Dear SnarkMonster: please change your email name

I while back I received an email from a mediator called SnarkMonster (well, not exactly that, though pretty darn close. I changed it slightly to protect the sender). That’s the name in the “From” field, along with a return email address that was similar.

And I couldn’t help wonder, Do they send emails with that name to potential clients? Would you hire someone called SnarkMonster to be your mediator?

Dear SnarkMonster, please change your email name.

Here are some good articles from other sources [Read more]

4 reasons online networking is valuable for mediators even if your market is local

I know a lot of mediators who primarily market their practices to a local geographic area. If you’re one of them, you may think that developing a web presence or participating in social networking has less payoff than for someone whose work extends beyond geographic boundaries.

You might want to re-consider that conclusion.

In Social Networking and a Small Town Business - Why Bother?, small business blogger and consultant Becky McCray calls local marketers to attention with, [Read more]

The mediator tech file vault, May 2008

The Mediator Tech File Vault is a regular feature that dips into the archives and shares still-relevant mediation marketing and practice management articles from around this time a year or two ago. Here’s the selection for May:

• 4 questions your ADR website should answer immediately
• Do you know how to make mediation a sticky idea?
• 584 business card ideas
• Are your website’s colors conveying the message you intend?
• The secret of successful business card exchanges
• Are big turnoffs lurking on your website’s homepage?

Enjoy,

How to start a mediation business blog

Business blogging, once the odd step-cousin of personal blogging and the source of weird looks from fellow mediators when I started in 2002, is all the rage now.

That’s a good thing and a bad thing. A good thing because blogs can be powerful mechanisms for building valuable real estate on the web. A bad thing because, like any bandwagon, jumping on just because someone tells you that you should can be a recipe for wasting your time. As I’ve mentioned before, successful blogging takes commitment.

If you’re considering blogging as part of your overall marketing strategy, I have an excellent resource to recommend. Michael Martine of Remarkablogger has made his 80-page ebook, How to Start a Business Blog available for free download to anyone who wants it. You should want it. It’s good. [Read more]

Blog commenting as a mediator networking activity

Earlier this month I offered up some thoughts about building web presence and marketing yourself via commenting (credibly) on others’ blogs.

If you’re new to Mediator Tech, you can find those posts at How and Why to Comment on a Blog and Effectively Brand Your Blog Comments with an Avatar.

Now I’ve run across DoshDosh’s excellent post, Rethinking Blog Comments: Much More than Just a Quick Way to Get Traffic, that adds some rich thinking to the idea. [Read more]

Tech support for mediators and other everyday people

One of the most vexing challenges of being a small office or home office entrepreneur is access to smart, time- and cost-effective tech support when something isn’t working.

When I have a tech problem, I want:

• To speak to a human…and the right human to help me.
• Not to spend time guessing which department in the phone system is the best one to help me.
• Not to wait in a very long phone queue.
• Not to be the person on whom the new tech support trainee is learning.
• Not to be told by the hardware manufacturer that it’s the software’s fault, and the software manufacturer that it’s the hardware’s fault. I have little patience for being their pingpong ball. Give me tech support with an interest in helping, not blaming someone else.
• An answer. A cure. A resolution. Fast. Because every 30 minutes I’m on the phone in the middle of the business day is 30 minutes of lost work in my business.

These seem to me like simple wants, yet it’s the rare technical support that consistently delivers them to me. [Read more]

Tech roundup for mediation road warriors

This month’s resource roundup gathers together tech tips and resources for mediation road warriors:

• Evolution of Security – The TSA blogs. Who knew? I’ve come to like Bob the blogger quite a bit. He’s earnest and direct and helpful. And there are surprisingly good little tips interspersed throughout, even some entertainment value. If you want to see what screeners can see of you beneath your clothes, check out Bob’s post on fully body image scans.
• KeepYouSafe.com – A free “online safe deposit box” for keeping private copies of important information, such as travel documents.
• Oh, Don’t Forget – This site does jut one thing: Sends text messages you request, where you request, when you want them to be sent. Time Magazine named it one of the 50 Best Websites of 2007. I can see its use on and off the road.
• Airport security tips for traveling with a laptop – I’ve kept my business card taped to the bottom of my laptop for ages, and here are a few other tips. Did you know you should make sure your laptop is fully charged?

Odds and Ends

I’ll be giving a speech on Making Mediation Your Day Job and doing a book signing at the annual meeting of the NH Conflict Resolution Association on the evening of June 4. If you’re an NHCRA member, you’ll get a mailing with the details. And if you already have the book, bring your copy and I’ll inscribe it. Hope to see you there!

Recover your lost cell phone with YouGetItBack.com

So many gadgets, so many opportunities to lose them.

Now enterprising YouGetItBack.com, a company based out of Ireland, is offering services to “mediate” the return of your wayward CrackBerry and many other phones, MP3 players and mobile gadgets. Even laptops.

They offer two services you may find helpful, one free and one requiring a single low-cost investment up front:

• Lost and Found Service: You purchase a security tag that’s placed on the back of your gadget. If an honest person finds it, they go to the designated website and use the security tag to notify YouGetItBack of their find. The company then notifies you. Tags run $9.99 US.
• Cellphone Superhero: A “clever piece of software that allows you to lock your phone remotely” if you lose it. It’s free and in beta.

They also offer to let you back up your cellphone data [Read more]

The ABCs of conflict resolution

Some time ago, I interviewed Settle It Now’s Vickie Pynchon as part of my Success Leaves Clues series. I’m a regular reader of Vickie’s blog because I love her smarts and edgy humor.

The blogosphere first connected me with Vickie and she’s now part of what Diane Levin aptly named the ADR Blog Posse…the people I turn to when I could use a little reasoned reaction from fellow bloggers. They include Vickie, Diane, Geoff Sharp, Gini Nelson and Stephanie West Allen.

When Vickie told me about the book she’s working on a while back, I was instantly in love with her idea. I love it because it’s so, well, Vickie. Smart, snarky in a good way, and just waiting to be done. Vickie is the perfect person to write this book and the world’s going to love it. [Read more]

Effectively brand your blog comments with an avatar

In yesterday’s post on blog commenting, I referenced an article by web designer Dawud Miracle. In Do You Brand Yourself in Your Blog Comments? Dawud said,

“I wanted to ‘brand myself’ as Dawud Miracle so that as I was more visible around the blogosphere, the recognition of my name would carry more and more weight…I wanted to be known for who I am and who I am is Dawud Miracle.”

In addition to using your full name in the same form consistently, another way to send a consistent brand message is to have an avatar. An avatar is a representation of yourself in image form. It may be a photo, an icon, your logo or any kind of visual object that stands in for you. I use a cropped version of my professional headshot as my avatar. [Read more]

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