Plus I wanted to throw in the tweets from the Productivity & Communication course by Lisa Hone:

• 3 hrs of day is full of interruptions. 80% of those are little value to no value.
• The average person gets interrupted every 8 minutes
• SMART way to set goals: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timed.
• Goal setting is critical to personal productivity
• simplify your life: 1. Pay someone else to do it
• Our brains aren’t actually set up for multitasking.
• Time is what we want most, but what we use worst (William Penn)
• We all have the same 24 hours… how do you *choose* to use yours?
• “Know when good is enough.”
• When you are sinking from overwhelm, take a breath, make a list, and prioritize
• make use of applications that automate tasks for you!
• LeechBlock Firefox add on to keep my productivity up
• 3 P’s of Personal Goals: Positive-(phrasing); Personal; Possible (within our control).
• Productivity is the result of commitment to excellence, intelligent planning & focused effort.
• Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there. Word for Productivity
• One reason we procrastinate – fear of failure or success
• Balancing blog and family…always tricky, but so worth it. We’ll never regret quality time w/family, but will regret lost time
• Balancing blog and family: 1) Set and stick to work hours 2) have a blog buddy keep you accountable Use leech block.
• Office space Feng Shui! http://bit.ly/bkyywP
• To-do lists are awesome for productivity. Just be sure “play” is on there somewhere.
• The average person speaks 16,000 words a day. That’s a 300 page book every week. That’s how much we communicate
• 55% of communication is body language. Good thing we’re behind our computer screens.
• Sharing common ground is key
• Consider from readers point: do you care? Do you help? Can I trust?
• Book recommendation: John Maxwell’s Everyone Communicates, Few Connect

I hope you enjoyed yesterdays post regarding the photography information I gathered from twitter following the #sbsummit hash-tag. If you weren’t able to attend the summit via twitter or in person I wanted to share with you the things I learned. You can find the whole transcript of tweets here.

I was SO jealous of all the attendees and have already decided to find a sponsor for next years summit. If you haven’t followed the Savvy Blogging group and you are a blogger you are really missing out – I have been following them since their inception earlier this year and have gained endless knowledge and connections to other bloggers.

I want to share everything I learned with all of you, so all week I will have parts of the twitter stream “highlights” during the summit.

Today I am highlighting the Strategic Planning/Vision course & the Blogging in the Media Course

• Consultants should identify problems and help bring any issues to surface for the organization.
• Make your info (posts) easy to share for others to share!
• PR people want to know the goals of your blog Place contact info easily.
• Stats not always that important ID our niche and that can be relevant to a brand who may work with you.
• Establish a Board of Directors as an advisor for your blog
• Ask a questions, then say you’ll put your answer in the comments.
• Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.
• Purpose of annual strategic plan is to ensure you reach your desired results.
• You mission statement is about PURPOSE not PRODUCT Why do you exist?
• Checkout mindtools.com to help develop your mission statement.
• Series are good for all blogs. Pretend each post is like a chapter.
• Priorities + Authenticity + Core Values = Happy Successful Blogger
• Strategic planning is not an “aha” experience – series of small moves that when pieced together moves u in right direction
• Contests can increase traffic, but they don’t necessarily build community
• Develop a scorecard to track the key metrics and evaluate yourself and the business
• Your mission is why your blog exists. Expresses your core values, easy to understand.
• Vision, Mission, Strategy, Goals, Actions, Metrics
• Contact PR Companies for products you love Look at press releases to get PR info.
• “You ARE the disruptors You have the power” – Jesse Odell
• Loving what you do is key to being successful.

I am going to post another link this afternoon on CSS Code and Design Tips so be sure to stop back!

What you didn’t see me there? Of course you didn’t, because I did the next best thing and attended via everyone else! Have I ever mentioned how much I LOVE Twitter! I spent my weekend on twitter following the #sbsummit hashtag. If you weren’t able to attend the summit via twitter or in person I wanted to share with you the things I learned. You can find the whole transcript of tweets here. I was SO jealous of all the attendees and have already decided to find a sponsor for next years summit. If you haven’t followed the Savvy Blogging group and you are a blogger you are really missing out – I have been following them since their inception earlier this year and have gained endless knowledge and connections to other bloggers. I want to share everything I learned with all of you, so all week I will have parts of the twitter stream “highlights” during the summit. Today, I want to highlight the Photography session. It was taught by David Mejias

• When shooting food, get your shutter speed down and you may not even have to use a flash!
• Use a white board to reflect light and open up shadow.
• Aperture F-stop is like the human pupil. Opens more when dark, smaller when bright.
• Context. Deliberate. Everything in your frame is important . Is it part of your (picture) story?
• Mac Users, http://skitch.com/ is a FABULOUS (and free) way to resize, crop, and share photos.
• Use your flash even on a sunny day to help with shadows.
• Use clamp lights as an inexpensive light source for great photos.
• With photos, sometimes the concept supersedes the execution.
• Always save the original, work on a copy.
• Develop a point of view with your photos and make it a theme on your blog. (b/w, concept)
• Use all 4 sides of your photo and crop strategically!
• Crop creatively and purposefully.
• Be deliberate when taking pictures.
• The little things in the background of your photos makes people pay attention to the things that aren’t important.
• Pay attention to everything in the frame. It’s all important.
• Simplify your backgrounds when taking close up or food shots.
• Invest in an external flash and a tripod.
• Don’t be afraid to take risks, You’ll find what works and doesn’t.
• We see in 3D what we photograph in 2 D – learn to see what the camera sees.
• View your pictures through the lens of your camera.
• Move around a lot when you take pictures. Different angles make a difference.
• Photo should be about light, color and gesture.
• Photography is undervalued. Relevant pictures can help you connect to your audience and help you share your story.
• Because people don’t have a lot of time, photos in posts are important to communicating.
• Use pictures to share ideas and concepts with your readers.
• A relevant picture connects with your audience.

The next best thing to actually attending the conference is attending via Twitter!

Other Savvy Blogging Summit 2010 posts:

Strategic Planning and Blogging in the Media

I have been tweeting now for about a year and a half. It is amazing how Twitter has grown in that time, now I can tweet stuff to the news station, correspond with my favorite Martha Stewart Radio Show – Everyday Food, and keep abreast of anything and everything people are doing. I even get cleaning, blogging, and weight-loss help over twitter!

Be sure to check out more Tweeps at Supahmommy’s and link up!

DIRECTIONS:

To play along and increase your twitter traffic do the following:

1. Click on my twitter Icon above. Follow me first of all!

2. MAKE A BLOG POST – just like this one. In fact, copy-and-paste these directions.

3. Grab the YO Tweeps Twaffic Exchange Button. Put him in your post.

5. Put a twitter icon / link on your blog post like I did. It should directly link to your TWITTER PROFILE.

6. Now link up your post here!

7. Visit some other #YOTweeps linkers on the list.

8. Follow them if you choose and shout out to them on twitter that you are following so they can instantly follow you if they’re on. (Follow their blog as well if you’re interested.)
Example: @supahmommy #yotweeps I’m following!

9. If someone follows you JUST reciprocate. It’s that easy.

Subscribe to my blog here
Twitter me – I’m Kimmiekinkins
Join my Facebook Fan Page
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Do you love to read blogs, online news, and other items that offer RSS feeds? Want an easy way to keep up with any updates and be organized while you do it? Then you definitely need to check out Google Reader.

This next shot shows what you can do with each posting.

If you already have google reader and would love to Share your items be sure to post your link in the comments!