6 Traits to Make Your Ideas Thrive: Made to Stick

If you care about raising mediation’s profile in the public, then “stickiness” and a new book on the topic are right up your alley.

You’ve seen sticky ideas, well illustrated by urban legends like these: The infamous kidney-theft hoax. The bear virus email, which a number of well-intentioned friends and colleagues have sent me. Or the one I was asked about far too many times in my years as a college dean: The automatic 4.0.

Now, Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die explores the idea of “stickiness” in depth and offers an informative, humorous and compelling journey through six key traits that make an idea sticky. Brothers Chip and Dan Heath make the case that ideas that thrive have these in common: [Read more]

Tech Intelligence: Tips and Tricks in a Wired World

Well, this is a nice start to the work week.

I noticed an incoming link to Mediator Tech and followed it to a site that’s new to me, Tech Intelligence: Tips and Tricks in a Wired World. I liked what I found there quite a bit…ideas for networking effectively, productivity tips, tools for consultants and other business owners. I sure recommend you take a look.

Then I noticed the link to Mediator Tech. There’s something about seeing one’s blog name in the same list as TechCrunch, Boing Boing, O’Reilly Radar and Web 2.0 that can’t help but make one grin. Maybe even hum a happy little tune. [Read more]

The Mediation Marketing and Management Vault, March 2007

The Mediation and Marketing Vault is a monthly feature that dips into the archives and shares still-relevant articles from one year ago. If you’re new to Mediator Tech, I hope you find these helpful!

13 Common Blogging Mistakes and How to Avoid Them: Good advice from elsewhere on avoiding some common new-to-blogging mistakes. [Read more]

Article Clipping for Clients: Another Note to Geoff Sharp

Dear Geoff,

This is my promised second letter in response to your kind invitation. Bet you didn’t expect your simple question to lead to so much typeface! I’ll just blame it on being a wee bit revved by the cold medicine…

In my first note to you, I closed with saying there was one really good idea suggested by the direct mail piece you supplied in your post, specifically the second one, a copy of which I’ve shamelessly placed here. What I love is the idea it’s based on: Article clipping for prospective and past clients.

This is something I do regularly and which other successful professionals also regularly include in their efforts to be of service to their clients. It’s simple and quick and one of those “value added” ideas I like so much. I’m betting I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know, Geoff, but some of my readers may be new to marketing and so I appreciate you bearing with me. The process generally goes like this: [Read more]

Mediation Marketing and Direct Mail: A Note to Geoff Sharp

Dear Geoff,

I’m up in the middle of the U.S. night with the sniffles and what better way to spend the time but musing, learning and reading. I saw your blog post inviting me to comment on direct mail as a mediation marketing tool and suddenly, Sleepless in Southern NH had the chance to be productive!

So thank you in three ways: For allowing me to spend the night with you (what will my sweet Rodney think when he reads this…that I’ve taken too much cold medicine?), for giving me the opportunity to get my thoughts in order about direct marketing, and for the chance to create fodder that my fellow mediation marketing bloggers can build on and/or disagree with!

I’m going to respond to your question (”Any lessons for mediators here?“) from the perspectives that I bring to the mediation marketing conversation: That some traditional marketing approaches feel uncomfortable for mediators and discomfort leads to inaction, and that cost-effective (which doesn’t always mean free or cheap, of course!) tools are what my readership seeks.

Here’s what’s potentially worthwhile about the direct marketing pieces you received: [Read more]

How to Write an ADR Press Release for an Online World

They’ve been called press releases because they used to be written only for the press. But the times, they are a changin’. Today’s press releases are more accurately called news releases, because you want to write them for the press and for the public.

This may mean changing your approach to writing and distributing news releases as part of your regular marketing activities. Here are a few resources that give you the skinny on today’s news releases and how to do them right: [Read more]

New Service Manages Contract and Agreement Signing Online

If you’re tired of using email or fax to get agreements signed, you may be interested in a new service, Online Sign Off.

This is a bit of what Online Sign Off says about their service:

“Tired of faxing contracts? Clogging up your clients email boxes with design mock-ups? Never sure if a client has received what you sent them? Let Online Signoff manage this and more. Create a document, attach files, include your terms and conditions and send it to your client…Know exactly when a document is first looked at. See which documents have been accepted, which ones have been declined and which ones you are still waiting on.”

[Read more]

The Conflict Resolution Education Connection

Bill Warters, one of the United States’ premier conflict resolution resource innovators, announced a new initiative today, the Conflict Resolution Education Connection. If your ADR work is associated with the K-12 education arena, CREC promises to be a terrific resource. In his blog, Bill noted,

While the site is still under active development…[T]he focus of the site is supporting conflict resolution education in the K-12 range. There is lots of good stuff there already, with more than 175 downloadable items in the searchable catalog.

Copyright © 2007 by Tammy Lenski. All rights reserved.

The Google-Powered Office

If you found my Getting Things Done with Google series helpful and use Google applications in your ADR practice, then you might find a new resource useful for advancing your knowledge of these tools.

I stumbled across The Google-Powered Office Tools group site a few days ago and the tips, wisdom and knowledge compiled there are excellent. The orientation is distinctly business use of Google apps and if you use an RSS reader, you can subscribe to the feed for automatic updates.

Copyright © 2007 by Tammy Lenski. All rights reserved.

Universal Phone Numbers from GrandCentral

A few weeks ago I mentioned GrandCentral, a phone service with a fantastic set of features and a price you can’t refuse…free while in beta (it’s a pretty bump-less beta, I might add).

GrandCentral has continued to get terrific press and lots of nods, the latest from New York Times columnist David Pogue. Pogue’s even created a humorous little video about GrandCentral and you can find it at Too Many Phone Numbers? I was able to view it without logging into my free Times account, so I believe you won’t need an account to take a look. It’s fun and does a pretty good job of showing some of GrandCentral’s best features. Pogue also wrote a complete review which may require a Times account to view. The GrandCentral blog has additional details.

By the way, I get no benefit from mentioning GrandCentral to you. It’s just a service I’m using happily and want to share in case it’s useful to you, too.

Copyright © 2007 by Tammy Lenski. All rights reserved.

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