In this month’s issue of Her Nashville Magazine, I touch on a topic I’m often asked about: how to establish a consistent, relevant voice for your blog.

It took me years to find my blog(s) obsession, tone and style. Along the way, I discovered that while search engines love–and drive many, many random surfers to–my posts about nail polish and Steve Sullivan’s hockey comeback, my actual readers prefer less “stuff I like” and more teachable-geek-and-career-moments. My metrics spoke to me; I listened and adjusted my content accordingly.

If you’ve been blogging for a while, I’d love to hear about how you’ve found and continue to fine-tune your written voice. In the meantime, here’s a teaser from my May column:

Obsession is key.
Pick a topic and make it the only thing you write on and rant about. For example: my FlackRabbit blog is about PR and geek stuff. When folks visit my site, they expect to read about those things and nothing else. I love hockey, but I don’t blog about it. I also love my husband, but never write about married life. When we have kids one day, I will not turn FlackRabbit into a journal about motherhood. If I did any of those things, I’d lose my audience. The plain truth is that hockey, hubby and kiddos aren’t what my readers signed up for and I respect that. Read More…

It’s that time of year again! For the geek and social media set, March means one thing: South by Southwest Interactive, or SXSWi for short. In this month’s issue of Her Nashville magazine, I share with you the new tech concepts and applications–including Quora and JumpScan–that I hope to learn more about next week. Here’s a teaser:

Quora:
The early adopter geek community is positively beside itself over this “continually improving collection of questions and answers created, edited, and organized by everyone who uses it.” Once you sign up for a free account at Quora.com, you can “follow” and start conversations about topics and questions (and relevant answers) of your choosing.

Quora was co-created by Charlie Cheever, a former engineer/manager at Facebook, and the goal of the site is to create a sort of collective, ever-expanding database of all knowledge. It sounds good to me, but I’m not yet sold on how non-spammy and useful it will actually be. Stay tuned; I’m sure Quora’s marketing and development folks will be out in full-force at SXSW this year.

JumpScan:
I’m not sure how practical or mainstream this technology will ever be, but I’m intrigued by new applications like JumpScan, which turns Quick Response (QR) Codes into virtual business cards. JumpScan is in Beta, so it is still working out the kinks, but the gist of it is this: sign up, create a profile, receive your personal bar code-type thing and post it on the Internet somewhere.When folks scan your code using a smartphone scan-reader like ScanLife, their phone’s browser will open up your profile, giving that person easy access to the information you chose to share (it is a much more streamlined process than I’m making it sound).

I’m newly fascinated with QR code technology and hoping I’ll discover more creative marketing and reputation management uses for it this year.

Read the full column here!

Since February is the official month purchasing random tokens of affection, I figured now would be a good time to share with you my top technology crushes. Maybe you last-minute shoppers will find something for your soul mate. In this month’s issue of Her Nashville magazine, you’ll read about my obsession with likely suspects such as the iPhone and Kindle; however, it may surprise you to learn I’m just as keen on mobile banking. It just never gets old for me. Here’s a teaser:

No. 4: Mobile Banking (fees vary)
I giggle like a schoolgirl every time I check my bank balance from a balcony of a cruise ship, transfer money from savings to checking while standing in line at Starbucks, or pay a bill while brushing my teeth. For me, the magic of secure, real-time mobile banking never gets old. My bank, SunTrust, offers clients free mobile banking and even has a free iPhone app that allows me to do all kinds of cool, important banking-type things with just a tap of a finger. For the folks out there who do not “trust” mobile banking; I can assure you, your bank takes your online security seriously. Give mobile banking a try today.

Clearly, mobile banking is not an acceptable Valentine’s gift, but whatever. I still love it. Read the full column here!

You know how sometimes you want to do something, but then decide you’re not going to just to spite someone? I see this happening a good bit with technology hold-outs. One main reason: they are sick of being nagged about how “out of touch” they are, so they decide (if even subconsciously) to prove the Social Media Disciples wrong. They’ll get along without the Internet or Facebook just fine, thank you very much!

In my January Her Nashville column, I offer up a few tips on the best ways to share your geekish enthusiasm and convert the tech-less masses without starting a technology revolt. Here’s a teaser:

Don’t be pushy
When you lead the horse to water, don‘t try to shove him in the pool. It’s poor form and ineffective: the horse is only going to get angry and certainly won’t ever trust you around anything resembling a lake. The same is true for the Internet. You’ll be much more successful in your effort to convert your non-techie peers, relatives or clients by showing them that it’s safe to jump in. You, and a host of well-respected others, are already surfing around, and the water is fine.

Applaud their approach
If someone was afraid to swim and finally dove in, you certainly would not criticize their form and choice of swimwear. Think about this the next time a friend finally ditches their flip phone for a Droid or creates a Facebook account with a status they rarely update. It’s not when they “joined,” what technology they use, or how they compare to others that counts. The fact that they are giving technology a chance is the real achievement. So, avoid the temptation to dictate a preferred, one-size-fits-all social media strategy. You may be an newly converted iPhone fan, Facebook poker and hashtag addict, but not everyone else has to be. Read More…

Just about every major task I do well—or now have an obsession with—stems from a practical lesson learned from my own stunningly horrific error. Which leads me to believe with utmost conviction that failure is a gift. In my December Her Nashville column, you’ll read about one of my more memorable mistakes (hint: pubic and public are not interchangeable, no matter what spell check says) and hear my take on why you should count failure among your blessings this holiday season. Here’s a teaser:

I’m willing to bet that many of your memorable life-lessons are those you learned the hard way. Whether it involved starting a small business, sports competitions, your first marriage, email etiquette or child rearing, haven’t we all experienced complete failure? Public mistakes and embarrassing moments make for unforgettable, priceless clarity.

But if failure is frequently beneficial, why do we fear it? Why are we motivated by “inspirational” phrases like Robert Schuller’s “What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?” And don’t forget about the (too) often quoted, “Failure is not an option.” Read More…

If you enjoy my endless loop of pep talks and guinea pigs urgings, you’ll totally love my column in the November issue of Her Nashville magazine. In Try, Try Again, I give you four easy tips on building your geek-confidence. Here’s a teaser:

I’m not sure who started the rumor that only a select few, twenty-something, childless, computer nerds would become the Internet Chosen and that the World Wide Web, Google, Apple and Twitter only understand the needs of these elite Geeks. I don’t know who convinced the tech-challenged masses that they deserve a life of frustration, spammy Hotmail accounts, Zach Morris phones and AOL. But it’s all a dirty lie.

No doubt I can find more than a few IT geeks who fit the Chosen bill, but as a whole, this stereotype doesn’t hold water and only serves to deter the technologically curious. Anyone can be “good” at this stuff. It simply comes down to practice, play, a little self-confidence and the wisdom of crowds. Read More…

I am excited about my October Her Nashville Magazine column: Clear Channel. These 700 or so words will give you the do’s and don’ts of an effective Web designer relationship.

Since I’m married to a Web guy, I like to think that you can trust me on this one. The Do’s in this column really do work. And if you ignore the don’ts, you’re likely setting yourself up for failure. Or at the very least, you’ll end up working with a disgruntled geek. That is never fun. Here’s a teaser:

Do

Your homework. Only engage a web guy after you have complete and thoughtful answers to the following questions: Who is your audience? How much information do you need to communicate on the site? Who is going to write your web copy? What do you want visitors to be able to do on your site? What is your timeline? What is your budget? What are some examples of websites you love/hate? Do you need a mobile version of your site? What are your search engine optimization goals? Are you seeking social media integration? Do you want to make your own website edits? Sure, it’s a lot to think about, but your answers help the web person build the most appropriate product.

Don’t

Engage in condescending bargaining. “My cousin says he can do this for free” is never a good way to start a web guy relationship. If the web guy is smart, he’ll tell you to go hire your cousin, and he’ll likely mutter something about another place you can go. Read More…