Showing posts with label Facebook. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Facebook. Show all posts

The #bestofeverything launch: September 20, 2015


Doing this was quite awkward.  Writing, being, expressiveness has been cloaked by the persona.  Creating a perception of someone between a fairy godmother and a twenty-something.  Full of charge-de-vive and anything is possible exhuberance.  At this quiet ponsive self-reflection.  Behind the mask of the sparkled green eyes, contently knowing that she is her own person.  

Gently casting aside any of the doubt, uncertainties she swallowed whole.  There grazed tiny bursts of wrinkles were like minute soft brushes of an artist's touch.  A rarity to see any pretty face to have light shadows in the precise right place at her cheek bone, eye brow, ski slope nose, with ski jump cut off to glide down to the lips.  The lips were neither unnaturally full or meanness thin.  



Businesses want unique and vibrant new approaches to win in the competitive environment.  It was not what anyone would have imagined.  Someone who could have been voted in as "least likely" could write without limitations.  Calm over reception, and patient on a growing following, she started to write for her heart.  Knowing that to glide gracefully into middle age, with a kinship of followers.  Those so many brilliant contributors to our world:  you deserve the #bestofeverything .  I have sprinkled #bestofeverything around the web and social media world.  

Without any doctorate, she was insightful and could burst forward and upward such incredible tales, art, photography bounced over into social media integrity.
Support good causes.  Promote the good things that the citizen's of the world who are kind, creative,, inspiring, knowledgeable and tuned in.  Landing firmly on instinctively what they craved.  To create a means to which the online or social media could decide for themselves what is popular, good, motivational, spiritual, inspirational so that readership grew.  

People everywhere turned their Twitter, their favorite bloggers, InstaGram to take the temperature of the world.  Breaths of fear on all opposing factions were felt in unison.  






UTOPIA.  Whether by history of occurrence, they forgot what it felt like to be able to ignore the mere harmless to hideous events.  

IRONIC.  As they paid less and less attention to the likes of violence, blood bursting cuts, civil unrest, boastfulness.  The immunity great to no longer watching anything violent.  It was no longer in their instincts.  Ideals to be violent or hate widdled away and became less and less.  If the world's brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, grandparents, teachers, security settled softly on what could ever have been anything but an optimistic world, where hate was suffocated out by soulfull humanity,  caring for health or those less healthy.

 

Education was a social gathering, embraced by the majority.  Families had fun, hugged neighbours, and heros were scattered around.  They embraced, financed, secured, flew up the pinnacle of learning and expanding knowledge.  In its dust lay particles of what was considered high IQs a decade past.





Science was the most distinguished occupation to aspire to which was sometimes, very few, could accomplish both science and computing.  Curiosity was boosted in the children's schools, Gliding in harmony with sports as the best adrenaline rush.  

Ignorance of the past worlds, or so shortly ago, was the way to go.  To get better, stay positive, set goals you find reaching within your sight.  The goals of tarnished pasts, were left aside, like sanitation fields in our lives. 




The governments did not create controversies and were respected and revered when honored with high office based on their unified vote.  The positive examples sliced carefully throughout their lives jolting us to chase corruption, dishonesty, self-serving power, violence or war.  Which found to be settling as such a fine dust, the family's dog brushes the minuet slivers out into the air, with a push of the wind, onto the lapping waters, the sunset orangely casting a glow to scent the fish to jump out of the waters, disarmed by the cleansing that catch and the water did.

The best leaders were innovators, genuine geniuses, information,  puritists,  void of gossip, sensationalism, horror, or violence.  Honor among thieves were only known by the tales of braveness, courage, patience, and love overcame the lost souls.

The network and telephony towers were dismantled only leaving one clear link:  the internet, world wide web.  The steel from the structures of the television stations, radio celebrity mics, and leftover wire donated to the creators of sculptures and statues that were never defaced, driven into, jumped on or marked in the slightest.  

As unlike any global change, some rebelled to the sudden outlook shift.  They had once been loved, idolized and up on top at almost anything they could do on the backs of the disadvantaged, single parents, poor, uneducated, sick outcasts.  They, unwisely, thought that shananigans and soap operas would win their dwaining audience followers back to play.  Not once not ever.  They faded and dwindled to a backdrop as brick, stones, wood -- surfaces that are never once the same, the same color throughout, a roughness to the touch so that one would remove their hand.  

The glory began to be celebrated not by any specific date by occurrence ... the freedom to create anything magical was the straw that catapulted meodicracy to the sublime.  They soon became known to be the gifted.





Writers, bloggers, journalists on the world wide web, internet, softphone, communication wire were tuned into and drifting unconsciously towards Utopia where the #bestofeverything would reside.  The want of choice floated away as the wanted to keep the feeling of happiness, peace and never a cause for forgiveness.  New children, born into the world did experience punishment, discipline, authority because they were surrounded by encouragement, love, gentle pushes to the always possible fulfillment of their dreams.  

An interesting world indeed.  A prima ballerina would surprisingly chose to be harvesters of orchards of fruit, seeds into nuts, with livestock that were free of any hormones or growth expeditors.  




Like most of humanity by then, cows and horses, herds of sheep, goats or flocks of eagles, chickens or budgies were peaceful.  They lived in harmony, sharing their eggs, milk without having to once donate any meat.   The fields of abundantly overflowing vegetables were there to nibble on, never encountering fences, no need for toxic pesticides that left with the rest of rejectful and harmful former occupants.  The balance of survival had been tipped so far on the scale beaming with life. 

One of the first known rebelious cult found were carnivores.  Rejecting any sense of smell, they purposely overfed themselves with the many animals, birds, organic beings to find, experiment or test with dishes where a trickle of blood on a brilliantly white plate, is the highest honor and defining chef celebrity.  They were called the Gorgers.




There was this most incredibly beautiful place on earth.  Selled by an organic group, surrounded by fortresses and family homes, with afield of flowers skipping across the meadows as the backdrop .......... 


________________________ you, the reader, can contribute the next sentence or paragraph in your comment.  Forming the authority on what truly is what we, the people, not the media, corrupt, lying, cheaters would want us to believe what they say, instead it is our testimony of what we believe is #thebestofeverything

Would you like to read more? Tweet, post, share, pin, search for #bestofeverything_story to be continued soon .... depending on you:  I need 1000 subscribers to get that going again.  
  

Mute instead of block on #Twitter




Feedback from family members was how annoying my #RT (retweets) and mentions on Twitter because they clog up their Twitter feed. They subscribe to Twitter instead of partake in it.  They want to see what is trending or what is going on.  You can get a quick traffic report or weather forecast quicker than anywhere if you tailor your follows based on the information you want to get quickly.   Granted, if you don't have a lot whom you follow, the more active ones can appear to take over your stream.  How inconvenient to have to scroll through the clutter of one or two when you are trying to find out how your drive to work will be or if you should confirm an outdoor pursuit if the weather is uncooperative. 


I understand how irritating this can be from the outside looking in. Many see is it as a continuous stream of tweets that make no sense, have no useful information or appears as a group of names.  That is, unless you are in the tribe, have a crew, or building an online brand for career reasons.  

To be a positive Social Media or Twitter citizen, you may want to consider and abide by the rules:  if you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. More to that:  it is a reciprocal culture and a must to acknowledge and either respond directly, #RT or *star favorites is an alternative to not appearing in your stream.


Note:  there are some influential Twittizens that include you on their radar and in essence are promoting you to their followers or a specific group of followers.  To ignore is to fall out of that loop.  That explains why you see so many #RTs.


Personally, it comes down to manners.  Silly as that sounds.  In my view, if someone takes the time to include @optioneerJM in their Tweets, I should  thank or #RT as a form of being polite.   You will be dropped eventually if you don't acknowledge back.  Recently, I started another experiment and that was to reply with the lovely photo that I chose to be my page background because it was seasonally inspired and communicated love.




On the upside, if you are interested in analytics or follow leaders in  algorithm like Klout or KRED, you factor in not so much the quantity of followers you have but their quality.  I know, I've promised my take on these measurement tools a while ago, and will get to that eventually.


Be kind.  Be polite.  

Try mute instead of blocking. You can mute a specific user who you find has taken over your feed on Twitter.  They are not trying to be rude or obnoxious.  They may simply have a lot of followers and interactions.


Some go so far as to block, which irritates me from its ignorance and sometimes pettiness.  


Some take it to the extreme by using the block feature.  Often it is driven by ignorance or pettiness.  


You can temporarily mute someone if you find they are overwhelming your feed.  Here are instructions straight from Twitter:


Muting users on Twitter

Mute is a feature that allows you to remove an account's Tweets from your timeline without unfollowing or blocking that account. Muted accounts will not know that you’ve muted them and you can unmute them at any time. To access a list of accounts you have muted, visit your muted accounts settings.
Some important things to know about mute:
  • Muted accounts can follow you and you can follow muted accounts. Muting an account will not cause you to unfollow them.
  • Muting an account does not impact the account’s ability to send you a Direct Message.
  • You will no longer receive push or SMS notifications from any muted account.
    For muted accounts that you follow:
    • @ replies and mentions by the muted account will still appear in your Notifications tab.
    • Tweets from a muted account before the time the account was muted will still be displayed in your Home timeline.
      For muted accounts that you do not follow:
      • @ replies and mentions will not appear in your Notifications tab.

        To mute a Twitter user on the web:

        Muting from a Tweet:

        1. From a Tweet, click More at the bottom of the Tweet.
        2. Click Mute.
        Muting from a profile:
        1. Go to the profile page of the person you wish to mute.
        2. Click the gear icon  on their profile page. This brings up a drop-down actions menu.
        3. Select Mute from the options listed.
        Once you’ve muted a user on the web, you will see a confirmation banner. If you made a mistake, you can click Undo to unmute a user right away.

        Slick and easy peasy 
         
        Like most platforms, Twitter has support and resources available to help your user experience.  As a matter of fact, I found these instructions directly from resources by Twitter.  

        You can also retract sharing your Tweets with Facebook, because you can accidentally be repetitive in any feeds by how you are linking them.




        Like any good friend who tells you have a piece of parsley is stuck in your teeth, the intention is to help avoid even mild embarrassment.  A friend did message me privately, asking me if something was wrong with my feed because she was seeing posts duplicated 3 or even 4 times.  It forced me to realize that I had to do some homework on many are being bottle necked into Facebook. Truthfully, it is important to me not to irritate my "friends" on Facebook because there is more of a personal touch.  I embrace the more interaction, comments from those I select as having positive influence.

        I am now leaning towards being more ruthless under that select group.  Everyone agrees with me that they see some people who post only their own stuff and only comment or reply if it is within that post.  It's like they're unaware or borderline selfish that they never comment or like anything anyone else posts.  It seems a little too "me me and more about me" even if they think they are being helpful.  


        If you see a photo that you like, a quote that resonates, or just someone sharing a memory or experience:  acknowledge by at least liking it (signifies you're paying attention).  Those that take the time to comment, create mini conversations.  


        There are some fabulous people out there that I'd like to read more from or get to know better.  I hardly can do that without actively searching out specifically.  You got it, the same problem happens on Facebook.  They think if you have liked something from a particular person, you want to see more of their posts.  Similarly, if they tag more people who all comment and like, they will continuously be in your feed.  That's the nature of the beast.


        Ego is prevalent on Social Media


        If all you do is post and interact with only those within those posts, I suggest you create a page so that your fans can chose to subscribe to your page, and you put all that stuff on that page to relieve the rest of your followers from having their streams bottlenecked with your fan club.  What I'm suggesting people, is take personal inventory. Try to perceive how you look.  You could be shocked when at least 50% don't follow your page or may only be responding because they are being polite or reciprocal. 

        Heeding my own advice, I have experimented with content creation services.  To help me stay in front of those interested while I'm at work or living life, I have preselected the best of 500pics and "Mashable" on Twitter.  Funny, I chose to post images from InstaGRAM any photo shares with #Calgary or #yyc on Facebook.  Puzzling I'm sure to some, like my kids, who wonder why I'd posted something that is unrelated to me or I don't know them.  I don't actually want to give up on it entirely, because it does show a finger on the pulse on all matters related to Calgary.  


        I tend to experiment first before I go all in.  I posted over the weekend that I was going to start to trim my Facebook friends -- if there is little interaction or only self-serving for them, I was going to start weeding.  Like gardening, you have to get rid of the weeds before the flowers can bloom.  I want to see all the golden nuggets that I may be missing.  Interesting, one amazing social media influencer acknowledged one of my pics and we had a mini conversation which amounts to interaction.  He had either read what I'd posted or is like-minded:  interacts with those that tend to be more genuine.  



        The tools are there, use them.  Twitter offers more help with the Mute functionality on smartphones and how to backtrack if you decide to change your mind:

        To mute a Twitter user on iOS:
        Muting from a Tweet:
        1. Tap a Tweet from the user you’d like to mute.
        2. Tap the ••• icon.
        3. Tap Mute and Yes, I’m sure to confirm.
        Muting from a profile:
        1. Visit the profile page of the user you wish to mute.
        2. Tap the gear icon
        3. Tap Mute and Yes, I’m sure to confirm.

        To mute a Twitter user on Android:

        Muting from a Tweet:
        1. Tap the overflow icon
        2. Tap Mute @username and confirm.
        Muting from a profile:
        1. Visit the profile page of the user you wish to mute.
        2. Tap the overflow icon
        3. Tap Mute and Yes, I’m sure to confirm.

        How do I know if someone is muted? 

        When you visit the profile of a user you have muted, you will see the red mute icon. 
        To access a list of accounts you have muted:
          1. Navigate to your muted account settings on Twitter.com. You will see a list of every account you are currently muting.
          2. From the top of the list, you can select to view Accounts you follow that you have muted, or All accounts that you have muted.
          3. You can unmute users by clicking the red mute icon to unmute. 
              Note: Accounts you follow will list the users you are both currently following and muting. The All tab will display all the accounts you’re muting, including the ones you are following.

              To unmute a Twitter user:

              1. Visit the muted user’s profile on Twitter.
              2. Click the red mute icon  to unmute.

              Unfollowing, blocking and reporting accounts as spam:

              In addition to muting users, you can also unfollow usersblock users, or report accounts as spam. Please read those help pages for more information.

              There you have it.  Now you don't have to permanently delete someone important (like your mother who dabbles in social media).  You can mute and unmute based on your current mood.  I could see myself doing so once I've #RT someone respectfully and momentarily want to better sift through the tweets.  With almost 12,000 followers, I still want to interact personally as much as possible.  Or, I'd like to prove value with my personal thoughts, ideas, or share images or articles I find interesting.  I would rather they not be muddled in with a bunch of my good manners or social media code of ethics:  to acknowledge and thank those who take time to make me a part of the experience.  Heavens, I'd be horrified to be considered SPAMmy.  I'll leave SPAM as another topic of importance to discuss later on.  

              My dream is aligned with my goals: to be a digital specialist for a specific company I have in mind and I'm building my reputation just for that.  Ironically, I was doing my research on their reach and looked them up on Klout.  That was when I discovered that I hadn't connected Facebook to Klout and that certainly impacted measurement scores.  How goofy is that?  Not surprisingly, my score went up a few notches immediately.  Yes, I'll write about that too:  How building your brand online can help your career.


              Practice the golden rule.

              Treat others as you wish to be treated yourself. 


              Manage your expectations.

                
              If you expect to be treated with respect, ensure you are being respectful towards others.





              social media is ALL about YOU!

              Social media IS all about YOU!

              A question was posed on Jeannette  Facebook (yes people interact and ask questions of their most trusted advisors privately without all the hoopla on Twitter) on which network have respondents'  found to be the best to launch their social media presence?   Initially, I was going to reply with Twitter but then realized that my LINKED IN profile says the most about who I am with links to my Blog,  philosophy OptioneerJM  interests (Pinterest), philosophy (Blog) and (Blog) out of  all the networks.  However, I stopped myself to expand to state that I would credit Twitter  for launching my#socialmedia personality to the stratosphere (compared to the others) ... honorable mention: without "working it) G+ #Google where I gained 5000#Followers compared to working it on #Twitter .  

              I have also uncovered an interesting tidbit.  InstraGRAM has it's own stars, as Guy Kowasaki launched giHUGE on Google Plus.   Goolge is appearing to be a sleeper platform.  Surprisingly so since about three years ago I predicted that anything connected with Google was going to rapidly expand, really, I attest to its overall power over anything on the internet.

              Bill Gates must really be shuddering and Steve Jobs, rolling in the clouds (the white ones), with Mr.  Pakard, and Mr. Hewitt smiling fondly on a company that used their core values as a foundling to a superstar of anything technology -- internet, networks, cloud, search, blogs, SEO, content, mobility, games, Playstore.  Non would disagree that Google allowed its team to study its competitors in the space they wanted to dominate:  YOUR ATTENTION.

              Thus the title of this blog:  social media IS all about YOU!



              Father, brother, uncle, grandfather, coach, teacher, banker, employer, boss, clergy, mentor

              Where else can you be you?  

              Seriously, you have to behave at church, pay attention in school, exert in extra-curricular activities, mind your manners with parents, siblings, relatives, friends sometimes, employer, boss, clergyman, partner, spouse, mentor, grandparents, and the clerk at the grocery store!  Ah-hem (deep breath).... I'm exhausted and I didn't finish ... study, pay attention to your education or else your boss or your banker won't pay much attention to you while your friends, coach, family, mentor find other things to do because you lost their attention!

              Finished stretching ... then there is your coach riding you on your sport, job, career, book, audio, video endurance.  Can you stay relevant to your close circle of friends for the long run between relationships, getting married, having kids, setting up house, shopping, financial future, expertise, interests, or other activities?  


              Who can you show your photos to?

              Be truthful and brutally honest, nobody wants to sit through your narrative on your vacation, travels, business trip, conference, school, wedding, birth, kids activity, sport, scores, sayings do they?  How about you try sharing some photos with your blathering, shouting out, retweeting, shares, posts, profile, bio?  Why would they settle in while you pass them photos of your graduation, party, BBQ, reunion, gathering, holiday, trips, flowers,  food, fantasies when they tend to be serious about fitness, facts, favorites, family, focus.


              Do people tune out when you philosophize?

              Where did you get your certification, degree or Ph.D in recommending anything as important?  Do you get to write and be featured in a magazine, newspaper, radio broadcast, television commercial, event, musical talents?  Well, most of the people I know any way.  Don't feel bad.  You are part of the norm.  Which makes me wonder where do all the exceptional, inspirational, motivational, celebrity, famous, super stars hang out all together?  You thinking like me, not very many chill together.



              Where can you test your theories?

              So you know a thing or two is saved for self-proclaimed experts.  Most of us know about a lot of different things which circle around interests:  reading, writing, the environment, oceanography, meteorology, photography, and the king of it all:  technology.  Don't forget about art, beauty, fashion, fitness, food.  Think about it:  you wake up in the morning, and what you do makes you a participant of any number of those items.   You maybe even stretching your brain to understand about all of them.  Under technology you are using a computer, a laptop, a tablet, a cell phone, a telephone, a mobile phone, a smart phone with your fingertips so that must mean you are technology whiz too!

              Fighting the pack is photography.  Some are photographers, others videographers.  But before we bow and face defeat ... we stand up to say we know just about anything about photography because we all have identification, passports, passes, reports, files, government with hands on experience ourselves so we can be a photographer of fame then.

              We cook, eat, shop for groceries, nourish, exercise, shop, dress, apply makeup, learn all in the same day which makes us knowledgeable about just about everything.


              Where can you learn?

              Certainly, I get it.  We all went to kindergarten, elementary, junior high, middle school, high school, college, university, conference, the internet, books, libraries to assemble our knowledge.  Never all at the same time.


              How do you share your love?

              Personally, I like flowers, chocolates, getting it on, hugs and kisses.  Do you know that about me?  What makes you so special that you know that you have a spot in my heart? If you're lucky you will get a smile, a note, a card, a joke, an email, a bouquet of flowers, basket of fruit, my time, my attention, my loyalty, my effort, my response, and share likely except the chocolate perhaps.



              #BlueAngels, #Airplanes, #SeaFair, #Planes #Seattle


              Where DO you go?

              Social media is   elementary my dear people.  You can do all those things, be all those people, be true to who you are, reject what is offensive, ignore what is irrelevant, find out what is going on, who has it going on, where you can go:  travel, holiday, parks, oceans, seas, islands, countries, cities, experience, challenge, react to, rise up to, reach out to, reep rewards from?  Social media my dear friends.  



              #Minions #minion #banana #character #joke #quote



              Who do you CONNECT with?

              Besides the obvious that fall into your physical circle of influence, you can expand your influence, your circle, your friendships, your crushes, your adventures, mind, knowledge, specialty.  You use social media to do that.  Who ever said "the world was our oyster" was brilliant and a futurist who sensed that the world would end up be by what we do with those skills, experience, wisdom so that others may benefit, like, discover, recover, inspire, motivate, learn.  You sound a poem?  Very likely you have wrote one or read one, where can you do both?  Social media:  you can talk, read, act, smile, frown, inform, share, post, put forward.


              Unconvinced still?

              That's okay.  There are still quite a number of you out there.  You get your news from the radio, television, computer, school, company information.  But what if you could assemble that all at the same time and share it with others who may connect, share similar interests, goals, achievements, dreams on the same level as you? 


               Social media is where it's at.

              Time to get with it if you want to be cool, connected, informed, known.  period.  PERIOD. End of story.  

              A social media journey

              Who knew what would follow when I launched this blog optioneerJM five years ago?  I remember how it came about:  My mentor and friend Donna deMan insisted that I get on board Linked In to introduce myself, open myself to career opportunities, reconnect with those I had lost touch with, and get "with it" on social media. 


              Linked In

              Like anything to do with social media, you don't just be there.  You have to embrace it, blend in and become active to gain the value it presents.  So I did.  I had quite a few years experience in sales and digital printing, so it wasn't too surprising that I hovered around sales groups before I jumped in.  After all, it was pretty underwhelming.  All I had to do was write about my opinion on matters others were embraced in.  What happened was, my opinion was valued, my experiences I shared were welcome.  I started to meet people.  One of the first was Mike Lehr when I commented on career advice.  Not before long, we were messaging and exchanging information after he voted and commended my comments..... he seemed to know what he was doing and had a esteemed background in intuition and even authored books on the topic. 

              Shortly after, in a Digital Printing group I connected with Sandy Hubbard.  We had similar careers with printing and magazines so it wasn't surprising that she became a mentor and champion.  Sandy was a publisher and writer and encouraged my viewpoint so I thought "what the heck" I will start a Blog about sales and draw from what I had commented on in Linked In to get started.  The thought was, if it is good enough for sales types, it may be good enough for the whole world wide web.


              What drove my curiosity was why was there such a fuss about "Social Media"?  I admit I was skeptical and stubborn:  I didn't want to be associated with or thought of as a time waster online.  Donna encouraged and convinced me to get on Twitter.  I had come up with the pseudonym optioneerJM by then, getting a lot of direct questions what an optioneer was?  The explanation seemed natural and easy to answer:  "An optioneer provides multiple solutions then executes to solve the problems, while gaining buy in from others."  It seemed logical:  option with re-engineering to come up with option-eer combining both. 


              Twitter

              I hung my handle on Twitter, linking my blog, and primarily using it as a gateway to drive attention to my blog.  It became so much more.  Sandy Hubbard was a pro and tucked me onto her side and showed me around:  First stop was a group of early adopters on social media called #USGuys.  I was thrilled.  I was starting to get some momentum to my thinking that if you can't wrap your head around something, find out why that is.  Research, read, absorb.  So I did.  Thankfully, they opened their arms and let me into the club (it isn't a club by any stretch of the imagination).  A group of people that were not only had a large following individually, but also many had started to leverage their knowledge to launch their own expertise as business opportunities.


              My dog Buddy

              Facebook

              Admittedly, I did have a Facebook profile for family and friends AND GAMES.  I was uncomfortable letting others know that I fooled around on Farmville and Yoville, with the exception of my sister and good friend Allison Tasker.  What amazed me was on the page, the ladies whom I connected with didn't just share crates of vegetables to expand your farm.  I noticed how they shared recipes, quotes, sayings and found causes like domestic abuse, bullying and missing children.  I was turning my head around on the expansive reach of Facebook, collaborating with my new found friends from across the globe. 

              I had the optioneerJM persona established by then, thus I expanded to include a Facebook Page.  I started to think that some of my tweets that were nuggets captured and shared may be of value by encompassing them on Facebook.  I discovered that many of my awesome friends from Twitter were active on Facebook and it was more intimate.  Many of my friends, like Joseph Gier and Libby Sweiger were active on Facebook and I got to learn and appreciate more about them as people by their posts. 

              I was a keener by now.  No holding back.  In fact, I was a social media enthusiast.  So much so, I became a social media Evangualist, singing its praises and the wonderment of all that could be gained.  Mike Lehr caught on, set up his profiles, with me giving him hints in the background.  Almost immediately, not only was Mike embraced, he was guest blogging for some of the gurus from #USGuys.  Mike didn't need to be convinced that it was a marvelous adventure.  In fact, Mike's Blog was my first of a select few to follow of Blogs I followed, credited as such on my blog.  He was very kind and reciprocated.  That taught me one of the first lessons:  help others while being conscious of whether they appreciate it and acknowledge it by sharing back.





              Google Plus, Pinterest, Instagram, Tumblr

              I was a late bloomer to Google Plus, but the logic stood out.  I applied the same reasoning of why I used Google's BlogSpot to host my Blog.  If you want to increase your presence in social media, you can't go wrong with putting big brother Google behind your efforts.

              I can't remember how I stumbled upon Pinterest, but it became an addition for my visual appetite.  I loved looking at wonderful photographs, art and images.  There is an abundance of stimuli there.  Along with recipes, how to, decorating, quotes and a multitude of many other things.  I got on board and immediately recognized what a great way to capture the things you loved and those you admired under a synopsis called Pinterest. 

              I like images and quotes.  I started to marry the two, sometimes creating my own quote, other times borrowing from the well known or obscure.  Regardless, the visuals are usually beautiful . I play with InstaGRAM a little, admittedly, mostly to see what my kids are sharing.  It is fun, flamboyant and brilliantly impulsive.  I still keep it toned down compared to the others, but there is a lot to be said about the plethora of images there.  It was a no brainer to get on to Tumblr for the same reason.  I can discover fantastic images, to be shared on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.

              I'm honored to have made a lot of talented and remarkable connections.  Every day I log on any of the sites, I learn something and more than likely share something else.  My reputation and brand as optioneerJM has evolved from that.  Quite simple.  Very remarkable.

              I will be writing a Gratitude blog shortly to personalize and thank those that helped and inspired me to be a better social media citizen to commemorate my five years on social media, starting May 2010.