In our Recommended Reads earlier today, I mentioned a brouhaha. I had read the post from Seth Godin about Brands in Public and I originally didn’t think a lot about his announcement that the development team had created 200 sample pages to show what the site could do. If you haven’t checked it out yet, it basically aggregates all types of conversations about a brand onto one page. Ostensibly, a company could “take over” the page and control a large portion of the page, giving them a place to host conversations or respond to things elsewhere.
But if a company …read more

It’s time for recommended reads again. There are some good sites to read this week. We’re even including a little bit of controversy just to spice up your Monday morning. Actually, you can learn some great lessons about criticism and how you can respond to it. See the linked posts below. Enjoy!
3 Reasons to Use Twistory for Business
I hadn’t heard of twistory before this. I can see its usefulness, though, if you are a visual person. You can see your Twitter activity on your calendar. Even better, you can combine team member tweets and see your coverage, or how engaged …read more

Once again I get the good fortune of running across some articles that I just couldn’t wait to share with you. As I mentioned last week, I still have a lot of books on my to-read list. Unfortunately, I haven’t gotten as far with them as I’d like. But I’m always open to adding more to the list for future reads, so if you have read something that made you take notice, I’d love to hear about it.
image: morgueFile

Monty Python & the Meaning of WOM (Word of Mouth)
Here’s an interesting post from the Zócalo Group. Who doesn’t love Monty Python? …read more

Did you know that you are accountable for whether you stop working long enough to have some fun while you are on vacation? I have a hard time shutting down and putting the work down and unplugging. Fun is FUN if I will just stop working long enough to enjoy it. I am actually preaching to myself as I write this to you. It has been fun for me over the last 24 hours of my vacation. Last night I spent the night or morning depending on how you look at a slumber party, hanging out with 6 little girls …read more

Many companies sell average products to average people. It’s easy to be in the middle. Neither greatly loved nor hated, they just want to get by with enough sales to generate a good profit. They prefer to avoid controversy or the cutting edge of their industry. They don’t generally stand out too much, but instead try to keep the status quo. Comfort is good for them.
But what if you do want to stand out? What if you do want to garner attention and distinguish yourself from among your competition? Then you need to be remarkable. You need to have something …read more

I see a lot of interesting writing and it really seems unfair to keep it all to myself. So here’s what I’ve been digging lately. I hope you find some nuggets of useful information. And if you have seen something fabulous recently, won’t you please share in the comments?

The #1 Conversion Killer in Your Copy (And How to Beat It)
There’s a troll hiding in your copy and you need to eradicate him before he scares off your customers. Sonia tells you how. This is a great post about consumer fear.
Deeper or wider
Seth talks about the buffet dilemma. How are you …read more

Have you thought recently about sliced bread and how the idea spread? As I was watching a TEDtalk with Seth Godin, he kept saying that “Ideas that spread win” and he explained what happened after the bread slicer was first invented – and how the idea didn’t take off until Wonder Bread, well, spread it. I was reminded of Malcolm Gladwell’s book, The Tipping Point. Gladwell also talked about how ideas spread – and who spreads them. You just can’t predict which ideas will gain popularity. You can hope, but you can’t really tell what will catch on fire. Who …read more

(www.bizchicksrule.com)
What are you most comfortable working at? If you’re like me, you only like to do things you’re familiar with, things that “feel right” and you don’t have to expend a whole lot of energy doing. After all, doing things that way seem to make the day go by much easier, much faster and with very little effort.
Seth Godin’s blog featured an inspiring article about the effort we place into doing various things throughout our day. It got me thinking about my business and facing those things in my business that seem challenging to me. Things like writing on topics …read more