@NowSourcing.Com

Twitter, while excellent, short circuits the full potential of the thoughts that we seed into it. I’m putting a clock to the amount of time that it takes to write this blog post from start to finish, and will have it take no longer than 2 minutes.

Why? Because I’d like to get some of my brain back away from Twitter

Kidding aside – it’s important to elaborate on one’s thoughts. For me personally, I seek to strive in full abundance theory mode. People from all around seek advice from myself and my company, and we’re here to deliver. Sure, I could have lead in by putting out a short Twitter post. But this goes slightly beyond that 140 characters. File this away and before you do, let it serve as a reminder and a word of caution. Your thoughts should remain yours. Tweet away, but don’t forget that important lesson.

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At one point or another you’ve probably come across motivational posters.  Whether in a corporate boardroom or an email chain forward, some are meant to be meaningful and heartfelt, while others are downright funny.  Here’s our collection of the 7 best social media motivator posters:

Be sure to make a motivational poster of your own with the parody motivator generator.

LinkedIn

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StumbleUpon

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Twitter

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Digg

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Facebook

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Delicious

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The Internet (says it all)

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Related posts

• 10 Rules of Social Media (nowsourcing.com)
• Quasi-motivational posters (dougbelshaw.com)
• SEO Motivators (wiep.net)

You’ve probably noticed the new change of clothes around here.  Why just have a change of clothes when you can have a whole ensemble though?  Here is a list of things to come:

Social media case studies – enough buzzwords already.  Let’s get into the meat and potatoes.  We’ll cover some examples of what worked, and perhaps even some examples of what didn’t.  And these case studies won’t just be coming from us – send us your best and brightest, and we’ll talk.

PPC – what’s that you say? Yes, it is a social media blog and will remain a social media blog.  Still, let’s face it: social media is one new branch of Internet marketing (and yes, you can tell me how it is soft sales, branding, engagement, customer service, etc, etc…but that’s still marketing).  A branch that should be supplemented by organic SEO and PPC.  So, we’ll be focusing on PPC.

Widgets, widgets, and more widgets – we’ll be evaluating and adding the best of breeds in search (i.e. Lijit), comment systems (intense debate, sezwho, disqus), Tweetbacks, and others like Google Friend Connect.  Plugins too.

Webinars – plans are in the works to have actual in person and web classes.  Stay tuned.

And as promised, we’re delivering a fresh post to you once a day.  Peace.

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I’m a sucker for analogies.  Baseball analogies in particular.  Even if you don’t like baseball, you should appreciate this one: your blogging staff is like a pitching rotation.

For those of you that *gasp* don’t know baseball well enough to follow the analogy, let me explain.  A pitching rotation in baseball is a group of high stamina starting pitchers that will pitch every few days.

The point here is that no single pitcher has to pitch every single day so that they will get burned out.

As with blogging, if you personally were expected to blog daily along with your other duties and goals in life, you might find it challenging.  Having regular blog contributors help you tow the line that is your blog.  Regular business blogging has enough upside that it should be in your best interest for you to get yourself a pitching rotation if you do not already have one.

Here’s what I look for in firming up my blog pitching rotation:

Opposites attract. Not to say that the other writers need to be polar opposites in personality, though it definitely gives a blog good character to have multiple regular voices.

Editorial skills.  Unless you are employing an editor to oversee all posts, the writer should be able to hold their own with a professionally edited piece.  Nothing loses your audience like the you’re /  your and to / too nightmares and beyond.

They are social media users.  It certainly helps to have writers that are already immersed in social media, as they will then have a knack for how to cater to social news site goers.  Socialites to be are still ok, as you can show them the ninja arts, too.

They know how to blog.  Seems like a no-brainer at first, though there is a huge difference between an essay/book writer and a blogger. Bloggers know how to write for the web, find appropriate images, are masterful of internal and external linking, and know how to respond to comments.  This is a must.

They have time.  Good bloggers are in high demand – make sure that the blogger can keep up with the schedule that you agree on.

How do you keep your blog pitching rotation steady?

Related articles:

• SocialWhoIs.com – All About The Social Web (killerstartups.com)
• Helping Pitchers Succeed (stevenellis.com)
• Friday Poll: Do “Social Media Experts” Need A Blog? (rohitbhargava.typepad.com)

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A few days ago, you might have seen my claim that I would begin blogging daily.

I’ve been thinking that while this site is a great resource, many might miss it due to infrequent or unexpected updates.

Regardless of our past update frequency, blogging daily sounds like a tall order.  Here are some steps I plan to employ in order to keep daily weekday blogging (and quality) up to par:

1 – More regular writers. Having guest posters is fun and gives people some fresh ideas, though having regular contributors takes on a whole other voice to your blog.  Select these people wisely, as they should balance your normal tone.

2 – Nightblogging. I’ve just found it most effective to blog in the middle of the night.

3 – Assembly line method. One thing that has been particularly effective for me is what I’ll refer to here as assembly line blogging.  Literally, if you look at your blog post as pieces on an assembly line, they become easier, especially when you’re looking to keep up a frequent pace.

So let’s say I come up with a great idea to blog, but don’t have the time.  I quickly jot down the idea in notepad, or put in a draft in Wordpress, usually with a catchy title.  When time will allow, I will continue to develop the idea.  Unless it’s a pure research post, the last steps I will do will be adding links, images and video.  Give it a final edit, and the post is on its way.

4 – Delayed Publishing. Thanks to the beauty of Wordpress, we’re able to schedule posts to publish in the future.  While I might have some great ideas at 3am, it might not get the best exposure should I choose to publish at that time.  So I could publish at 6am and have the blog do the publishing work by itself – just in time for my morning coffee.  Does it really take that much time and work to publish a blog post? Of course not – it’s just nice to know that your post is on its way in a scheduled fashion.

5 -  Keeping Fresh. Nothing keeps you on your game like blogging on a daily basis.  Once you fall off your schedule, you may find yourself in a pattern of “paralysis through analysis.” I’ve fallen into this trap too before.  You haven’t blogged for what you think is far too long, so you over think and over analyze the “perfect post.” You sit on it for days, maybe even weeks.  Last I checked, nobody has won the Nobel Peace Prize for writing a blog post, so break your behavior here and publish already.  It’s a self-defeating behavior that doesn’t help you, and your audience would appreciate the updates.

6 – There are some things Twitter wasn’t made for. Yes, you heard me.  Twitter can’t make your coffee (though you can order coffee from it), and it can’t blog.  Not beyond 140 characters.  So this can lead to a lot of noise.  Also, you don’t “own” your Twitter blog and links are nofollow, so the more you Tweet, the more you’re actually working for Twitter.  Reclaim some of your blog power – your readers will thank you for the focus.

7 – Keep one step ahead of yourself. Try to keep at least one full post ahead of your writing.  If you can’t do that, at least have a few half written ones, ya slacker

I’m not asking you to blog daily…though I’m curious: what do you do to keep up your pace?