Blogs and online friendships.

Lately I’ve given you some pretty long posts to help jump the learning curve with blogs, for it’s the online medium to pay attention to these days. If you have any entrepreneurial spirit within you, a blog is flat out one of the smartest marketing decisions you can make.

Today my thoughts go in a bit of a different direction in a way I want to encourage you, for my early morning hours have been graced with such warmth of spirit as I’ve read the blog entries of people I’ve “only” met online, feeling that I know their heart and spirit better than some people I see monthly or even weekly. They’ve become my friends, and this morning I ask you to get to know them a bit better.

I myself had always thought of the internet as a highly sophisticated but rather cold and impersonal medium, too intimidating to intrigue at times. However since I’ve started blogging with Talking Story, it’s become a warmer, more welcoming place, hatching new friendships and teaching me all over again how to make investments into the relationships that are important to me.

All week I’ve directed you to Todd’s place, and today Todd’s brother Terry writes on how his Fellowship Church – over 18,000 strong! – incorporates customer service into who they are and what they do, creating a culture of ho‘okipa through-out the entire congregation. This is not just a case of one brother being proud of another (although there is certainly much to admire in that alone): Terry’s take on customer service is one we can all learn from. The breadth and spirit of Terry’s organization is one that makes so-called large corporations look like kids in diapers.

This past Tuesday, Bren Connelly blew us all away with what he’d written about customer service in the lens of the Sermon on the Mount, which we now more commonly refer to as the speech of the eight beatitudes. You already know I’m a big fan of Bren’s, and today I am so happy to have him take the spotlight in one of Yvonne DiVita’s interviews. A gracious and generous lady interviews an honest, sincere, and very special man: your reading today can’t get much better.

I met all of these wonderful people by commenting on one of their blogs, or because I responded to a comment they had generously left here on Talking Story. They are now part of the Ho‘ohana Community, and I think of them all as my ‘Ohana in Business. Leave a comment for them and get to know them too:

Get to know Todd Storch by reading his blog.
This is the post by Terry’s Storch on Customer Service and the Fellowship Church.
Get to know Yvonne DiVita, author of Dickless Marketing, Smart Marketing to Women Online.
This is Yvonne’s interview with Bren today.
Get to know Bren Connelly, by reading his blog, the Slacker Manager.

Subscribe to their feeds: if they have FeedBurner, pick up that one.

For those who may be stopping by for the first time today or this week, here are some quick links to those blog learning curve posts I was referring to if you’re interested:
These link names are descriptions, and not the same as the post names.
Subscribing to the Ho‘ohana Community and using RSS subscriptions.
My suggestions on reading a blog for the first time. (For what it’s worth, this post now holds my personal traffic record.)
Once you’re hooked, how to keep up with your blogroll. (On this one, be sure you read the suggestions from my friends in the comments too.)
And one from farther back in my archives, why I’m no longer that concerned about the nakedness of blogging (that’s always the first hurdle).

So go for it. Make some new friendships today.