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 on their own secure servers. I prefer not to share my data with anyone if I can help it, but I have an iPhone and backing up is easy for me. So you may find YouGetItBack’s offer a useful one.

Of course, it begs the question: If the person who finds a lost mobile is honest, can’t they figure out the phone’s owner and just call them? Some phones make that easy. You can make it easier. Two methods that come to mind:

• If your phone has a splash screen that allows you to set the text that shows when your phone is on, change the text to “If found, please call” and your designated number. This probably goes without saying, but I will anyway because I live in gun-loving America: Be safe in the number you choose to offer (maybe not your home).
• Set up an ICE contact in your cell dialing directory. This is good practice beyond just retrieving lost phones. ICE stands for In Case of Emergency and it’s gaining traction among emergency and rescue teams, who know to check for an ICE contact in your phone in circumstances where you can’t speak for yourself. The idea is for you to save an emergency contact person and file them under ICE in your phone’s directory, instead of under their name.

YouGetItBack has this to say for skeptics: “Practice has shown that up to 75-78 % of items are returned by finders if it is easy for them to do so, and if it does not cost them anything. We make it as easy as we possibly can for a finder to get in touch with us after finding an item. As an added incentive, all finders of Yougetitback.com tagged items receive a small reward funded by Yougetitback.com.”

Would you use a service like YouGetItBack? Please leave a comment with your “why” or “why not.”

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.

If you haven’t seen the first few segments of Vickie’s ABC’s of conflict resolution book, you simply must go look at them right now:

• A is for Asshole
• B is for Bully
• C is for Coward
• D is for Drama Queen

Vickie also posted an open letter to her editor, with whom she’s been in discussion – er, ahem, negotiation – over the book’s title. Vickie, for what it’s worth, I’m drawn to the “genteel” title of A is for Donkey because it stops me, makes me think for a second, and then makes me chuckle. The point’s still made, too. But I agree, not as edgy as it might be!

Be sure to line up for Vickie’s book when it comes out,

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.

Bloggers “enable” the use of avatars on their site as a way to help put a name to a face, essentially. I have avatars enabled on Mediator Tech and you’ll find one next to each comment. If the commenter has an avatar, it shows up. If they don’t, then it defaults to a head and upper torso image instead.

Where to get an avatar

Many, though not all, blogs use Gravatar avatars. To sign up for a free Gravatar, you’ll need to create an account (I’ve had one for years and they’ve never spammed me or misused my email) and have an image file to use for the avatar. Even if it’s not cropped properly yet, once you load it into Gravatar, it’ll help you crop it. That’s it.

Some people create cartoon-ized versions of themselves to use as avatars. Well-done cartoons can still be pretty professional looking. Though I’ve not tried them, I’ve heard people recommend Meez, BeFunky and CartoonMe as good sources for cartoon avatars.

Avatar tips for the mediation marketer

• If you’re commenting and your avatar isn’t showing up, check to make sure the email address you’re using when you comment is the same one you have assigned to your avatar. Not using an email that you’ve associated with your avatar is a common cause of the problem. Be sure to check the case of the email too – luigi@shihtzu.com is not the same in Gravatar as Luigi@ShihTzu.com.
• Check your Gravatar account periodically to make sure email and other information is still accurate. And if you’ve changed your logo, your headshot or the like, it may be time to update your avatar, too.
• Pick an avatar that makes sense from a branding and marketing point of view, if you’re using blog comments as a way to help build your web presence and online brand. I think it’s particularly true of mediation that people by the mediator as much as they buy the service, so a friendly, accessible avatar (like a headshot) may be your best choice.

Go get yourself an avatar, then leave a comment here to show it to us!

How and why to comment on a blog

I’m always grateful when a reader contacts me with their thoughts and ideas in response to one of my posts here at Mediator Tech. Not only does it help me get a sense of how well my content is meeting your needs, but it also gives me the interaction with fellow ADR folks that’s a good chunk of the fun of blogging.

Thank you to each and every one of you who has ever contacted me with a comment.

I’ve come to understand lately that some of you are emailing me to comment because you’re not aware that there’s a comment box on the article’s web page (if you get the article by email or RSS feed, you don’t see the comment box) or are uncomfortable leaving a public comment. So I’m writing this post to encourage you to comment on blogs and to offer up some tips if you’re new to it.

Why comment on a blog post?

• Commenting is like joining a conversation. I (or any blogger) start the conversation and I’m hoping you’ll help extend it.
• Commenting is a way to build link love and Google juice for your own site. You help build your own web presence with effective commenting practices.
• Commenting helps others discover you, because your name will be turned into a link to whatever website you list (if you have one, of course).
• The blogger will love you, even when you disagree (unless you do it wish such lack of grace that you’re more memorable for your ascerbic style than your comment). We don’t blog to send our voices out into the universe. We blog to connect with you.

Commenting tips

• If you’re reading a blog post via an email subscription, just click on the post’s title (sometimes there’s also a clear link to the article) and you’ll be taken automatically to the article on the blogsite. Scroll down to the end of the article and you’ll find a comment box.
• Most (if not all) comment features require your email, in part so that we can follow up with you if there’s a technical or other problem with your comment. Your email is not published and not available to spammers, so you should not worry about including it when commenting on reputable blogs.
• If you see a checkbox that allows you to be notified of follow-up comment (I use one here), I encourage you to leave it checked. You’ll then be able to see what others write or what the blogger writes in response to your comment, without having to check back on the webpage. And you can notify the blogger’s system anytime that you don’t want to receive the follow-up comments anymore.
• You can leave more than one comment! If you leave a comment, the blogger replies, and there’s something more you’d like to say as a result, by all means, continue the conversation.
• When you comment, add to the conversation by contributing your own reactions and ideas. Don’t use commenting just to promote yourself. It’s a turn-off in the blogosphere and can have the opposite effect from what you intend.
• I was at dinner over the weekend with a terrific group of business people who blog and conversation worked its way around to people who fill in a tagline, promotional phrase or product name instead of their own name in the comment form. Universal opinion was a big thumbs down. Use your own name!
• Unless you’re trying to protect your identity for some reason, use your first and last name. I’ll leave it to my pal Dawud Miracle to explain why.
• When someone comments on your own blog, if you have one, take the time to leave a reply comment. It’s a way to thank them for taking the time, a way to make them feel welcome, and a way to encourage them to continue participating in the future.

Commenting doesn’t completely replace contacting the blogger directly by email, of course. If you have a question or comment that doesn’t pertain to a post, then email is a perfect choice. If you have a comment others might appreciate seeing, then the comment box is the right choice. If your comment is very personal or particularly snarky, then email may be the best option.

What do you think? You know what I’m going to say here, right? Leave me a comment and join the conversation!

Do you recognize the blissful ignorance effect in your mediation marketing?

Is it possible to give too much information about mediation or your services in your marketing?

Maybe so.

Consider this University of Iowa study and the so-called Blissful Ignorance Effect:

“We found that once people commit to buying or consuming something, there’s a kind of wishful thinking that happens and they want to like what they’ve bought,” said assistant professor of marketing Dhananjay Nayakankuppam. “The less you know about a product, the easier it is to engage in wishful thinking. But the more information you have, the harder it is to kid yourself. This can be contrasted with what happens before taking any action when people are trying to be accurate and would prefer getting more information to less.”

The study focused on products, but I couldn’t help but wonder if the conclusions teach us something about marketing services as well. While I’m always cautious about generalizing beyond the research scope, it sure is tempting to consider it.

What do you think? Leave a comment with your opinion.

Found via Guy Kawasaki.


Copyright © 2008 by Tammy Lenski. All rights reserved.

Downturn in economy, upturn in mediation use?

LegalZoom is suggesting that mediation is one of the Top Businesses to Start in a Sluggish Economy. It comes in at #4 in the list of ten.

Their reasoning is, “In tough economic times, many people turn to mediators rather than attorneys to settle disputes simply because they are less expensive. If you’re skilled at negotiating this may be the business opportunity you are looking for.”

The full list looks like this:

1. Debt collection
2. Healthcare products
3. Job search agency
4. Mediator
5. Security firm
6. Computer repair
7. Internet marketing
8. Web entrepreneur
9. Pawn broker
10. Cosmetic sales

What do you think…is LegalZoom’s reasoning sound?

Found via Sproutwire.


Copyright © 2008 by Tammy Lenski. All rights reserved.

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