Bad Things Could Happen
When clients raise the issue of possible dangers of putting information in public, I’m right with them. I listen in actively to see where their concerns lie.
Some worry about physical danger — people who might do them or their business harm — theives, vandals, and psychos
Some worry about danger to their reputation — people who might want tosay bad things about them — unhappy customers, unethical competitors
Some worry about danger to themselves — saying something they might regret later.
I’d never deny the possibilities. Instead I listen to understand the core issues.
Then I often find myself outlining that arrive every day to protect us online — comment moderation, blind contact forms, the ability to respond quickly online to damaging information — and quoting the simple rule Microsoft uses to guide their bloggers, “Don’t be stupid,” as I put the listed dangers in context.
It’s true that those situations listed are serious concerns. We deal with them daily in our interactions in the concrete world, the in world of email, at conventions and in sales presentations, and even on the telephone. We know how to handle information to an audience larger than one person.
We don’t need to leave behind the interaction skills we already know when we move to the Internet.
Liz Strauss
Find out about working with Liz.
No Time Like the Present
Time.
Who’s got any extra? Could you send some over?
I haven’t had any since 1990-something.
Most folks I know are feeling the same way.
Yet, somehow, we all manage to get things done in the time we have allotted. We even pick up a few new things as move forward in our careers.
Time.
“I can’t do that! I don’t have time for it!”
Truth is, I have time for things I find important, useful, and better not to avoid.
What that response means is “I don’t want to — learn something new.”
The minute I see value or realize that people are getting ahead of me.
I have the time I need to learn what I thought I didn’t need to know.
Start by learning the vocabulary. . . . you have time for a few words.
Liz Strauss
Find out about working with Liz.
Reasons to Write Every Day
Everything we write has an audience. Even a private journal has the author to read it. The more we write, the more we get experience with words, learning what they mean in varied contexts. As we look back over what we have written, we listen, consider, and question its power and impact.
Blogging has an audience that responds and reacts. The comments let us know whether the message we send is received fully and intact. By blogging often we develop a voice that is consistent and more natural. As we learn our personal writing habits, we gain confidence that powers our message forward. As we listen to our readers, we more finely tune our message to communicate with them.
Blogging gets us closer to a clearer voice that people understand.
Liz Strauss
Find out about working with Liz.
Get your best voice in the conversation.
Reasons to Write and Publish Every Day
When we have an unexpressed idea, it sits in our heads incomplete. We imagine we know it, and possibly even see it, but the test it when we have to explain it to another human being.
Writing every day makes us better thinkers. It moves us to take ideas from our minds and describe them with words. Publishing those words invites an audience to react and respond — we find out whether the message we sent is the one that they heard.
It’s a challenge to simply state the feelings, thoughts, and scope of an idea in precise and expressive ways. Unlike talking, which allows us to adjust and respond with tangents and corrections, writing and publishing come with an expectation that we’ll set out a thought clearly stated.
The commitment of words to written form draws that has an audience is a powerful incentive to think things through . . .
Liz Strauss
Find out about working with Liz.
Get your best voice in the conversation.
