Amazing Anne Zelenka referenced a cyberspace office, mentioning folks like Crayon and others, who have built themselves a virtual space to convene because, for one thing, being there isn’t always as important as being where the conversation is happening. This got me thinking about MY business and my virtual workspace, and how Internet video and social media and other tools have really empowered me to do my business wherever there’s a good signal and enough power. But am I doing it effectively? Let’s take a look.
Core Product
My work is PERFECT for a virtual space. 95% of what I do can be done online. It’s often nice to do in person, but a lot of it is sending email, researching, making phone calls, thinking, writing. And when I’m doing ME stuff (versus how I get paid), I do that outside of an office anyhow: videoblogging, etc. So yes, my core product is perfect for a virtual office.
Advertising/Marketing
Is it clear what my product is? Not exactly, and that’s partly because I wear many hats. I’m paid to put on a professional conference about Internet video its impact on TV, broadcasting, and entertainment with my swell boss. There’s where my prime salary and employment come from. But then I’m known for my love-and-passion project, PodCamp, which I do with another swell guy.
But what about all this social media and social networking stuff? What am I doing with that?
Ah, so it’s obvious that I’ve got an advertising/marketing issue, if I consider [chrisbrogan.com] to be the virtual workspace for me. Because if you come here, you know what you get by reading my posts, but you might not know what to do with me besides feel good, comment, and move on to the next blog post. That is, if there’s something to be done.
Look and Feel
When you come to my virtual office, this website, some of you do it remotely (via feed subscriptions). So you can only go on my words, pictures, media. You don’t see the tastefully decorated website, the grays and bluish steel tones with deep red and black. You don’t see that I make it very easy to reach out to me on all the social networks. Instead, you see just the representation of my content. That’s fair.
But when you DO get to the site, I feel that the layout is clean, that the utility is obvious, and that it’s not hard to find what you’re looking for, except maybe a tight collection of my work to date. And that’s coming soon enough.
Contact and Connectivity
Working virtually means you have to be in contact. I have a laptop with wifi (but no EVDO), and a cell phone with email and Internet capabilities. Between these two devices, I’m fairly well equipped. I use a variety of online applications and augment these with some offline apps for times I’m away from the Internet or on a plane. I’ve built elaborate collections of contact information for me. You can’t NOT find me, or at least ways to message me asynchronously
Intangibles
One thing about my virtual office: with the incredibly brilliant and talented people who comment here, there’s a nice ‘buzz’ to the office that is [chrisbrogan.com]. With my use of Twitter, Facebook, BlogTV, and other technologies, I feel very connected to the pulse of the Internet that encompasses a good part of my job. Finally, I feel that my ability to perform nearly anywhere means that I can be useful when it matters most, and deliver a value-add of being exceptionally responsive most often.
Next Steps
So looking over my web presence as a virtual office, it’s clear that I have to reconsider the way I’ve built [chrisbrogan.com], such that I pay more attention to explaining what I’m doing now, what I’m available to do for someone, and inviting more interactions of a transactional nature. Meaning, I soapbox here a lot, start interesting conversations, but I haven’t built the site with a targeted menu of offerings of what my business and interaction intentions are. For instance, NOTHING on my blog screams out that you should talk to me about Video on the Net. Nothing points you to PodCamp. Nothing shows you how to find my videoblog.
Okay, so I have some rework to do.
And Now, YOU
If you were to scrutinize your blog as if it were the be all, end all for people to understand how they might interact with you, would yours hold up well as a virtual office? Or, like the picture above suggests, have you created an interesting place to take a nice swing, feel a breeze, eat some fruit, and then shuffle off to other places? What does your primary virtual office space tell the world about YOU? What are you offering? Do people know how to reach you? And what’s the clear value you’re selling through your virtual office?
I’ve got work to do. It’ll be good work, but I can see how my virtual office looks through this lens, and I know where I’ll take it next. How about you?
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Photo credit, Scott Ableman