MaineBusiness.com

Wednesday's Social Media FTW Conference was well worth the time. I can say this because I had fun, and I was a presenter.

But as the conference wound down, I was able to talk to people who found something useful. The less people knew before the conference, the more excited they felt at the end of the day. Some of the more experienced users wished for less "How to Update" info. That's always going to be a struggle at these kinds of conferences. But hopefully they were able to learn something in a less formal way during the networking.

Like I said, I was a presenter. Lynnelle Wilson and Sarah Wallace were part the panel on blogging. They tried to keep me from going off the rails. But I had to be me. So I would like to take a shot at clarifying, rescinding and expanding some of the things I touched Wednesday.

You won't find this anywhere else

Jason Blais had a good question about how to make your blog stand out among the thousands out there.

Sometimes, business blogs can be like a soccer league for 6-year-olds. The players are a lot like bees because all the kids are in a swarm chasing the ball. And I'm guilty of this. Inspired by someone else's blog post, I jump into the swarm with my take.

The key is to develop a conversational voice and be local. If you explain things in a clear way, you will set yourself apart from many bloggers. And use what's happening in your community. This will help local customers find your blog.

Are you still reading this?

I decided to disagree with my panel mates when the subject of length came up.

There's nothing wrong with writing short blog entries. It's a good way to make time to write more frequently. For small business owners, time is a concern, and blogging needs to fit into a tight schedule. And I often say shorter entries written more frequently will encourage reader loyalty more than long columns written less often. OK, there will be exceptions to that rule. But it's a pretty good rule of thumb.

Let me stress that short entries is a good time-management strategy. And it helps new bloggers get comfortable with the practice.

But don't take word counts as gospel. Sometimes you need 1,000 words to explain your point. Just make sure they are 1,000 interesting, needed words. Cut out the unnecessary words.

Yes there are studies out there about how many words will fit into our attention spans. This is especially true for the coveted 18-24 year-old audiences. But there isn't a subconcious trigger that gets tripped with a teen reads the 351st word. Young and old people stop reading when they get bored.

We tend to blame the audience when we don't succeed at moving them. Blaming the attention span is more comforting than admitting that you're boring. I don't have a study to back this up but I believe those studies that found word limits in young readers used boring copy. If you use language that is relevant to describe something relevant to young people, they will read 1,000 words.

You're still reading this aren't you? I purposefully started this after the 350-word mark. If you stopped reading this 300-words ago, it's a sign I have to do a better job as a writer.

Books that work

Dr. Frank Luntz's book "Words that Work" is a pretty good look at how to choose words that move people. You may not like Luntz's politics but he has some good insights on how people react to words.

Writing from your experience is an old cliche about writing, but it describes blogging wonderfully. That makes Stephen King's "On Writing" and Ray Bradbury's "Zen in the Art of Writing" are must reads for blogging. Neither uses the word blog anywhere. But they are inspirational and explain how the authors' lives influenced their writing.

I recommend those books even if you're not a fan of either author or genre (horror and science fiction). Both men have put a lot of thought into the craft of writing and have valuable things to say.

Where the women are

I say this in a I'm-happily-in-a-relationship sort of way but there were a lot of women at the conference. Mike Lewis' session on Social Media ROI was packed. I was one of a handful of men in the room. My blogging session was mostly women.

Many women were entrepreneurs. But the younger women tended to be employed. They were there to figure out social media strategies for their companies.

My takeaway is that a lot of women are working to improve businesses. This should be shaping your marketing. That doesn't mean you need to patronize your readers. It means stop using sports and war metaphors. There's more to it. But let's start by recognizing women are a force in business.

At my next conference...

This is the second time I have given a presentation on blogging. The second one differed from the first because of the format. But I still would have worked up a different presentation.

I don't want someone to pass on my presentations because they've seen it already. I have more to share and will be re-working my act. If I'm out there again, I promise you will learn something new no matter how many times you hear me.

So yes I am available to talk more about blogging and how you can make it work for your organization.

Other takeaways

Here's a quick list of what other bloggers have to say about the day:

#ftw09 – HUGE Success for Social Media in Maine by Jason Blais
Social media gets simplified at FTW by Justin Ellis
Social Media and Traditional Media FTW by Jeff Parsons
Social Media #FTW09: Feeds the Hungry by Stacie Chalmers
Social Media FTW: A Win, Win for Everyone by Sarah Wallace
The official thank you by Social Media FTW
You can read what people posted on Twitter about the conference.

If I ran a conference...

It wouldn't be as cool as FTW. But I offer a few good and bad ideas for a conference.

I agree with Sarah that we could have used more time. Like a 1,000-word blog entry we could have held everyone's attention for a lot longer. But maybe that's ego. I'm sure the audience was ready to escape when our 45-minutes were up.

A couple people asked me questions right after I spoke. I was happy to talk to them, but had to worry about getting out of the way of the next presenter. And we all had other sessions we wanted to get to. Maybe some more networking time could be added between sessions.

Maybe some handouts for newbies would help speakers focus on strategic issues.

Someone thanked me for encouraging questions during the panel. They enjoyed it as a conversation not a lecture. This is going to depend on audience size. But I enjoyed talking with people about blogging more than talking to them.

I would like to thank the academy

I really want to thank Rich Brooks, Chrystie Corns and Jaica Kinsman for giving me the chance to present and meet so many people. I'm thrilled to do it.

Lynnelle and Sarah deserve my gratitude forever because they put up with me.

And I want to thank all of you who gave me your time Wednesday. I appreciate the fact you have a lot going on in your lives. Thank you for listening and talking to me.