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.

New dates for Fresh Writing (plus spring tips)

Spring has come and it’s time for even fresher writing!

Here are the dates for the next series of our Fresh Writing Classes at The Werks.

Tuesdays 10.30 – 12.30

1 April
CANCELLED DUE TO NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE

22 April

6 May

20 May

Put them in your diaries now if you have a positive intention to come and learn / create / express / play.

More information about the classes here.

To celebrate the fresh new season – three top tips for improving your writing & blogging… and expanding your mind…

1. Watch your verbs

Verbs are (remember!?) “doing words”. They are the action of your sentences. If you want your writing to jump from the page, give it legs. Think about your verbs. Use new ones. Take risks, combine them in new ways with your nouns (”naming words”). Experiment. Wake people up. Surprise them.

Here is a list to play with, inspired by Spring…

Use them in unlikely ways and surprise yourself. Thaw those frozen fingers. Explode onto the page. Or just tweet a little.

2. Stay alert with new ideas

The wonders of modern tech. Register a Google Alert for a key word expression that relates to your work / passion / writing / life. One of mine is “authentic blogging”. I get sent blog posts from all around the world that use these two key words together. I am forever finding relevant, inspiring new material to write/blog about.

Give it a try. Register here and follow the prompts.

It’s easier than you think.

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

Last thing is… you just gotta watch this clip… if you are remotely interested in creativity and innovation. Yum.

http://authenticblogging.com/2008/03/26/you-think-i-think-we-think-better-together/

Better still, buy the book. “We Think” by Charles Leadbetter.

Reap what you sow.

Hope to see you some Tuesday.

Libby

PS – Happy to come into organisations and do affordable bespoke sessions.

Please forward to anyone interested, with many thanks

More posts on writing to help get your words flowing…

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]

Can you unplug for 52 nights?

I’m going to move the main discussion about unplugging over to the wonderful (ironic) new community at 52 Nights Unplugged care of Ariel and Ning. She is one happening unplugger.

Come and join in.

You know you need to when…

• Your eyes/arms/body is aching from too much tapping / idiot boxing / talking
• You check your email as soon as you wake up and just before you go to bed
• There’s never enough time
• Your mental environment is smogged out with gumpf
• Computers/TV/Radio/Mobiles/Ipods/Games keep taking you away from the here and now

Many thanks to Leif Hansen from Spark NW for the 7 Step Programme to Unplugging. I’ll be referring all my clients/students/friends to it and the Unplug Challenge. Seems only right and proper when we are banging on about the wonders of the Internet on the one hand. Seems people might need a health warning to go with every new social network or application. Seems like we all need to take a break occasionally, or a lot.

No matter how good it all is, it ain’t sustainable.

Actually, we’ve just put together a 7 step e-workbook that takes people through the same process. The steps and exercises covered in the e-workbook are basically to:
(perhaps first identify what you like about your tech life)
1. Identifying your challenges with tech
2. Identify the needs trying to get met
3. Develop your vision/goals
4. Finding your focus
5. Finding solutions
6. Turning ideas into actions
7. Sticking with your plan (can be hardest)

See the full richness of Leif’s comment on the previous post here. Sounds like it could be hard work, but if you want some more reasons and to make it fun… go join 52 Nights. These guys just HAVE to present at LIFT09.

My what a helpful community we are. Sucking you in to more and more information on the one hand – then telling you to switch off with the other.

Reminds me of when we tried to buy airtime for “subvertisements” advertising TV Turn Off Week on major TV networks, only this time we (kind of) control the channel.

I’m off to bed. Now… do I take the laptop with me and catch up on the BBC programmes in iplayer, or not…. might be jut in time to read Bea (7) the last story before lights out.

We teach what we most need to learn…

Newbies Guide to Blogging

Nice simple, practical guide to getting you blogging right from Dustin Wax at the very useful lifehack.org. Mainly for individuals but the principles are the same for enterprises and others.

Follow the links to explore your own context and see the list at the end to extend your learning.

Highly recommended!

Check it out. 

More ideas on what to blog about

Here are some recent links to other blogs that will help you come up with your own answers to this question.

See also our other posts in this category.

Personal v Topical. Find your niche. Google it.

Augustine’s Quiz for Bloggers Wondering What to Blog About

Evil Genius with Scoble and others

And all I did was Google “What to blog about”.

So if in doubt – go surfing!

What shall I blog about?

What a good question. I forget that we can get stuck, because I’ve been so busy lately getting posts up as responses to all these great questions you all keep asking.

So there’s the first idea. I’ll keep adding to this category again soon.

1. Answer people’s questions

Be useful! Become a resource people want to come back to. But how do I know what their questions are? Well – ask them. When you’re in conversation with others, listen out for what their fundamental questions are, really listen. Make notes.

2. Answer your own questions

Ask yourself! What are your questions? Authentic blogging has, at it’s heart, the potential for profound learning. Ask yourself the big questions, the little questions, the whimsical, the skill or project specific ones, the one’s no-one else is willing to ask.

“What’s the best way to attract new clients / partners?”

“What do I already know about what works / doesn’t work?”

3. Come up with new questions?

If you want to start a conversation, come up with a good questions and leave it open. Invite others to contribute, even if it feels a bit “off topic” or outside the immediate frame of reference you give yourself and your blog. The linear path is rarely the best. That’s just not how life works. That’s not how blogs work. You have to trust the magic.

Here’s an example. I blogged a question “Who’s going to clean the toilets when we have all reached our potential?” then sent a link for the post to two thinking bloggers I knew would grab it like a bone – Biff and Leah Landau. What’s that got to do with Authentic Blogging? Well wait and see what happened.

These two blogging stars launched in to contribute. There was a spark in their minds. They bounced off the post and the comment prior. See comments under the post.

Then I reposted a meta-cognitive (ie. thinking about my thinking) follow-up piece that nakedly opened up a new can of worms and back they came (I send them I very quick email to let them know it was back).

So what’s the next question? Deep learning, philosophy, good conversations. The educational academics and thinkers all seem to agree. It’s about continually formulating useful questions.

As one of the world’s most evolved and influential educators Paolo Freire has stated:

I believe in the pedagogy of curiosity… the pedagogy of the question and not of the answer (Freire in Papert, late 1980s).

Let’s stay curious! Keep those questions evolving.

Outcomes? Why bother? Good question!

-    At least three people have engaged pretty deeply with some questions that we think really matter. We have learnt about ourselves and each other. We learnt a little more about how to express our ideas online, to others, in a safe, effective and appropriate way. I know for one participant at least, this is a profound step forward into happiness and potential. It’s not the magnum opus, it’s a step. That’s part of why the banner image is a foot. Each step creates a complete journey.

-    This conversation is now available online, for ever. People will find it, they may add their own reflections. They may be sparked to think about things for themselves.

-    I have made stronger connections with two people that really matter to me. Not because they are necessarily going to become clients or students, but they might (actually one already is and the other is a new colleague / muse). We know more about each other. We have co-created something kind of special. Maybe not to you, or to everyone, but to us. And maybe others. You know that feeling you get in a healthy team when you working towards a common goal and you get there. Lovely stuff. It’s a bit like that. Maybe we will find and “see”, listen to, witness the thinking of others and through this, add to the global consciousness of the web. Maybe they will help me attract more Authentic Bloggers to attend our courses. Maybe they will keep contributing to the research and thinking we are doing. Who knows! I just thought they might enjoy a good yak about something we might all be interested in.

I’m delighted with the results. Thank you Biff & Leah for all that you are. I wouldn’t be me without you (but that’s another Buddhism inspired post for a later date).

MsLiberty

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