Case-Notes from the Artsy Asylum

Weekends = Google Juice and Connections All Around

Weekends are a slow time for many blog readers, and writers. We've got more interesting things to do. We need to take the recycling off to wherever or haul all our stuff out to the garage for a sale.

The lucky ones get to wrench their back while wrestling sails, or fish, or three year olds. My spouse got to go help my daughter's family with a basement flood when he could have been fighting the lines at Costco .

Ah the good times, away from the stresses of the work week. It help explain why the dance party videos here are popular. Clearly this means they should be a regular feature

After all - this works for everybody.

1.) I get to do fun stuff like adding heads into the jib-jab videos and making up stories to go with them.

2.) I get blog traffic even on weekends. People come and find other things they like too.

3.) Visitors discover my genius insights and penchant for marketing that doesn't look like marketing and I get a gig doing the same for them.

4.) You goof-offs get a reason to laugh. You anticipate become the next star, ensuing blog link love, and even new twitter followers.

5.) You tweet about other dancers. You mention it on your blogs. People link to you, to the dance party, to me - and we're all linked in a happy kumbaya of frenzied feet and entranced eyes

6.) Sitting in front of your computers waiting for the next couple to emerge onto the floor keeps you off the streets on weekends,

 

Spicy Buzz Hits the Bloggosphere - Ole'

My friend Liz Strauss from Successful-Blog.com and our fellow blogger Chris Cree might have been feeling left out of the dancing frenzy in the Asylum blog. In any case, they decided to kick up their heels and join the party. At least that's what it looks like in this bit of video. That's my story and I'm sticking with it.

I am in serious love with web 2.0 technology and innovation. And the guys at Jib-jab know that people making videos and sharing them brings in more hits as we create even more buzz for them.

In the meantime I'm happy if more people are visiting my blog just to giggle at their friends. If visitors like the other content as well, I'm doubly blessed.

Make your own at JibJab by you here or just come back often and enjoy mine. You're always welcome at the Asylum.

Connecting via the Virtual Dance Floor

Which is your favorite piece of fun social networking type connecting?  One which make my top hits allows you to add your friends' faces to the Jib-Jab created animation and encourages others to share it as well.

The concept made me laugh when I saw it at Gnomedex but when I tried it last week the embed feature wasn't working so there was no way to share my creation. Tonight the bugs were worked out and we're good to go.

How could you use a tool like this to engage people in your blog, your website, whatever you do online? How could you use it to make your social - and business - connections stronger?

I'd love to hear your ideas. In the meantime I just have to watch this disco number starring bloggers, all-around renaissance people and twitter friends Connie Reece and Preppy Dude

Doing it Herself; One Woman's Story of Overcoming Obstacles to Make Her Place in the World

I felt her presence before I saw anyone. Then there was the impish gin grin and that signature red hair. It could only be one person appearing as if my magic in my living room.

No - it wasn't Santa Claus; it was Author Glenda Watson Hyatt from Do It Myself Blog! And she picked the Artsy Asylum to set up at for day five of her whirlwind book tour to let the world know about the book and her hopes to be the winner of a competition that will pay her to blog for a year

Her energy and vitality sucked the air right out of the room! I could only be awestruck, but she put me at ease wight away with natural charm and humor. I don't get around al that spryly myself but trying to make her comfortable, I cast about for things to fiddle with for her.

"Thanks a lot, Susan" she finally said with a grin, "but I'll do it myself."

Sigh. I should have known that the woman who's become as the left-thumb blogger would be fiercely self-sufficient, I also need to figure out a way to have this much energy. Maybe I could convince her to be a donor so we could do an transplant for me.

I sat down in amazement, not knowing what to ask someone in a power chair, someone who has obviously overcome such challenges in her life. Maybe it would be easier if I just jumped in, so I did a little explaining as I asked

"I've worried sharing that I have a chronic, though invisible, illness will make people think I want sympathy or just see me as the illness. How did you decide to be public about your disability in your blog - or wasn't it even a question?"

"I have always been fairly open about my disability; my cerebral palsy is not something I can hide in ''real" life. So, it felt natural to be open about my disability on my blog. By sharing on my blog, I can reach a larger audience with my message that cerebral palsy is not a death sentence, but rather a life sentence, and I can, hopefully, help more people.

 

Everyone Needs One: What's Your Lure?

         

A few months ago when my husband had heart surgery his company sent a wonderful Edible Arrangement to the house. It served a couple of purposes letting us know that they were thinking of us but also providing healthy options for quick and easy eating when one of us might easily have reached for the potato chip bag.

It also was a way of communicating with us in a way that worked for the people at the office as well as our lifestyle, the situation at hand, and the times in which we we live.

Which brings me back to a subject I started writing about earlier. Reaching the people you want to reach in a way that works for you.

When I began teaching after school "how to draw: classes I was forced to find a way to reach people without using the tools I'd learned through doing corporate marketing and newspaper display advertising.

There was no way that I was willing or able to produce a slick brochure on chromecoat paper about a class held in someone's mom's basement studio. I wasn't able to send sales reps to the doors of parents across northern Virginia.

A year before, my very young children and I had been the victims of a random suburban home invasion and  hostage situation. Even now I often want to be invisible but at that point I wanted to hide.

So even if I was financially able to place an expensive display ad in the Washington post I wouldn't have.

I was limited

The limits were the amount of time and resources I had available, including money. And the courage to even open my front door - which I didn't do for maybe a year.

Plus, lets face it, I had to consider what would work. What would not only reach those moms, also known as the decision makers, but what would make them take an action, whether that be to call me, send me a check, ask other parents about me, whatever it would be.

What was clearly needed was an Edible Arrangement.
a) Something that would get the attention of the right person: mom and
b.) Something that would stay around, reminding her of the benefit to her child

"How to Draw a Fish"

I settled on one thing as my version of Edible Arrangements. A 30 minute demo class in which kids and parents participated, free

Kids had fun; parents had fun; kids helped parents draw better fishes; fishes went home to go up on the refrigerator door; better more elaborate fish got drawn at home; and fish got talked about at soccer practice, baseball practice, ballet practice. Fish were a good thing.

So how did I convert those fish into students?

Two registration forms went home with parents. They offered fish owners (everyone who had been to fish drawing class) a 10% discount on their first series of classes. If they signed up early they got another 10% off. And the reason for two forms? Refer another student: you guessed it: 10%.

I kept the series short - six weeks - so the parent was not making a huge commitment.

So what was I out at that point? The ink to print my own registration forms. The time to do the demo class. The time to interact with the parents.

But what I gained was invaluable. I got word of mouth marketing from the people who were best at spreading the word; those kids and parents who experienced it themselves. They had felt empowered by learning a couple of drawing tips in a fun atmosphere and they talked about it

Yes, it worked. We're talking about 1985 so we didn't have websites or memes as we know them today but even before the Internet was in wide use, viral marketing worked.

Over the next couple of years I outgrew the basement and when we did our twice yearly student exhibit and reception for friends and family we had lines literally out the front door to see the wide variety of fishies that invariably made their way to the pieces on display.

The real question is not about me though. It's about how this information can work for what you do.

What's your fish? What's your Edible Arrangement? What's the magic combination of something that is of value to your audience, stays with them as a reminder, and doesn't deplete your supply of valuable commodities: time money, effort.

Let's talk about it. You know it's out there. We just have to figure out what it is.

Next time: How to lure a parent to your basement

Where Bloggers Blog

Part of connecting is communicating and part of communicating in a virtual world often includes blogging on a larger or smaller scale.

It's not like there's not lots of detailed information available for bloggers at any stage of the blogging process, about layouts and comments and RSS and all the rest. But what may have a greater impact that we really appreciate is where we set our blogs up.

Still, one of the first questions I'm asked by bloggers - including beginners, total noobies who who are considering starting a blog, as well as previously casual bloggers who want to get a current blog onto a more professional looking platform is this:

Where should I set up my blog?

Let's go beyond my opinion and check out the Blog software comparison that charts information from the article "Time to check: Are you using the right blogging tool?"  Lots of information about online publishing is available through The Annenberg Center affiliated with USC and their updated  Easy Publishing Tools for Online Journalists

My take is that Annenberg is a quite reliable resource, mainly because of their high profile in conjunction with USC and because they don't have a dog in the fight. I on the other hand am biased as a very pro-typepad user after lots of experience with LiveJournal and Blogger/Blogspot and a shorter experience with SquareSpace.

One of my daughters likes Wordpress and many high visibility bloggers do as well. For me it's an unnecessarily complex system with multiple plug-ins that I'm not geeky enough to understand, and many users are *clubby* which can come off as condescending to others that don't use it.

What it comes down to is that Typepad has the right combination of reasonable cost, being intuitive, and having the right number of easy bells and whistles to make it work for my needs.

In any case, you'll probably want to check out the information at the Annenberg Center. They may have just the magic words that will help you find your perfect way to reach the bloggosphere with your insights, news, or whatever it is you're interested in sharing.

Link Leaks, Secrets and What "They" Are Saying

I'm leaking links to all kinds of helpful stuff

• Shhh: Podcasts share the Secrets of Second Life

• What are they saying? Why does everybody talk about "rezzing?' Here's the lexicon from San Jose State in case you want to try.

• See what's available for your avatar to wear, fly or put on your land in Second Life without even signing in. You KNOW you're curious.

It's All About Intercourse

They say it's all about sex. But really Second Life is about intercourse of a different sort. It brings people with interesting insights and things to say together and adds a simulated life like experience.

This morning Ziggy Figaroa, aka Mitch Wagner from Information Week, sat in Second Life with legs crossed in a comfy looking chair, but in the form of this strange robot avatar.

Ziggy was casually talking to regular looking guy Mug Wildung, aka Michael Monello a film maker and all around smart media guy who is part of the team who put together Pontiac's Motorati island.

Joined in this meeting by others who were interested in how real life businesses come into and function in Second Life, Ziggy and Mug kicked around ideas about what works and what doesn't, interspersed with problems with voice, Second Life crashes and a case of suddenly being without "prims"; in this instance the bottom half of Ziggy's costume went AWOL and we were left to gawk at his scrawny plastic looking lower limbs.

What was notable about all this is that those of us who use Second Life on a regular basis take all of this for granted. We are willing to put up with the glitches - and they are many and legendary - in order to have the rich interactive experience these immersive 3-d meetings provide.

And that says something about the value we feel that this adds to what we're doing.

Is Second Life absolute necessity to interact in the new millennium? No. Is it an enhancement of the rest of your program to be informed and connected? Absolutely

Getting to Know You ; Even During Your Brain's Vacations

My facebook page includes more than Scrabble. Oh yeah. It shows me to be a very complex person. I've even got a personal DNA badge to prove it.

Yes, groups & some future events are listed, and people have sent me virtual drinks or stopped by to  leave a message, or as facebook calls it, write on my "wall." And while the wall sounds juvenile, it works and although facebook remains a place to be found or connected with, applications like scrabble, the wall, friend wheel, etc let people get a more varied look at who we are

When hiring you, networking with you, befriending you, people are not just "buying" what you do. They are not just buying your product. They are in a very real way buying who you are first.

So showing them something - even if you think it's trite. Might not be the worst idea.

Should you show your underwear? Welllll - um - not me but depending on what your line of work is I suppose that works. Ask yourself if it's something you would want your prospective investor or mother in law to see? For now I'll stay with something more main stream.

Today for example you can see from my biorhythm blurb on fb that my brain cells are on a little vacation.

Could this be used by people to take advantage of me? Probably. Do I take it seriously - only a little - and when it's convenient to be a believer. It probably would more likely be used to understand why I'm misspelling words even with a spell checker. (Crossing fingers that's so)

What I take more seriously is the ability of facebook, Second Life, twitter, and a variety of other web 2.0 tools to let us get to "know" someone we otherwise only know in a virtual sense. Like talking to their best friend before a blind date, even the sillier applications in facebook - think of them as optional add-ons if you aren't familiar with them - let us see  images, ideas, and personalities behind a public name or face.

And maybe let us understand why their brain is off duty some days? Maybe yes; Maybe no.  But it lets us take their pulse in a way.

Ah, are we back to Susan's bla bla bla about "connecting" again? That's the idea.

What way do you use facebook or other applications to reach out casually or just delve into who someone is behind the name and face? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Casting A Few Letters Out Among Friends

I know - this is supposed to be a blog about connecting and I'm talking abut Scrabble. But here we are

The thing is, I'm getting this funny reputation as a scrabble player. Honestly it's just a little social thing. It takes a minute or two to play some tiles in a couple of games and then go along to answer messages, write blog posts, participate in meetings - ok watch football - whatever.

Playing a tile or two takes a little more thought than poking someone on facebook, nudging someone on twitter. But the game tells you something about people too.

You see more than someone's vocabulary. You see a sense of fun. You find out who's a good sport. You see who wants to interact and who wants to be top dog.

I like to win. But fair's fair. My twitter pal Leah Peterson went toe to toe to me throughout this entire game shown here.

And now the app at facebook where we're grappling with Scrabulous says she lost.

Um -  look at the score.

Leah 256

Susan 244

Somehow, I'd put this in my non-won column.But win or lose, it's a fun little thing to do to get acquainted.

It's networking. It's marketing without marketing. You can't see each other's name every day while a game's going on and not have a sense that you kind of know each other.

It's connecting. And it's all good.