Posts from: October 24, 2010

Published on October 24, 2010 by Scott Gould

Video: The 5 Most Important Blogging Lessons

If you want to know what the 5 most important blogging lessons are, the person to ask is Darren Rowse. He is one of the world’s top 5 bloggers and one of his blogs, ProBlogger, is the go to source for all things blogging. Darren makes a six figure salary from his blogs. This isn’t to say that money is all of our objectives, but the earnest emphasis that Darren places on community makes these 5 lessons applicable to all situations, and as Darren is a pastor of a church and puts that money largely into charities, I think he does indeed know a few things about community.

He recently wrote on the “5 c’s of blogging“, a summary of what he’s learned over 6 years of ProBlogger, of which this is the video:

Darren’s 5 c’s

  1. Content. “If it’s not enhancing someone’s life in some way, the chances are, they’re not going to come back again”
  2. Community. “People don’t go online just to consume content any more. They’re actually going online to belong.”
  3. Connection. “A place where you can continue to have that connection with them, it’s about getting them to subscribe to your blog in some way.”
  4. Cash. “Experiment with different ways of monetising your blogs.”
  5. Contribute. “Do something that makes a difference in this world.”

Your Leading Thoughts

  • Which of these 5 c’s above is your strong point? Which are your really doing well, and why?
  • Which of these is your weak point and needs growth? How can the Friends here help you in that respect?
Published on October 23, 2010 by Scott Gould

Who Are We When No One Knows Our Name?

Your Hands

I read a great line in a post by Carra Hughes Greer on “Virtual Values“. In it, Carra discusses the virtual reality of things like ethics, morality and values, citing bullying and therefore cyber bulling as one of her main examples that the online world is by no means an ethical utopia, but requires the same kind of social awareness that we have offline.

She finishes with this excellent line:

I think about the adage, “Character is who you are when no one is watching.” It seems the adage must be slightly updated to fit our context, “Character is who you present yourself to be and the things you say when no one knows your real-world name.”

I really resonate with this. I wrote in this article at the beginning of the year that as a community, we must stop giving value to those who are unaccountable. It seems everyone can have their two cents today, without being accountable for the words they speak because they hide their real-world name.

What Carra says won’t resonate with everyone though. I got a lot of criticism earlier this year and most of it from people without real-world names on Twitter or the comments on this blog. For many people, character and accountability don’t matter. But for those of us for whom it does, this is a call to up our game.

I know many times I’ve behaved in a way online – even with my name visible – that I wouldn’t offline. So thank you, Carra, for calling me on it.

Your Leading Thoughts

  • Who are you when no one knows your real-world name? (Or when no one knows your real-world face?)

Photo by Toni Blay

Published on October 22, 2010 by Scott Gould

Are You Using A Fishing Rod Or A Fishing Net?

This guy has fished the sun out of the ocean

Back in 2003 when we started running Feedback (a youth charity attached to my church), our first event wasn’t the sell out that I had hoped. Serving gourmet coffee, fresh donuts, jazz performances, and me retelling something I’ve heard on a Tony Robbins tape, it wasn’t exactly the definition of “youth”.

In fact, it was the definition of me.

But over the course of a year, we changed as a team and became far more in touch with what the youth needed, resulting in a packed event with 350 people exactly one year later.

Fishing With A Rod

I tell this story because to start it is exemplifies what it is to go fishing with a fishing rod. When we take a fishing rod approach, we can only catch one fish a time and intensely hunt for the single best fish that we can. A good fishing trip bears with it a good story of catching that fish – you know – the one that you hold in the photo and is the length of your body if not more.

The trouble with fishing with a rod is that it’s only ever one at a time, and I’ve found that when we do this, we seek to find what we want as a provider, not what other’s want as an end user. This isn’t always the case, but it tends to be so in my experience.

Fishing With A Net

The alternative, as became as a team after a year, is to fishers who fish with a net. When you take a net, you trall in everything and anything that you can catch, and then sift through it after. It is an undiscriminating way to go about fishing – you don’t pick and choose – you fish. We started to do this when we changed to having coffee to having a bunch of cold drinks and hot drinks. Before it was “you have to the kind of fish that likes gourmet coffee”, but after it was “if you want a drink, we’ve got one for you.” You see the difference?

Sifting through it after means once you’ve pulled up the net, you understand that not everything will stick. This is fundamental to a volume or value based approach – no matter what, people will opt out of certain levels of participation with you, and that’s fine – it’s just where they want to be.

Your Leading Thoughts

We value your inputs – both your experience and your insights. Talking about Fishing Rods and Fishing Nets,

  • Which are you using for your current project? Can you tell us about it and how you’re dong?
  • Neither Rods or Nets are right or wrong. They are just two approaches, the second of which I find is better for community. What is your opinion here?

Photo credit.

Published on October 21, 2010 by Scott Gould

Slides: The Friend’s Thoughts On Consistently Getting A Dozen Comments

We had a discussion the other week about consistently getting a dozen comments per post, which I used to form a talk I gave at London Blog Club this week.

These are the slides that I put together to help get the points across. Enjoy – you co-created them!

[slideshare id=5502328&doc=howtoconsistentlygetadozencommentsperpost-101020064626-phpapp01]

Your Leading Thoughts

  • What is the number one thing that you get out of this presentation?
Published on October 20, 2010 by Scott Gould

Truth is life’s most priceless commodity

My friend Ian Ballinger tweeted this out this morning: Truth is life’s most priceless commodity.

Your Leading Thoughts

I was talking to someone last night about how people think they are right a l0t of the time.

  • This is somewhat of the stubbornness that you need to succeed today though, right?
  • I have “mirrors” in my life – close friends to reflect the truth to me when I don’t see it myself. How do you ensure truth shines into your life?
Published on October 19, 2010 by Scott Gould

How To Humanise Campaigns

Wikipedia - GamerOn Monday 15th November 2010, I’ll be in London speaking at the Social Not For Profit Summit, organised by the most excellent Barry Furby. It’s a part of the techMAP series of events, which is a community around technology, marketing, advertising and PR.

I did say to Barry at first that I didn’t think I was a good fit, but as he reminded me, I’ve worked in small non-profits for 10 years! My work at The River Church, as well as our offshoots, like Touch Conference, He Saved The Day, others that no longer have websites, and our upcoming project To-Get-Her, which aims to double the number of rooms available for those rescued from Human Trafficking.

In the true spirit of Scott Gould and Friends, I’d like to hear from you what you would share and what you think would add value to this summit.

Humanising Campaigns

Barry has asked me to speak on two things, the first of which is about making humanistic campaigns. For me this goes down to Social Authority. Anything campaign we do at church (and with Like Minds) always profiles people of various demographics, as the number one question people ask when it comes to community is “who here is like me?”

Converting Followers to Advocates

The second topic is one that we speak about a lot here through our conversations on participation. By inviting people to be involved, and putting the kids in the show, you increase people’s emotional investment and thus they become advocates with you. Of course, this only works if you genuinely believe in them. You can’t cheat your way to this.

Leadership expert John Maxwell always says that the strongest leadership is needed in church, where people are not paid to work and cannot be threatened to work. I agree – the non-profit realm is where really leadership is needed, so I’m sure there’s some debate to be had here.

Let’s Meet

If you’re in London on Monday 15th November, then I’d love to see you there. All directions and details are on their website. If you’re wondering if it’s for you, the type of things being look at are:

What about Charities and Not for Profits?
What about those with small or no budget to capitalise on the digital and social landscape?
What about those who struggle to achieve advocacy for their cause and look to Social for a source of inspiration?
How can Social Media turn supporters into advocates?
How do you bring together your community online?

Your Leading Thoughts

As I said, I’d like to take your insights and present them.

  • How would you suggest people humanize their campaigns?
  • How do you convert followers to advocates? How much is influence and leadership a part of this?
  • Also, what are the links between both?

Photo credit

Published on October 18, 2010 by Scott Gould

What Farmers Can Teach Us About Social Media

I wrote a guest post over at Search Engine People last week on “What Farmers Can Teach Us About Social Media.” It’s looking at what we can learn from how a farmer scatters seed and how we should scatter our message, whatever it might be.

Part of it is from the manuscript I’m working on called “Social”, so there’s a sneak preview of some of my thinking in this post. Here’s an excerpt:

Of course, with all this talk of going from “push to pull” and “interruption to permission” and “search to social”, there is one little problem: it all starts with an initial push and an initial interruption. How can someone give you permission to talk to them if they haven’t already met you? How can someone search and find you if they don’t already know something about what their problem is? How can you pull someone to you without them first coming into your remit?

Jump over to Search Engine People to read.

Your Leading Thoughts

  • We talk about volume vs value – how do you make the first step towards value?
Published on October 17, 2010 by Scott Gould

Video: From No Limbs To No Limits (Must Watch)

Watch this and you’ll never clammer for the victim seat again.

I love this guy already. I want to get him to our church and to Like Minds without a shadow of a doubt.

What resonates with me the most? “I may not be able to hold my wife’s hand, but I can hold her heart.”

Your Leading Thoughts

  • What resonates with you most about this video.
Published on October 16, 2010 by Scott Gould

Who Is Your Phyllis Wills?

Recently, a woman by the name of Phyllis Wills passed away.

Type her name into Google, and you’ll find nothing about her. Ask people on the street about her, and you’ll find no body knew her. In fact the only person I know who knows much about Phyllis is my dad.

About 21 years ago, in response to a desperate phone call from a drunken and depressed man who had reached the end of himself along with his wife, Phyllis went down to their home with curlers still in her hair (as she was mid-perm at the point of the phone call), and spent time counselling them. That was the night that my family became Christians, when I was 5 years old.

My dad knew Phyllis because when he was 3 years old, he was run over in a car accident. The doctors told his mother (my grandmother) that he wouldn’t make it through the night, so she went to the local church and it was Phyllis who prayed with her late at night that my dad wouldn’t die. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to know what happened!

The point was that she was there for him. She mattered.

The reason why I write this is it’s just one way that someone has effected my life – without whom I wouldn’t even exist. In other words, Phyllis mattered to my life. My life was built on her contribution.

Your Leading Thoughts

  • Who Is Your Phyllis Wills? Take a moment to share someone who mattered to you – we’d like to get to know you better.
  • If you haven’t had this challenge issued to you already today – take a moment and matter to someone this weekend.
Published on October 15, 2010 by Scott Gould

Learning About Event Design From Church

We’re running the He Saved The Day Men’s Conference tonight. I wanted to share some of the thoughts behind how we’ve changed the format to make it more about learning and connecting:

A lot of this comes from what I’ve learned from Jeff Hurt and Dave Lutz at Velvet Chainsaw. It seems like common sense that an event should be about talking and learning rather than just listening, but it’s not that common because of the ego issue.

The reality is that most times speakers (in church and without) like to hear their own voices and get the promotion that comes with speaking more than they want people to learn. Or, they want people to learn but incorrectly think the key to is people listening to their wisdom, more than discuss with them. We discussed this in Let Attendees Be Participants, in which I also reference Edgar Dale’s Cone of Learning.

Your Leading Thoughts

  • How are you running events and using different formats to encourage participation? What works and what doesn’t?
  • Do you find it difficult to confront the norms when it comes to event format? I find it can be hard work as people have quite cemented expectations.
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