PERSISTENCE pays .....

I think that overall, in general, and in sales ::.... persistence pays:

I'm going to have to go digging in my blog-mess ...... why didn't i label them better or could i create folders within folders like i can on many #MICROSOFT user-friendly clicks; 

If that doesn't stink, then imagine me trying to create a website with GODADDY.com .... i swear this is the third time i've gone there and they are the worst user friendly, and full of glitches.  How many times do we have to hear or read about something that we have to register the fact that somebody is doing a major MAJOR push on advertising spend:  GODADDY.com.  

Or, alternatively thinking::..... who is being BIG BROTHER and becoming so in tune with my habits:  would that be GOOGLE or APPLE (i have a #MicroSoft PC, Apple iPAD, Apple iPhone6x64gb) where my every thought is surrounded by them, ready to pounce on my click to immediately float out the ads thought to be of interest to me.  Then again, MicroSoft is getting pretty intuitive these days.  I keep getting that steady circle next to the ever-loving "START" button on high alert::.... do i or don't i start being lazy?  Yet, that could mean that i could be blogging at breakneck speed from so much knowledge, and data paraded in front of me.

TISSUE

TISSUE

KLEENEX

There's some nifty maneuvering going on out there with these content Kings like BUFFER, POCKET, PINTEREST who have partnered up with GOOGLE's Chrome (old habits die hard, i will be like tissue paper never succumbing to the pressure of calling itself a KLEENEX).  Google can rename itself to fall under Alphabet as it is scrambling to the top of the heap for being a 'data' company.  Just you watch.  While everyone else starts turning around and looking across the floor, wondering how they could have lost the race even though they couldn't find the light at the end of the finish line.  

I've shared before (and here I go looking again to insert otherwise my blogs would be shorter, quicker and not encumbered by fact checking or research (perhaps enter content captures like the every incredible IFTTT).   

@ifttt knows how to jump hoops around data.  Where Facebook and Google are faced off in the ring together, to win the "data champion of the world" platinum ring, Google leading because its grasp of the "obvious" still continues to astound everyone else.  Remember on G+ [ googlePLUS GOOGLEplus Google+ google+ ] you don't "follow" people, you have them in your circles.  How more ZEN can you get?  It sure would resonate with the other big jump in the information world:  MINDFULNESS.  There, I've written a bit more about it while meanderingsABOUT blogging.  

Write a book, film a documentary Michael Moore (it would be right up your alley to mock what is considered general belief to knock everyone's socks off with your seriously talented eye and creativity.  The epitome of what I want to be like when I grow up:  insightful, creative, honest and real.  Except, right now, I am looking to create that by writing words.

I can only write words when I am aware of what is going on around me.  Absorbing and gulping down an array of words, poems, quotes, quips clashing in conflict with the creative eye drawn to things of beauty.  There is so much of that out there.  Huh, I guess I can really take this "Mindfulness" and wrap my own head around it better.  

Like a snake or octopus (that i've referred to myself affectionately a few times on INBETWEENERS that I've recently named:  YUPPYdom ..... realizing, through writing, that as I sift through the years, totally opposite of what MINDFULNESS is all about ::.... staying in the PRESENT time, moment, second.  That is a very very very hard thing to do.

As an assignment, try following along with me as I check it all out and just reiterate in my own words founded by my own presumptions, just interpreting what I see, hear, watch but mostly READ what is going on around me.  NOW and put a HALT to thinking about tomorrow's appointments or yesterday's regret.

Sorry, sidebar (URCH, SCREECHhhhhh) Why is it that we only "dwell" in the past.  Or we "recall" the mishaps, segmented down to seconds of instant swayed reaction which would have better ramifications.  That's a screenplay idea isn't it?  Well, that's an area I haven't tried.  LOL, I haven't even got near to writing a book.  In the back of my mind, I'm writing it.  I started organizing it by blogs of different topics that interest me:  commentary | publishing | life+love+lifestyle (including beauty and fashion, underscored by admitting I stumble around on POLYVORE ::... to design and test my DIVA worthiness.  

In sales, as in life, you have to have a level of persistence.  Think of it as being graceful ballerina compared to INDY race.  You just don't have time for a bucket list ::.... or do you?  Why not?  Something that could be further investigated and written about on YUPPYdom with Word Press.

I promised a comparison between Google's Blogspot and Word Press and I've been dragging my fingers.  I guess the jury isn't in yet.  My knuckles and main readership derived and arrived by creating this blog, with Google, when my instincts told me to write about how sacred Google would become.  Heroic of "only in Game of Thrones" masterful proportions.  

It isn't fair either on user-friendliness because I was fumbling around when I first created this Blog back in 2010 (yes, soooooooo or sewwwwwwwwwwww many years ago).  To being more comfortable and confident in searching for something and which partnership is supporting others the most.

Under that note, I have to say that I started out supporting SocialFave out of admiration and respect for +Philippe  since we connected on Linked In when I was a brand-spanking-newbie on social media.  Linked In is where I dipped my toes in.   As I answer people's question in person all the time:  do I really need to be on Twitter? Geez whiz kidz YEsBIZ ::... defining it as a way of casting your personalized net across the universe and seeing what stays in that web you are pulling ashore.   I like how Twitter enables me to reach deeper and deeper inside of myself to experiment, discover new information channels, build better awareness for the NOW (still massively, almost impossible, tough).    

As what often happens in any clique or popularity group, a few start to get bored and maybe even roll their eyes at each other before slowly creeping out of the room before anyone notices.  Many of the YUPPY folks of my youth were amassed under the umbrella of LINKED IN, with the Millennials pushing us from behind, the genX totally crushed in between.  A few went exploring new and intriguing ways to communicate and amass even more information, across every mile possible (even space if you paid attention to the Canadian Astronaut who was teaching science to kids from space, as the Space Commander).  

By then, I'd carefully placed my basket of goodies:  knowledge, experience, character, fashionista style, gregarious personality in with Google, while I left to explore places like Twitter and much later on Facebook and glimmer from Pinterest.    There were no user manuals.  Which seems ridiculously odd for the YUPPY ~hood who were in the thick of the 80s when Bible/Quaran-thick manuals were dumped on us from everywhere!  You couldn't buy anything without being indebted to all the plastic, books, booklets and encyclopedias came with it.  Enter my era of the 90s.  The persistent patience presented an opportunity to be interested in something, be savvy about it, and then sell it.

Yes, I have been lucky.  Or, does success fall upon those at the right place and right time?    Busted, I know.  That is NOT a MINDFUL thought.  Then again, like space explorers now or sea travelers back then, pushing all us to move beyond our own squared, boxed in thinking.  So narrow in views that peace is less of an option.  As long as two opposing parties believe that they have the ONLY answer, we will struggle to move beyond so much turmoil around us today.  Then again, lucky if you were born when I was.  I am more familiar with sifting through hype and reality, think about the short shelf of the disco era?  If it were up to the Yuppy generation, it would be right up there as a sub-culture of rock and roll.  

Gratitude
Right now, I am mindful and thankful for +SocialFave and the team.  What a great tool for customizing one's Twitter relationship.  More like an extension for the Twitter devotee than a tool.  A great example of perseverance, persistence by the founder.  I'm too polite to ask whether it has paid off yet.  I'm going to guess not, because I want to sprinkle back that business savvy gained from sales hiccups.  The pay off is ultimately the longest wait.  As my dad would always ask me, sidetracking me quickly and surprisingly or more nurturing and understanding:  "What is the pay off?".  Great idea to keep that question close at hand, to assist with the struggle of not dwelling on the past or hurry to quickly towards the future.  A nice way to say, hey, I like it NOW.

A social experiment

"If you are not prepared

to step out of the BOX

~don't complain that

you're squared in."

~ Jeannette Marshall

No, the quote wasn't the main purpose of writing this blog.  I am always fiddling around in PAINT ..... or I'm looking for something, like you do when you have a recipe in front of you, looking to see if you have all the ingredients you want to place in your writing.  Or, something just pops out and I think, that is a quote:  I should go look for an image to use to create the environment to host the quote.  Then, I store them for rePOSTing later on other social media sites like Twitter or Facebook or Google.  I'm not a celebrity so they won't be famous or anything.  If they catch on and are used more than once, I'm humbled.  I plant them on Pinterest too.  Pinterest being my virtual storage of sorts.  A collection of "stuff".

The experiment I was on to was trying something different to see what happens.  It is as a result from not finding a source for checking in with my followers:  on Facebook.  I had over 500 views of my blog today, which is a nice jump, thank YOU!  I like to see if I can understand what people may like, what posts they're reading and what they're sharing, liking, reTweeting and from where?  The numbers showed me against a surge from #Brazil .... thank you BRAZIL!!  I'm trying to figure out where this surge originated from or by whom.  

HINT HINT:  Facebook or someone out there should create a follower algorithm based service that tells you who clicks, likes, comments, shares your content:  in other words:  who are your supporters.  (Only someone famous can call them "fans").  

I think this does source back to my former talent in sales:  I like to hunt.  I became more strategic as time progressed, depending upon what I was selling or to whom I was selling to.  That was something that was learning in the strategic sales arena, consultative selling, or selling to executives.  You really can't peddle your wares to important audiences if you don't get who they are, what they may be interested in or looking for.  Writing a blog or blending in on social media is kinda like that.  Your following will tend to gravitate towards things that matter most to you.  In my case, they would be:

• social media CONTENT to share that others enjoy
• CURATING beautiful images, art, photography
• WRITING, blogging, growing audience
• networking, MEETING others with similar interests
• eventually PAID for what I am learning or writing

When reading the numbers, I look at the posts that have all of a sudden gained momentum, or others seemed to enjoy more.  That is suppose to be my guide on what more to write about.

I scale social media sites as a Queen does her empire (ooo, yeah, that's a quote to describe me that I will have to remember to fall back on and create an image to go along with it for sharing).

I started to go through doing clean up.  Since Facebook gives Google its money's worth by sometimes leading in driving viewers (and hopefully readers, rarely subscribers sadly).  I've talked about it before.  Sometimes it shocks me when people I would have just assumed would follow my Facebook Page haven't.

Let's just say the ones I'm more shocked by are the ones I faithfully share their stuff.  It is like a nudge aside.  My stuff isn't important enough.  Or, they may assume that if I post it on my Facebook stream, I would also on my optioneerJM page.  But I don't.  I don't want people to think I'm spamming.

Which reminds me of my few blocks on Twitter:  the guy never said anything to me, just tweeted at me with his own blog.  Grrrrrr, he doesn't get it:  if you want people to notice you on social media:  share their stuff.  If you want to really connect, comment.  Geesh.

Well, to begin my experiment, I am going to carve back a bit.  In time for American Thanksgiving.  I want to give thanks to those that support me all the time and don't just acknowledge me when I'm doing the same for them.

Klout indicates that your influence rises as your ratio of following to followers ratio widens to a hearty gap.  We shall see.  I'll let you know if the opposite happens or a few people scaled back on will notice.  The reason is a positive one:  I want to be more focused on helping those that support me.

I'm selling my words here.  I'm not making any money.  At least yet.  I trudge on firmly in the belief that eventually it will mean something and even pay off.

I loved this cartoon shared by a connection on Linked In (name withheld because "she" is a PhD and unlikely keen on having her name shared .... if she did, I'd know her on Twitter, G+ and Facebook .... right?

A data discussion

What is data?

Put to the universe, compliments of Google:  

Data - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data

Data is a set of values of qualitative or quantitative variables. An example of qualitative data would be an anthropologist's handwritten notes about her interviews ...

‎Data mining · ‎Open data · ‎Data analysis · ‎Data visualization

Data | Definition of Data by Merriam-Webster

www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/data

noun plural but singular or plural in construction, often attributive da·ta \ˈdā-tə, ˈda- also ˈdä-\. Simple Definition of data. : facts or information used usually to ...

Data (/ˈdeɪtə/ day-tə, /ˈdætə/ da-tə, or /ˈdɑːtə/ dah-tə)^[1] is a set of values of qualitative or quantitative variables. An example of qualitative data would be an anthropologist's handwritten notes about her interviews with people of an Indigenous tribe. Pieces of data are individual pieces of information. While the concept of data is commonly associated with scientific research, data is collected by a huge range of organizations and institutions, ranging from businesses (e.g., sales data, revenue, profits, stock price), governments (e.g., crime rates, unemployment rates, literacy rates) and non-governmental organizations (e.g., censuses of the number of homeless people by non-profit organizations).

Data is measured, collected and reported, and analyzed, whereupon it can be visualized using graphs, images or other analysis tools. Data as a general concept refers to the fact that some existing information or knowledge is represented or coded in some form suitable for better usage or processing. Raw data ("unprocessed data") is a collection of numbers or characters before it has been "cleaned" and corrected by researchers. Raw data needs to be corrected to remove outliers or obvious instrument or data entry errors (e.g., a thermometer reading from an outdoor Arctic location recording a tropical temperature). Data processing commonly occurs by stages, and the "processed data" from one stage may be considered the "raw data" of the next stage. Field data is raw data that is collected in an uncontrolled "in situ" environment. Experimental data is data that is generated within the context of a scientific investigation by observation and recording.

Information

Huh? Trust the technical marketers and sales types to over complicate a very simple concept.  The image sourced from "wikipedia" informs us that the following are data:

• Location (geographical)
• Cultural
• Scientific
• Financial
• Statistical
• Metrological
• Natural
• Transport

Sure sounds like information.  But it must mean that there is information within the pods of information.  It leads one to think that if there is lots and lots and lots of information, it gets all jumbled up and becomes data.

The metaphor that appears in my brain is my clothes hanging in my closet, all ready to be worn.  When I'm at my most organized, color coded.   Then you wear said outfit, and when you get home you change into chill-wear, where you feel most relaxed.  Those discarded clothing are tossed into your hamper and as the week progresses, it piles up.  It becomes laundry.  

Laundry is like data

When you get around to doing laundry, or lucky you show off if you have someone else to do it for you.  Or, grow up if your mom still does your laundry.  

Laundry is essentially clothes all lumped together

The best way to tackle the laundry is to separate into piles based on color (whites are orphans) and sometimes material (set aside because it is "dry clean" only);  BUT, not only within that mass of clothing that becomes a chore called laundry, they are underwear, t-shirts, jeans, socks, etc.  

Everyone does laundry in their own way, possibly influenced by the laundry doer in their life.  It is like a classification system:

• what gets drycleaned
• what is delicate
• whites stay with whites
• jeans
• special instructions:  cold water, etc.

Do you iron right after it comes out of the dryer?  Or, do you fold right away so the creases where the iron could have been appear?  

Do your clothes just end up in a heap?  

Are you catching on?  Well, data is information.  When it is heaped together, whether by a company, government organization, or an information company like Google.  The data is completely useless unless it serves a purpose.  You would hardly wash your clothes if you were going to discard them.  So laundry, or the act of doing laundry, serves a purpose too.

Very few organizations have been disciplined and thoughtful about their data.   Now there are companies out there trying to convince us that we have a lot of data, maybe need to store it, how, and now with the CLOUD somewhere else.

If you have a small technical concept that your desktop computer sitting on your desk is your "personal computer" that only means it is designed for one user.  Huh?  Tricky hardware sellers eh?  Well, the trickier ones are the ones that sell where to store the data.  The companies, from very surprisingly small, to big mega corporations with global locations, can store a lot of information.

Similar to your laundry.  At what point do you become exasperated and decide it is time to sort through and donate some to charity.  In the world of data, companies have to decide what is no longer relevant and can be erased, deleted, gone.  The reason being, is as people work, they produce data.  They may share it, send it to multiple people within the same company, or outside, that singular piece of communication contains data.  Then, think about how much space this takes up?  It goes to the servers.

Then when the decision comes after systems start crashing and people start to get stressed out, many hide they went bezerk when systems crash, computers won't work.  Employees could be standing around waiting for systems to come back on.  Middle managers start mentally calculating productive time being lost, there goes those stats and perhaps twiddle away a meager bonus.  Like watching Niagara Falls pounding through your work area.

Data is building and building.  As more people have access to computers, whether at their workplace or home, they are generating data.    How do you manage your data as it multiplies at a fast pace?  

Someone says business is slow, so lets get the sales force engaged and pounding the pavement.  Where do they store all that information?  Oh, a rolodex with business cards stapled to them?  How 70s.  You think?

Bigger companies seem to want to police their people in greater scrutiny than small companies?  Probably no different in ratio, just technology driven with bigger companies.  

Policing people who work for you generates data.  Performance reviews, commission statements, bonus structure, all unique groups of information that turn the wheels of operation and the company going.

Who owns the data?  The idea generator or the company if the idea is generated while working for them?  How about if the idea is thought up when they are trying to fall asleep and are not even under the company roof?

Sounds like data isn't always rosy doesn't it?  

What about when it is decided that their front-facing screen to their employees, shareholders, investors, board of directors, media, and web presence look to the outside of the world?  

Someone may reach out to marketing, if there is such a department, or hire an agency who specializes in dissecting information.

Like if a friend were to drop over and you have a heap of dirty clothing in piles, sitting there.  You may be a little embarrassed (or your mother would want you to).

It is the same with a lot of companies data.  When they have someone to help them with sales or marketing, the company can be just as embarrassed because it is just heaped onto a server, not all that organized  ~ it is cheaper to buy a few more gigabytes capacity in equipment or software to host the information than it is to have someone keep it organized.  

That is the challenge with data.  That's my humble opinion.  What do you have?  Heaps of it unorganized?  Or bursting Rolodex (instead of a CRM ~Customer Relationship Management~system)?  Files crammed with photocopies of contracts and communications.    Well, before you turf anything, you should probably have it scanned and stored somewhere because the cost per square foot on storage is getting out of hand, so are people to keep track of something.  Almost extinct dinosaurs who can get you anything you want, anytime you need it.

Think about what amount of data you have?

Where do you store it?  (file cabinets or on your PC, oh, fancy you, you have a secondary hard drive).

So, that's about what Google, Apple or MicroSoft are all fighting over.  Or, big groups like IBM, Oracle, HP.  Your data!  Huh? Why would my data matter?  Well, if you are using a computer, software, buy anything online, download something, look at something, that information is being tracked that eventually becomes heap of data about you.  Where do you like to shop?  What do you like to wear?  You like that music? Nice!

Now, that information has to be important somewhere right?  Of course, the data is information about consumers.  Where are consumers buying?  Where do they live?  What do they do? Career, hobbies, sports, travel?  

That information then gets carved, crafted and wrapped in a manner that appeals to you.  Yes, after you willingly and openly gave that information.

That sounds BIG BROTHER or something for Ron Howard to make a movie out of.  

The evil vixen in all that?  Marketers or advertisers or media?  I guess we're all back to square one.  They can't be evil because they are just trying to do what their clients, the big corporations and brands ask them to do:  make sense out of the data mess.

It is a great binge watch.  What are all the data marketers saying you should do?  What are they proposing, what are they saying consumers or companies should do?  Or confirm that what they did was a good decision?  Or forewarn them against making a bad decision?  No, that is probably left to the bloggers and some journalists.

It's an important conversation is the impression I get.  Do you?