Guest Post Today at Word Sell

August 28, 2008

Written by Karen D. Swim

Brad Shorr in a moment of either sheer genius or pure insanity (you be the judge) graciously invited me to post on his blog today. Brad is not only a terrific writer but a truly gracious blogger who actively supports the community. You may recall he was the mastermind behind this week’s Joanna Young Welcome Back party.

Please join me over at Word Sell today as we discuss social media myths. It should be fun!

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Posted by Karen Swim | Filed Under Social Media | 9 Comments

Perception and Art

August 27, 2008

Written by Karen D. Swim

The picture to the right is a Rorschach ink blot. I became quite familiar with Rorschach as a Psychobiology major in college.

Rorschach ink blots (developed by Hermann Rorschach) are a projective psychometric test. The theory is that when you show the ink blots to patients, each individual will project his or her real personality into the ink blot via the interpretation. The results were to provide a clue into the person’s psyche.

It is fascinating to see how differently each person will interpret an ink blot. What do you see in the photo to the right – the silhouette of a woman, armadillos crawling along a desert, kidneys? Each person will see something slightly different. As we view the ink blot we impose our own perspective shaped by our life experiences.

The efficacy of the ink blot has been questioned but the underlying theory that we can look at the same thing and see something different is incontrovertible. Law enforcement officers understand this theory well. If multiple people witness an incident, there will be some commonalities but each version will be slightly different.

We bring our perceptions to everything we read, see, hear and touch. For the writer, artist, photographer or marketer it is a truth that we must not only recognize but embrace. The interpretation of our words, paintings, sculptures, and photographs belong entirely to the beholder. This is the beauty and challenge of our work. In a Writer’s Digest interview, Isabel Allende offered these thoughts:

“I’m not the one who invents the stories; I’m like a radio that picks up the waves. Somehow if I move the dial very carefully, I’ll pick up the wave and get the story. But the story doesn’t belong to me; it’s somewhere out there floating. That’s very liberating.” (Writer’s Digest, Oct. 2008)

The story, photo, painting, novel, marketing message or even blog post does not belong to the creator but to those who will shape it, interpret it and experience it through the lens of their perception. As we create we bear the burden of this knowledge. No matter how clearly we seek to articulate our ideas, thoughts and concepts not everyone will see them as presented. Once created, we must find the liberation that Allende alludes to by simply letting go.

I take comfort in knowing that in this way all truth has its own element of fiction. I release the responsibility of attaining perfection and yield myself to being the receptor of the waves intended for me. I am the vessel and not the creator. I can let go and take pleasure watching the work float “out there” free to become what each reader wants and needs it to be. Liberating? Indeed.

Now over to you reader, it’s your post, share your interpretation. The comment box is open and it’s your turn at the mic.

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Posted by Karen Swim | Filed Under Insights, Marketing | 15 Comments

The Poop in the Road

August 26, 2008

Image via Wikipedia

Written by Karen D. Swim

Animals are quite fond of my neighborhood. Cranes, ducks, geese, squirrels, deer and others happily share space here. The geese however are by far the rudest of our wonderful little animal kingdom. In addition to their incessant barking in the early morning (it’s like living with roosters!) they are quite territorial and not afraid to attack. I have argued with them to get off my car, yelled at them to quit chasing my sister around a tree (even funnier because she is not very good at moving fast!) and pretended I was going to run them over to get them out of the road.

However the worst thing about the geese are the big honking piles of poop they leave everywhere. Sometimes they seem to go away and all is peaceful. Perhaps they’re off visiting their feathered friends in Canada. Yesterday there was no sign of the geese but there was evidence they’d been there. After navigating my way through piles (which means zig zagging and jumping in heels where there was no room to zag) of poop I realized that I could keep jumping over crap or simply move to a different part of the road.

Isn’t life kind of like that some days? The poop in your path can be obnoxious colleagues or clients, nastygrams sent via email, corporate politics or just people with bad attitudes. You could duck, dodge and jump over it or you could just choose a new path that is poop free. Which will you choose to do today?

Thank you so much for reading! Subscribe to keep up with the latest posts and feel free to spread the word!Get free updates via RSS or email.

Posted by Karen Swim | Filed Under Inspiration | 20 Comments

WordPress Stuck in HTML Edit Mode

August 25, 2008

Written by Karen D. Swim

I have an update to my issues with the WordPress 2.6.1 fiasco and wanted to share the solution with you. After reversing my attempted upgrade, my WP Admin dashboard still had issues. Two of the most troubling were:

Inability to edit publish date (I could save as draft or publish immediately)
Visual editor did not work. Visual was highlighted but it was stuck in HTML mode

After doing some online surfing I was able to determine that the visual editor issue is not new and can be traced to the TinyMCE file.

I found jerrydrussell’s forum answer helpful:

edit /wp-includes/js/tinymce/tiny_mce_config.php find the line that says ‘compress’ => true and change to ‘compress’ => false.

I found my answer in the WordPress forum. There are a series of helpful steps to help you diagnose and fix the problem. Fortunately, I did not have to go through all the steps because I had my old tinymce file. I was smart to backup before attempting the upgrade. I actually did two backups to two separate locations. Now that I knew the problem file, I went to the folder on my server labeled wp-content/includes/js/tinymce and deleted the entire tinymce folder. I then uploaded my original tinymce folder and my visual editor is now working! So I can once again post images without coding or using a workaround. If you are not comfortable using FTP or working on your server, have someone do it for you.

I still cannot edit the post date so I’m off to work on that issue next. The moral of this story is back up your files before doing anything! If you screw something up you can restore yourself to ground zero.

Thank you so much for reading! Subscribe to keep up with the latest posts and feel free to spread the word!Get free updates via RSS or email.

Posted by Karen Swim | Filed Under Insights | 8 Comments

Welcome Back Joanna Young!

August 25, 2008

Written by Karen D. Swim

Joanna Young has been offline for two weeks. After moving her blog from TypePad to WordPress, she had to go offline for a house move. Needless to say, not two things I would want to tackle in a single month!

When Brad Shorr came up with the idea of a surprise Online Welcome Back party for Joanna, I was immediately on board. He recruited Robert Hruzek and like two elves, they set about planning a surprise. Daniel Smith (who is also moving) graciously pitched in to create a button for the day. So, you may be wondering, who is this Joanna Young and why all the hubbub?

I started my blog in 2005 but didn’t wrap my arms around it until January 2008. It was a godawful mess but lucky for me, no one was reading! That all changed in late February when I participated in one of Joanna’s group writing projects. Her link love sent traffic my way. For the first time, I had actual comments -yippee!

It did not stop there. Joanna came to my blog and brought friends. She started conversations and others joined. She encouraged me when I was down and coached me in my efforts. She embraced me into her community and suddenly I was not alone. Under her tutelage, I found focus and even (gasp!) did ordered lists.

Joanna, we missed you! We really, really missed you! Join the party, by popping over and saying hello. While there you can read one of my favorite writing inspiration posts, How to Become a Fire Breathing Writing Dragon .

If you’d like to join in on the fun, it’s not too late. Write a post and link to Confident Writing. We can keep the party going all week long!

Thank you so much for reading! Subscribe to keep up with the latest posts and feel free to spread the word!Get free updates via RSS or email.

Posted by Karen Swim | Filed Under Inspiration, Writing | 13 Comments

Word Press 2.6.1

August 23, 2008

Image via CrunchBase, source unknown

Written by Karen D. Swim

I spent the better part of the day in WordPress purgatory. As is typical with all things technical,there is no chicken exit. Once you start you are all in until the deed is done or you have broken something and need to call in an expert.

I thought that Saturday would be the perfect day to tackle the WordPress upgrade. I was relaxed and could take my time. I don’t post on weekends so did not have to worry about blog visitors. It all began so innocently.

Initially I was going to use the WP Auto Upgrade plug-in. I got it loaded up on my server and came back to the WordPress dashboard to activate and enter my FTP info. It logged in but I soon got a red error. It could not find a file. Uh oh. Now, a smarter mind would have stopped right there but um I’m not that smart!

No big, the easy way did not work, I would just install the files myself. I backed up my files and then proceeded to go through the upgrade. It was fast and easy and everything was in place. That is when the real fun began. I could not log into my WordPress admin panel. I entered username and password and got the white screen of death. No error message, just a blank white screen. I still did not panic. I’d read about this issue and knew it was common so I surfed the forum for the fix.

After seeing messages on the WordPress Forum that insinuated idiots should stick to wordpress.com, I was both insulted and still without an answer to my issue. Oh plenty of people had the issue but rather than answers I was treated to a thread of tech in-fighting. While slightly entertaining to watch techies raise their configs and .htacess in bloody battle, I needed help and preferably in something close to English.

So, I turned to Google where I knew real people would have real answers. After adding lines to the config file, altering my phpfiles and clearing my cache so often I was sure my computer would scream in agony, I could no longer deny that I was in wordpress purgatory. Some fixes resulted in my blog disappearing. I was able to quickly bring it back but never able to log in.

I finally threw in the towel and restored my old version of WordPress. The result? I can log in but my dashboard interface has changed.. I cannot edit publish dates, insert pictures or work in visual mode.

So my advice, if you are like me and a real person who is comfortable with technology, don’t upgrade to 2.6 or 2.6.1. It is buggy and the answers out there do not work for everyone. If your blog is working fine, well don’t break it! If I find the solution I will post it in English and if you have the solution, feel free to share!

Thank you so much for reading! Subscribe to keep up with the latest posts and feel free to spread the word!Get free updates via RSS or email.

Posted by Karen Swim | Filed Under Insights | 14 Comments

Adventures in the Real World

August 22, 2008

Image by gniliep via Flickr

Written by Karen D. Swim

Happy Friday! I hope this has been a good week for everyone. I hit the pause button yesterday and enjoyed hanging out in the “real world.” It was nice to take a break on a day I would normally be working. The brief break validated two things: 1) I have spent far too much time of late on the computer and 2) people out there (you know in the rest of our world without an avatar) could care less about the issues that seem so important online!

My first clue came when I had an urge to tweet my activities. Admittedly these could have been by best tweets yet because real life has great material! However, I was surrounded by real people and in a daring move… I talked to them! No 140 character limit or need to @, dm or add a smiley. Now don’t get me wrong I am normally chatty and strike up conversations wherever I go, but this was Thursday in the middle of a work day.

I mentioned Twitter and Facebook a few times during the day and um no one cared. Seriously. There was no talk of analytics, trends, fail whales or LinkedIn’s new group policy. Because, apparently a large part of the real world just doesn’t care.

There is however, common ground. We all care about the things that matter – life (yea, suprisingly we are all pretty darn happy to wake up each day), health, family, career, balance, etc. Essentially many of the things that we tweet, kwip and plurk are the same things discussed in the neighborhood barber shop or the corner store. So, why I wondered are we often so polarized?

Those of us who are involved in social media and online work tend to forget that we still represent only a small percentage of the population. Many more people see online as primarily email. Our online experts are often unknown outside of cyberspace. Yet those that have made a name in the real world are known by all.

So, what did I learn? I learned to not take this all so seriously. I can stress about stats, polls and SEO or I can put it in perspective and simply enjoy the journey. I also learned that well, I need to get out more! I need more days where there is no purpose other than to just hang and let life happen.

Now, it’s your turn. How do you manage your online time? Have you ever felt the need to dial it down? Do your real world peeps share your online interests? Talk to me, because I’m back and I am interested!

Thank you so much for reading! Subscribe to keep up with the latest posts and feel free to spread the word!Get free updates via RSS or email.

Posted by Karen Swim | Filed Under Fierce Friday | 14 Comments

Hitting the Pause Button

August 21, 2008

Image via Wikipedia

Written by Karen D. Swim

This week I have stayed up way too late watching the Olympics and tweeting about it. Yes, I know I can watch it online or even TiVo for watching during waking hours, but I just can’t pull myself away. Yes, yes I know I too protest China’s human rights policy but love watching the athletes go for the gold! This while I have been ramping up my running miles while trying not to re-injure my ITB, tweaking workouts and delivering the goods for clients. Needless to say the scales (ooh speaking of scales I should weigh myself) have become a bit unbalanced, so I need to pause real time and reconnect online and off.

So today, I’m taking a blog break. I need to go visit with friends and catch up on posts. Rogue Ink and Write From Home are both back online. Seriously the blogsophere was not the same without these two talented bloggers. New friends await on Facebook and Twitter. If you’re in any of those places today, come hang,okay? I am also going to spend some face to face time (you know where you talk with a person and not an avatar) with one of my young nephews. I’ll be back tomorrow and hope you’ll join me! Go forth and have adventures… and be sure to come back and share!

Thank you so much for reading! Subscribe to keep up with the latest posts and feel free to spread the word!Get free updates via RSS or email.

Posted by Karen Swim | Filed Under Wild and Wacky | 4 Comments

Don’t Drink the Haterade

August 20, 2008

Image via Wikipedia

Written by Karen D. Swim

Lately, there is a disturbing trend sweeping the blogosphere. People for no apparent reason are devoting considerable time and effort to disparage, discourage and attack their cyberspace brethren. Was there a meeting of the Society of Mean People that revitalized their mission statement to create a wake of destruction? Is the economy so bad that angry people have taken to the cyberwaves to unleash their utter disgust with life in general?

This week, I have learned of reputation attacks (unwarranted, unsubstantiated and untrue) against blog buddies, Twitter peeps and fellow entrepreneurs. Technology has made it far too easy for people to spew their vitriol disguised as opinion or in some cases fact. An article about Freelance Writing Jobs insinuated that their Idol contest perpetrated fraud against hard working writers (rubbish!). Amy Derby received an email from Mr. X which poo-pooed her writing success and encouraged her to take her obvious talent back to school and become a real writer (i.e. “respected journalist”). I myself received an anonymous phone call which basically said “I suck,” and the caller was not certain if they could “trust my company.” Sadly, these are only three of the several examples I have learned about this week alone.

Personally, I’m cool with criticism but prefer constructive criticism that is not anonymous. However, the above examples seem to have one purpose and that is to tear down other people. It takes a great deal of effort to sit down and craft an email, write a post or make a phone call. Why expend that energy for negative intentions? Can any good result from your efforts?

Some of the attacks are cloaked as “helpful advice.” Oh yea, because we all want unsolicited comments that point out we’re sucky heads. I have discovered that the old adage, “If you have nothing good to say, say nothing at all,” works well in many circumstances. This means, zip it up bub unless someone asks you.

If you spot a broken link, or a form that does not work on my site, of course I want to know. These are mistakes or technical errors I can actually fix. However, I can do nothing about the fact that you think I am a sucky head. That my friend is a problem you’ll have to fix without my intervention.

The internet is a wonderful place where everyone can publish their views, insights and opinions. However, can we do so with fairness and respect? Disagree, debate and offer your take but don’t do it while under the influence of haterade. You may wake up in strange places.

Have you been subjected to unwarranted criticism? How did you handle it? Feel free to share your opinions but resist the urge to call me a doody head, please.

Thank you so much for reading! Subscribe to keep up with the latest posts and feel free to spread the word!Get free updates via RSS or email.

Posted by Karen Swim | Filed Under Insights | 18 Comments

The 5 Marketing Lessons I Learned From Don Cheadle

August 19, 2008

Image via Wikipedia

Written by Karen D. Swim

Don Cheadle is a fabulous actor. In fact he is so good you may not recognize his name. It is this incredible talent that makes Cheadle a role model for awesome, knock your socks off marketing.

Cheadle allows his role to be the star. Cheadle lets the character and dialogue speak. He yields himself as a vessel never taking center stage. In this same way, you should not upstage your marketing. If your copy is all about YOU, then you have failed at Cheadle lesson number 1 – it’s not about you.

Cheadle makes you feel it. We know the rule – engage their emotions, but Cheadle shows us how to master the technique. Cheadle’s roles get under your skin and stay there for a long time. I remain haunted by Hotel Rwanda. I was pulled into the story as though Cheadle reached out from the big screen and offered me his hand. Because I was all in, heart pounding, mind racing I did not forget. Hotel Rwanda led to a passionate activism on behalf of Darfur. Your marketing copy should make your customers feel and do. The words should wrap around your customers, caressing their senses and inviting them into the story.

Cheadle has a clear brand identity. Cheadle is an actor period. His life, interests and pursuits have not sullied or overshadowed his brand. If you know his name, you’re not thinking “guy who only eats green M&Ms,” or co-mingling his name with some too skinny starlet. Nope, he’s an actor. You can articulate his brand. The dude has a clear identity. Watch and learn dear marketers.

Cheadle does not use cheap gimmicks. Cheadle is very good at his job and that is his calling card. He did not have to create a strange persona, adopt an addiiction and create a new 12 step program, date someone several cards short of a full deck or jump on a couch. Cheadle is an actor who can act. When you can do what you claim, well that really is the best kind of marketing of all.
Cheadle is consistent. In role after role, he delivers the goods. It doesn’t matter if the movie is a blockbuster, academy award winner or a little known film. You can count on Cheadle to be a good actor. Your marketing messages will of course change but your core values and your commitment to quality should remain steadfast and true. Your customers should be able to count on you today and tomorrow.

Cheadle may not be the biggest named star in Hollywood, but he definitely has sustainability. Anyone can be a flash in the pan hottie but it takes real talent to build and sustain a brand.

What are your tips for marketing success? Have you gained any insight from your favorite actors?