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BlogWorld 2010 -> 7 Ways to Take Action Now

BlogWorld BadgeThe largest Blogworld yet is behind us.

What now?

The hours of helpful (and not so helpful) seminars, the miles we walked on the trade floor, the networking parties, and the innumerable conversations with vendors, future partners and potential customers. We are hopefully inspired. We might be overwhelmed. We are definitely exhausted.

We came away with many new ideas. Maybe too many! Maybe just enough so that once we get back into the grind of our busy lives, we don’t find our way to act on any of these great ideas.

It is too easy to leave all those great ideas in that closed notebook on the desk. Too often we never get around to sifting through the computer files where we stored those ingenious tidbits that were going to transform our business.

Here are 7 trajectories of action that you can use to guide your after-the-show efforts.

1. Attitude Boost

Participating and persevering in a still-emerging industry during a struggling economy requires courage, passion, and energy.

Select one source of inspiration from the expo that resonated deeply with the challenges you face. What is one way you can transform that model, story, and/or attitude into a vehicle to recharge your juices, restore your confidence and/or rededicate your efforts?

Take action to boost and reinforce your attitude for the work ahead.

2. Personal Branding

Feeling your blog is lost in a crowded sea of exponentially expanding bloggers, consultants, experts, celebrities and companies?

Which one or two speakers at BlogWorld do you remember most clearly? Why do you think the memory is so clear? How do they describe themselves in their title, on their web site, in their materials? List three attributes that make you and your services distinct from everyone else? What is the main thing you want to be know for?

Take action to clarify your primary identity as a distinct contributor in your field.

3. Network Connections

Sometime meeting a hundred people is as good as meeting no one. And yet connections, referrals, partnerships and new business come through relationships.

Go through the business cards you collected from the expo and find the person with whom you connected most deeply. It could be someone who was particularly easy to talk with, someone who was an intriguing example, someone with similar interests, or someone you would like to get to know better. Give them a call this week. Find out what their main take-away from BlogWorld was. Find out what their top goal for this next year is.

Take action to reach out and show interest in a new connection.

4. Strategy Adjustment

The alert entrepreneur is learning and adjusting all the time. While we need to persevere in our efforts, perseverance does not mean stiff-necked, rigid unwillingness to change.

What is one new strategy, approach or product you saw at BlogWorld that might inform your strategy, approach or products? What do you see or understand now that you didn’t see or understand before the expo?

Take action and try one thing differently and do so over the next month.

5. Product Development

It could be an e-book, a workbook, a webinar, a web-based self-study course, a podcast, a software package, a consulting package, etc. etc. You get the idea.

How narrow or broad are your product offerings? What are you currently offering your clients that could be repackaged to meet a different set of needs, audience, or price range?

Select one of your products and develop a low-cost low commitment version of it and then a high-cost high commitment version. The low cost version could be used as a way to build credibility and trust with new connections. The high cost version could be a way to work more deeply and extensively with your current clients.

Take action to repackage one of your products for different uses or different segments of people.

6. Web Site Simplicity

If I came to your web site, would it be completely obvious how you wanted to serve me? Would it be self-evident how I could buy your product or get in touch with you?

Which presenter at BlogWorld impressed you the most? Take a look at their web site and write your own critique. What gets your attention? What is confusing? What is especially clear and attractive? What is hard to find?

Use your critique of that site as a lens now to evaluate your own web site. What is one change can you make right now that will clarify to visitors how you can help solve their problem?

Take action to simplify and focus your home page for brand clarity and response ease.

7. Social Web Involvement

Do you feel like you’re tossing your blog posts into the wind? Putting your wise words out there for the world, and yet not really knowing who you’re helping beyond some anonymous stats.

At BlogWorld we received a wealth of information, models, modes and mean of getting connected more relationally and interactively on the web. Which presenter was an attractive model of the sort of interactivity you would like to experience on the web? Go to their site and watch how they are generating conversation, interacting with their audience, and asking people to buy their services.

Read three other quality blogs in your field. Contribute brief and insightful comments to their posts regularly. Write an occasional blog post of your own highlighting/directing people to one of their excellent posts.

Take action to interact with others in your field on a regular basis.

Now What?

Depending on how much time and energy you have, here are three levels of action you can take to act on what you learned from BlogWorld. Consider yourself a success if you can follow through on any one of these options.

A. Select only one of the above trajectories of action to work with. For that one category what was the most exciting, most relevant, biggest impact idea you came away with from BlogWorld 2010? Write down what you will do this week to take action on that idea.

B. Do the same thing for your top three trajectories of action. In addition to deciding what you will do this week, also write down where you want to be in three months for those three action trajectories.

C. Design a brainstorming grid for all seven trajectories of action. Transfer all your conference take-aways to post-it notes and sort them by trajectory. Next start moving the post-its around according to priority. Those at the top are what you will act on immediately. Those in the middle will be those you will act on over the next three months. Those at the bottom are those that you will accomplish over the next year.

Do something. Anything. Do at least one thing in response to your experience at BlogWorld 2010.

You’ll thank yourself. (And so will those who will ultimately benefit from you doing so!)

On your side,

- Karl Edwards

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2 Responses to “BlogWorld 2010 -> 7 Ways to Take Action Now”

  1. Marcus Goodyear Says:

    Great tips–and now I wish I could have been there. Alas, I have too many choices and not enough time. I’ve scaled back my business travel quite a bit these days.

    Next time I travel, though, I’ll try to remember to include these ideas in my post conference reflections.

  2. Karl Edwards Says:

    Missed you, Marcus!

    In fact, I wrote on my feedback form, “A BlogWorld without Marcus Goodyear leaves a big hole in the program.”

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