Archive for the 'Blogging' Category

Telling Tales

Published by Amitai Givertz on December 10, 2007 in Asides, Blogging and Post Pickings. 0 Comments

I just posted Food for Thought: Ripping Yarns on Recruitomatic, the fourth in a Food for Thought… series.

Trying to wrap my head around information foraging theory I’m hoping a modern-day forager can help me make some stodgy stuff a little easier to digest…hmmm, maybe not!

The Discovery Channel airs an interesting program called Man vs Wild. The star of the show is Bear Grylls, a real life Action Man who demonstrates techniques for surviving the most inhospitable landscapes.

To accentuate the extreme nature of his adventures — and the diversity of what we eat on planet Earth perhaps — we are treated to the spectacle of watching iron-gut Grylls eat some particularly horrid things, or delicacies depending on your stomach.

Read the rest here…

25 Basic Styles of Blogging

Published by Amitai Givertz on December 8, 2007 in Blogging and Research. 1 Comment

I came across this helpful guide some time ago. It resurfaced today:

Can’t see the presentation? Click here to view on SlideShare]

Blog Action Day: Searching for Answers

Published by Amitai Givertz on October 15, 2007 in Blogging and That's Life. 1 Comment

Blog Action Day is designed to raise the collective voices of bloggers in a single refrain, this year about the environment.

Hmmm…If 15,000 or so bloggers who are taking part in this day of “mass participation” represent a pathetically small percentage of the total number of bloggers who regularly publish then the 15 million or so readers who could be potentially reached should not be overlooked. For some reason the cynic in me thinks it won’t be.

For my part I don’t want to create more waste in the blogging ecosphere by writing about something simply because everyone else is doing it, not really having anything to say except to note my wariness of anything that smacks of groupthink.

Besides, there will be so much to choose from that it seems the best I could do is find those posts I like best and comment on them, list them here perhaps. That and suggest you stop wasting energy too.

Blogversity - An Attempt at a Meme

Published by Amitai Givertz on July 28, 2007 in Blogging and That's Life. 0 Comments

A little while ago I came across Blogversity - An Attempt at a Meme in my reader.

I followed the posts soon realizing that the recruiting bubble and the librarian bubble have [or had depending on your point of view] much in common. The blogs, the personalities, the relationships, the tensions, the idealism, even surviving the space — The NextGen Librarian’s Survival Guide, sound familiar? It all resonated with me. More, they write, read and link to really good stuff!

To the extent that I have gotten so much from following this meme I wanted to share it with you! Enjoy.

Can a Picture Speak a Thousand Words?

Published by Amitai Givertz on July 26, 2007 in Blogging and Things 2.0. 0 Comments

Take a look at The Recursive Nature of Recruiting Blogs and let me know what you think.

The Brand Gap

Published by Amitai Givertz on July 12, 2007 in Blogging, Research and Things 2.0. 0 Comments

As I begin to look at SlideShare for all its virtues as a medium to both communicate and optimize content I am reminded that everything we publish brands us. The challenge then is to create content that is at least as good as the best.

Daggit! I’ve really got my work cut out…

Brands and 2.0

Published by Amitai Givertz on March 26, 2007 in Blogging and Business Matters. 4 Comments

This gave me pause for thought…

Persuasive Blogging and Linkbaiting

Published by Amitai Givertz on February 18, 2007 in Blogging and Research. 2 Comments

The Theory of Attenuation

I came across this post, The 5 Immutable Laws of Persuasive Blogging by Brian Clark who writes Copyblogger. I can honestly say that I must have read hundreds of posts and articles that similarly advise tenderfoots like me how to tiptoe through the tulips. But this one is the one I will reference as I move forward, at least for now.

Why?

Not because it is better than everything else I’ve read, although I like it best. Not because it’s short and sweet. After all, there is the The Two Immutable Laws of Blogging for that. And, not because these five things…

  • The Law of Value
  • The Law of Headlines and Hooks
  • The Law of “How To”
  • The Law of the List, and
  • The Law of the Story

…are unduplicated pearls of wisdom, they are not. So, why?

When you consider the awful noise to signal ratio of blogging I think it might be just as well to tune into one thing that resonates clearly and stay tuned. Too often, at least as it seems to me, in the quest to find the best information or resource out there we forget it’s not the information or resource that is of any use, but the use we put that information or resource to that makes one man’s post another man’s…er, post? Dammit! So much for “The Law of Value!”

Interestingly, I came across The 5 Immutable Laws of Persuasive Blogging two clicks away from The Enormous Linkbait List published on cornwallseo.com proving once again, in researching blogging best-practice – at least as far as I’m concerned – less is more, even when it’s enormous.

The Runner

Published by Amitai Givertz on February 17, 2007 in Blogging and That's Life. 1 Comment

Julian Seery Gude is running his first marathon tomorrow. While that is a personal milestone in of itself, not to overlook his dedication of the run to remembered family and friends, what is most interesting to me is that Jules has managed to connect with people – drawn from both his birthday list and Rolodex – on a number of levels, most importantly perhaps, on an emotional level. More, Jules connects people in a way which nicely blurs the line between personal and business associations.

Admittedly, I’m not sure that this could have been achieved without the juxtaposition of a business and a personal blog but in any event, Jules illustrates one simple truth: blogging is a medium that if committed to with integrity, and managed correctly, can transcend the dichotomy of personal and professional self.

Dave Taylor posts When is a blog too personal? on The Intuitive Life Business Blog and makes some interesting points on the topic of personalization in a professional blog, suggesting that there is a line to be drawn. Perhaps there is. By contrast, Jules illustrates how blurring that line by choosing the time, the place and the topic to get personal can connect an audience in ways that can enhance one’s reputation at home and in the office.  

For sure, 26 miles is a long race to run. Whatever he hopes to gain from the experience physically, emotionally, spiritually – whatever – in elevating his personal reputation and professional brand through his blogging, Jules is already ahead of the pack.

Talkdigger, Digg, Delicious.

A Shot In The Dark

Published by Amitai Givertz on January 8, 2007 in Blogging and That's Life. 7 Comments

For me, one of the absurd things about blogging is that as easy as it is to post and comment, tag and tinkle, everything else – I mean like the mechanics of blogging – is mind-numbingly hard. For example, I found New Tools for Social Media Optimization on the Online Marketing Blog which makes a compelling case to follow the incredibly simple step-by-step instructions for creating social bookmarks and assorted iconic blog-bling on one’s blog. Okay, I’m sold, now what?

Four hours after completed the first step – a thirty second process I might add – I’m still staring down the barrel of my WordPress blog, dashboard loaded, the theme editor fully cocked. I simply can’t pull the trigger. Cut and paste that code to where? The source code? The template? Bugger it! One way or the other I’m going to end up shooting myself! Where’s the Video Professor now, now that I actually need him? [Note to self: Add John Scherer to the The NewPR Wiki: CEO Blog List, he's a blogger.]

Ahem.

So, my blog remains un-optimized and antisocial. Like the blogger himself, a baby boomer who cannot boom. Pathetic. Yes, I know everything’s documented online; everything has a freakin’ forum, busy-bodies and know-it-alls. But all I want to know is where do I paste the code and what happens after you press the button that follows the ominous message:

“Are you sure you want to do that, Boomer? Changes cannot be undone. Go ahead, Boomer, make my day.”

Looking on the bright side, this blog is currently ranked 1,582,199 on Technorati with just one blog linked here – oh, yes, it’s this one – which means the likelihood of anyone arriving here and wanting to bookmark anything is so remote that it hardly matters. So, now that’s two absurd things about blogging. What a blast.

Talkdigger, Digg, Delicious.