Archive for August, 2010

The Marketing with Moxie Blog has moved to a new hosted space using WordPress, so you may notice that my previous posts are formatted a little funny and the original images are missing. That’s what happens when you import content from one blog hosting service to another – the images won’t migrate, but the text does.  Drat!

I’ve been writing this blog using Squarespace since I started it, and it has been great to be here, but Moxie Marketing now has a brand new web site built in a premium WordPress theme (check it out at getmoxiemarketing.com) so I prefer to manage all my content using the same system.

If you’re thinking about starting your own blog for your business, do your homework.  There are lots of great blogging tools out there but it can be confusing. It’s best not to migrate your stuff like I’m doing, so choose a platform that will grow with your business.

Here’s a quick overview and some tips.

Free stuff

You can get started writing a blog free with built-in, customizable templates at dozens of places, but my favorites are TypePad Micro, Blogger, or WordPress.com. These sites offer a free place to post your blog, but you’ll have their names in your blog’s web address, and there are ads inserted in your blog page. This is probably best for a personal blog or just seeing if you even like blogging.  Your blog “lives” on their website, not your company or personal web hosting company (like GoDaddy, HostGator, etc.)

Better stuff

TypePad Pro, Squarespace and WordPress.com Premium.  Plunk down a little cash (as low as eight bucks a month) and you get more stuff, no ads, and you can customize the domain name (you’ll have to buy that separately). There are more customizable template options available for these services. Squarespace is unique in that you can adapt any of their templates and make your blog truly customized, with colors, font and column sizes and more, and you don’t need to know HTML code, and they offer built-in analysis.

Pro stuff

I have to go here with just one recommendation. WordPress.org.  It is different than WordPress.com above. To use this service, you upload the WordPress application to your host server (most of them have a quick tool to do this). The WordPress app is free, but you have to pay for a hosting service. You also need to pick a theme (basically a design template) and there are thousands of free themes you can upload to make your blog more than a blog – but a web site. You can also pay for premium themes, and get better quality and more choices. WordPress.org is more complicated, but very powerful and flexible: It’s possible to do it yourself if you find a simple theme (you have to upload those too), but I recommend that unless you’ve got some design skills, you seek professional help from a graphic artist. Ready to learn more?  Check out WordPress 101 for some great training videos and tools.

I'm a time management wannabe. Overall, I do pretty well at managing tasks, deadlines and projects for my clients, but I'm always looking for a system or better way of thinking to be more productive overall, especially at running my business. From Franklin Covey to Getting Things Done, I often get on a productivity bandwagon — determined to develop healthy habits to gain more control of my work and family life.  But alas, I fall off the bandwagon after a few months because, well, the systems just seem too hard.

I met recently with productivity training expert Maura Thomas of RegainYourTime.com.  She challenged my thinking.  It's not time management that I crave, it's attention management.  As Maura explains on her website:

It’s now widely accepted among researchers and scientists that constant multi-tasking even makes us worse at multi-tasking!  The more we do it, the worse we get…at everything.  The problem is that we have become so accustomed to instant gratification of our curiosity and our mental whims, that we have undermined our own ability to focus.

Many of the marketing and social media programs I teach and coach my clients to use require managing multiple projects and objectives – on top of their "day job."  I'll be exploring ways to help them not just manage their time, but also their attention.  Take a look at this video from Maura and visit her web site to learn more.

I'm amazed at the incredible buzz that flight attendant Steven Slater's "take this job and shove it" stunt on a Jet Blue airplane created. There's even an animated video out there depicting the event because no one (at least that we know of) captured the incident on their mobile phone.

It's a lesson for businesses large and small that in this era of social media, a story about your company can go viral before you even have a chance to decide what to do.

I'm often asked by clients or workshop attendees about using a blog to manage crisis communications. I'll turn to what Jet Blue did in this situation as a case study. Their blog post helped stem a tide of negative online buzz according to a Fast Company report.

Here's the Blue Tales Aug. 11 post:

Sometimes the weird news is about us.

It wouldn’t be fair for us to point out absurdities in other corners of the industry without acknowledging when it’s about us. Well, this week’s news certainly falls into that category. Perhaps you heard a little story about one of our flight attendants? While we can’t discuss the details of what is an ongoing investigation, plenty of others have already formed opinions on the matter. Like, the entire Internet. (The reason we’re not commenting is that we respect the privacy of the individual. People can speak on their own behalf; we won’t do it for them.)

While this episode may feed your inner Office Space, we just want to take this space to recognize our 2,300 fantastic, awesome and professional Inflight Crewmembers for delivering the JetBlue Experience you’ve come to expect of us.

Short. Sweet. Simple.  And it even had a bit of an attitude and a dose of humor.  Brilliant.