Comments
Hi Barbara,
I just want to second your thanks to all commonground members.
Last night was certainly exciting for all of us. To have been in the same category as companies like SAP, AFLAC and Netapps was an honor in itself, and to have emerged as the winner of the award for best B2B supporting community is simply amazing.
This achievement says a lot about the quality of work you, Mark Wallace, Dianne Crocker, Lauren Howard, all members of our advisory panel, and all of our bloggers have done. And I believe it says as much about all of our members, the quality of the discussions on commonground, and the spirit of professionalism, helpfulness and collaboration that exists in this industry which we are so lucky to serve.
Congratulations everyone!
Jay
Mike,
I feel your pain. I get similar guilt from magazine and newspaper subscriptions. Not long ago I subscribed to all of the following:
- NY Times - daily
- WSJ - daily
- Harvard Business Review
- The Economist
- Fast Company
- AMA Journal of Marketing
- BusinessWeek
- Various marketing blogs
Every day/week/month despite my best efforts I would watch these great publications pile up mostly unread. As the pile got bigger the guilt weighed on me more and more. Eventually, I realized that I needed to simplify and cut a couple of these out - so I did. Still didn't help.
Finally, I reached the point where I decided that something/anything was better than nothing, so I changed the way I read the publications. I started simply scanning headlines and TOCs - and would only commit to reading full articles that seemed most relevant or critical. I actually created a system where articles would be categorized in 3 ways - must read, should read, and somewhat interesting. I almost always get to the must read pieces and rarely get to the others. The system works great for me. This might seem like an obvious solution to some, but for some reason I had previously put pressure on myself to read everything that would fall in all of those categories, and since that was impossible I would usually end up reading none of it.
I've also written and abandoned two personal blogs in the past because of time constraints and "blog guilt." I think the reason for that was that I put pressure on myself to make every single post something BIG. I'm gearing up to start a blog on commonground and I plan to take a very different approach. I will, of course, focus on making sure all of my posts are as relevant, valuable and even entertaining to readers as possible, but I I'll be focusing primarily on bits of information. I think readers will appreciate very brief posts. I expect my posting will look something like this:
- 90% - brief insights, thoughts, marketing tips, questions for the community, recommendations, etc.
- 10% - longer (2-3 paragraphs) posts that get into the details of some topic or issue that I think will be most valuable to readers
There is a lot of research that shows that readers far prefer very short posts. The following is from one of the most popular blogs . . . about blogging:
"There’s a time and place for long posts, but if you want to generate comments, keep your posts as short as possible. I’m not recommending that you exclude information from your arguments, but the longer a post goes, the more people skim, and the less likely they are to get the information they really want; the information that’s going to get them to comment."
So, that's my plan. The only problem is that sometimes being brief is the most difficult thing to do.
Hi ***,
Below is a link to the member directory of the U.S. Green Building Council Greater Houston Area Chapter. I hope this helps.
http://usgreenbuildingcouncilgreaterhoustonareachapter10.camp7.org/MemberDirectory
Jay
Congratulations to the winners and honorable mentions! All the photos were great!
Hi Larry,
Thanks for this compelling blog post. The issue you raise is an excellent one and I hope a lot of members read what you've written and offer their opinions. I think you know that our constant goal with commonground is to make it as valuable as possible to members and contributors.
I know the concern you wrote about originally came up yesterday and we've already met to discuss it and decided to make it a primary topic on our next advisory board call. I think Mark Wallace reached out to speak with you to propose you possibly leading this discussion with our advisory board members on that call.
My $.02 on the issue is that I agree that commonground is intended to be a business community and should always remain primarily focused on being just that. However, I don't think we've strayed from that. In looking at the home page of the site right now the vast majority of content is business focussed. All 5 of the recent discussion comments are business oriented, 4 of the 5 new discussions are business oriented, and 5 of 7 new blog posts are industry/business oriented (Note: I do believe Mark's recent post on managing how you look when people Google you is an important business issue, but it isn't specific to the ESA industry).
I think your idea of something like a "coffee shop" area is interesting, but I'd like to know what other members think. I believe that entertaining an audience (on web sites, in blogs, articles, presentations, etc.) is an important part of engaging them which is why we want to insert the occasional fun and slightly frivolous element on commonground. We thought the summer months was a good time to experiment with something like the photo contest, but maybe we were wrong. Or maybe we weren't wrong, but just should have kept it in a separate section of the site if it creates usability problems. Either way, we definitely want to know what members think so thanks again for bringing this up.
Best Regards,
Jay
Okay, those are two seriously creepy Phase I stories. Between using body parts/fluids for "chum" during fishing trips, and the bed in the basement those are definitely two of the scariest Phase I stories I've seen.
BTW - Nice use of "It puts the lotion in the basket." One of the creepiest lines/scenes from a movie ever.
Hi Dianne,
Sounds like some serious reading.
Newsweek just published a piece on the "Fifty Books of Our Times." Basically, it's their "must read" list. It's a pretty good list and I've only read a few of the books on it.
Here it is: http://www.newsweek.com/id/204300?digg=1
Enjoy!
Great post Lauren! Yes - the fear of public speaking is an extremely common issue. I think even people who do it for a living get worked up prior to going on stage. In my experience the difference between people who are terrified and those who are just "worked up" is the ability to turn the nerves and adrenaline into positive energy instead of negative. As you point out, preparation makes a big difference in this area.
One thing I like to do when speaking in front of very large audiences is pick a couple friendly faces in the crowd and spend most of my time talking to them. Doing this tends to make me a little more conversational and fluid, and it gives me positive feedback by watching their reactions to what I'm saying. I still look at the rest of the audience, but just focus in on a couple faces more frequently. The only downside is that it sometimes freaks out the people you are focusing on.
Hi Lauren,
This is a great first post, and I can't wait to read more.
I do have a question though . . . related to this part of the post:
"We also have the firm belief that age is only a number. We know that most of our experienced colleagues did not learn many of the things in high school and college that we did. And in a way, we feel that this puts us ahead --even if we don’t have the years-experience that others do."
I'm curious to know what some of the things you learned in high school and college are that we (your "experienced colleagues") didn't. Is it that new organizational system they replaced the dewey decimal system with? It must be great stuff if it puts you ahead despite our years of experience. ;-)
Jay
I'm still not sure I like the colored background on pages like this: http://edr.hivelive.com/pages/02b8f60207
I understand the need to seperate out some of the content, but can it be more subtle? Also, I don't think we need it in the body of the pages, just some side bars.
Obviously not a big issue, but thought I'd mention.