The November 2009 issue of Bright Ideas Blogzine hits Inboxes today. In this month’s issue, you’ll find:

Two Seconds to Impact:

How your blog can make an impact in two seconds or less

How to Put Your Facebook Updates Back to “Normal”:

A quickie tutorial

Subscribe anytime during November and you’ll receive your blogzine in seven days or less; I sent the current issue to new subscribers once a week.

All new subscribers get a free copy of my special report: Your Social Media Plan: How to create a coordinated attack that integrates your blog, Web site, Facebook, and Twitter content.

You can also access the full contents of all back issues of Bright Ideas from Blogging Bistro’s archives.

Tweeters fall into two camps:

1. Those who follow everyone who follows them.
2. Those who don’t.

I am in Camp #2. Once a week, I manually vet each new follower. I visit their profile and scan the first page of updates before deciding whether to follow them.

This week I collected 41 new followers, but I followed only seven of them in return. Here’s why:

1.  No profile

When I’m deciding whether to follow you, the first thing I check out is your profile. If you’re too lazy to write 160 characters about yourself, why should I waste my time following you?

2.  No avatar

The little tweety bird is a poor excuse for an avatar. I don’t care whether you use your company logo or a fuzzy picture of yourself. It’s not that hard to upload an image. Just do it!

3.  Racy avatars

What’s with all the lingerie-clad woman who claim to be business executives? Exactly what business are they in?

4.  Paranoid tweeters

Why protect your tweets when you’re in the world’s largest chat room? I don’t get that. Occasionally, I’ll follow real-life friends who publish private tweets. But only if I really, really like them.

5.  Zeroes

Lots of people “squat” on a Twitter name and never, ever post a single tweet.

6.  Prom queens and kings

These folks follow 10,000 others, have 10,000 followers, and one tweet. Twitter is not a popularity contest.

7.  Automatons

Before I click “follow,” I skim your Twitter stream. If I see the identical automated tweet 20 times in a row, I click away. I have no problem with automated tweets or with repeated tweets, because different followers read your tweets at different times of the day. But 20 repeats? That’s overkill.

8.  Get-rich-quickers

There must be a ton of people in Twitterville who fall for money-making schemes, because the get-rich-quickers appear to be taking over Twitter. Especially the ones who plaster dollar bills all over their profile background.

9.  I’m just not into you

Lots of people who follow me tweet on topics about which I have absolutely no interest. It’s not that I don’t like you; your topic just isn’t relevant to me.

10.  Drinkers

Some people constantly tweet about drinking, meeting for drinks, or getting drunk. Your drunken revelry doesn’t impress grownups.

11.  Repliers

Some people spend all their time replying to others. Their replies consist of inane statements such as, “Me, too!” It especially irks me when repliers don’t provide context for the tweets they’re replying to.

12.  Re-tweeters

These people can’t think of anything original to say, so they re-tweet everybody else’s tweets. Re-tweeting is fine, but we want to hear from you, too (unless you fall into one of the above 11 categories).

Several of my Twitter followers chimed in with their own gripes:

@ChristieJarvis

Pics or posts sexual in nature, “ads”, same tweet many times like on auto send…I prefer more “personal” tweets where people are relating.

@yarnnation

If u only follow people but don’t tweet, if u mostly tweet commercials, if you are too political or extreme in any way.

@valdriessen

• Following way more people than have followers, i.e. 1,000+ people with only 100 followers… (My take, the person is just looking to build followers.. Not interact. I prefer quality over quantity)
• Just tweet about personal information… I don’t mind if they humanize themselves with an occasional tweet about their personal life, but I really don’t want to know when someone goes to the bathroom.
• All about ME… No RTs or dialogue with others
• Get rich quick schemes, i.e. “Find out how I make $1,000 a day on the internet”
• All quotes – quotes in moderation are nice, but all quotes just says you have nothing to say yourself
• Foul language in every tweet
• Any female with a tweet that says “Come check out the pictures of me” (Porn)

How ‘bout you? Do you put limits on the tweeps you’ll follow?

When you comment, please include your Twitter handle. Hope you’ll follow me @bloggingbistro.

*Feel free to reprint this post on your own blog. I’ll be happy to e-mail you the HTML, so all you have to do is copy & paste, and the formatting will remain intact. If you reprint it, please include the following byline:

Laura Christianson, aka The Blogging Barista, owns Blogging Bistro (www.BloggingBistro.com), a Seattle-based social media marketing company.

During meetings with clients, I turn the ringer on my cell phone off so I can devote my full attention to my client.

Inevitably, my client receives one (or more) calls during our meeting, which they almost always answer.

I heard on the radio that the vast majority of Americans believe it’s rude when others take calls in their presence. The majority of us claim we NEVER answer calls when we’re having a face-to-face with someone.

Fess up.

Please share why you do—or don’t—answer calls when meeting with others.

Yesterday we discussed the top 8 reasons why people decide not to blog. Today we’ll chew on the top 10 reasons why people blog.

1.  To make new friends

Everyone longs to feel like part of a community. Blogging connects you with a worldwide community of like-minded people with whom you can engage in conversation on a regular basis (heck, you even get to LEAD the conversation).

Many people love the virtual support group aspect of blogging, and they relish the opportunity to belong to a creative team of bloggers in their topic area or geographic area.

Even better, blogging provides opportunities for virtual friends to meet in real life. Just yesterday, I ran into an acquaintance I’d met through my blog. She re-introduced herself, saying, “Hi, I’m e-mom!”

2.  To share thoughts, insights, memories, updates, information

Whether you enjoy keeping friends and family updated or entertaining an audience of thousands, blogging gives you a publishing platform. Your job is to tap into what interests your readers and deliver WII-FM (What’s In It For Me) content.

3.  To encourage and support others

Every blogger I know views blogging as a labor of love.

Blogging is a calling… a passion… a mission field.

We bloggers sincerely care about supporting others who face a particular challenge or dilemma.

4.  To keep your brain oiled

The best bloggers are not satisfied with mediocrity; they strive for excellence. If you want to become proactive about promoting your expertise, a blog is a terrific training ground.

Regularly practicing the craft of writing can unjam writer’s block and fine-tune your writing skills.

The adage says, “Practice makes perfect.” Blogging may not perfect your writing, but it’ll help.

5.  To develop a writing voice

Blogging gives you a public canvas on which to paint your words. You are actually publishing, baby! And people are reading your writing! As you paint with words, your honest, authentic, unique voice will begin to emerge.

6.  To relieve stress

Some say blogging creates stress, but many bloggers view it as a relaxing, enriching hobby. And a few of us crazies are so into blogging that it morphs into our full-time job.

7.  To promote products and services

In these troubled economic times, many businesses are cutting back on spendy advertising. Instead, they’re funneling their marketing budget into an investment that gives them the biggest bang for their buck: blogging.

A blog is an affordable, viral means of establishing brand recognition, building and nurturing a cadre of loyal influencers, and marketing yourself to prospective customers.

8.  To establish an online presence

Because blogs are inexpensive and easy to set up and update, blogging converts are dumping static Web sites and making their blog their online home. Many blog platforms (such as WordPress, which I use) look like a Web site, but offer the interactivity that’s the hallmark of blogs.

9.  To learn to use a computer

While blogging doesn’t require much technical expertise, for neophyte computer users, it’s a great way to learn to use various computer functions. And the best part: you don’t have to be a techno-whiz to blog.

10.  Because it’s fun

Talk about cheap thrills. Compose a blog post, hit “publish,” and watch what happens.

I’d like to give you a free tool to help you create your blogging business plan. Just sign up for Bright Ideas Blogzine (the form is in the upper righthand corner of this page). As soon as you activate your subscription, you’ll receive a link to download a PDF of “Your Social Media Plan,” a detailed checklist to help you plan your blog.

This article was originally published 10-22-08, on another blog I own.

“Do I need a blog?”

Nope. You don’t. You can live a purpose-filled life minus a blog. Don’t let anyone convince you that you have to blog, just for the sake of blogging.

But you might want to blog. Whether you’re a small business owner, an author who’s looking to promote your upcoming book, or the CEO of a large corporation, you need to dispassionately evaluate whether blogging can and should be a critical component of your marketing strategy.

I’m going to help you do that. Right now. During the next two days, we’ll examine the pros and cons of blogging, with a particular emphasis on business blogging.

Let’s start with the eight most common reasons people give for NOT blogging:

1.  Not committed enough to keep it updated

Time and lack of commitment are the two biggest stumbling blocks for bloggers. Take a close look at your weekly calendar.

• Can you carve out an hour to create each new post? (That’s how long it takes the average blogger to research, write, and publish a decent blog entry.)
• Are you passionate enough about this venture to follow through with updating your blog 1-3 times per week? If not, consider outsourcing your blog to a business that provides professionally-written blog updates (shameless plug for Blogging Bistro).

2.  Don’t understand the point of blogging

Some folks assume that the only people who blog are losers with too much time on their hands and grandmas who post pictures of their grandkids.

“Blogging is a waste of the reader’s and writer’s time,” they say.

If you approach blogging with a laissez-faire attitude, it will be a huge time-waster. But if you approach it strategically, devising ways to incorporate blogging into your existing marketing plan, blogging has the potential to substantially expand your reach in ways that traditional marketing campaigns can’t.

3.  Lack confidence to create quality content

No one wants to embarrass themselves by publishing mediocre content.

• Don’t have the first clue of what to write about?
• Don’t trust your ability to string together a coherent sentence?

Then don’t blog!

Or outsource your blogging to someone who will do the dirty work for you.

4.  Fear no one will read your blog

Imagine walking into crowded room where everyone is shouting at the top of their lungs, trying to get everyone else’s attention. That’s the blogosphere.

• How will anyone but your mom and your best friend find your blog amid all the chaos?
• How can little ol’ you compete with blogs that get half a million hits per day?

You have to approach blogging with a marathon mentality, rather than a sprint mentality. Over time, as you discover and nurture your unique voice (and stop worrying about being #1), your blog readership will grow.

5.  Not savvy about SEO (Search Engine Optimization) or social networking

• It takes time and energy to join social networks and participate in other activities that will entice people to visit your blog.
• It takes savoir-faire-and a lot of trial and error-to determine how to use the all-important key words that search engines love.

Your blogging business plan needs to include not only time for blogging, but time for promoting your blog.

6.  Fear of commenters

Many normally-nice people take advantage of the anonymity of cyberspace to rip you apart in the Comments area of your blog. If you plan to blog, you must be prepared to develop a rhino-thick skin, fast.

To protect yourself from rabid commenters, create and publish a Comments Policy (Iexplain how to do that in my e-book, Blogophobia Conquered).

7.  Wary of harming relationships

• What if you rant from your bully pulpit a bit too vehemently and alienate the very people you hope to reach?
• What if you inadvertently hurt someone’s feelings?

Blogging is relational, and there’s always a potential for hurt feelings in any relationship. That doesn’t mean it’s appropriate for you to whack readers over the head with your ideology while disregarding theirs.

Approach blogging with an open mind. Be willing to learn from your readers and have the grace to apologize when you’ve overstepped your boundaries.

8.  Fear of getting addicted

Blogging can suck you into a black hole and drain the life out of you if you’re not careful.

• Schedule your blogging time so you don’t end up spending your entire day blogging.
  Make blogging part of your day, not the ultimate goal for your day.

The bottom line

Most people’s reluctance to blog boils down to one word: Strategy.

They jump into blogging without thinking through:

• why they want to blog
• who they hope to reach
• how blogging will impact their schedule
• how their blog will make a difference in the lives of time-strapped readers

If you’re wondering whether you should start blogging, take the time to do some strategic planning.

I’d like to give you a free tool to help you create your blogging business plan. Just sign up for Bright Ideas Blogzine (the form is in the upper righthand corner of this page). As soon as you activate your subscription, you’ll receive a link to download a PDF of “Your Social Media Plan,” a detailed checklist to help you plan your blog.

Tomorrow I’ll share 10 reasons why you should blog. Stay tuned!

This article was originally published 10-21-08, on another blog I own.

A good blog should be loaded with helpful links to other sites. Why?

1. Offering useful links positions you as the go-to source for excellent info on your topic. Readers who trust your link will come back for more.
2. The owners of the sites you link to will often link back to you – or refer their readers to your site – a win-win for everyone.
3. Search engines index hyperlinks; when you link properly, your blog will move up in the rankings.

Many bloggers hyperlink incorrectly. All too often, their links look like this:

For more info on this topic, click here.

What do you suppose the phrase “click here” means to a search engine?

Absolutely nothing.

When you create a hyperlink, never highlight the phrase, “click here.”

Instead, highlight the keyword-rich anchor text, like this:

In this tutorial, I’ll teach you how to link to your Facebook business page from your Facebook profile.

I could have hyperlinked two parts of this sentence:

1. The link to the Facebook tutorial (which I did).
2. A link to my Facebook profile (which I didn’t, because I want people who follow my blog visit Blogging Bistro’s Facebook page).

Your Assignment:

Scan your 10 most recent blog posts for hyperlinks. Did you hyperlink the anchor text? If not, go back and update your links. Do it now before you forget!

Related Articles:

• When–and how–to compress URLs
• Bright Ideas Blogzine (Sept 08) -  How to cross-promote through linking

I’m not much of a TV watcher. But during the past month I’ve been battling a flu-like bug, and have spent hours slumped in a recliner, flipping channels with the best of them. I’ve watched countless commercials that are so irritating, I’ve vowed never to buy the products.

Here are my least favorite commercials, in no particular order:

Erectile dysfunction products – I walked into my optometrist’s office as a Viagra commercial began running on the plasma TV in their waiting room. Both female receptionists cringed and chorused, “Too much information!” It’s unfortunate that the Viagra jingle is so catchy… my teen sons go around the house singing, “Viiiiagraaaa!” just to bug me.

Jack in the Box – That crude, Styrofoam-headed dude creeps me out! I refuse to eat at Jack in the Box unless I’m famished and it’s the only fast food joint within 50 miles.

Beer ads – They inevitably show well-heeled yuppies drinking responsibly. Get real. Show a drunken frat boy retching into the shrubbery.

Scooters for the mobility-impaired – A senior spins in circles on her new scooter as she does a Miss America wave for the camera. What’s she going to do next: pop a wheelie?

Prescription medication – Pills to make you fall asleep, pills to keep you awake, pills to make you lose weight, pills to lessen the symptoms of fibromyalgia and every other chronic condition imaginable. Does everyone in America need to be drugged up? The worst offenders advertise depression medication (“side effects may include depression or suicidal thoughts”).

Mac vs. PC Wars – Mac’s negative Bill Gates look-alike commercials make me want to sprint toward the closest PC store as fast as possible. *Disclaimer: I’m a PC.

Sitcom teasers – Lame “jokes” packed with sexual innuendo and fake laugh tracks. Who writes these shows, anyway? Eighth graders?

Campaign ads – Ominous background music, scare tactics, and images of the opponent that look like mug shots taken at the county jail. Are these commercials truly supposed to help us make informed voting decisions?

I don’t know about you, but the main reason I celebrate Election Day is because I won’t be subjected to ridiculous campaign ads for another nine months. My hope is that our elected officials will (someday) pass a Constitutional amendment banning ALL campaign commercials, phone solicitations, junk mail, and yard signs. All candidates will be required to donate the millions they would have spent campaigning to the homeless, the hungry, or health care reform.

Which TV ads do you love to hate?

Vote for your least favorites, and tell us about the commercials that send you through the roof.

At the beginning of my workday, I read e-mail and update multiple Twitter and Facebook accounts for my clients and me.

I have a good-sized project due at the end of the workday, so I told myself, “I’ll quickly scan my Twitter stream, then shut ‘er down so I can focus on my deadline.”

I noticed an unusual number of re-tweets, and discovered that a guest article I’d submitted to TwiTip (owned by ProBlogger, Darren Rowse), was published today.

The post is titled, Get More Mileage Out of Your Blog Archives with Twitter Teasers.

Change of plans! I’ve been busy responding to comments, following new tweeps, and other Twitterly doings.

A big welcome to TwiTip fans; you’ll find lots more “how-to” posts about Twitter, blogging, and Facebook here on The Blogging Barista’s blog, along with reflections on branding, writing, and other business-related topics.

Hope you’ll stop by tomorrow, when I launch Survey Thursday, a weekly poll intended to keep the mood light and fun. Tomorrow you can weigh in on TV commercials you love to hate.

Now I really am shutting down all my social media and getting to work on that project that’s due in three hours!

In Home to Holly Springs, the latest installment in the best-selling Mitford Series, Jan Karon creates characters so real, you feel as if you’ve known them your whole life. She’s one of the few authors who can—in the course of one page—elicit both laughter and tears from me.

Her books harken back to the good old days of literature, when conversation was king and relationships ruled. Her characters engage in sparkling, unembellished dialogue that speaks for itself.

In this excerpt, Father Tim advises his two new buddies, T and Ray, what to name the product they’ve just created—a Kudzu-based cream that makes hair grow on bald spots:

T stooped over the chair and pointed to the top of his head. “Feel this,” he said.

He raised his forefinger and felt it.

“Fuzzy.”

“Dern right. Fuzzy as a peach. About a week, an’ we got fuzzy. It’s gon’ work.”

“Good timing. I might have a name for you.” He’d finagled it out of his feeble brain one night at the hotel.

“Shoot,” said T.

“But remember I’m a preacher. I’m not a marketing maven.”

“Yeah,” said Ray, “but bein’ a preacher puts you in sales, an’ that’s good enough for us.”

“Let’s start with packaging, so when I get to the name, you can, you know, imagine the way the name will look to the consumer.”

“Good deal,” said T.

“A white tube.”

“We’re with you,” said T.

“Blue lettering. I read a study that said men like the color blue—has authority.”

“What about women?” said Ray. “We don’t want t’ lose out on that demographic.”

“I didn’t get that far,” he said. “But I’ll keep it in mind. For the lettering, I’d use bold type. Sans serif.” He’d done pew bulletins, he knew this stuff. “Sans serif is more contemporary, though I’m a serif man, myself. Okay. Here’s the name…”

You could hear a pin drop.

“Mo’ Hair.”

“I don’t get it,” said Ray.

“Try again,” said T. “If you don’t mind.”

“Okay. You’ll like this. Hair to Spare.”

“Man! said T. “Hair to Spare. That’s it. I like it. I really like it.”

What did you learn from this snippet?

• In what part of the world do you think the story takes place?
• What do you learn about each of the characters?
• How old are the characters?
• What kind of a relationship do the characters have with one another?

Now, examine Jan Karon’s dialogue-writing technique:

• How often does she include an attribution? (the “said so and so”)
• In what part of the sentence does she include the attribution?
• How often do the characters speak in incomplete sentences?
• How often does the author insert narration? How does the narration move or slow down the dialogue?

Many writers and bloggers believe dialogue is only for fiction. I disagree! I almost always weave snippets of dialogue into my non-fiction articles, book chapters, blog posts — even Twitter updates.

Dialogue puts you–the reader–right in the story; it helps you vicariously “live” the story.

Your challenge: Work it!

• Using what you just learned about writing dialog from Jan Karon, add a conversation (using direct quotes) into your next blog article.

• Post a link to your blog article in the Comments. I’ll read your blog post and give you some feedback.

I’m reading Small Is the New Big by Seth Godin – one of the most thought-provoking and entertaining business books I’ve read in ages.

The book’s premise: the rules for running a business have changed. The advent of social media particularly impacts the way we do business.

Whether you’re at the helm of a non-profit ministry, run a one-person business, or are the CEO of a mega corporation, acting big is no longer an advantage, asserts Seth. “If you want to be big, act small.”

In the coming weeks, I’ll post occasionally on what I’m learning about acting small. Today, I’ll kick things off by offering a series of “proverbs” Seth includes in the intro to his book. I invite you to ponder them and comment on one proverb that speaks loudest to you:

Consumers have more power than ever before.
Treating them like they don’t matter doesn’t work.

Multiple channels of information mean that it’s almost impossible to live a lie.
Authentic stories spread and last.

The ability to change fast is the single best asset in a world that’s changing fast.

Blogs matter. If you want to grow, you’ll need to touch the information-hungry, idea-sharing people who read (and write) them.

There are no side effects. Just effects.
Indulge short attention spans.

Aretha was right. Respect is the secret to success in dealing with people.

Do something that matters.