Professional Blogging | One By One Media

Rethinking About [re]Think Hawaii and My New Community of Friends

January 24, 2010 By Jim Turner 1 Comment

I have been thinking about the previous year and the things that I did and accomplished and the clients I worked for and the partners I collaborated with in business. Overall, it was an exciting year for me and a year that so some growth and a year for learning. I had the opportunity to make many new friends and some of those friends came from Hawaii. I spent a wonderful week in May and June in Hawaii on the So Much More Hawaii Tour, and then organized a conference called the Social Media Business Summit in conjunction with Blog World & New Media Expo where I spent most of the year as their Social Media Director and Conference Director. One By One Media was a title sponsor of the Social Media Business Summit in Hawaii and we enjoyed the time there. I am wanting to go back now, not working, and not blogging or being a part of something work related besides enjoying the beach, the beautiful blue water and the waves crashing on the sand.

I was great meeting new friends while in Hawaii, like, Chris, Christine, Bruce Fisher and his wife, Neenz and Noe and Melanie, Marijane, Mark, and Aric, and Leah and Sheila and well you get the idea, it was a year of gaining friends and experiencing life. Most of all it was becoming a part of a new community.

jim turner on ‘[re]think:hawaii’ from aric s. queen on Vimeo.

I will be recapping much of 2009 and some of what we accomplished as a company and will cover some of the initiatives for clients and how we grew in the world of social media consulting and social media management.

We will be soon relaunching Social Mediasphere Radio, with some new friends, which will also be a part of SMTV. We are also going to have a new site here soon and we will refocus our efforts to be a trailblazer in the world of social media. I have some events I will be speaking at soon and I will do a list of those so we may perhaps be able to meet and I will get a chance to make friends in another community.

Filed Under: Advertising, Blog Consulting, Blogs and PR, Conferences/Trade Shows, Corporate Blogs, Marketing, Media, Partnerships, Professional Blogging, Social Media, Social Media Management, Social Mediasphere TV Tagged With: Bruce Fisher, Community, Hawaii, Neenz, Sheila, Social Media, Social Media Consulting, Social Media Director and Conference Director, Social Media Management, Social Mediasphere Radio

Trust Is A Business Virtue

January 13, 2010 By Jim Turner Leave a Comment

Trust. The word is bantered around in many relationships and it has a home in business as well as that puppy love crush you had in the 4th grade. Business can thrive when people trust each other. Not only in the relationships between businesses and their customers, but in the relationships you also have with the people you work with behind the scenes. I make it a point not to do anything that will make me mistrusted by the people that deal with me. Generally speaking, what you see is what you get. I try to be Genuine as the moniker on my twitter account reveals.

Customers trust that their needs will be met and that what they have paid for in your product or services is what you are providing. There have been a number of times that I have reduced my fees based on poor performance. Something that was unforeseen or a part of what was promised occurred differently and we work with the client accordingly. They trust us to get the work done.

You also have to trust the people that are in the trenches with you on a day-to-day basis. They are working hard to make you a success and in turn you have to earn their trust by making sure they have all they need to perform their jobs and they can trust you will hold your end of the relationship as well by paying them and keeping that part of the program stress free. Trust is an issue that we all need to keep in mind when doing business. When you say trust me, can we?

Filed Under: Bloggers For Hire, Marketing, Professional Blogging, Services, Social Media Tagged With: Business Principals, Employees, Employers, Human Interest, One By One Media, Social psychology, Trust, Trust management

Dust Off Your Blog and Fix Your Foundation

November 25, 2009 By Jim Turner Leave a Comment

I have been keeping ahead of the game of new and shiny objects by trying out the latest and greatest in tools that can be used for social media programs at companies. I have always come back to the main point of view as it relates to tools that work. I was reading a recent blog post by David Armano related to this very idea. David states better than I can about dusting off some of the old tools before trying out new and shiny ones:

Your Blog(s): Your company is blogging. Congratulations. Is anyone listening? Blogging was the bright and shiny object of 2006-2008 and many companies found out just how hard it is to do well. Good blogging provides value. It is interesting and generates a healthy amount of comments and conversation which in turn generates a good dose of Google juice. It’s also terribly difficult to sustain. It requires cultural shifts within an organization, and has to be prioritized (read: made part of someone’s job). Frankly, I rarely see outstanding examples of a good company blog. That doesn’t mean it’s not worth doing (if it makes sense strategically), but doing it well is another story.

Many companies have still not taken on blogging as a tool that will work for them. They have gone straight to Twitter or Facebook fan pages or none of the above as yet. I am of the camp that blogs are a place to start, and a place to start a social media foundation. I am dusting off the blog here and trying myself to get back into the swing of blogging for business. This is the message I mention in most conversations. Is you blog dusty? Perhaps a little cleaning is in order and some attention given. Then you can go off to find a new and shiny tool.

Tags: Corporate Blogging, Professional Blogging, Bloggers For Hire, Social Media, Social Media Tools

Filed Under: Blog Consulting, Blog Tips, Blog Tools, Bloggers For Hire, Blogs and PR, Business Blogging, Companies Needing Blogs, Corporate Blogs, Marketing, Professional Blogging, Services, Social Media

Preaching From The Social Media Pulpit

November 18, 2009 By Jim Turner Leave a Comment

I have been preaching about blogging for a long time. I have been an evangelist and telling companies that they had to blog more they had to have a place for people to "join the conversation" and making it possible for them to connect with their customers. Like some of the preachers of the past, I am my own worst sinner apparently. I was reminded by people in my company that I am the worst person in the world to tell companies that they are not blogging enough or that they are not doing it right.

I am preaching from the pulpit so to speak and I am preaching to the choir perhaps, but I need to update more often here. I am trying to get more and more content on here and those that are slinging arrows at me the most may be asked to also contribute now and then to what we are doing at One By One Media and Bloggers For Hire. I am also on Twitter quite a bit, and I am trying out Posterous, and I am about to start Social Mediasphere TV again. Of course, you can always come and hear what we are doing at our new radio show at Blog World Expo Radio.

Now that BlogWorld & New Media Expo is over for 2009 I have a few minutes I can breathe, and I will be using that time to try to be more involved here rather than out on the road or on the phone trying to convert the latest in small medium or large business to jumping into the social media pool. I guess I am like that life guard that actually never swims!

Photo via LeMonde1

Tags: One By One Media, Bloggers For Hire, Twitter, Posterous, Social Mediasphere TV, Blog World Expo Radio, Blog World Expo, Business Blogging, Evangelism

Filed Under: Advertising, Announcements, Blog Consulting, Blog Tips, Bloggers For Hire, Business Blogging, Companies Needing Blogs, Conferences/Trade Shows, Corporate Blogs, Marketing, Mediasphere Radio, Social Media, The Site

Arrington and Sethi are Hatfield and McCoy

August 3, 2009 By Jim Turner 1 Comment

Dennis Howlett writes today about the lawsuit involving Sam Sethi and Mike Arrington and Interserve, Inc., als known in our wrold as TechCrunch. As a disclosure I remember this riff vividly as my friend and partner Tris Hussey was involved in this problem and other friends, Marc Orchant and Oliver Starr were also part of the BlogNation.com which is peripherally part of the overall story. I am not a huge fan of what took place in that business deal and I see what happened as unfortunate to my friends.

I won’t get into the merits of the case, nor will I try to discuss the legal issues as I had plenty of the legal world after working there for 22 years. I do want to comment on the somewhat short sightedness I see on behalf of Mike Arrington and TechCrunch as it relates to the lawsuit. I know that Mike Arrington is giving this lawsuit less than a nuisance value and sees no merit to the claims and perhaps wants it to carry it on for more page views (which of course I am adding to albeit a small amount). I’m afraid that this is just the beginning of something that will give Mr. Sethi more fuel for his feud and make this debacle continue.

Mike has stated that he will not participate in the litigation and that they will ignore it, not planning to subject himself to the litigation process in the UK. I think that is not a bad strategy from a legal standpoint as it carries with it somewhat of a "no harm, no foul" consequence. California Law does not really give much weight to the UK and its judgment, be it a default judgment or otherwise. I should note that a default judgment might have less weight than a judgment on the merits, but I digress. From a business standpoint, I think this might be a bad move.

According to Mike his legal costs could exceed £500,000, to win the case which the experts indicated should not have been a problem. The court would then have awarded Mike his legal costs, but that is like squeezing blood from a turnip as I assume Sethi is not in a position to pay that type of money, given what I know of the Blog Nation debacle. The part here that is troublesome is giving life or a breath or two of life to Sam Sethi and his continued efforts to gain the upper hand and make him appear to be in a better position in his case against Mike Arrington and TechCrunch.

In addition, now Arrington must watch how he works around having this judgment against him in the UK. I am assuming at some point it may be necessary for him to do business there or to collect from advertisers there or to get money from the UK. I am assuming that any funds due to him or his company from that jurisdiction can be attached or to some effect, garnished to satisfy the judgment. He has already canceled to speak at an event he told the organizers he would be a part of and who knows how many other ventures he must cancel or at least not appear for in the UK. I am not sure the limitation on satisfying judgments in the UK, but I can assure you that Sethi will be waiting at the opportunity to get his shot in to collect if only a dollar of the judgment. The time to put this to bed is now. The time to finish it is here. If not, this could drag on for some time. As I stated above, that could be what we are looking for from someone that wants to sensationalize it.

If you are a person that is owed money as a result of the Blog Nation debacle, it might provide fruitful to see if you can attach your own judgment to funds related to the Sethi’s judgment. Who knows it might work. It is by far more than you will get if you are waiting for an old paycheck to clear.

Photo above via CrunchNotes*

*I wanted to point out the labeled photo on CrunchNotes is "sethiissuchadick.jpg" Classic.

Tags: Mike Arrington, TechCrunch, Sam Sethi, Tris Hussey, Oliver Starr, Marc Orchant, Libel

Filed Under: Blogs and Law, Blogs and Politics, BTW, Media, Miscellaneous, Professional Blogging

Working In A Virtual World

July 23, 2009 By Jim Turner Leave a Comment

I used to have an office in Downtown Denver at a place called The Hive, a co-working community office not unlike others we see across the country like Independents Hall and Citizen Agency. It allowed me to have a place to call my office and yet it didn’t bankrupt my budget. I do reccomentd this situation to others if you have the opportunity.

I now work in a virtual office out of my home. I actually have a dedicated office and it has not one but two desks and computer equipment and printers and a dead fax machine and not unlike many offices. The only thing is the noise that surrounds me is beeps and clicks, blips and many other application noises. Yes, even the chirp of the Tweetdeck that everyone wonders about while I am on the phone.

This is my virtual Cube Farm. I used to work in corporate America for about 17 years and at a private law firm for 5 years before that, and I understand what that is like. I was not the greatest fan of cubicles and white button down shirts. Even after the adoption of "business casual" I still did not fit in completely. I guess it comes from my younger years working outside and loving fresh air an sunshine. The scene from Joe Versus the Volcano best described me as the light fixtures sucking out my soul.

I love working virtually from the comfort of my own home. I am much more productive. My commute is very green friendly and my uniform, well, let’s just described it as somewhere south of Business Casual.

I still have the whack a mole type conversations that I used to see happening the cube farm atmosphere, but they are preceded by a whistle or a beep or a bing as it were. I talk and chat virtually with my co-workers all day long. If you can hold on a second I need to quickly have a meeting with my financial advisor and counselor (yes, my three year old fills this role for me).

Mr. Waturi: "And what’s this lamp for? Isn’t there enough light in here for you?"

Joe: "The florescents affect me. They make me feel blotchy and puffy. I thought this this light would…"

Mr. Waturi: "Get rid of the light. This is not your bedroom, Joe. This is an office. Maybe if you start treating this like a job instead of some kind of a welfare hospital, you’ll shape up!"

Photo via MShades

Tags: Virtual Office, Community Office, Cubicle Farm, Corporate Working, HR

Filed Under: BTW, Marketing, Professional Blogging, Services

Why Robert Scoble Is A Better Blogger Than Me

June 25, 2009 By Jim Turner Leave a Comment

I have been traveling quite a bit lately and that has caused me to get seriously behind on a large amount of work that I need to accomplish. I have finally caught up with my email inbox which usually hovers around 60 unread messages at any given time, which usually equates to the amount of Twitter bios I need to read to approve or discard. I began digging into the RSS feed readers (yes plural) that I have disregarded that have been so overwhelmed that many of the search feeds I have for the likes of “business blogging” and “social media consulting” are defaulting to the most it will store. In other words, I have much work and little time to get it done. I know I play this off with the idea that I am also the stay at home dad of 4 kids at the ages of 9, 8, 4, and 3, and that has some merit but for the most part I have times when they are sleeping or are not in the picture that I spend catching up but I still think I can be more efficient. I know I need to explain the title of this post. One of the things I need to catch up on that I have not been doing much of lately is finding what my mentors and friends and colleagues are talking about. One of the people I admire and one that I think has his finger on the pulse of my industry is Robert Scoble. I don’t intend for this to be a “Rah Rah Sis Boom Bah” about Robert, so let me explain using him as my example.

Robert is a busy person. I thought that I was busy and had my hands in a lot of things and doing a lot of work, but for the most part I am not much different than your ordinary overworked and underpaid entrepreneur. I have been to conferences and walked into that blogger lounge at 1:00 a.m. and have seen Robert’s wife Maryam begging to leave but he is still uploading the latest video and editing the last blog post before he turns in. That is dedication and it is what inspires me most of the time when I am feeling overworked. It makes me buck up and get things done more often. Put to simple terms working hard makes you successful. I know Gary Vaynerchuk preaches that from his own pulpit. Working hard does actually payoff, but I must say I have worked hard for other people and all it did was make them more successful so I limit that to we entrepreneurs that want to get on top of the heap. Sure I have been rewarded when working for others, but for the most part my hard work for them is just that, for them. I swear there is a point in here somewhere.

I just spent part of the morning reading blogs. I have read all of the folks I love to read in my business, Chris Brogan, David Armano, Beth Harte, Amber Naslund, and yes the list goes on and on. Many of them are also very much like Robert Scoble, and I could have used most of them as my title, but for me, Robert has been a blogger that has been cutting the trail for most of us in this business. He is consistently good at what he does with his blog. Let me give you some of the reasons he is good and why I often use him as an example to people when they want to know about how to be a good blogger.

Consistency - Even when he is inconsistent he is consistent. He puts things up to read during slow news days and up when things are going crazy. Sure he does not have a blog post every single day but posts when he wants and has something to say, which in itself is very consistent.
Opinionated – He gives us his opinion. He may be adding to the echo chamber of sorts but he always gets into his posts why he feels it is important. Telling us why Twitter is cool is one thing but why YOU think it is cool and how YOU are using it or making it part of your life is another.
Academic – He is a smart guy. I have made fun of him in the past about being a “camera salesman” and I mean that more in jest than anything, but he is very smart about business. He has seen the emergence of some very cool technologies that have gone on to be big players and he seems to know what works and has great insights into what businesses can do with their product or service. I can see why he has VC friends. They want to know what he thinks is cool.
Human – He shows his human side. I know when he is angry or when he is fed up or when he is happy about something. I can see his humanness come through in his blog posts. Not many people allow that or even begin to know how to impart that in their blog posts.
Integrity – In a world full of “sponsored conversations” and sell-outs to the little tidbits of advertising dollars, he stays true to what he does, good blogging. This has offered far more rewards than a $500 gift card or a free T-shirt. This has also allowed his access to some of the brightest minds and has opened doors for him that others will never have offered to them. He keeps his eyes on the big prize.
Passionate – You can hear it in the way he talks about things. His job, his wife and sons, and his friends. I have this passion when I am a Daddy blogger and it helped me become a better blogger. I have that passion but it does not always come out in my writing here. Some days I write a post because I think Google might forget about me. That is the wrong reason to put up a post.

As I indicated before, there are many many bloggers out there that have this very same resume and are doing it just as well in these areas or better. I merely wanted to single Robert out as I had his RSS feeds on my list today and I began to feel very small in this big pond after reading and then looking back on my own blog and seeing how I have not been doing things well at all. I have had some great posts and flashes of greatness in the past, but for the most part I can take what I have been taught by those doing it well and try to keep up with them. I am not sure that is possible but I can hope to some day be like that. It took me back to a time when Robert called me out about my job as a blogger and I think maybe I need to go back to being better. I am going to see if I can get into that swing and set out some goals for myself to add to the signal and not the noise. For the moment I will leave you with that as I run into the next room to see if I can figure out what the kids just shattered on the kitchen floor. Is summer over yet? Thanks Robert, and when are you going to start that Daddy blog?

Photo via Wikipedia

Tags: Blogging, Robert Scoble, Scobleizer, Business Blogs, Social Media, Gary Vaynerchuk, Chris Brogan, Amber Naslund, David Armano, Beth Harte, Blog Posts, How To Blog

Filed Under: Blog Consulting, Blog Tips, Bloggers and Blogs, BTW, Business Blogging, Marketing, Media, Professional Blogging, Services, Social Media, The Site

Crazy Times For Social Media and Patience is Virtuous

May 12, 2009 By Jim Turner 1 Comment

I have seen quite a shift recently in the way that companies are handling their social media needs. I am seeing companies that before only though social media was a fad and that it was the marketing gimmick du jour, are now embracing the idea that this new type of online participation is here to stay. This is not by any means surprising. Many of the things that I have been preaching over the last 5 years are continuing to be something that seems to work in the online world.

The crazy times I have been experiencing are trying to keep up with the demand. This is not a bad thing in this type of economy. The other problem I have had is adjusting to the needs of clients. They for years never wanted anything to do with social media and now they seem to want the magic overnight. I have a difficult time explaining that social media is not a silver bullet and not something that is implemented and like the magic beans grows a stalk to the promise land overnight.

It is not too late to beginning a social media program at your own company and in fact the longer you wait the longer it will take to see the benefits. Those that hopped on the bandwagon a few years back are just now seeing the fruits of their labor. Social Media takes time. The participation in communities and earning of trust is not something that can be done on Monday and the fruits of that participation are seen on Friday. That is not to say that those stories don’t happen but they are rare in any sense. Get started today. Okay, maybe not today as I am still trying to catch up from yesterday!

UPDATE: A great post from Phil Johnson at Advertising Age should be read on this as well.

Tags: social media, consulting, advertising, marketing, public relations

Filed Under: Advertising, Bloggers For Hire, Business Blogging, Companies Needing Blogs, Findability, Marketing, Services, Social Media

A Test For Monetizing Your Blog With Qumana

April 16, 2009 By Jim Turner 1 Comment

As a social media consultant, I don’t actually rely on ad revenue from my blog, i.e. Google Adsense or the like to pay my bills. If I did, I would have gone back to working in the law as I was before. I am helping out the folks at Qumana, the blog editor I am testing, with a revival of an old feature. I used to be back in the day when I was first introduced into Qumana that we had ads that were served using the blog editor and that no longer became viable. For a little bit I am going to feature some ads here in the posts, not because I want to make the big dollars and show you my six figure check the likes of a Darren Rowse at Problogger.net or like Shoemoney. I am doing it to help out a company that will help out bloggers. We are always here to help bloggers become better bloggers. That in turn helps companies that want to hire a blogger or bloggers that go on to get real jobs as bloggers. I will let you know more as they are ready to launch these things again and will let you know my review of their service and offering.

Tags: Employment, Jobs, Social Media Jobs, Monetizing Blogs

Filed Under: Advertising, Announcements, Blog Metrics, Blog Platforms, Bloggers and Blogs, Business Blogging, Media, Professional Blogging, Social Media

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