so many dogs that need homes.  Lenny wasn’t ready to go into a general adoption home at the time.

I brought Lenny to BlogPaws, and I have to admit, I was a bit nervous.  He can be a little skittish around strange crowds.  Part of what BlogPaws offered in their customer experience was a dog daycare facility, right in the hotel.  The daycare was staffed with knowledgeable staff who were compassionate.  They understood and appreciated dogs like Lenny, and they made me comfortable to leave him in their care as I went to the lunch session.  By the second time I took Lenny to the daycare room, he literally pawed at the door to get in and play.  That made me happy.

BlogPaws focused on one extra little element, creating an experience that gave me piece of mind as an attendee.

#6 – Extend the Experience Online

How many times do you attend an event, make great connections and then lose the flair of those new relationship once you get back to your daily grind.  The folks who planned BlogPaws announced at the conference that they were building an online community.  Good idea.  You can visit their Facebook page to see what I mean.  They are using Facebook to keep the conversation alive and growing.  Smart.

#7 – Make It Good Times

Sometimes I feel like conferences are so focused on providing content and maximizing sponsor value that they forget that attendees also come to have a good time.  Here are a few things you can do to make sure that when you are planning your event, you keep this in mind:

• Leave some breathing room in between sessions for attendees to mingle and connect with each other.
• Have good food.  Better yet, have good food that’s a well-kept, local secret.  Let attendees know that it’s a local delicacy.
• All work and no play is no fun.  Make sure that at least a few elements of your event focus on simply letting your attendees unwind and reboot.

#8 – Flawless Execution

Execution is everything, and good execution takes a ton of time and investment of emotional capital.  Depending on the type of conference or event you are offering, you may not have time to do all the heavy lifting yourself.  For the best results, do you due diligence up front and find a partner who knows how to make everything work seamlessly.

I want to give special props to Columbus-based Destinations by Design.  They were the event management company that worked with the BlogPaws founders, Caroline Golon, Yvonne DiVita and Tom Collins, to pull everything off.

How will you approach planning your next conference event?