I rarely blog on Saturdays.  There is something special about twitter conversations on Saturday mornings though.  I have very creative and inspiring people in my network of friends.  And like all creative types, you are hard at work shipping throughout the week.  Even though there is always a sense of lightheartedness throughout, there is also a professional business tone on weekday posts.  Saturday mornings are different.  Humor seems to come naturally. Conversation takes on a new level of transparency and genuineness.  People let down their guard and reconnect.  I really enjoy Saturday mornings on twitter and actually wish more mornings were like it.  I guess, if that was the case then they would not be special.  We have to ship and do art to have time to sit back and enjoy moments like these.  Thanks again for another great Saturday morning.  And if you are still shipping on Saturday, try stopping and engaging in the conversation, whether on twitter, in your favorite coffee shop or at your kitchen table.  I guarantee you will return back to your art refreshed and more inspired.
Saturday mornings online
Parallel playing?
Small businesses often remind me of toddlers.  If you visit any preschool you will notice children busy at parallel play.  They will be in their own little world playing right next to each other with minimal interaction.  It is a normal development stage where they are naturally self-absorbed in the processes and workings of play.  It takes a lot of energy to just figure things out and they have not developed the understanding of empathy reciprocity and interaction.
A business starts out the same way.  It takes a lot to get things going.  If you do it on your own then you have even more to do.  There is little time for collaboration, relationship building and community.  Staying in that state too long is dangerous. There is a time to move on.  Living out a sheltered and isolated existence today will only hurt your business and bring about lost opportunity, fear of competition and unnecessary mistakes. I love this quote from whattoexpect.com “at two to three years old, kids start to notice one another at play and to share their stuff (hallelujah!)”.
I am part of a thriving business community both in my region as well as globally.  Ideas are openly shared, collaborations forged and the community helps each other regularly.  We share ideas openly about our failures, ideas for success and just enjoy friendship.  There are ones, who decide to continue parallel playing.  They miss out on many things.  In my opinion they grow up, if they survive, to be dysfunctional businesses, ones that take more than they give. It is natural to go through this stage while “crushing it” but I have learned that much more can be gained by engaging and connecting. After all play is better when you have more than one.
Turning that comment into a blog post
Comments, even long ones, are great and foster conversation. Â But when you have plenty to say on a subject and a comment is actually as many words as the post or more, you really have the ingredients for your own blog post. Â I see this on facebook too. Â Someone will post a simple update and a friend will write-up to the max allowed in a comment. Actually that would be 8,000Â characters.
So here is how I turn a comment into a blog post.  I will usually not realize I have a post until I have written most of my comment.  There is a point though that I realize it is turning into my post.  I will take my comment, copy and paste into Editorial Calendar on this blog or if writing for one of the other sites I am on, I will make a quick draft there.  I will then leave a shortened comment instead.  Back in the new blog post I will try my best to reference back to the original article or post with a quote.  Sometimes the comment turns a corner into a completely different subject.  If I know the original source of inspiration I will send them a note telling them that I wrote something prompted by their post.  I will even seek their response.  I like to make sure that credit is given to the original author.  It is what I would want another blogger to do for me.  Trackbacks and pingbacks are good ways to reference them as well just linking their post and or name in the content.
I write about 30 percent of my posts this way. Â It is not only a great way to keep blog post ideas forming, but it fosters a continued conversation and allows for those that have a deeper knowledge of different subjects to add their voice to the mix.
A great example of this would be my post from yesterday.  I originally read John Saddington’s blog entry about being stood up by friends.  I had plenty to say and even though I did leave a long comment, I went further and made my post which encouraged even more conversation.  So the next time you find yourself typing away on someone else’s blog, stop and consider leaving a nice clean and concise comment and beginning your own post.  Like I have said before, if your comments are longer than the blog post, you might be a blogger.
Jeremiah was telling me he saw a cool tool that he saw on a few blog comment systems that gave an option to post your comment as a new blog. Â I have not seen it. If you know of any please leave a comment. Â Heck, writes a post on it.
Overbooked
I have written a few times about busyness and hyper-connectivity but it really hits home and illustrates the outcome of these two when it impact someone in realtime. Â John Saddington, who I enjoy reading daily wrote recently about being stood up by friends. Â Now I don’t know the reasons John’s friends had for standing him up but I can guess that it came down to schedules.
Saturday mornings are gobbled up by family and or other things and when a person is stretched thin, things begin to fall aside.  I know in my schedule when I am over booked, overworked over whatever, I end up messing up even the things that are in my schedule.  Some may say they can handle a busy life, but really for how long. How well are they investing in relationships both professional and personal (which is a whole other topic, do they need to be separated)?
So back to being stood up, I want to make it clear I like anyone have stood people up.  I try my best to never do it. If I have to I let them know.  But are you too connected, scheduled, etc. that this is happening a lot?  Let’s go even further and ask, are you standing yourself up for wall time, time just to read a book, do nothing or spend with family?  I’d like to think that I’d never do what John’s friends did that morning.  The truth is, I am still learning to manage, cut, and say no more often than what feels comfortable.  How about you? Seriously that is a question.  I would like to hear what your thoughts are.
Helping others build networks: are you connecting them?
When you gather with people are you focused on building your network or are you connecting others. I am not saying that networking is bad. It is an essential part of doing good work. But I have found that the best way to make connections is to focus on others. I have had many opportunities to see this done well but a recent visit really stands out. Over the last few years I have enjoyed getting to know Chris Brogan. Last year we shared some great time together with friends in Portland after he spoke at The Portland Communicators Conference. We did not get a chance to see each other again until CES this year.  Like before in Portland, instead of networking or catching up, Chris spent the time introducing me to people he felt I needed to know. Out of that time I met people who I am enjoying building relationships with; Jeff Sass, Carissa Caramanis O’Brien, and Rob Hatch. My friend and co-author Donavon Roberson was with me and I think he would agree that the evening ended with us both having a much richer network of friends.
So here is the question. Are you focused on building your own network or are you helping others build theirs? Chris is doing the latter, and doing it well.
How and why I use location-based tools
People ask me two questions about location-based tools like Gowalla, Foursquare, Whrrl or Yelp. The first question is: why use them? The second is: how do you choose which one to use?
The answer to the first question has three parts.
The thank you shout out
I like to highlight businesses that are pretty remarkable. When I visit them I like to give them a nice shout out as a way to say thank you for doing good work.
Shared experience
The next reason I use it is to share with others cool experiences I am enjoying. I like to hear about my friends experiencing interesting things so in kind I hope they like to hear about mine. I can’t remember who said it (and please leave a comment reminding me) but they said that today wealth is being gained more in experiences than money things.
The joy of unexpected meetup
The last reason is so that I can have chances for others to meetup with me or visa-versa me. Two weeks ago I was on a business trip, travelling to the Content Marketing Retreat held on Whidbey Island. My friend and business partner Chris Skaggs decided to tag along and go to the conference as well. About twenty minutes from the Seattle train station, I saw that our friend Jen Grant had checked into her client’s restaurant Art at the Seattle Four Seasons. Jen and I live only about 10 miles apart but it might as well be around the world due to our busy schedules. I showed the checkin to Chris and we both had the same idea. We decided to surprise her for lunch. Minutes before we had been talking about how we have not seen her in a while.
After getting off the train we walked up to Four Seasons and surprised her as she was walked out the front door. We ended up having a great lunch and caught a rare chance to catch up. All of it happened because we both use Gowalla.
Last, to answer the second question. How do you choose which tool to use? This comes down to convenience and utility. When I am trying to check-in someplace I want to be able to find the location easily. I don’t usually have time to add a place if it is not currently listed. This is very important if I am with others. I try to post discreetly since my experience I am posting on is with friends in meatspace. I want to focus on them and not technology. Second, it depends on what I want to do when checking in. Often I take a photo to or leave a useful tip to others that will follow. Whichever tool makes the easiest is the one I choose.
Jen Grant shared a great article on how diners are using location-based technology. It is a good read. Remember though that they are tools, and you the user are showing us all their real value.
My first two days on Quora: scolded and collapsed
Quora calls them policies, but they feel more like rules to me. My first two days on Quora were initially refreshing, different and then frustrating. I enjoyed searching subjects I like company culture, core values, connecting, influence, and technology. I jumped right in where I felt I had value to add, just as I do anywhere else. The difference though is that on the second day it became clear that the administrators had a very distinct view of what those policies entailed.  I was scolded right away by posting a reference to a very relevant blog post I had written. A user had asked what the community thought about using your own influence on social media to drive attention to a clients brand.  That was not good etiquette I guess and I was accused of self-promoting. Then I added a note and a link to Michael Hyatt’s post exactly on the subject being asked about, should a CEO use Twitter. Later today I saw that my post had been “collapsed”. Curiously I went to go see what that meant. Quora writes that a comment will be collapsed for the following reasons:
There are three main reasons that an answer may be collapsed:
- It’s been downvoted significantly by users.
- It’s marked not helpful by users.
- It’s marked not helpful by Quora Admins (see Why do Quora Admins mark an answer as Not Helpful?).
After adding more detail to my answer and spelling out why I thought it was relevant my CEO twitter answer was un-collapsed and was actually voted up. To clarify, Michael Hyatts’s link itself stated how-to-convince-your-boss-to-twitter.html. Its relevance seemed pretty obvious to me.
So what is my takeaway? I am not sold. It seemed like a great site with lots of valuable content. I am frustrated though due to the nature and application of so many rules (many unspoken or self discovered rules I would add). We have enough rules already in the world. I like the open nature of the web, especially on Twitter and Facebook. If I wanted to feel shamed for trying to answer questions in class, I would go back to middle school.
I am going to give Quora a few more days. Based on my two days though, I might be voting myself off the Island and deleting my account.
One last note: Â I also sent a question to my friend Chris Skaggs yesterday. A Quora user had asked how best to get their mobile app ideas published if they are not a developer. Â I get asked this question all the time. Â Chris who works with me at Soma Games and Code-monkeys obliged with a very good straight forward answer. Â I checked today and his answer, you guessed it, was “collapsed”.
