You Have Nothing To Lose and Everything To Gain

If I had to make a list of the top questions or statements that people ask or say, when you tell them that they need to embrace social media, one near the top of the list would be, “How long does it take?” or “I don’t have enough time!“.

YOU HAVE TIME TO DO WHAT YOU CHOOSE TO DO! But realize that you do not have to eat the whole elephant in one sitting.

Here is my advice:

1. Start with one platform or social networking site.
2. Learn all the in’s and outs, master it!
3. Incorporate it into your life.
4. Move on to the next.
5. Repeat!

Before you know it, you will have a half dozen or so social networking sites under your belt, you will eventually realize that some need your attention daily and others weekly or monthly. You will even find that there is value to be found.

Also important to note is that these things become easier with practice and use, you will get better at it, I promise! Participating will not always be work. You will begin using these sites without even thinking about it, do you really have to think about checking your email anymore?

“But my privacy!“

If you’re concerned about your privacy, set your social networking accounts to “private” whereby others cannot see your page until you accept their friend request. Also, only share what you are comfortable with, you will find your comfort zone expands over time.

We all have to accept the fact that when you type your name into Google, it turns up some of the most relevant search results about you, times are changing you can’t really “hide”.

Carefully consider who you will let into your new found networks, but don’t be afraid to “friend or follow” trusted associates of others. Cultivate new relationships, this is one of the benefits of social networking. For the most part you have nothing to lose and everything to gain when someone adds you as a friend on any social media website, remember you can always drop them, usually they are unaware. Did you know that often you can even block them, so they can’t find you in a search?

Lastly, don’t judge it, until you’ve given it a fair test drive. Online social networking gives you reach and access unlike ever before, it’s not a fad and it’s time to see what all the fuss is about. Those I know who have the worst opinions of social networking, haven’t even tried it or have false paranoid stories. People have their identities stolen from bank accounts and credit cards not accounts on twitter.

What one needs to understand is that friend networks serve different purposes on each social media site so the value of mutual friendships will differ. This is something you’ll instinctively realize when you spend time on using each specific social channel.

So What Is Social Media Anyway?

In a nutshell, social media is all about authentic conversations, it’s also about where conversations are happening (You tube, twitter, blogs etc.) or, how whats being said is spread (communication, entertainment, collaboration, multimedia). Social media is changing the way we communicate and the way we do business and it is changing rapidly!

Social media is becoming your resume, your reputation, your future, whether you are a business or an individual.

Social media is POWER, let me explain.

A November’s Harvard Business Review article, states that a recent study from colleagues at Johns Hopkins, (presented at the American College of Surgeons) showed that a sample of Wikipedia medical articles did not contain a single gregarious factual error. In fact, the vast majority were considered by the researchers to be appropriate references. And, a recent Pew study found that nearly 40% of Americans say they have doubted a medical professionals opinion or diagnosis because it conflicted with information they’d found online.

Wikipedia is social media by collaboration of people from every walk of life and the articles are a mashup from several people, perhaps dozens!

Social media has forever changed peoples perceptions and behaviors. Today the old ‘business to customer’ marketing plan has been replaced by the ‘customer to customer’ conversation. You need to participate in that conversation affect it’s outcome.

Tell me, did you read reviews before you purchased you last electronic device or car? Do you read reviews at Amazon, do they impact your purchases? They do me!

What if a prospect you were trying to land was doing research on you or your business and they searched your name or a generic description of your product or service?  What if they found images, articles, posts, blogs, forum threads, quotes etc. and they all lead to you or your site? Would you or your company be perceived as the expert(s) in the field? I don’t care if you spend your entire marketing budget on SEO (Search Engine Marketing), you will never get those results without participatory social media.

Consider social media to be the power behind you the individual, you the brand.

Need a Retweet? So did I.

Okay so…Wordpress has made many improvements over the past year (thank you WordPress) but no retweet!?REALLY? Yes, its true.

So what you say…Well a retweet button is genius, instead of copy and paste etc. it’s just that much easier now to share on twitter what you’ve found, it’s like the 1 click ordering on Amazon, no work! And if you don’t have an Amazon 1 click ordering account set up…you are surely missing out. Okay, I’m getting side-tracked.

WordPress.com won’t allow plugins or java BUT if you add this code to your html on your posts, WHA-LA!

<a href=”http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http://ADDYOURURL.COMHERE&service=”><img style=”border-style: none;” src=”http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http://ADDYOURURL.COMHERE&amp;service=” alt=”" width=”41″ height=”51″ align=”left” /></a>

Erase the orange “code” and add your wordpress blog URL, you can also change the size of the button-by changing the numbers on the width and height.

Is there an easier way, something I’m not aware of?

10 Questions EVERY Business Owner Should Ask

Here are the 10 questions that any business owner should continue to ask, year in and year out:

http://www.forbes.com/2009/11/20/ten-key-questions-entrepreneurs-management-kramer.html

Posted via email from Leah McChesney’s thoughts

SEO and SMO

Thinking a lot about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Social Media Optimization (SMO) lately. I came across this phrase (not sure of the author).

Is it a "how to" or a cause and effect? Or both?

search engines discover new content via LINKS
LINKS are signs of TRUST
TRUST can aggregate into AUTHORITY
AUTHORITY can influence RANK
users associate RANK with QUALITY
TRUST + AUTHORITY + RANK + QUALITY= Relevancy
RELEVANCY is a key factor in conversation.

I tend to be idealistic when it comes to the SMO side, from my experiences and observations. I don't feel like a step can be skipped, unless you want to cheat yourself. I think SEO needs SMO to be most effective. SEO doesn't make anyone real, though it may help improve sales. Can you really preform SEO without SMO and expect stellar results? I'm not sure, enlighten me, please!

THE BEST LINKEDIN ADVICE. JUST A RESUME DOESN’T CUT IT

Since this is a time where many are looking for a job and are trying to harness the power of LinkedIn or are just discovering LinkedIn all together…I combed the web looking for great advice, things perhaps I may not have noticed or thought of and it produced some great tidbits.

For those that are still on the fence or skeptical…consider you phone, is it handy, necessary, convienant? Would you consider it a strategy? NO! It is a tool, social media/social networking/web 2.0 whatever you want to call it…is a tool, your strategy is how you approach it.

LinkedIn is more than a resume…

1. Complete your profile!
2. Get recommendations (is your ebay feedback important for doing business?)
3. Use keywords in your profile to be found.
4. Use a good photo
5. Make your contact information easy to find! It isn’t always obvious.
6. Join groups, but not for joining sake…get involved.
7. Ask for introductions.
8. Research companies you are interested in…do they have a high turnover or employees?
9. Make your profile public.
10. Make a custom URL. So it looks like this http://www.linkedin.com/in/leahmcchesney unless you utulize that option, it doesn’t come that way.
11. Make it a priority to meet new people=grow your contact list.
12. Q and A.
13. Bring your network offline. Take or make opportunities to meet with people in the real world.
14. Use the status updates.
15. Use the applications, such as importing your blog, presentations or reading list. Show what you know and how you think.
16. Send messages that are relevant or helpful to your contacts, keep YOU in the front of their head.
17. Upload your contacts from your email, periodically.
18. Highlight your skills, not the tasks you preformed (although tasks are important).
19. Help others with leads and introductions. They will remember that.
20. Market your expertise/passion. What do you posses that most do not.
21. Use your custom URL on your email signature.

Posting a resume is passive-get involved!

I am keeping a journal of all the oppotunities that come my way via social media, opportunities that I don’t even ask for. Don’t pass up opportunities, fish where the fish are.

If you have any linkedin advice or experiences that may benefit others, please feel free to add.

I MAY ACTUALLY CLICK AN AD?!

If you use the internet, than you are aware of banner ads and pay per click, or maybe you are not!?… I am sure I can count on one hand how many times I have ever clicked on one of these ad’s, they are on my facebook page, they are on my gmail page. Most all of the ads are completely irrelevant to me so for the most part I ignore them, as do I think most people.

Now, if advertisers could use an amazon approach, I might be more likely to pay attention, thinking they may actually have something of interest to me. If you are not familiar with how Amazon works, they suggests items to me, based on my past search or purchase, this is very effective and I really enjoy it.

Well ta-da! Google has announced a new way that they will approach AdSense.

“In the past, advertisers have taken advantage of  contextual and placement targeting advertising on AdSense publisher sites. With this enhancement they’ll also be able to reach users based on their previous interactions with them, such as visits to the advertiser website, as well as reach users on the basis of their interests (such as “sports enthusiasts” or “travel enthusiasts”).”

I cannot offer an educated opinion that this will bring back the old model of advertising effectiveness, it is moving in the right direction. As it is now, the use of contextual targeting  is not all it is cracked up to be, consider an email I have open right now, it only has a about 3 sentences in it, the advertisements I got are as follows:

Michigan Skydiving
Safe, fun, and friendly at CSC. Learn to skydive from 14,500′
PerfectlyGoodAirplane.com/MI
Neral Sheela DDS
Adult & Children Dentistry Cosmetic Family Dentistry
www.sheelaneraldds.com
Pet Ritz Luxury Dog Hotel
Now in 2 Great Locations! dog boarding, day care & training
www.petritzlakeshoreresort.com
The Hidden Org Chart
Discover it with Keyhubs! Map social networks in your company
www.keyhubs.com
Become a Home Inspector
State approved classroom & home study courses.
www.ahit.com
The email was about a meeting, it had a time, place, directions and that they have a projector, that’s it! How do these ads relate to that email or me? I can tell you have never spent time on-line looking up skydiving or pet hotels, nor am interested in being a home inspector.

This new way of adsense is in beta form, I hope it proves to be more effective, as google is very dependant on advertisers and I love google!

GOOGLE= YOUR RESUME?

Google as your new resume has been a phrase floating around the net longer than I am sure, I have been aware of it. Have you ever googled your name? It’s okay, you can admit it. What does it say about you? Ever googled images of your name?

Ever heard of the term lifestreaming? It isn’t a new term, here in The Washington Post dated April 3, 1994, it is defined.

Your “lifestream” captures your whole life, in terms of chunks of information: letters, documents, bills, bank statements, video footage of your son’s first birthday party, a database, anything. Imagine a queue of documents laid out neatly on (say) the living room floor — only the queue might be tens of thousands of documents long, and it exists only as chunks floating in the void. —David Gelernter, “The cyber-road not taken,”

But what about today? With the on-line world being the home of those letters, bills, photo albums etc… heck I don’t even receive a paper bank statement anymore. Not to mention you cannot burn, shred or throw away ANYTHING on-line. Here are some modern definitions.

Word Spy-Lifestreaming is an online record of a person’s daily activities, either via direct video feed or via aggregating the person’s online content such as blog posts, social network updates, and online photos.

Wikipedia=It is the reconstitution of a disaggregated online persona.

So what does this mean? Why should you care?

Well…the world wide web functions as a diary of your life, ANYONE and EVERYONE HAS ACCESS TO IT! They even have access to add to your diary.

Every document you create, every photo or video you post and every comment you make  is stored in your electronic lifestream. Have you ever considered that even your ebay reputation is available to anyone?

Here is a small snippet of my lifestream according to my del.ic.ious account. I think from this one area on the web that I participate in, you can get an idea of what is important to me and what my interests are, how I spend my time… Imagine you create an account of everything about me online, would it support who I say I am?

If you don’t consider online reputation managment important…THINK AGAIN!

Search is the most effective way to quickly research companies, products and people of interest.

People from all walks of life use search engines to research, and gather information so that they can make decisions based on this information. If the information they come across relating to you is adverse it may affect the decisions they make.

There are even reputation management sites/software coming into the picture. 1 in particular is called reputation defender, check it out here.

We have heard all the horror stories of reputations being destroyed by online content and those who have been fired for comments they posted online, also consider the flip side. It truly could be an investment.

WHAT MAKES A FRIENDLY BLOG?

Several months ago I blogged about different blog styles. Joel Postman a seasoned blogger mentioned it here. This is my original list of styles:

• the attention junkie/those who need an ego fixation
• lazy/the undisciplined blogger
• news/this blog is just information often with no true personality
• all over the place/depends on the bloggers mood that day
• journal/if descriptive can be beneficial to others
• antagonistic/ this blogger is usually unforgiving and angry usually tries to be persuasive
• educational/add value to the reader
• information gathering/brings a particular type of information from many sources to one place
• impulsive/is a serial blogger with abandoned blogs
• story telling/often a deep thinker
• entertainment/good for a laugh

Although I must admit that I also can fall into some of these categories above, I am pondering what makes certain blogs inviting? Here is what I came up with.

• Be yourself/Make those reading your blog feel like they are getting to know you, don’t fear being you. Don’t be a business or all about business. People love to know they are not alone in their thoughts and experiences.
• Get others involved/Not just to tell you how wonderful you are, but ask questions that you genuinely need feedback for. Bring on guest bloggers that align with your message.
• Be friendly/Don’t be above your readers. No one enjoys being made to feel ignorant. I am wary of those who will slice and dice me if I don’t do things according to their rules.
• Quality over quantity/ It isn’t all about you. Will others find meaning, answers or new ideas in your posts?
• Communicate/When someone is kind enough to leave comments, validate them. Are they a blogger? Visit their blog as well. Be grateful.
• Be humble/If you mess up, admit it. Don’t make excuses. Also remember to convey the lessons you are learning  or have learned along your way.
• Motivating/ Do you make others feel empowered by what they read, that if you can do it, they can too?
• Repetition/ You don’t have to come up with the next big idea, but you can share it, put a personal twist to it. Often others need to be reminded.
• Don’t be a show off/ Don’t try to impress others, trust me…they are not impressed. Give recognition to others, they will reciprocate. Make your posts easy to read and digest.
• Be positive/ You will attract that which you are and emulate those you associate with.
• Don’t post when angry/ You will eventually regret it and it often seems as if you are vying for attention. Try not to be judgemental, often there is something about the situation that you are not aware of. Remember what you mother said when you were a school kids, “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all”.
• Be helpful/ Help others find new sources of information
• Have fun/ Blog because you love it, not because you have to, it makes a difference. Enthusiasm is contagious.

I am curious why do you visit other’s blogs on a regualar basis?

HOW TO CREATE A BLOG PEOPLE WANT TO READ

1. Know blogs are social ( “not a monologue but a dialogue”).
2. Concoct unbeatable lists- 101′s, how tos. People are always learning, help them.
3. Use keywords your titles. Search engines love keywords.
4. Don’t promote yourself, but your community.
5. Use image, audio and video. Variety is the spice of life.
6. Tag every posts with social bookmarking tools like del.ic.ious.
7. Link each post using twitter, facebook, friendfeed…
8. Digg it, Stumble it!
9. Make it attractive. For example, insert photos. But relevant ones.
10. Use polls.
11. Use descriptive titles.
12. Ping other sites.
13. If you us snippets, rss feeders…leave readers with cliff hangers in your opening line so they are compelled to open the link.
14. Have a unique logo.
15. Challenge people to respond, respond back!
16. Encourage people to link back to you on their blog, but remember to share the love.
17. Write about what people need to know about right now! But be timeless.
18. Consider a series of posts educating people that takes weeks or even months
19. Don’t be repetitive.
20. Have a contest.
21. Break news.
22. Do interviews with people that will land you reciprocal links.
23. Tag, tag and tag!
24. Post often, (but not at the expense of quality content) readers will eventually quit visiting if they see long gaps in between posts.
25. Give freebies.
26. Get a life! Be exposed to life outside your walls.
27. Tweak your design frequently.
28. Encourage sharing, don’t discourage others by giving the feeling of ‘your way’, ‘your thoughts’ are the only and best way.
29. Share mistakes, be human and transparent.
30. Put a disclaimer on your personal blog…that it does not represent that of your employer.
31. Don’t mimic others, be your own person.
32. Share questions that readers ask, advice that they give, mistakes that they find.
33. Blog what you are PASSIONATE about, it really show’s through if you are not passionate about that which you blog about.
34. Use phrases that can be repeated and relevant.
35. Announce launches.
36. Edit, edit and edit…long blogs don’t get read all the way through.
37. Give opportunities for guest bloggers.
38. Share great finds that your community will benefit from.
39. Be involved in your blog community.
40. Be yourself!
41. Who is your audience? Write for that audience.
42. Variety to your content.
43. Include an about page on your blog.
44. It’s not all about numbers, are people commenting?
45. Remember it’s there forever, you can’t take it back so think twice about calling out people, get your facts straight and consider the long run impact.
46. Keep your ego in check!

I know there has to be more…what am I missing?

WORD OF MOUTH…IT USE TO BE SO HARD!

My first venture as an entrepreneur had an expeditious and monumental learning curve, which was alright, it was all a learning experience, which I welcomed (and still do). If you don’t leave your comfort zone, you don’t grow!

First hurdle, I was doing something that when I told people what it was, they would cock their heads to the side and would say, huh? What’s that?

Second hurdle was finding clients. I used the natural routes that all small businesses do, the chamber of commerce, BNI, associations, sponsorships, flyers, cold calls, office presentations and even set up  booths at events. They were effective, no doubt, I recommend them.

And as I grew my business, I leveraged testimonials, which helped, not to mention it gives you the assurance that you are doing a good job and the courage to continue forward. As a entreprenuer or small business, you are selling yourself as much as your service.

I also had a brilliant opportunity to be featured in the Ann Arbor Newspaper, front page of the Business section (a portion of that page above, photo behind text), which catapulted me into a whole new ball park ( thank you Mike Ramsey). It also gave the she’s legit and you are missing out message.

From that point on, word of mouth was my main mode of operation.

Now, I look back and consider what could have been had all these online networks (twitter, linkend…) been available (not to mention that ‘hind site is 20/20′ fact, regarding lessons learned). Don’t get me wrong, these methods listed above are good, I value the community relationships I developed, and the growth that came from the experiences.

However, newspapers now lack readership, chamber of commerce gives only a limited audience. They on their own or even combined  lack the power that word of mouth via social media has.

It puts word of mouth on a whole new level.

WE ARE ALL IN THE MARKETING BUSINESS

We are all in the marketing business, because you are marketing YOU! A term called Personal Branding seems to be the buzz phrase now, and I find it intriguing.

The image above from twitter sheep displays my most used words on twitter (twitter explained). Words sized according to how much I’ve used them. I think from this you can gather my interests (while on twitter), this certainly supports others forming an opinion on who I am. This combined with my facebook status’, my delicious account, my blog posts etc… All of them together actualize me.

• I am building my brand “Leah McChesney”, or am I?

From the words above I could appear to be an expert (which I am certainly not!). If you had an RSS feed on everything I do, say or click on-line, would that prove anything?

• Shel Israel in a post about personal branding,  suggests that personal branding may/could be more about what you contribute, how much you influence or what say in your on-line communities than your professional accomplishments.

There are a few people out there who have said that they could deliver xyz, but didn’t because they couldn’t. Perhaps those who have fallen victim to these situations had it coming to them for not doing their homework?

I do believe that my heavy participation on-line has built up an account of my life and reveals my character. It certainly has broadened my network. But you cannot fake a persona, on-line communities have an organic way of weeding out the phony from the genuine.

No matter what the result of putting yourself out there, consider the following:

“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” Dr. Suess

This little nugget of wisdom could be true in our close relationships but not altogether true on-line. Certainly be who you are but be careful of saying what you feel. Feelings are often fleeting. Consider those on the other end of your keyboard, they don’t all really know you.

• Shel also writes in that post “It’s about how people feel about you”.

Building your brand, no matter how you want to classify it, has natural consequences. It does paint a picture of who you are.

• What does your on-line activity say about you?

• Is your on-line personal branding an accurate barometer of your capabilities?

WILL YOU STILL LIKE ME WHEN EVERYONE ELSE GET’S HERE?

Sitting at my kitchen table, radio playing in the back ground, the soundtrack to the movie Pretty in Pink plays. And?  Well, it got me thinking about cliques. Pretty in Pink is a movie about cliques (I don’t feel the need to explain anymore about the movie, if you haven’t seen it, you may be living under a rock, it is a 1980′s must see!)

We all enjoy the camaraderie of like-minded people who share similar interests ( I love my tweeps and friends). On-line networks have broaden that reach. Those with a similar interest benefit you by sharing insights, knowledge and information…

We tend to live repetitious lives, which inevitably doesn’t expose us to much. We see the same 4 walls, drive the same roads… you get my point. I think this has the danger of doing a couple of things.

1. We tend to think everyone is similar to ourselves, in thought, behavior and opinion.
2. We become boring.

BUT we all have busy lives. I know I would love to travel on a regular basis, learn something new everyday, but I have a life to live I have to do those repetitious things, they are just part of being human.

So my point?

On-line communities have broadened my knowledge, interests and circle (It’s a good thing). I have even found motivation to do things I otherwise would have not. I also feel that I have a friend no matter where I may go in the world. As I have stated before social networking is very inclusive although you do find clusters of like minded people (naturally).

Now, the flood gates have opened and people are joining these networks in droves (which is good!) but what is your max capacity to converse? Will this eventually become like high school? Exclusive groups=cliques and all the bad things it entails? I think most would probably say, no! But I think circles will become a little more defined. What do you think, what are others saying? Educate me!

* I was not in a clique in high school, I talked to everyone! See my first video on this blog for reference.

THE LINES ARE BLURRING!

Culture has historically been defined by the characteristics of a particular location, social, ethnic or age groups. It has been manifested in everything we say and do.

This map (created in 2003) displays how cultures cannot be defined by borders (state or otherwise), and how those you associate with define the culture you belong to (using soda as an example). A careful look at the map brings out lots of interesting information about the divisions of our own culture. Did you ever think that a part of New York State could be most closely associated with the mid-west? Yet, St. Louis seems to be an island of Eastern influence.

Many factors promote new cultural models such as changes in the enviroment, migration and contact between cultural lines. But I see a stronger force altering the new social dynamic. Mass media has played a significant role in culture, but new media is the new force at work, creating a more global enviroment and truly breaking down the color coding to even smaller squares. This map goes to show how you cannot properly target an audience through the old model of media.

I would be curious to see this map now (it is 6 years old) and again in 5 years. Has your online worold influenced your culture?

THIS CAN’T ALL BE MY $ .02!

So I am in the middle of several books and thought I would share, perhaps we can compare notes. I can’t seem to read 1 book at a time, I think I am too impatient.

• What Got You Here, Won’t Get You There-Marshall Goldsmith (half done, and highly recommend!)

• The New Rules of Marketing and PR- David Meerman Scott (easy to read, high ratings, good basic info for the newbie to social media)

• Thinkertoys-Michalko (Don’t know if I’ll ever get finished this but one of my all time favorites! More like a text book. Thanks to Organic Inc. for the book)

• The 4 Hour Workweek-Timothy Ferriss (Makes you reconsider how you spend your time, half done, not sure I will finish, getting a little bored, maybe I am judging too soon? Your thoughts?)

• Reality Check, The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition-Guy Kawasaki (This had high marks on Amazon, barely opened, but excited to read)

• Spiritual Roots of Human Relations-Stephen Covey (This is on my top 10! It is an older book but…)

Okay, on my after I read those list: The Abolition of Man- C.S. Lewis Note of Interest (Since writing this…I could not help but dig in…this book will take a lot to wrap my head around it, but inspired read for me at the moment, I must say), The Divine Center-Stephen Covey. I love audio books as well, just downloaded Tribes-Seth Godin.

Any other suggestions?

DON’T FORGET IT’S FOREVER! SOME “RULES”

Once you’ve added content to the web…it’s there!

FOREVER!

Some advice, think about what you say and write, before you do it, don’t instantly publish or push enter (especially if using others names).

There are many horror stories and I must admit that I fear that I could be part of one, one day. Not because I conduct myself in ways that could be found inappropriate to an employer or embarrass my children, but because I am guilty of assuming that people understand what I mean or think like I do. I also tend to be sarcastic (it’s in my nature).

I need to be reminded that talking to people online isn’t the same as in person and I am hoping that I am not the only one.

Let me explain what I mean. Social networking is known for being inclusive and open minded (more so than “real life” in my opinion) but say the wrong thing once! And those people aren’t quite as forgiving as those you would see face to face on a regular basis. Why? Because they don’t have to be. I am not speaking from a particular experience (so no worries) but the whole unfriending and unfollowing got me thinking…what kind of consequences does that have in real life?

I read a few examples from a post on Mashable here.

So as you twitter, write on walls or blog consider the following:

1. Be honest, truth always surfaces online.
2. Be accurate, exaggerating will only come back to haunt you.
3. Everything is open to interpretation. Clarity is important.
4. Observe appropriate etiquette for the application you are using! Nuff said!
5. Be fair, whenever possible give people the benefit of the doubt, you may need this to come around to you one day.
6. Be diplomatic, but don’t ever sell short your convictions. Be yourself, don’t just follow the voice of the crowd. People who are genuine don’t just want sheep to talk to, bring you to the relationship.
7. Carry over your online relationships to the real world as much as possible, people will then really get to know you and will not just assume  or be as easily offended and toss you aside as quick.

Lastly, do you think those you are involved with online label you to be like you think you portray yourself to be? Do you want to know? I am not sure if I do. Perhaps their interaction with me or lack of answers that. Your thoughts?

PROPER NETWORKING BEHAVIORS ARE THE KEY TO SUCCESS- WE NEED TO TALK!

My experience with social media has been a very positive one. Social Media is a very optimistic phenomenon. These networks are glowing with good will and abounding in real world success.

The networks work!

Used right, they work for business, and they work for careers. Social media marketing and networking is a process of promoting your business, or yourself (as a brand ) and is a powerful tool to build new relationships (networking).

It is a powerful strategy!

There is no other method out there that nets the same effect!

Those who ignore the efficacy of social media fall into three categories

1. those who don’t know much or anything about social media.
2. those who are interested but don’t know how to use it.
3. those who don’t believe in the value that a social media strategy can bring .

But for those you ‘get it’ or are just coming around there is a conversation to be had.

A conversation about the right way and the wrong way to utilize social media. Just like most all things in life, to do it right and have it produce a desired outcome you must start with the FUNDAMENTALS.

What are the fundamentals?

• Correct principle- natural laws.
• Values aligned to those principles- do your values align with natural laws?
• Behaviors that support your values- do you behaviors support your values?

Easy right?

Next post…we’ll talk about the fundamentals relating to networking and social media.

WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE!

Languages live, die, move from place to place and change with time. Any language that ceases to change or develop is categorized as a dead language. Conversely, any language that is a “living language”, that is, in a continuous state of change is known as a modern language (wikipedia).

• The language of today will not be the language of tomorrow!

How fast of a language change are we perpetuating because of digital communications? We have contacts unlike anything we have seen before, because of on line networking. How often do you hear people say “what a small world we live in” or refer to the 6 degree’s of separation?

We also seem to use a different language on line (check out netlingo), do you think this will bleed over to our non-digital language. What are the implications for our non-digital culture?

• Is there a non-digital culture?

I don’t think we can ask that question in the near future as the digital natives grow up, they will not know anything different.

WILL MAIL TOTALLY GO AWAY?

This post is more a question to you, the reader. Really curious about your thoughts, as I am not claiming to know the answer, but I think it is a fascinating conversational topic.

So…a certain teenager that I know (wink wink nudge nudge), needed to mail an envelope through the USPS this past week. Quickly he realized he was not sure what to do.

I can’t imagine what you are thinking right now.

He retrieves the mail for me, puts mail in the box for pick up and is really intelligent, honestly. I started to give him a hard time, first in unbelief but when I thought about it…when has he ever addressed and sent a letter of his own? His generation barely uses even email. Facebook and texting are his means of communication and I know this is not unusual.

I have to admit I barely mail anything anymore…I pay all my bills on line. So my questions to you.

• Is this typical?
• Is this a glimpse of the future (no more mail)?
• Is this a digital revolution in the works or just modernization of society and email is to letters as iPods are to vinyl records?
• Do you think there will be any negative implications?

7 RANDOM THINGS…ASSUMING YOU CARE!

Having been tagged by Lori Laurent Smith (3 weeks ago)who was tagged by Marta Strickland, who was tagged by Stacy Lukas, who was tagged by Ken Burbary who was tagged by Shannon Paul, here’s 7 random things about me:

1. I use to play the flute, and was also in the marching band (just imagine me in a bright blue polyester suit, yeah, why do you think I stopped? Okay, it was boys)

2. I have a huge fear of birds! Seriously! I was convinced as an elementary aged child that a crow followed me back and forth to school everyday. My father helped the situation while in Florida once by creating a circle of popcorn around me on the beach…so all the seagulls surrounded me! Yeah, nice huh! Ask my husband about the time a bird flew into my bedroom (let’s just say he thought I lost my mind).

3. I talk in my sleep.

4. I once drove my husband’s 1962 Morris Mini Cooper so fast while turning a corner, I had it on 2 wheels!

5. My husband was my neighbor, I’ve known him since I was 15, we were engaged 6 weeks and moved to the UK 2 days after our wedding.

6. Once while hiking in the Adirondack Mountains (near sunset), I got lost (on my own). FREAKING OUT! I came across some boy scouts…who helped me find my way.

7. My favorite TV series is Agatha Christies Poirot.

Passing along the meme to:

Joel Postman

Colin Carmichael

Daniel Eizans

Nikki Stephan

Dennis Fassett

And the problem with waiting 3 weeks to follow up is try to find 7! Can’t wait to read what you all have to say.

The Four Simple Rules:

• Link your original tagger(s) and list these rules in your post.
• Share seven facts about yourself in the post.
• Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.
• Let them know they’ve been tagged