Wonderful infographic on how to market your business, posted December 6, 3013, Michael Nelson on Social Media Today, with examples of these rules.Well worth taking a look at.
1. Keep it simple
2. Be unexpected
3. Be concrete
4. Get Credible
5. Be emotional
6. Tell a story
Great blog post by Pamela Wilson on how images market more than words; identifies resources, too.
istockphoto.com: This is the site I go to first. The search capabilities are great, the selection is vast (and growing) and you can even search by color and composition. (If you want to run your text along the right side of a photo, you can search for photos that have open areas along the right side, for example.)
shutterstock.com: Another excellent (and vast) collection of high-quality images.
dreamstime.com: I haven't used this much, but it looks promising. It claims to have the least expensive stock photos, and the quality looks good.
Free stock photos
stock.xchng: The granddaddy of free stock photo sites. The free offerings are shown along with tempting paid offerings from a sister site, but if you can resist the urge to upgrade to paid, there are plenty of good images here.
morguefile.com: Don't let the name fool you. A morgue file, as I learned in art school, is where one keeps photo and image references to be used in the future. This is the Internet's morgue file, and is assembled by creative people and freely shared.
Copyblogger writer Brian Clark on 22 tips for creating compelling content that can be used to market your business. The infographic that displays it is wonderful, too.
A blog post by Jessica Leber published by Fastcoexist.com about Angeline Gragasin, a documentary producer and her Women of the Future, a monthly series of webisodes on inspiring renaissance women. Love the quote below attributed to the first interviewee Eva Franch, a Catalan architect who directs Storefront for Art and Architecture, in NYC SoHo neighborhood.
Excerpt
In a 30-second preview clip you can watch above, Franch shares with Gragasin her inspiring thoughts on creativity: "Culture is about expanding your horizon of expectations in relationship to what is possible. Curiosity is actually the only thing that allows you to go further, right? To find new horizons."
Post by Chris Corrigan on need to build reflection and quiet time for individuals into group designs. November 25, 2013.
Nancy White identified this post for me in her blog. ""Please consider integrating some introvert work into your designs. You don't have to worry about the extroverts: while you give the group quiet time, which is giving the introverts permission to reflect inwardly, most extroverts will just go on doing whatever they want to do but the introverts will feel better if you give them permission to reflect. It only has to be a minute of reflection before speaking but it can make a huge difference to the introvert's experience in small group talk.""
Interesting interview Nancy did with Aaron Leonard at World Bank in September 2013.
Makes me think about a lot of things, including how different technologies label us generationally with each generation (only ten years apart in some cases because of the creation and adoption of new communications media) using different tools and how this affects collaboration choices.
Excerpt:
"Right now email is the reigning champion in the Bank and if we have any hope of getting people to work differently and collaboratively we have to first get rid of email."
Stumbled into this blog post on why kids need to learn to code by Doug Belshaw, November 28, 2013 on Digital Media + Learning: The Power of Participation
Love this rationale for why learning to code is important because I believe these arguments apply to adults acquiring greater digital literacy as well--it makes the reasons explicit. Coding is defined as learning to read and write a machine language; some are easier than others just like spoken language is.
Reasons to learn to code
1. Problem-solving
2. (digital) confidence
3. Understanding the world (realizing that you can not only change and influence things but build things of value to others)
In the comments, readers suggested these additional reasons: design thinking, understanding systems, knowing when to amend or break them and soft skills such as sharing your work, receiving feedback and critique to build diplomacy and negotiation skills.
blog by Harold Jarche, March 2012 on importance of networking to seek, sense, and share.
Excerpt:
"Professionals immersed in communities of practice, or those continuously pushing their informal learning opportunities, may have a larger zone of proximal development (the gap between a person's current development level and the potential level of development). They are more open to learning and to expanding their knowledge. Active involvement in informal learning, particularly through web-based communities, is key to remaining professional and creative in any field."
Copyblogger post by Demian Farnworth on how children's books help you define your business message. December 2013
"As you read:
Look at the emotions. What core emotion is behind each story? Is it fear? Joy? Sadness? Anger?
Look at the characters. Who is the main character? Is he or she likeable? Who are the supporting characters? Who is the enemy of the main character?
Look at the conflict. What does the main character want? What obstacle is stopping the main character from getting what he wants? How does the story end?
Look at the language. The short words. The short sentences. The short paragraphs. The repetition and alliteration."
Blog post by Marc Ensign on how to build business via your website. February 2013.
"Step 1
Let's start by creating a list of our ideal clients. There could be several factors that might make someone an ideal client such as:
They are very profitable
They are easy to work with
They need the type of work you like doing most
They give a lot of referrals
They are big players in their industry
They share their experiences on social media
They offer a lot of repeat business
Here are some ways to help you start to find some of these ideal clients:"
Blog post introducing Marc Ensign as a speaker, blogger, and consultant. Includes "my more notable posts as determined by my readers" on 1. Why Keyword Research is a Waste of Time (and what you should be doing instead; 2. 10 Reasons Why I don't Want to Be Your Friend Anymore; 3. Me, Me, Me, I, I, I; 4. Stop Calling Yourself a Guru, Jedi, Rock Star and Ninja (unless you are a Guru, Jedi, Rock Star or Ninja), and so on. Entertaining. Will speak in Sarasota on 11/22/13. Friend/associate of Andre Kasberger.
Jarche's post on connected leadership, November 14, 2013.
Gives us rationale for leadership online emphasis.
"Those in positions of leadership have to find ways to nurture creativity and critical thinking. The connected workplace is all about understanding networks, modelling networked learning, and strengthening networks. In networks, anyone can show leadership, not just those appointed by management."
Second excerpt:
"leadership will be seen for what it is - an emergent property of a network in balance and not some special property available to only the select few. This requires leadership from everyone - an aggressively intelligent and engaged workforce, learning with each other. In the connected workplace, it is a significant disadvantage to not actively participate in social learning networks.
Leadership in networks does not come from above, as there is no top."