Everyone’s Blogging

These slides from the training session for the Brighton & Hove Chamber of Commerce last week. Let me know if you want us to come to your event or run a bespoke event or Masterclass.

More details on our Social Media for Good course soon (looks like next date will be Oct 3 in Brighton).

Covers a bit of an introduction to social media and blogging, plus some questions to get you thinking about your own context, opportunities and challenges.

Some good thinking in the room and animated conversations. Quite a few organisations ready to get blogging and exploring integrated social media in more depth.

A few of you made pledges are you walked out the door about your goals and intentions, so let me know how you get on!
Thanks to all for your warm feedback and to those who helped make it a positive event, especially Lorraine Bell (BCP), Tania “Radiance” Fullerton (Brighton Steiner School) and Fay McDonald.

You Think, I Think, We Think (Better) Together

Been reading reviews about Charles Leadbetter’s book We Think all over the place. Got to get my hands on a copy sooon (come on Rosie, hand it over).

If anyone is trying to get their heads around Web 2.0, social media, new paradigm thinking and all that claptrap – get a look at this. Lovely simple animation. I’m going to use it at the beginning of all my courses. Free event coming up soon to give people a taste of it all. Watch this space.

Guardian review here (including Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations by Clay Shirky) which also looks reeal good.

Shame The Big Issue review isn’t available online. A different and very valid take on things.

No wonder most journalist’s I meet are annoyed with blogging and What’s Going On with we-think.

No wonder I am compelled to work in and support this space.

So glad Rosie Sherry is in it with me (thanks for the video).

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiP79vYsfbo&hl=en]

Free E-Book on the Essence of Authentic Blogging

Here’s a living document I prepared for our first three groups of budding bloggers. I feel a collaborative book coming on.

Not sure I see myself in the same light as the company I am keeping in this collection, but some wonderful people to be gaining inspiration from all the same. David Bohm, Carl Rogers, Carl Jung, Natalie Goldberg, Julia Cameron, The Cluetrain folk, Scoble, Meerman Scott (in some order of importance).

We see this as essential reading for anyone on a quest for personal and professional growth through blogging, but it is a very first draft. Stay tuned for more…

Have a read and let me know which quotes resonate most for you…

FREE E-BOOK on the Essence of Authentic Blogging
More posts on writing to help get your words flowing…

Authentic blogging buzz… in the flesh

Starting to see some more of the interconnected magic we get from blogging and other social media. Good to see others benefiting from the distribution of our ideas about “What’s a good blog?“.

But the real connection here with Ron Tanner was made by real people at a live event with Will McInnes and the divine Sarah James, marketing and events consultant extraordinaire. There’s simply no substitute for face-to-face human contact…

(and PLEASE can we have another word for it besides “offline”! Cyber-punk writers like William Gibson emphasise words like flesh as opposed to virtual. I guess we do go to “press the flesh” at networking functions.)

Will reinforced our advice about the power of blogging by saying: “If I was starting out in business again I would simply use a blog”, or words to that effect. Who needs an expensive, complicated website? Not most SME’s that’s for sure. Perhaps Will might want to drop in here and qualify or clarify that statement…

Thanks for the plug Caspar & Tanner. Thanks for some awesome reality checks Will. Thanks to all for helping Authentic Blogging find its place and people.

What is a blog?

So what is a blog? In essence. Here’s a group perspective from a discussion during the Monday course.

• Personal
• Interactive
• Dynamic
• Ongoing
• Living
• Non-physical
• Accessible
• Egalitarian
• Conversation

What can we add to this?

Check out wikipedia for a wider collaboration seeking to answer this, as developed over some years.