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Bringing Sense to the Nonsense that is the Internet

Posted on August 18, 2015 by admin Posted in Social Networking Leave a comment

Civic Site Design's Social Networking Sanity logo

Doesn’t it just drive you nuts sometimes? Drowning in all the options in social media. It’s so overwhelming to many folks, they don’t know where to start.

That’s where we can help out. There is a place for you and your business – out there, somewhere, but it takes asking the right questions and more importantly, listening to the answers that come back and acting upon them. Don’t be afraid to ask, because if you don’t ask, you’ll never know and you might be missing out on some amazing opportunities to connect with an important part of your client base. Aren’t they – and you – worth it?

Happy 2019 to all our readers and clients

Posted on January 2, 2019 by admin Posted in Inspirational Leave a comment

2019 happy new years from Civic Site Design

The Law of Attraction – a Teacher

Posted on November 7, 2018 by admin Posted in Law of Attraction, Social Networking Leave a comment

The Law of Attraction (LoA) is a teacher that is always trying to get our attention. If we cultivate awareness of our surroundings, it is a gentle teacher through the example of others. If we close our minds off, its lessons come as harsh reminders to stop and see what we are doing. It often does this through a sub-law called the “Law of Reflection”. Reflection does just what the name implies – flipping the incident back at us.

Ironic, isn’t it?

Looking for Daily Patterns

How can we better cultivate this awareness? One easy way is to look for patterns. Once you become aware, they are easy to spot. Have you ever said, “wow, everyone is doing (insert activity here) today”? Perhaps they not are doing it more than usual, but you are noticing a pattern of behavior emerging in REACTION to your own ACTIONS.

This is best shown by an example I noticed yesterday (Saturday) as I went about my day. I was working with Facebook on a very specific project – the topic of politics. I wanted to get them out of the way quickly so I could enjoy the rest of my weekend. Since it’s also is a delicate topic, I felt it best to deal with it early in the day and move on to other projects that require me to relax.

So I did my posts and later noticed one had been replied to. I was irritated by the reply and made a mental note to go back and reply later as I was just going into a think tank meeting. After the meeting let out, I was tasked with driving home, so I didn’t reply back. Wanting to gather some facts to back up my reply, I knew by now this reply may not even happen today as I had other more important things to do than defend my position to someone who was less than polite in their reply.

That Wasn’t the End of It

As I was getting ready for a late Halloween party that evening, I get a Facebook message from a friend. She suggested I delete another post I had made that morning because one of my friends was trolling her. Knowing her to be the saner of the two, I said I would look into it. I checked the thread and sure enough, my other friend was vehemently defending his position every time she replied. The replies on his side were getting meaner and less rational and she was replying with more irritation. After I asked him to stop replying and calmed things down, something hit me about the entire incident.

Acting not Reacting

The Law of Attraction was using the Law of Reflection to show me what would happen if I had replied on my earlier post. At that moment, I knew it was warning me not to reply in a discussion where we would end up only arguing. Yes, even trolling each other as my two friends had done on the other post! Instead, I chose not to reply, saving myself time, grief and frustration. Sure I have thought of all the replies I could have used to make my point, but I would not have changed his mind in the end? From his attitude, I would not have even gotten him to consider my point of view. Meditating on how I had replied in the first place made me realize I had set myself up to lose the argument in replying the way I did.

Better to Learn from the Mistakes of Others…

…than pay the price of making the mistake yourself. It saves our reputations among friends, networkers and family as well as saves us grief. In an era of people taking a stand for their beliefs more than ever, it is much wiser to learn to respect their opinions – and your self-respect.

 

If you are having trouble setting up your social networks accounts, need to update them or have questions, please feel free to reply here or send me your questions here. I work on all networks; Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter and more.

facebook law of attraction social networking

Four weeks with Osteoarthritis

Posted on October 24, 2018 by admin Posted in Living with... Leave a comment

A tough first month

Beginning Week 4 after my diagnosis of Osteoarthritis, I am finally sitting down to write about how things are going. The month of October overall has been difficult and painful, but not as bad as when I first started treatment with my new chiropractor. The first two weeks were rough, the first week itself was hell.

To be fair, I am not blaming my chiropractor in the least for this. I have A LOT of inflammation in my joints & body due to the arthritis and this condition has been going on for YEARS. I knew from what he told me that correcting it would be painful, I was just not prepared for HOW PAINFUL and troublesome it would be in my foot.

Trying to walk

I was warned to ice the sore spots down after each visit. I did, especially after that first treatment. But getting up and going to the bathroom that first night nearly landed me on the floor. The pain in my right foot was beyond excruciating. I turned around and went back to bed for a minute to lie down, take some Ibuprofen and take a breather. I literally could not put any pressure on it whatsoever, even hanging on to handholds the entire way there.

To understand why this was, one has to understand the condition with my right foot. I imagine your big toe looks more like a thumb, jutting out at nearly a 45 degree angle to the rest of your foot. Pretty weird, right? It wasn’t always this way, slowly growing more and more aberrant since my 30th birthday. This has the added complication of making standing more than a few minutes in place very painful. Despite this, the severe pain was in my ankle and in the bend at the top of each foot where it connects to the leg. According to my chiro, this is one of the most important joints in the body.

Somehow I got to the bathroom and back, accompanied by much internal and some external cursing. That first week and a half I was on near constant amounts of Ibuprofen every day without fail. The level of pain sapped my energy so that the first 2 1/2 weeks I got work and networking done just barely. Every day I came home and straight to icing down whatever was hurting, then to bed. I only got a break and saw some energy return late last week.

Restrictions

From the first visit I was warned not to sit on recliners, rocking chairs OR the sofa. That last was a big blow. My favorite place after work to sit was on the sofa to relax a few minutes and when my husband came home and where we watched t.v. at night. The most frustrating restriction, however, was that I can only sleep on my back, not my side. I was warned that it would “undo” the work my chiro put in on my visits. The first few nights trying to stay on my back was damn-near impossible and except for a few ten-minute segments of doing it to relieve the discomfort, I mostly stuck to it. It’s easier to do now, but I still try it for a minute or two until my hips remind me how much it hurts.

Next week

I will get more into what is going on in my body that was making me so miserable, what he is doing to adjust me and our plan of treatment.

If you know of someone with Osteoarthritis, please share this article with them and follow what happens in future posts. Thank you for caring!

Kristine

Osteoarthritis

The importance of being yourself

Posted on October 12, 2018 by admin Posted in Inspirational Leave a comment

be yourself by civic site design

Is it safe to talk about ANYTHING anymore?

When you look at people’s reactions to what’s going on in the news, no. No matter what we say, someone out there will get upset about it, guaranteed. Despite this, I am taking a public stand on the subject of “being yourself”.

Business college taught me never to discuss four things in social media for fear of blowing off potential clients and networkers. The list of forbidden topics was politics, sex, religion and sports.

That was seven years ago.

Years before the entire United States divided across party lines over a President they either love or hate.

Years before the #metoo movement caused both guilty and innocent men everywhere to hide in fear and not talk to my sex anymore out of terror they’ll be swept up into our modern day equivalent of the Salem Witch trials.

Years before sports talk was stained with the divisiveness of whether to stand for the national anthem or not.

Religion? Eh, that’s ALWAYS been a controversial topic, so that one is hardly new news.

Being Safe or Being Yourself?

It’s a different world now. But the same basic human failures are still there, just pointed at new, trendy topics. And whether I keep away from them or not isn’t going to change things or, it turns out, bring me any more clients than it did seven years ago.

So now I am updating/evolving/rethinking the list of forbidden topics and saying…

SCREW IT.

I’ll talk about what I please.

Know, Like & Trust NEEDS substance!

When the teachers at Quattro University taught the “Forbidden Four” topics, they also taught something that fundamentally contradicts the ability to adhere to it. And I don’t think anyone ever caught it at the time. I am talking about the foundation of networking:

GETTING PEOPLE TO KNOW, LIKE AND TRUST YOU.

Well, how the heck can people do that if all you stick to talking about is safe subjects?!?

People don’t unite over safe subjects as fast as they do talking about something they are PASSIONATE about. My first meaningful friendship in Valley Networking was with a gal who is super-passionate about her love for President Donald Trump. After YEARS of politely keeping my mouth shut around super-liberal, left-wing friends who have gone as far as to say they wish Trump was dead, THIS WAS A REFRESHING CHANGE! Her fearless attitude taught me that being yourself is so much more important than trying to please people that like you but don’t respect you for who you are.

Like it or not…

So here I am and here it is – I am formally declaring MY stand against safe subjects. In my world they are for the politically correct weaklings who don’t have the GUTS to BE THEMSELVES in this world. You hurt yourself when you hide who you really are. Family and friends worth keeping will love you whether you like President Trump or not. If they love you enough, they will ACCEPT YOU FOR WHO YOU ARE – political affiliation, religion, sports team and gender BE DAMNED. If they don’t then we have to make better choices of those we call networkers, friends and family.

Please feel free to discuss this, but please be polite and respectful. Anyone who is not, you know where the “unfriend” button is. If you like me – and I assume that if you are a friend here you do, you will respect and adhere to the age-old saying, “I do not have to agree with your beliefs, but I will defend to the death your right to have them”.

For everyone else, LET THE UNFRIENDING BEGIN!

Living with a new diagnosis: Osteoarthritis

Posted on October 8, 2018 by admin Posted in Living with... Leave a comment

The conversation I thought I’d never have

“Hi Leslie.”

“Hi Kris. How are you?”

“Fine, I guess. Hey, I have a question for you…has anyone in our family that you know of had osteoarthritis?”

“No, I don’t know of anyone that does.”

A pause. “Well, you do now.”

 

Before the diagnosis

This was the conversation I had with my sister last week, dropping the unpleasant new that I had been diagnosed with something I never even considered I would get – osteoarthritis. Her reaction has been common among those I’ve told about my newly discovered condition and were unfamiliar with it – shock & questions. And while many are unfamiliar with it and unclear on what it does to the human body, I at least thank God that it wasn’t something more deadly. While that part is good news, now I am saddled with the task of learning about what I have and how to live with it.

This story does in part have to do with networking. For years – at least 12 – I  went to the same chiropractor. He was fantastic, he always helped me and everything I thought was fine. At least it was until about a year and a half ago when suddenly his adjustments weren’t holding like they used to. It took a few months to realize what a problem this was as I was adjusting what I did to try to compensate – upping the calcium supplements, being more careful lifting, wearing my pelvic brace more often, etc. I adapted, but nothing was working.

Then a year ago my ancient car suddenly couldn’t make the trip to his office in Glendale anymore. So, out of necessity car-wise and because it really did seem like I needed to, I started hunting for a new chiropractor. I found one in a networking group I was in, but they had even worse luck trying to keep my back in place.

What was found

Was it just that I was getting old or was there something else going on? I had to find out.

Through my networking at local events this past September, I found a new networking group and joined. I quickly discovered their chiropractor is different. He’s interested in helping me heal, not just maintain my spine’s stability, which obviously was no longer working. Going on a hunch backed up by many years of practice, he sent me out for x-rays on the first visit.

That’s when they found it.

A networking lesson from all this

Networking effectively requires a bunch of different skills. Among these is an openness to change up what one is doing in order to either increase our business and/or adapt to the changing marketplace. Humans are creatures of habit to which change is instinctively both alien and even threatening, but without change we fall prey to the saying, “Evolve or Die”. If I hadn’t changed networking groups in an effort to generate more business, I never would have discovered a chiropractor that took the time to figure out why the adjustments weren’t helping anymore. The Evolve or Die  – or in this case, “Evolve or Suffer” lesson proved its worth in my business yet again.

But what about the Osteoarthritis?

You may wonder why I’m not telling you more about Osteoarthritis at this point. Well, it’s less than a week into the diagnosis for one thing. And though I’ve asked many questions and gotten some answers, my chiropractor has a plan of treatment we both agree on. But other than that, there isn’t much to tell after only two adjustments and five days.

I could have waited until I knew more, or even if this treatment would work, but quite a few people have asked me to keep them informed of what happens. They too apparently have a personal interest in the disease. That told me I needed to chronicle this part of my life not for me, but for everyone out there whose lives it could improve.

What’s next?

From here I will keep you all up to date on what happens and what treatments work and what doesn’t. I will also give you more background on other issues that complicate my situation. While they are rather personal, you need to know because every body is different and every case of osteoarthritis is affected by that in turn. It is my hope that in sharing this knowledge I can help more people not just live with osteoarthritis, but actually beat it for as long as is humanly possible.

 

If you have osteoarthritis or know of someone who does, please share their experiences in the comments section. I will reply to everyone and we will find the answers together.

 

Kristine

Osteoarthritis

Could the Samsung Foldable phone finally become reality in 2018?

Posted on September 13, 2018 by admin Posted in Nerd Girl Tech Toys Leave a comment

The Samsung foldable phone dream was big news in 2013 for 2014…2016 and 2018. Certainly the Mashable article last week recalling Samsung’s 5-year old teaser video got me excited about the prospect – that is until I saw the string of prior articles that keep the bendy-screen dream alive. I mean seriously, if you saw this, wouldn’t you get excited too?

New tech like this is a challenge, to be sure, and those that know and watch the industry can appreciate Samsung has had its ups and down with not just the perfection of, beta testing and manufacture of this amazing concept. Plagued in 2017 by the frightening epic fail of the Note 7’s battery meltdowns (literally), I am just personally grateful that it didn’t involve the flexible display’s premiere into the real world. And now that Samsung’s CEO of mobile DJ Koh has told CNBC that it’s “time to deliver” this long-awaited device, people are starting to lift their heads up from grazing the fields of high-end phone tech and keep their ears perked up for further validation that we will soon have this phone in our hot little hands.

And you can be sure that the second it is announced to hit the stores, I will letting you know and SQUEEING! about it all the way.

samsung smart phone

Keeping your Sanity in the Political Opinion Volcano of Social Media

Posted on September 11, 2018 by admin Posted in Networking & Sales Common Sense, Social Networking, The Dark and Amusing Side of the Internet - Mature Leave a comment

We once agreed to disagree…

Back when I began working social media for my business (about eight years ago), people were a lot calmer and more balanced in their political viewpoints…except for one friend of ours. My husband and I would have intense discussions about the President of the U.S. at the time, the presidential race’s candidates and other topics we never saw eye-to-eye on such as creation vs. evolution. At the end of the evening, however, we always parted friends and agreed to disagree. That is just how my husband and I were brought up, respecting the opinions of others.

But our friend was young and fiery and would shake her head that we believed what we did, and by some miracle it never interfered in our friendship. To this day we don’t agree and even though she moved to the United Kingdom, she still keeps up on the politics of her parent’s native land – and is still fervent that she is right. Even when Obama got in (who she heartily supported) and after a few years expressed her disappointment that he hadn’t solved the world’s problems, she never learned to temper her righteous fervor with facts and common sense.

Facebook & Twitter taking lessons from Kilauea?

Today, in 2018, do the landscapes of Facebook and Twitter resemble the turbulent recent eruption history of Kilauea? They should. The fiery home of the volcano goddess Pele has always been prone to long periods of devastating activity, yet everyone acts as if this latest, long-term eruption of wide-spread destruction is something new. If they looked up the volcano’s geological history, they would know better.

Politics, like volcanoes, have their quiet times and eruptive times that last months, sometimes years – especially when someone is in office we don’t like. Remember your parents complaining about Regan in office? Nixon? Or when you’re as old as I am, it might have been grandparents bitching about J. Edgar Hoover. This is nothing new, but social media takes it to a whole new level.

Hating the next door neighbor…across the world

Back in our parent’s time if we didn’t agree with the next door neighbor, we might have had an argument or intense discussion with them, walked back into the house and ignored them until the next election – or their impeachment (ala Richard M. Nixon). Now, those people you friended on Facebook and Twitter who you thought you knew – including your friends – have taken on the viciousness anonymity and not being face-to-face with someone engenders. Shocked that the friend you thought you knew knows words like that? They would never say that to someone’s face, yet being behind a computer brings out the worst in some people, especially with hot topics like politics and religion.

Ignoring the volcano or facing it down?

It is tough for the small business entrepreneur to pursue their business and stay out of the hot-topics like sex, religion, politics and sports. When I was in Quattro University, we were told time and again to steer clear of them at all costs for fear of alienating our audiences. Forced to discuss “safe” topics like pets, favorite getaway spots, science and medicine are okay, but people tend to bond over topics both sides feel passionate about, so what do we do?

I have thought a lot about this during this current administration. Living in a state where the majority of people not only oppose who I voted for – and sometimes vehemently – I kept my opinions to myself even more than usual. Even outside of business I found myself around formerly sane friends who had gone off the deep end and could not stop spewing hate – even if they knew we once upon a time had agreed to disagree. It was hard enough, especially in my religious belief circles, to locate fellow worshipers to comfortably interact with, and when I did and they too, “went off the deep end” I knew I had to make a choice. I was frustrated and angry that I was the one who had to “keep my mouth shut” while they felt free to spew their hate and intolerance towards a man they disagreed with on one hand and then went into worship declaring they “loved all creatures great and small”.

The hypocrisy disgusted me and I had to leave.

So how do you keep your sanity and still surf the web?

People’s opinions and their extremist viewpoint aren’t going away – ever, but we still have to put up with it while we conduct both business and pleasure on the world wide web.

Or do we?

I learned from watching my husband that one can surround oneself with those of a similar point of view who are good friends and influential networkers without sacrificing our rights to our opinions and our right to view them in a safe environment. A couple of months ago I purged my personal Facebook profile of hate-spewing crazies – both on the right and the left, though truth-be-told, they were ALL leftists (I kid you not!). Reconfiguring my feed’s priorities in who I received notifications and posts from lowered my blood pressure and made viewing Facebook enjoyable again. Now I am experimenting with posting a slightly political post or two to see if those who remain will, if not agree, at least be of the same calm, even temperament as I am and not act batshit crazy. Today I start the process with a much more volatile arena – Twitter and have high hopes that with careful pruning of my connections and adding the right ones, I can go back to tweeting happily instead of as if walking on eggshells.

facebook networking tweeting responsibily

RNC Jump Start event photos

Posted on September 10, 2018 by admin Posted in Local Appearances Leave a comment

If anyone needs clear shots from the RNC Jump Start event, (heh, Jassmin, lol?) go ahead and snag them from this post!

[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”8″ gal_title=”RNC Jump Start Event”]

 

Reseda Neighborhood Council

Jump Start Reseda helps neighborhood with local resources

Posted on September 4, 2018 by admin Posted in Local Appearances Leave a comment

Civic Site Design at Jump Start Reseda Event Sep 2018Getting back into the swing of appearances, we were at the Jump Start Reseda event this past Saturday, September 2nd. It was good to get back out and touch base with the local community we lived in for 16 years. Sponsored by the Reseda Neighborhood Council has been through some ups and downs with the changing of Board Members and the loss of Civic Site Design as a consistent website designer for the prior seven years, but they are coming back strong. We are glad to have been a part of their event and to see their determination to revitalize a once glorious city and community of their 1950’s golden years.

Should You Care that your Business is on Social Media?

Posted on August 26, 2015 by admin Posted in Networking & Sales Common Sense, Social Networking Leave a comment

Should people care?

This is a twist on a LinkedIn post this week entitled, “Why No One Cares That Your Business Uses Social Media“. Do people really care? Should people really care? Should you care if they care?

For the types of businesses I coach (small business & entrepreneurs), they always ask, “Should I be on social media?”, not the better question of “Why should I be on social media?”. Without the why should you be there, there is no motivation TO be there.

WHY people should care

The article has a very valid point which I would like to laud. In 2012, the idea of businesses on social media was novel, new and you could drive people to your social media from your website. It’s definitely a symptom of information overload now in 2015 that their novelty is gone. There are a million more social media sites out there to choose from. How do you choose? Which ones do you choose? Several clients tell  me, “I should be on XYZ media, but I don’t know what I should be doing with it.”. They have no idea how to leverage their presence to get more sales. And their customers spend more and more time on social media, but have no idea they are there or how to find them!

This becomes more important now than ever because the tide has turned. Marketers, finding their customers spend more time on social media, want to drive traffic BACK THE OTHER WAY to their websites to get those coveted sales.

Now that you care…

Most of the networkers I run into fall into one of two categories; the ones that feel they don’t have the time for social media and the others that have social media channels, but rarely use them.

Nearly every new website client asks it; the question of, “Should I be on social media?” . I always tell them, “Find out if your customers are on social media.”. Offer it, not for your exposure, but as a service to THEM. But remember, unless you are going to make consistent, persistent use of a social media channel, it seriously is not for you or your business. Go in with a strategy if you are going to go in at all and give it your all. Then – and only then – will you know for sure if it works for your business. But always remember, it isn’t FOR your business – It is always about what YOU can do for your customers.

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