The Hartsock Agency

In lieu of the  oncoming Festivus and all other associated merry-making, I’m posting a top ten 2009 Triple Dog Dare You List for Social Media.  

Let this list inspire and invigorate you toward prodigious social media endeavors in the New Year, aligned with transparency, honesty and value.

Top Ten “Triple Dog Dare You List” for Social Media:

1. Let your blog power your message, your expertise and your willingness to share them freely to benefit others.

2. Don’t take part in petty blog flame wars.

3. Raise your blog visibility by registering it with Technorati. And give readers of your blog the opportunity to Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit and Deli.ico.us your posts.

4. For pete’s sake (and all the rest of us) join the blog fracas! Read other blogs, subscribe to their feeds and take value in highlighting their wonderful content as well as yours.

5. Stop asking what a blog can do for you and ask “What can I do on this blog for my readers?”

6. Use more images, vid posts and humor in your blog. Even Bill Gates likes a good chuckle now and then so don’t be so staid. And while you’re at it, start Twittering too.

7. Occasionally share a personal story. (No, not the one about the Red Rider BB Gun you did not get as a child. And , not the one about what your mother-in-law does after she gets overnogged at Christmas.) Instead, share a personal insight about your work method or focus, or your own story about your overcoming a challenge.

8. Post to your blog on a regular schedule and use more tags and categories for each post.

9. Participate in a blog carnival.

10. Write a mission statement for your blog. You’d be surprised how writing a mission statement helps empower your content and what you will deliver to your readers.

P.S. (Go to YouTube and see the real Triple Dog Dare here.)

From my favorite movie “A Christmas Story”:

Flick: Are you kidding? Stick my tongue to that stupid pole? That’s dumb!
Schwartz: That’s ’cause you know it’ll stick!
Flick: You’re full of it!
Schwartz: Oh yeah?
Flick: Yeah!
Schwartz: Well I double-DOG-dare ya!
Ralphie as Adult: [narrating] NOW it was serious. A double-dog-dare. What else was there but a “triple dare ya”? And then, the coup de grace of all dares, the sinister triple-dog-dare.
Schwartz: I TRIPLE-dog-dare ya!
Ralphie as Adult: [narrating] Schwartz created a slight breach of etiquette by skipping the triple dare and going right for the throat!

Read this insightful essay on the publishing world by Andre Bernard in the Washington Post.

Facebook continues to grow in usage, community and “facetime”. Take a look at the latest press on Facebook’s site.

I’m a big fan of a good content-laden e-newsletter. I think e-newsletters are very valuable for reaching out and staying in touch with folks on a monthly or quarterly basis. Even in the constant drone of all the Web 2.0 tools we’re all supposed to be hip, savvy and using endlessly, don’t lose sight of the e-newsletter and its value.

E-newsletters help folks connect with you, and using them enables you to inspire, engage and initiate real connection.

Before I share some of my favorite e-newsletters, I had to share Joe Pulizzi’s fantastic post titled, “10 Content Marketing Tips To Start Now for 2009″ and urge you to go and read it.

Good content builds trust. Good content empowers relationships. Good content engenders community.

Some of my current favorite e-newsletters include:

Junta42’s newsletter

Cincom’s stellar Expert Access e-newsletter

B.L. Ochman’s “What’s Next Online” e-newsletter

Publishers Lunch e-newsletter

All of these offer value to the reader, a unique take on the world at large and inspiring content.

Don’t leave e-newsletters out of your mix.

I’m really humbled and thrilled today as one of my favorite clients, Joe Camp (father of Benji the dog) had his book - “Soul of A Horse” hit #4 on the Dallas, TX non-fiction bestseller lists! Very cool as it’s representative of how a book can rise to the top city by city. So don’t get discouraged if your book hasn’t hit #1 in the nation, look to each city to drive it forth! Joe’s book is now in its 4th printing! Go Joe. And here’s a wonderful feature that Daryn Kagan (past CNN anchor) did about Joe and his amazing horse.

I love writing speeches for folks and one of the musts in speeches for business audiences is the ability to both engage and inspire during the speech.

One of the best speeches I’ve seen in the past couple of years was the one that Al Gore delivered at Disney during a business conference I was covering. His opening line was, “Hello, I’m Al Gore and I’m a recovering politician.” With that singular line he held the audience’s rapt attention.

Self-deprecation is a surprisingly good tool in the current economic stratus because we all need a bit of a lift when it comes to surviving these challenging times.

Gore’s past speechwriter and best-selling author, Daniel Pink, noted three important elements in speeches, during an interview with Tim Ferriss who asked, “What are the necessary ingredients of a good speech?”

Pink said, “I’ve said many times that the three essential ingredients in any good speech are brevity, levity, and repetition.”

(To see the full Ferris interview.)

Effective speech giving is being able to naturally and authentically incorporate the real you into the speech. We all long for true connection especially in these days of Web 2.0, 3.0, 80.0 and beyond, we still want to be inspired and genuinely touched.

When I interviewed Doris Kearns Goodwin, I asked, “What is the most rewarding thing about being a historian?” and her response was, “It is a great gift to really get to know people through their letters and speeches because that is often where you will find the real person behind the historical persona.”

One of the best things you can do when you prepare a speech is to be a real person.

A stunning and still inspiring speech was Pierre Omidyar’s keynote speech, in that speech Omidyar says,

Read the rest