I gained so much from the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco this week. The theme for me at this year’s conference was “create value” and “be passionate” about issues we care about, even if there is no obvious business benefit. This is what attracts success to us.
First two new blog tools I discovered:
OutBrain.com is a free widget for wordpress blogs that lets you link your media properties together through personalized recommendations. It works on all major blog and CMS platforms, and it even appends the code to your RSS feeds.
Goosegrade.com is a free tool you add to your blog that lets you invite your visitors to do your copy editing for you. Many people will not link to you – or worse downgrade their trust in you — if they see mistakes in your blog text. Instead of either not linking to you or having to email you to get you to correct a misspelling, type-o, or grammar mistake, visitors to your blog simply click some buttons and make the correction for you. You can set it to require your approval or not.
Why are these two tools so cool? Aside from the obvious benefits they give you, the truth is that it has been proven that:
The more times someone interacts with you or your blog, the closer you are to a sale or to getting them to donate or take the action your campaign desires.
Giving visitors easy actions to take, that cost them no money, is a great way to increase stickiness of your site, and enhance the affinity visitors feel towards you.
The interesting thing that relates to the themes I started this post about, is how I met the owner of the site OutBrain. John Logioco came up to the booth I was volunteering at: a “save the salmon” advocacy group called Calling Back the Salmon. He did an interview for us on why he thinks salmon recovery is important and suggests don’t eat farmed salmon!
John wasn’t even promoting his blog widget at all. I found out about it when I looked up his domain for his email address. Here’s the lesson: when we work for the issues we are passionate about, instead of for money, people are drawn to us and intrigued by who we are. This brings us abundance and business incidentally, while making the world a better place. The spirit of hope ushered in by the change of regime in the US is a powerful force for us to embrace. More people than ever before are becoming engaged in the movements for justice and environmental protection. I am so grateful for meeting John, for his clear and powerful message. I will be integrating his tool soon on this very blog.
Please add your stories of magic and business success in your own life from random acts of kindness and advocacy efforts you have made. I know there are more stories out there, please share them.
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After reading through the article, I just feel that I need more info. Could you suggest some resources ?
The resource I recommend starting with to understand how our passions and service to issues we care about can attract people to us organically is Seth Godin, author, thought-leader, and inventor of Squidoo.com and books like “The Dip” and “Meatball Sunday,” two of my favorites. Just reading his tweets is a great way to begin: http://www.twitter.com/thisissethsblog. The other author and social media maven that comes to mind is Tara Hunt, whose book “The Whuffie Factor” is required reading for anyone using social networks for social good or business. See http://www.twitter.com/MissRogue