FOCUS on building a tribe online on all social media, not merely a following

#CalgaryBlogger
(c) Jeannette Marshall
 @optioneerJM on Instagram
@postingfromedge on Twitter
Original ART
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FOCUS is the arrow that
shoots you to the moon!

Tackle one day at a time,
one task a day, scoped out,
scaled, cost analysis,
homework done.

THAT FOCUS can make or break you
trying to juggle too many priorities at once It is 100% contributor of any ONE downfall or failure.

Whether it is a personal life speed bump ~something that takes you out to left field, completely takes you off your game.

Or a slap in the ass from the making of income to support yourself, your family and significant others.  

It could be at FULL WARP speed coming right at you and even Captain Kirk or Mr. Spock could avert disaster from.

Watching a family member go through the struggles of survival, chronic pain tempered with oxicotin medication that evolved into dependency, then frozen so they turned to "street drugs" to soften the excruciating pain and diabetes side effects.

They ended up dying in the care of a medical facility in B.C. whose medical team had written off as an addict.  Not receiving the same care as what society deems acceptable.

Everything kept coming at em:  financial struggles where things became sources of money, compounded by multiple health infliction that were increasingly attacking mental wellness.

"WORRY stems from the lack of focus."

~ Jeannette Marshall

#CalgaryBlogger

#QUOTE

EVERYONE struggles to COPE

Nobody gets a pass.

One woman's agony is another person's mother or sister.

A new job, nerves, insecurity, lack of confidence from it taking years to find employment.  ~It's just another struggle someone else is trying to conquer.

WHEN YOU do too much at once
Something is going to cave.  No one is Wonder Woman or Superman or lives in a bat cave with extraordinary wealth.

For every PROBLEM there's a SOLUTION
How you tackle it is dependent on FOCUS.  Getting out the paper, with a pencil and drawing it out.  What is in front of you?  What is preventing you from realizing your dreams?

You can't get without steps
Identical to pigs can't fly.
You have to break it down.
Once you see what is in front of you:  it could be three columns or two.
You have to be able to break it down by steps, you can't leap over tall buildings, nor can you get to the final finish with that.

Let's keep it to three to maximize formula

COLUMN A ; PLAN A;  PLAN B
For example:  Accept new job
PROs and CONs on scale of 1-10, 10 best
Financial implications:  Income -expenses less> living costs (mortgage/rent+utilities
+phone/cell) = leftover for gas, smokes, drinks, groceries

OR, you can define COLUMN A and B to be simply on financial metrics

Then you start to focus on one item at a time.  What step allows you to move to the next step towards the final accomplishment?

IF it is a new job, use my "30-60-90 day Plan" to map it out so that you can hit the day running.  BONUS if you hand it to your boss before you're even hired - showing you can break it down to steps and timelines.

Just starting this off, you will discover how much you have been scrambling to accomplishment way too many things at once.  Naively thinking that you can finish in all quick swoop, while distractions from the other important matters that are falling behind too.

By setting a FOCUS, you can teach yourself discipline.  You force yourself to realize that in order to get this over with, you have things you may not want to do, perhaps someone can give you advice?  

Sidebars and unfocused activities, deviate from finishing anything, missing deadlines, mentally scattered.  It can give the impression that you are indecisive or a stumbling buffoon when you are anything but.

I see people who are in leadership who can be like this.  It is from the inability to divide and conquer tasks.

When you start to draw the plans out, follow the steps, adding new steps you discover on the quest, adjust timelines, deduct costs or delays.

That is really no different that what a Project Manager does:  

1)  Determine the project scope:  What the completed result will be, what is required to finish it, who will be required to work on it, how the decision making process works, what the budget is, how overruns on costs will be reported?  Who and how will third party resources be determined and/or accounted for by cost or by delays or time improvements.

In this, you are drawing out what your focus should be based on what the pros and cons dictated should be the highest priority.  The more honest and detailed you are, the easier it is going to assess and debrief on how it went.

This is discipline.

That is focus.

Your best assets are your people. If that is not the case, you're doomed.

My own art:  Jeannette Marshall (c) optioneerjm 

Organizations better be ramped up for the Millennial culture that is swarming into all the best workplaces.  There is a lot of razzle dazzle that you need to have embedded into the culture if you are filling the front lines with them.

Roaring and snapping at the heels are the Z generation, chomping at the bit for the Millennials, just like we were with the Baby Boomers.

As a lot of the best, oldest, long term employees are beyond "Freedom 55" in both career success, perks, great stock investments by company matching growth.

Take for instance tonight with my 25 y/o Millennial daughter who has blessed me with her presence these past few months.

QUALITY: the secret sauce of social media

The following blog was first posted on LINKED IN before being pasted here:

QUALITY: the secret sauce of social media

• Published on January 20, 2020
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Status is online

Jeannette Marshall

DIGITAL MARKETER: Creative Enthusiast, Imagineer, Marketer, Sales Pro, Publisher & create art (c) Jeannette Marshall

44 articles

Before you get all worked up, start thinking madly, that you need to get on to social media yourself.

Before you panic and put up stupid pictures of yourself in a SUIT > you are NOT your job on social media, you are you.

Before you say nothing and by definition, nothing happens. Giving it up, snarling that it's a waste of time. Only people without jobs, have nothing to do all day, or get paid to be stupid online can be online.

Before you go all crazy about so many narcissistic well-known personalities online. Thinking that you don't know the world to know what you think by TWEETING it or SHARE what you eat on INSTAGRAM.

Before you go all narcissistic online. People who blab about what they are thinking are more than a minuscule of whom the worlds' audience pays attention to.

Before you stop jumping on board. People are getting ahead of the game, taking charge of their online name. Yes, some develop a following.

Most people categorize and lump in their online reputation with their career, life, morals, belief in person presence. An inability to see how one is more powerful than the other?

What people see about you online is what is perceived. What is perceived quickly catapults into reputation which is presented online.

What I'm saying is there is a little bit of secret sauce. That is your tribe: a group of followers whom exchange connections across all the platforms out there: blending Linked In career platform with Twitter news to sharing Pinterest to communicating Facebook to visualizing on Instagram.

The more, the better, the advised.

You may sternly be rigid and not very personable. People could find you intimidating because you never crack a smile. Yet your fellow frat boys know how outrageous your humor can be. Use that whit and humor that David Letterman perfected in his conversational style. Emulate that in your own style. Put out your opinions. Test your theories.

Your style and reputation will evolve. Bill & Melinda Gates are transforming philanthropy crossed over from technology which has only one or two objectives: helping eradicate immunity globally; Bill Gore is forever immortalized by "THE INCONVENIENT TRUTH" thanks mostly to social media. Those who care about the world have had this vibe for 10 years or more while it was all in its formative young years.

Those who are interested in technology form a unit that I call a tribe. They gravitate towards each other, sometimes do to the algorithm tango that some sites actually have and promote. The wise take the hint and follow some, even if not all. You know you're fine tuning their numbers so that it is just what you want.

Don't be a shell. Hiding behind your personal career, steering your ship in a disciplined, focused manner. Some hide behind rude behavior, in denial that it will never be uncovered.

Share what makes you feel good. Comment if it made you inspired. Share images or quotes that resonate from your soul. Quote from the Bible or Q'uran if that is your best source. Whatever that makes you smile. Smear out the faces of children to protect their identity. Ask permission when you take a smartphone snap it it may be shared.

The main thing is get out there. The world is much better. At your fingertips. Evolving your inner self. Shining in authenticity. A positive force.

Who is the influence?

It doesn't matter whether you are an individual, an identity (music), or brand, you can carefully craft your audience based on who resonates the most with you.

Something I discovered lately:  the masters of algorithms like GOOGLE, TWITTER, LINKED IN are identifying content creators as the next big influence wave.

Maybe I had that hunch 10 years ago.  I recognized how important it was to establish an identity that could be synonymous with brand.  There was no question who was behind the brand.  It would develop a following because of integrity and authenticity.

I wrote early on, that I was putting a lot of my apples on the GOOGLE cart.  It seemed logical that the super power of information > GOOGLE SEARCH > was going to lead the pack.

If you compare that to TESLA and ELON MUSK, then we're missing the point.

The strongest voice, the most authentic voice, and the voice that resonates with the majority of people online are going to be the most powerful disruptions.

These entities are corporations with investors and shareholders that demand a return on their investment.  Fast.  No hassle.

I've watched both Facebook and Twitter evolve as they tried to drift away from a social network to becoming a viable tech stock.

The secret to longevity is going to be who lasts.

What has happened with these two startups with imposter's syndrome is they forgot the main course.

In launching any new venture, you have to be able to answer, unequivocally, succinctly, resolutely 

Who is your customer?
The ship can sail once you've anchored that

Most companies mistakenly steer the ship towards shareholders and miss the wind for their sails.

Okay, then let me ask:

Who did you have in mind when you created it?

We should all be well-versed on Steve Jobs' and Bill Gates philosophies, however, the main opportunity they uncovered was looking at who their customers were and what was available to them, and make something better, easier.

My point is that Twitter and Facebook did exactly that:  

Forgot who the customers is

The idea that resonated to allow either to grow was the adopters, users, and spreaders of word-of-mouth (still the most effective way of spreading good ... or bad news).  Social Media just trumped it up on steroids and removed barriers by beliefs, geographic location, race, culture, love interests.

As a consumer and marketing intern, it is not surprising to see the numbers.

They tell the story.

Once Facebook and Twitter tried to become corporations, they fell down the rabbit hole because they forgot who got them there to begin with.

One just has to watch not even 5 minutes of Facebook's Zuckenberg interviews in the US, and you just can't help but get the sense of a really lucky genius idea run by someone still in High School.  Someone who ignores advice or heeds wisdom from others.

The baby shoes is starting something.

The first steps is becoming an economical climate or environment with a loyal following who have trust that they have your best interests at heart.

FACEBOOK abuse of trust is a story of "how to get away with privacy infiltration".

I'm still there:  it is still one of the best homes to my loyal tribe.  I haven't cut off my nose to spite my face by deleting myself there.  I did remove the side, personal one as I wanted to focus the energy on only a few areas.

TWITTER abuse of power is a story where they are now trying to dictate who and who cannot be on their platform.  What is acceptable in their terms are not necessarily good for its users.  PURGING, SUSPENDING accounts would be an example.

ONCE users start to lose the glimmer then the answer to who the customer is becomes realized:  the users, members, audience and clicks determine the outcomes now.  What is becoming more suspect is the usual technology trick of try me, test me, but if you want this or that THAT IS better it will cost you.

That's a failed business plan
The one where shareholder price or value is where they determine the executive board's ROI return on investment of the CEO and whether they stand behind mostly him (less than 10% of executives on Fortune 500 are women).

Team work makes the dreams work

When you are collaborating on a team, use technology and tools. For example:

*Messenger ~ Group or team where everyone shows available or in meeting, a conference call, whatever yet many people multi-tasks; tip: if you are presenting facts, your team can be on standby during an online presentation, having your back, everyone sings from the same song sheet

*SHAREPoint: Meeting Minutes, Agenda, Attendance, Next Steps, Pending, Approval Processes, Process maps, org charts, roles/responsibility, defined permissions; deadlines; completion - can evolve as "Best Practices" or "Case Studies"

*INTRAnet: internal site should be slick, informative, updated frequently, avoid only blog from CEO, leadership commendations, success stories and recommendations constantly updated; include stock price, stock movements, industry news, customer awards or partnerships or vendor changes

*INTERNAL social site: focus on ideas or improvement or brainstorming, opinions or questions. ENSURE it is not next-tier supervisors who stalk people by making their presence known by answering the question or asking for clarification to a direct report~subtle form of intimidation is what that reeks of

*CRMs Customer Relationship Management systems that aid collaboration and avoids the customer having to tell the same story over and over and over again before the same person becomes accountable, does the follow up, and checks with customer on satisfaction - it could generate an email to the customer account manager - which would generate a personal call requirement - which is monitored by sales managers during weekly one-on-ones to avoid gaps or gaping holes

*GROUP Screen Share Pages work really well when sharing the screen with others visualizes and emphasizes. Group sharing is effective when the presenter is using power point slides and often allow comments as chat in boxes; it works wonder on collaboration and problem solving.

*TELECONFERENCE CALLS should be scheduled weekly or monthly with consistency, agenda sent out beforehand (or posted on SharePoint or Intranet Site), confirming attendance, a note taker or minutes scribe. When used with other share technology, it can be very effective, especially among remote workers, consultants, project managers, HR, training, etc.

Because of the foregoing selection, you may decide against a video conference call which limits multitasking and can be awkward or intimidating. (My opinion)

NOTE: If you are screen sharing, turn off your MESSENGER and email notifications as they distract viewers.

ENSURE everyone has an opportunity to speak: round table works well.

TABLE discussions that are going sideways. SCHEDULE side discussions or move to the next call's agenda, depending upon priority.

ENSURE the facilitator is organized. That's what Agendas are for and even stronger when time allotment is noted.