― Marcus Aurelius
One of my goals has been to blog on a more consistent, regular basis - wise advice that most Blog Advice articles recommend. It is certainly harder than it sounds practical.
I am always bursting with ideas which seem to bubble enthusiastically to surface at 2 or 3 a.m. when I'm willing myself to fall asleep. Reminder to self: "leave iPAD out of bedroom before settling in for my "long winter's nap" because I'm too tempted to check out Pinterest and can't resist clicking on an article that catches my attention."
Which reminds me on something else: Reading on my iPAD is cool and sustainable but tests my resistance when an alert crosses the top - turn off alerts Jeannette!
To help this, I started a habit of creating a Blog Title to serve as a reminder of an idea I would like to write about. Unfortunately, the ideas seem to brew and find a home long before I seem to catch up on writing. At least by acknowledging my problem or bad habit, I am attempting to reconcile and change it ... "Hello, my name is Jeannette and I am a knowledge junkie."
To get to the point (which I often detour by providing detailed background that makes others wish to yell at me) ... I received notification from Twopcharts last week that it was my 4th Anniversary on Twitter. WOW, four years and going strong - time has flown quickly.
I have a number of people who have helped me along my Social Media journey and continue to inspire me whom I would like to acknowledge. (Finally the point to: "Birds of a Feather Flock Together").
I know who I almost started with, then realized that it was someone else who introduced me by networking. Therefore, I need to thank Elizabeth Tommes whom I met at a women's networking group for IT professionals and was a Calgary: "Top 40 Under 40" Entrepreneur and creative genius in web design and on the forefront of SEO, although her company didn't name it as such. They didn't even peg it as such. She has often credited me and humbled me by saying I have mentored her!
Liz recommended I connect with Donna deMan, a career coach and lady who specializes in placing students in practicum positions upon graduation from Calgary's SAIT Polytechnical Institute IT programs. Donna and I met for coffee and her first impression: she brought me a bouquet of flowers ... as part of her introduction. What a lasting and inspiring first impression!
I had just finished launching a National magazine in Canada and was looking for a new career opportunity and Donna jumped into the role of mentor to me. Her advice: "Get on Linked In!" It was brilliant for many different reasons, but initially a wonderful way to reach out to past colleagues and clients. I certainly didn't expect the "Recommendations" initially but it is an outstanding feature. Today, it is the first social media site I log onto because Business, Contacts and Networking is something that interests me. Donna recommended Twitter, but I was reluctant to be honest. My perception was I didn't want to be professionally associated with something that was what I perceived as a "time waster" and "narcissistic" platform.
Thankfully, I was blessed by jumping in, as is my style when something resonates with me, on Group Discussions on Linked In. Sales being my game, digital printing associated with my name, and career advice the same .. for why I joined. I met two people right off that were gems that I am forever thankful for connecting with, continue to do so and would be blessed to MIRL (hah! acronym hell: "Meet in Real Life") ... Sandy Hubbard (@SandyHubbard) and Mike Lehr
These two wonderful nuggets launched me Social Media journey. The expertise on #USGUYS demonstrated that Social Media was not for flakes but truly some talented people in their own careers of marketing, sales, entrepreneurship flourishing under the comradery (n. Comradery is the spirit of friendship and community in a group, like the comradery of soldiers at war who keep each other upbeat despite the difficulty of their crucible of combat together....) When I like something, I get on the bandwagon and become an evangelist (—n: an occasional preacher, sometimes itinerant and often preaching at meetings in the open air) with enthusiasm. Lucky for Twitter and social media, Mike Lehr, an intuition expert and author decided to join me!
If you ever want to test your theories or philosophies and share your principles ... social media is a platform that compliments your learning journey. Mike is an inspiration who has gone on from an occasional tip from me to excelling and surpassing me by leaps with a nice, solid, loyal following who wants to hear his message.
Sandy's introduction amongst guru's enabled me to meet "The Grandfather of Social Media" Josepf Haslam
I apologize, I took a detour again. Seriously, it comes to my main point: Birds of a Feather Flock Together ... in Business and in Social Media. That underscores what I have been telling my children for years: "You are the company you keep"
Lucky for me. I am so honored to connected with magnificent talent, expertise and inspirations through Social Media. On my 4th Anniversary I posted on Facebook that if I had a Fairy Godmother she would grant me the opportunity to meet my connections described as Friends for coffee IRL (acronym hell: "In Real Life").
In the past week, some of the folks whom I followed right off the bat are REALLY being recognized for their contribution on social media, or their area of expertise, here are a few:
www.linkedin.com
Ric Dragon is CEO of DragonSearch and author of Social Marketology, an award-win...ning book on best practices for creating the most ideal social media strategy for your particular needs. Need advice about your social media strategy, or have a general question about social media ...See More
**********
OptioneerJM shared Ann Tran's photo.
There are lots of great reminders and tips on how to create/increase your following and establish credibility as an Influencer and Ann hits on the key points.
One thing I've discovered intuitively is trying to understand the messages that people identify you with and stay on point. I have a few passions: imagery, photography and art that I promote, follow, share on Pinterest, Google Plus, Facebook because they stimulate my interest and visual appetite."
**********
There are a couple of other cool observations I've made about Social Media and specifically on messaging:
- Be careful what you say because once it is out there, it is connected to you, your personality, your professional wisdom (or mistakes)
- It is a great way to reinforce your philosophy and remind yourself of what you attribute to make yourself a more positive person.
- Which underlines 2 - try to keep your messages positive and avoid the trap of bashing anyone or anything publicly.
- You don't need a large number of re-shares, likes, followers to be identified with quality or influence.
- When the time is right, you will receive acknowledgement that you are creating a message that people want to pay attention (a year ago on my Birthday, the CEO of KRED sent me an email to tell me I attained the Top 1% Influencer status)
- You can try to work the system but the system will work you .... in other words: you don't have to try hard if you are consistent, on message (after you figure out what messages people seem to like from you). You don't have to spend the number of hours it appears that some are online. They are scientifically understanding the optimum times their audience will be receptive to their message - making it look easy!
- You ARE the company you keep! If you promote quality, you will attract quality.
- Birds of a Feather Flock Together ... in Business and Social Media as in life.
- If you don't ask, you won't get ... aka don't follow someone and expect them to follow you back if you haven't engaged or asked them. I try my best to follow someone back who directly asks me. Nor should you expect someone to follow you just because you shared a message.
- Develop your online profile: what is the message you want associated with you?
- I cross-section all my platforms with "Helping others strive beyond average to remarkable" to be who I want to be identified for.
- Have a photo for pete's sake ... and from this decade preferably!
- Connect your platforms, loop them together: there are great sites that help you do so:
XMEE https://xeeme.com/optioneerJM
GOOGLE PLUS https://plus.google.com/u/0/105222907836628340919/about
TRUST CLOUD https://trustcloud.com/!/Jeannette%20Marshall
11. There are sites that measure your online influence, if it matters to you, your occupation (i.e. if you are in Marketing you should be on the bleeding edge of social media to increase personal worth to your organization) :
12. There are sites that you can test your expertise based on reactions to your answers:
- LINKED IN: Join Groups that are affiliated with your area of expertise
- QUORA: Answer Questions by topic, etc. Once you get traction, you could be asked to answer specific questions. For example, I am frequently invited to answer on sales http://www.quora.com/Jeannette-Marshall
13. My lucky number :o) (The day my husband was born and our Wedding Anniversary) Regardless of your pre-conception of what Social Media is all about: don't knock it til you join it.
Thank you for reading my Blog. I count you as one of the fantastic people I am associated with ... just by the fact that you are on a knowledge journey and continue self-improvement like me! We certainly are "Birds of a Feather" together!
"I flock around with some amazing people"
~Jeannette Marshall (@optioneerJM)
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for taking the time to comment.
Your post will be moderated to avoid SPAM