Nate Riggs: Social Business Strategies; communication, social web strategies, & passion in Columbus, Ohio.

And I’m back.

Thanks to all of you who tweeted, commented and left personal messages over the past three days, in support of my family and me, as we said goodbye to Maka.  The service was truly beautiful.  The music was outstanding and I know Maka would have been in tears at the sound of the St. Matthew’s Woman’s Chorus (which my Aunt Jane leads), as well as the Epworth United Methodist Choir, which Maka founded and led for 32 years.

My brother, Nick, Uncle Dale and the pastor, who served with Maka at Epworth, all told wonderful stories about her life and the gifts she gave of herself.  I think Maka would have taken comfort in knowing that a church full of people shared laughter and smiles, as we recalled some of the moments of her life.  My Maka was an entertainer.  Laughter is what she would have wanted it.

One of the most moving moments for my family and I was seeing the Epworth Choir sing for her one last time.  Marie, now the conductor, took her old role as the accompanist as the choir stood in front of the Maka’s casket and sang their hearts out.  All of us could see her there, keeping time with the circular motion of her arms.  It was beautiful, and it’s how I will always remember my Maka.

Getting Back in the Game

It’s amazing how much can happen in a 72-hour period.  I was honored to have a video posted by Darren Rowse on the Problogger How To Blog Series this past Friday.  I look up to Darren and have found numerous tips and tricks from reading his posts.  Have you subscribed to Problogger yet?

This week is going to be slammed with projects in the air, including the following:

• Getting ready for the Ohio Growth Summit 2010.  I’ve been working with Mike Bowers and Tonya Wilson on the strategy for online presence building.  Special props need to be given to Gina Bericchia for taking the lead on execution of the project.  She’s a talented up-and-comer you should be watching.  A lot of what you are going to see for #OGS10 will be her work.  I’ll be building what might be the largest Brand YOU panel yet, as well as working on a presentation to show small business owners a massive list of technology tools that can impact their business.
• Preparing a big talk and panel at the Ohio University Schey Sales Symposium.  A group of students and faculty at OU (as well as myself) have been working to develop a strategy for the event by building a Human Business Team.  You’ll hear more about these talented folks soon, but they are totally rocking it on execution!  Check out the blog they are building.  It’s good work.
• Preparing a webinar in partnership with Conference Plus.  The topic?  B2B Blogging 101:  How to Use Your Blog to Drive Traffic to Your Online Event.  Ironic, huh.
• Catching up work with clients including Brainzooming and Ft Hays State University, Residential Finance, Incept and Audio Messaging Solutions.  Doesn’t seem like a big list, but when you play both the roles of CEO and the janitor, your time gets scarce.
• Beginning Phase Two changes on my blog.  Deeper pages.  Tweaking conversion points.  Trying new experiments.  Measuring.  Experimenting again.  Do you see the cycle?
• Writing more blog posts, because I literally have a back log of ideas I want to share with you.  Hopefully I’ll get one more out today.
• Digging into a new project with Neal Roberts, Joe Bilyk and a few others.  I’ve not talked about our ideas yet, but I think you might be surprised by this one.  It really has nothing to do with social media, but everything to do with building communities.  Can you guess what it is?

That’s my list for the beginning of this week.  What’s yours?  What are you working on?

nateriggs

I advise mid-sized & large organizations on how to adopt and use social media to market through organizational culture and better serve their clients. I'm also a blended family dad who enjoys music, photography and distance racing. When I'm not writing here, you can find me writing over at the Content Marketing Institute. Like what you've read so far? Then why not subscribe HERE?

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