Let’s now look at the term bloglightenment, whichI define in this way – using your blog to enrich understanding and the spread of knowledge about your expertise, your book, your product or your market.

What it doesn’t mean is using your blog as a one way marketing conversation. I think it’s incredibly important to start defining why we’re all using the social media tools we’re using and how WE truly want to use them.

As the hype for social media usage continues to rise, so does the misuse and misapplication of these tools.

I believe you should blog the change you want to see in the world. This is the harder path to take, but ultimately it’s the more valuable one to your community and to the world.

This is not as hard as you might think it is. What bloglightenment requires is your commitment to blogging with the full intention of sharing your insight freely and openly so others can benefit from it.

Stop thinking of your blog as strictly a marketing or lead generation tool. Start using your blog to affect change in the way people relate, do business together and lift one another up.

Having been on the Web since 1996, this is the most exciting time I’ve seen because of all these tools and the very real power they bring to communicating truly on a worldwide scale.

Don’t waste one more day of your blogging content on insignificant or bait and switch marketing information. Don’t waste your community’s time by snarky blog posts. Elevate your writing and you will elevate the lives of all those who read your blog.

Take a look at your blog today and see how you can apply blog-ightenment to the content mix. Make your blog personal, meaningful and actionable.

Here are some great examples for you to look at: (Note, some include  past or current client blogs that I think are extraordinary!)

Manisha Thakor

Mark Levy

John Perkins

Toby Bloomberg

Lloyd Dangle

Mitch Ditkoff

Sam Horn

Liz Kitchens

Steve Kayser

Let these bloggers inspire you to bloglightenment! I can’t wait to read your insight!

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So wait till the end and I’ll let you know.

I’m listening this morning to K.C. and the Sunshine Band on my iTunes and I just finished walking a mile around our neighborhood. In the mornings, where I live, there are deer, snakes, frogs and rabbits meandering about. Often when I go out in my front yard I  see the same sleeping beautiful doe with two brand new baby deer sleeping beside her.

At about the same time, my over- abundantly gorgeous pug Willie starts barking and wakes up the poor doe as we make our way out the door.

She wakes up her babies and off they run.

I don’t think about email, blogging, tweeting, or linked-ing-ing while I’m walking. I think about BEING. I think about how more of us need to think about BEING, and less about DOING.

While all these tools in social media: blogging, tweeting, facebooking give us incredible new ways to communicate, it doesn’t mean we have to DO it all the time. Spending too much time on social media or doing TOO much on social media does not guarantee that you’ll have that time returned to you in dollars, customers, or new speaking gigs.

Don’t be caught in the hype cycle of these tools and give up your BEING to them.

Use your time efficiently  – don’t panic, don’t sweat it if you aren’t able to blog more than twice a week and for gosh sakes stop comparing Ashton Kutcher’s number of followers to yours.

Just BE.

Find the best narrative for your social media content and tell your story one post, one tweet and one facebook update at a time. Don’t overload folks with inane chatter just to show you’re on the platforms. Don’t let social media folks talk you into spreading yourself too thin over all these channels so that all you really have is watered down messaging and communities that are fragmented over the different tools.

You can make the same strides without the frenzy and you’ll enjoy it a lot more. Don’t blog without a reason, don’t tweet endlessly and don’t Facebook your 8th grade history teacher to death with updates of how smart you turned out to be. (Sorry, Mr. Wilbanks! I’ll try to work on this.)

Aim for a good meditative balance for all you’re doing online and offline and aim for your work to benefit others first and your bottom line second.

What’s the translation for the title of this post?

BE HERE NOW.

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Today I flew out from San Francisco after speaking to the Northern California Book Publicity and Marketing Association luncheon yesterday on ”Online PR and Social Media,” and spent the flight listening to the Dead on my iPhone.

This was shortly after having coffee in Sausilito this morning with my friend Ann Matranga at The Depot. We sat outside and watched the kids play in Lytton Square which Bill Graham helped create and we talked about the Dead.

So it seems synchronistic, speaking of the Dead that David Meerman Scott and Brian Halligan today announced, Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead: What Every Business Can Learn from The Most Iconic Band in History (Wiley, 2010).

There are so many reasons why this book is cool, but I have to be honest and say I love Chapter 8: Encourage Eccentricity and the whole focus on the fans and marketing.

I love it because it reveals how a company or band or individual can tap into the power of differentiation and eccentricity to make their way in the world.  Not only can this bring you success, but it’s the right thing to do!

To quote from that chapter, “The Grateful Dead teaches us that we are all eccentric in some ways. Smart companies understand eccentricities and create a market from them.”

I also like this from the book,  ”Deadheads are your neighbors, coworkers and friends.” As a dancing bear tattooed Deadhead I’ll have to confess, I know the deadheads, the deadheads are friends of mine, and I am proud to still be one!

As Bill Walton says in the foreword of the book, “Like other daring visionaries The Grateful Dead rejected conventional wisdom.”

That’s why we are still dancing – and that’s really how you can build a fan base that even after all these years is still trading Dead stories, tapes, t-shirts and mementos of their time drifting with the Dead.

So any marketing lesson that Scott and Halligan share in this book you definitely should tune into.

Go see David’s post all about the book tour at his site.

And check out his new tie-dye pic on the site too. Wonderful.

Meanwhile, me and my dancing bear will be digging the marketing nuggets of this extraordinary and timely book on marketing!

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Friday is a good day for posting a few sites you should know about and tools you should be using as an author. So enjoy and think kindly of me as the temperature in Austin is heading toward the upper nineties!

1. If you’ve not yet registered to publish your blog on Kindle then you should do so today. Here is a great and easy way to do it on Squidoo.  I have to say too that Seth Godin mentioned this in his incredible talk at IBPA this year so YOU really should do it!

2. If I were an online book publicist (which I sometimes am) then I would feel incredibly happy to share the link to the Book Bloggers Convention attendees and tell you that you don’t need an online publicist to build your own book blog pitch list from those blogs.

2A. Don’t copy the whole list and then just spam pitch them. Take time to read their blogs, see if your book is a good fit and contact them one at a time. (Of course one would hope this is what PR flaks would do too, but alas, I’m not sure they are as smart as you!)

3. Gee, I wish all those cool blog posts I have could somehow be converted to newspaper-style format, so I could be my own mini-me publisher. Hmm. How can I do that? Try Feedjournal.

4. If I were an author I would be using Muckrack.com to find what journalists are tweeting in my vertical/topic and I would make a list and follow them on my Twitter account.

5. If I were someone who is always trying to figure out other ways to use Twitter (and I am), I might start following the publications I hope to be featured in and anytime they tweet out a new article link, be one of the first ones to go the publication site and comment on the article. If I do it often enough they might even think about using me as an expert for a future story. If I do it without marketing blather and authentically then at the very least I’ve created a way for folks to find me and perhaps visit my blog.

6. If I wanted to save money on news clipping services and use the Google alerts I set up in an even more powerful way, then I would convert all the places I’m mentioned or featured online by using HTML to PDF converter for free.

7. If I had an intern and wanted to be booked on radio shows, I might have them go through this list and see how many are a good fit for my topic and who the producers for the shows are by visiting the web links to the actual station. (Ok, this means you have to do a little bit of sleuthing but is that so wrong?!)

8. If I were an author hoping to get a book review or a writer wanting a book deal I would follow the folks listed under books here.

Now go and conquer all things Web and may the “book-Force” be with you.

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Goddard was where I finally arrived to finish my B.A. in my early 20s and one of the first things you do as part of the work is complete your semester independent study plan with your advisor and fellow group members. The semester’s study is what you will work on throughout the semester once you’ve returned home.

The students there I felt were so hip and artistic and at a depth of soulfulness that I’d not yet experienced. The experience was overwhelming.

I spent several hours during the first few days at Goddard, truly refining what I thought was the magnum opus of all independent study plans. “Oh, this will blow my advisor away,” I thought, full of pride and bravado. “This will go in the halls of infamy as one of the best study plans ever!”

Skipping down to my advisor/group meeting carrying this hallowed six page document, I reveled in anticipation at what I was sure would entail several rounds of standing ovations (from my advisor Rob Tarule and the other six members of the group.) Tripping over a particularly big mound of sidewalk snow should have been my first sign that things were not going to go as I thought they might.

Holding my document in the air as I fell and thereby ensuring its dryness in lieu of my own bloodied knees and wet beret, I walked those final steps to the group’s meeting place.

Finally, it was my turn to present my study plan – rising from my bean bag chair I started reading! Alas, by the fourth paragraph my advisor Rob said, “This sounds very scholarly, but where are YOU in this document? What will change in YOU and your creative work by doing this study?” I couldn’t answer this. Rob gave me one more night to rework the plan -to put ME – in the plan.

It was about 23 degrees that night as I trudged up in my red boots back to the Goddard library to read samples of other plans – anything that might show me what was the RIGHT plan for me.

After spending two depressing hours in one bookshelf area, studying other successfully executed plans, I moved to another row of books. There I spied, “Franny and Zoey” by J.D. Salinger.

Suffering from severe anxiety I sat down on the floor beside the bookshelf and read the book from front to back in the middle of that night in the library. That book was where I found my answer to the block I was feeling over writing the “perfect” study plan.

The answer was this phrase, “An artist’s only concern is to shoot for some kind of perfection, and on his own terms, not anyone else’s.”

I worked all night creating a whole new study plan and in doing so created a plan to be a writer, an artist, an idea-lover not focused on perfection, but focused only on finally meeting and expressing my artistic soul on my own terms.

God bless Salinger for that gift.

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Newton’s Law of Inertia: Every object persists in its state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line unless it is compelled to change that state by forces impressed upon it.

Today is the 367th birthday of Sir Isaac Newton and let it be the first day you move out of inertia about Web 2.0 and into the Law of  Acceleration with Web 2.0.

Here are Six Ways to Stave Off Social Media Inertia:

1. Stop lying under someone else’s apple tree passively waiting for the Web to drop on you, instead start planting your own seeds on the Web.

2. Stop thinking your web presence will grow without you being a part of it. If you’re not digging your own soil, planting your own seeds and watering your own online thought-garden, then you are not participating!

3. Stop kvetching about how everyone else’s orchards are bigger and it’s too late for you to grow your own platform. As everything continues to move online, you need to do so as well.

4. Start tweeting so you can ensure lots of good “traffic” rain to your site or blog through meaningful engagement.

5. Stop wasting time on the Web. Set up a growing plan and stick to it. Keep moving, growing and seeding new ideas and opportunities.

6. Don’t let the force of fear paralyze keep you from finding new ways to build community online.

7. Stop being defined by your age or place in career, and start becoming ageless on the Web through your unique insight and wisdom.

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In his book, Hopcke (a therapist) says people ask him, “How do you work with synchronicity?” and he answers, “Be open to the meaning in what you did not want to happen.”

How does this apply to social media? I think it does beautifully because if there is one thing I know about social media it is that you never know what might happen and you can not underestimate the power of being online and finding new synchronistic communities and readers.

I might say, “”Be open to the meaning in what you do not yet know will happen in social media.”  Stop being afraid of what might or might not happen and just start conversing online.

If you come from a place of reticence, fear and “i’m not enough-ness” online then synchronicity will be hard fought. If you choose to be open to all that CAN and will surely happen if you are participating on the Web, then BELIEVE me you will be constantly amazed at how the Web really works to connect people to their tribe.

It’s not about marketing your ideas, it’s about empowering your community and finding synchronicity between them and you and what can be done to change the world.

It’s not about celebrity. It’s about celebrating how uniquely gifted all of us are and how we can lift up one another.

It’s not about bait and switch and selling something you know is not the real deal. It’s about waking up and typing your heart out because you know in doing that you are doing good.

Every single person on the Web counts toward something greater and at the end of the day, why not be counted?

You matter to the Web. I hope to see you there in the new year.

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2. Don’t forget to look for book discussion groups on the Web as well. Don’t just think blogs. Think forums and book groups online. Read about this group that just formed in the UK.

3. Or look at these groups – Booktalk.org and Bookbrowse.com

4. Check out the ALA information to find more book clubs and book groups at libraries.

5. You absolutely must join Shelfari.com and Goodreads.com and for good karma release at least one copy of your book on Bookcrossing.com.

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Here are 7 questions to ask yourself about how you are running your blog marathon and how well you are utilizing this long blog-race to get your message out.

Answer them to see if you really are blogging purposefully and at the best possible level of empowering a community with your insight.

1. Do I wait until the last possible moment to blog about something or do I treat my blog as if it really can change the world and make certain I blog the change I want to see in the world?

2. Do I blog with envy or do I blog with abundance? Do I understand it’s a marathon not a sprint and I’m not a viral marketer of ideas, I’m an idea-marathoner?

3. Do I celebrate other bloggers’ successes and insights by featuring links to them on my site and my blog?

4. Do I encourage my community to run the marathon with me by blogging questions openly and know that each commenter can contribute to a greater discussion?

5. Is my blog a “have to” or a “can’t but not” blog? Do I view it as a terrible task to get through or do I see it as an immense conduit for expression and empowerment of my community?

6. Do I have a mission statement for my blog? Do I know what I want to engender with my blog content?

7. Do I understand that I’m not blogging just to gain attention, but rather to educate, inform and elevate?

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Even if your book garners only a finalist mention, that helps it stand out amongst a crowded field of books that don’t have any finalist mentions or any award wins. In bookstores when I shopped with my kids, I was always drawn to the children’s books with the bright shiny Newberry Award sticker on them. Why? Because I knew they had been vetted by an objective and savvy group of book enthusiasts and voted tops for kids.

The same holds true in terms of the awards I’ve listed above. The awards are serious business, and the people who run the contests make sure they have a stellar panel of folks reviewing and scoring each book as the “best” in its category.

And don’t forget there are many awards available through local community and regional clubs, for instance, the San Diego Book Awards. If you’re feeling that twinge of “poor me! my book isn’t in published form yet, so I can’t enter” — don’t be silly! You can enter for Best Unpublished Novel awards or Best Creative Non-Fiction awards, to get a good list of those you can simply keep abreast of the ones noted by Writer’s Digest and other leading writing magazines.

This is a good list too for creative book awards available – http://www.bookspot.com/awards/ .

I just had two clients garner nods in the USABookNews awards – Melody Chatelle was a finalist for her book, “Journeys of Heartache and Grace,” and Bill Scheft won Best Humor award for his book, “Everything Hurts.”

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(I’ve included the commercial YouTube at the top of this blog post.)

On bad days, I watch it to make myself laugh. While I don’t think I sound all that Southern, the voice in the Geico commercial does tend to grow on you.

It also reminds me how powerful humor is and why it’s so important to use in our lives and in our social media presence. Laughter is the great equalizer for us all.

My great Aunt Florence used to say, “If you can’t say something funny, don’t bother to say anything at all.” At her funeral this was particularly hard on all of us because what’s funny about a funeral?

In a small cemetery, in Mobile, Alabama we all stood in the rain, led by a minister, who was all of 30, and he used humor to ease our grief.

The minister related how on the last Sunday of Aunt Florence’s life she had managed (at 90 years old) to go to church that morning, have him over for fried chicken and turnip greens at noon, and prior to that mowed the front lawn on her riding mower, in her favorite purple flowered floppy hat.

In fact, she was a little bit peeved at the minister because he came a bit earlier than noon and caught her, all dressed in white on the mower clipping the very last bit of the front lawn. She was a staunch advocate of good Southern manners and you never arrive early for supper in the South.

But caught her he did and despite her chiding, they had a great supper and later that night she went to sleep and passed away. When he finished the story, our tears turned to laughter because his story had so perfectly captured our Aunt Florence and her great love for supper, mowing the lawn and her church.

I suppose today I’m feeling particularly Southern and proud because the Texas Book Festival is this weekend and my client Bill Scheft is here among all the other amazing authors that always make me laugh.

So your “Minding Your Southern Social Media Manners” is really about remembering that laughter is good medicine online and offline.

1. Don’t waste time being snarky.
2. Don’t Twitter twerrible twthings.
3. Don’t Facebook-fatigue folks.
4. Don’t blog bad mojo
5. Don’t ever lose sight that life is best lived offline and online with humor and grace.

DM me on Twitter if you’re at the Fest, would love to see you. Twitter @nettiehartsock .

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It’s really time to stop worrying about how you will “look” on the Web if it’s preventing you from wholly participating. It’s not about how you will look on the Web, it’s about being authentic, engaging and real while you’re on there. It’s about sharing your insight freely and championing those in your peer arena who are doing the same.

If I worried about how I “looked” on the Web, I would have been a failure, during the years from 1995 to 2002, because dare I say, I was a full-time mom, writing my technology news stories late at night for Ziff-Davis and Allbusiness.com , Internet Business Forum (now defunct), all for the sake of being able to stay at home with my kids when they were little. I was lucky and blessed, and left a job at a news station to do this.

I mistakenly thought if someone could have seen the real me (mom, pajamas, milk pump, cheerios strewn throughout my hair, typing feverishly at 4am), they would not be paying me to write as a technology journalist or think the stuff I’d written was worthwile.

But here’s the real secret, they can see you on the Web. They know your heart by your writing. They know who you choose to affiliate with by your blogroll. They know how much you care about your readers of your blog by how often you post really good edu-focused content to uplift your whole community.

The Web community can tell a bait and switch a mile away. This community can also tell when you’re not being honest, authentic and mindful of their time.

If you’re going to spend time on the Web building your platform the biggest thing you need to understand is there’s not a dress code, but there is a social 2.0 code.

Take time to learn it and you’ll thrive. You’ll really make lifelong connections. Hey, maybe you’ll even be like me, who got roses upon the birth of my son Gibson, from a client in New Zealand that I worked with for almost three years and never met.

The only way to truly participate in the Web is to give up control over what you dictate your community should find useful. Decide that you are going to focus your energy on empowering the collective and you’ll be surprised at the Web marketshare you’ll slowly gain.

Decide to invite your community to share their ideas, to guest blog at your site, to openly comment and disagree with your ideas. Elevate the discussion and you’ll elevate your community as well.

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