The Big Picture

Announcing the Pixelated Blog Conference Series

OK, if we in the association world can't put on a killer conference, who can? So get to work.

My Twitter friend, Mitch Joel, created what he calls the Pixelated Conference: a business conference you can watch at your desk (or from home on the weekend). He stole the idea from Future Now.

Since turnabout generally equals fair play, Chris Brogan then stole the idea from Mitch. And he wants you to steal it from him...

Here are the steps:

1. Decide on a theme
2. Find videos from YouTube, Blip.tv, Magnify.net, Google Video, whereever
3. Write a blog post and call it Pixelated- (and then your topic)
4. Insert the videos as if they’re your speakers at the event
5. Tag the post “pixelated” and also “conference”
6. Link to http://www.twistimage.com/blog (as homage to Mitch)
7. Spread the word, and we’ll all come “attend” your conference

20 Free eBooks About Social Media

The only thing better than books is FREE books - and Chris Brogan has rounded up 20 free e-books for us all to peruse. (In all cases, the first link is to a PDF file, the second link is to the site where it’s hosted.)

1. The New Rules of Viral Marketing - David Meerman Scott
2. Marketing Apple - MarketingApple.com
3. Masters of Marketing - Startup Internet Marketing
4. Podcast Marketing eBook - Christopher S. Penn
5. Google Adwords Secrets - SEOBook
6. Get Viral Get Visitors - Stacie Mahoe
7. Marketing With Case Studies - Dynamic Copywriting
8. How to Write a Marketing Plan - Geisheker Group
9. SEO for WordPress blogs - Blizzard Internet
10. Social Web Analytics - Social Web Analytics
11. Geeks Guide to Promoting Yourself With Twitter - Geekpreneur
12. The Zen of Blogging - Hunter Nutall
13. What is Social Media - iCrossing
14. A Primer in Social Media - SmashLab
15. Effective Internet Presence - Effective Internet Presence
16. Introduction to Good Usability - Peter Pixel
17. Increasing the Response to Your Email Marketing Program - CRM Transformation
18. We Have a Website. Now What? - Craig Rentmeester
19. Blogs & Social Media - PRSA
20. The Podcast Customer Revealed - Edison Media Research

Now if you could only figure out how to use Excel...

Bizzwords covers "the emerging vocabulary" of the business world - the buzzwords of business you need to know to be in the know on the cube farm.

Chainsaw consultant - an outside consultant brought in to fire employees

Brightsizing - downsizing by laying off the brightest workers

Layoff lust - the desire to be fired from one's job

to Nasdaq - to sharply decline in value or quantity

bozo explosion - a rapid increase of incompetent employees at a particular company

mucus trooper - an employee with a cold or the flu who insists on showing up for work

prairie-dogging - the sudden appearance of people's heads over the top of the cubicle walls when something interesting or noisy happens

jetiquette - the flyers' code of polite behavior

clickstream - the virtual path a person takes while surfing the Web

Zen mail - an e-mail message without text or attachments

Dorito syndrome - dissatisfaction felt after wasting time surfing the Net and accomplishing nothing

ohnosecond - the little bit of time it takes you to realize that you've just made a huge mistake

$9.95

[ via Charles Harrington Elster, Wall Street Journal ]

The Cost of Free

The ABC Evening News recently aired a segment on companies using Twitter to handle customer service issues (in response to long hold times on phones). Comcast, which handles customer service issues on Twitter too, was spotlighted in the piece. But it clarified for me exactly why I have not jumped on the Twitter bandwagon for the association.

I had considered using Twitter to push advocacy updates to members' mobile phones during our legislative session but had hesitations because of Twitter's excessive downtime. My fear is that most members (the majority of which have never used Twitter) would not be able to understand the difference between Twitter's "downtime" and the association's. So if I, as a member, miss an important advocacy update because Twitter is down, I don't think, "Twitter is down. What a bummer." I think "My association let me down. I missed an important advocacy update."

But I'm thankful for Twitter's downtime really, because it has made me examine all of the "free" third-party apps that I jumped at quickly because they were "free." And free is good.

But it has made me examine a little further: What cost free-dom?

Do what you love and you'll never have to work again...

"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking."
~ Steve Jobs

Stepping Up to the Plate

At MHA, we say the Freshman 10 has nothing on the MHA 20. With educational sessions, breakfasts, and luncheons in the building all the time and frequent emails of "Leftovers in the kitchen," associations in general are treacherous places to be on a diet.

And being a health-care-related association, we have even struggled with how to serve healthier options at these breakfasts and luncheons. Amanda Ridenhour and Stephanie Nilsson, both dietitians, offered some tips for workplaces in general in The Citizen-Times that could also help associations trying to offer healthier choices for members:

• Ask the caterer to use lower-fat or fat-free preparation methods, to serve added fats like dressing or condiments on the side, and to provide you with the number of calories and fat grams in entrees.
• Select entrees with about 12-15 grams of fat or less.
• Select items that are broiled, baked, grilled or steamed rather than fried or sauteed.
• Include whole-grain breads and skip the butter or margarine.
• Choose entrees in tomato-based sauces rather than cream, butter or cheese sauces.
• Include fresh fruit.
• Include at least one fresh vegetable with no butter or cream sauces added.
• Choose pasta, tofu and vegetable salads with fat-free or low-fat dressings.
• Choose lower-fat/lower-calorie dessert, like fresh fruit with low-fat yogurt dip, low-fat ice cream, or frozen yogurt, sherbet or sorbet.
• For breakfast meetings, offer fresh fruit, yogurt, bagels (with low-fat cream cheese, jam, or jelly), small or mini-muffins, fruit bread and granola bars.
• For box lunches, offer vegetarian options, whole-grain bread or pita wraps prepared without butter, margarine, mayonnaise or salad dressing, use low-fat meats, poultry or marinated tofu, stick to one-ounce portions of cheese, and use toppings such as lettuce, sprouts, tomatoes, onions, pickles, mustard, ketchup or low-fat mayonnaise.
• For celebrations, cut cakes into small, 2-inch squares or serve angel-food cake with fruit topping.
• Have a salad or make-your-own sandwich assembly line.

The myth of epiphany

The most useful way to think of epiphany is as an occasional bonus of working on tough problems. Most innovations come without epiphanies, and when powerful moments do happen, little knowledge is granted for how to find the next one. To focus on the magic moments is to miss the point. The goal isn’t the magic moment: it’s the end result of a useful innovation.
~ Scott Berkun, The Myths of Innovation

CoverItLive!

If you cover live events often in your blog (and most of us do), you need to know about a new, free service, CoverItLive.

With CoverItLive, your commentary streams live to your Web page or blog (so you could also live blog your own conference for members and have it posted on your Web site). Readers viewing the commentary can ask questions and participate in polls you create - and, best of all, they don't have to create user accounts or download any software to participate.

While blogging, you can also add pictures and videos in real-time. 

[ via ReadWriteWeb ]

The making of a perfect speech

David Murray shares what all communicators can learn from what he sees as the greatest speech in American history.

Are you making the most of your inner Dr. King?

To mark this day and week honoring Martin Luther King, Jr., Better Workplace Now created a one-of-a-kind assessment. It's about Dr. King, but even more, it's about you.

The assessment helps you find your strengths and biggest improvement opportunities, all in the context of Dr. King's good works and great achievements.