Civic Site Design | Category Archives: Social NetworkingSocial Networking Archives

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.

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.

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.

The Blog from HELL!

Posted on July 31, 2015 by admin Posted in The Dark and Amusing Side of the Internet - Mature, WordPress Love Leave a comment

Okay, so this is why when I updated to the latest WordPress build today, it broke my ‘site:

HubSpot’s Free Webinar: The Secrets to Success on Social Media

Posted on April 26, 2014 by admin Posted in Social Networking Leave a comment

In an awesome HubSpot webinar Wednesday, experts from Facebook, Twitter, & LinkedIn Marketing Departments shared their strategies on how to get more followers, engagement, & revenue.

With a mention of at least 11,000 listeners 29 minutes into the call, it was a significant enough event that HubSpot had the Guinness Book of World Records standing by to see if they broke the record for World’s Biggest Webinar!

Webinar host HubSpot promised we would learn:

How to get more followers for free
What content you should post to get more organic engagement
How to get people to share your content on their profiles
How to target the right audience and get the most relevant traffic back to your website
How to avoid wasting money on ads
And so much more!

So, did the Webinar deliver the answers? Let’s see.

“How to get more followers for free”

Well, free as far as paying with money. If we don’t pay with money we pay with time. That’s just the way it is in life – even off the Internet. There was no one way mentioned on how to get followers for free (as probably many people were hoping for) and really half of the entire webinar tied in to this goal of building your followers, fans and networking contacts.

Those of us in the business already know there is no quick way to get lots of followers for free. It takes time, and as the old saying says, “Time is Money”. Time to tweet, post and write on Facebook & LinkedIn walls. The promise of how to get more followers for free is probably why 30,000 people signed in to the call and it went down to 11,000 half way through.

So how do I get followers for free, then???

What people got out of listening to the entire webinar was if you follow “Best Practices” – a phrase mentioned many times by all four webinar leaders, you will get more followers for free. So, what are these “best practices”? They were covered under the following bullet points on their flyer:

“What content you should post to get more organic engagement”

All three execs mentioned photos. And that they should –

visually complement your business – your logo, latest products/services, anything that really complements the look and feel of your business.
draw people. We interpreted this being as clear, cropped well, interesting, new and/or unusual, but always relevant to your business/industry.
represent your brand and your business. Customers want to see that you are legitimate.

“Tweets that include photos get double the engagement.” according to Russ Laraway, Senior SMB Director of Twitter. He said this at least three times during the webinar.

“How to get people to share your content on their profiles”

Another vital topic, another one not directly answered because it is behind the principal of Best Practices that we find the answer.

Scott Engelman, Head of Online Marketing at LinkedIn said, “Professional content works best on LinkedIn. Users look for content on how to be great at what they do, find opportunities and grow their careers. Professionally relevant content works best – again best practices, industry trends and tips that are relevant to your industry.”

“You should always be experimenting to see what type of content drives the greatest engagement with your audience. Be sure to attach rich media such as images, video and slideshare to see what resonates best with your followers. Provide the most valuable content to your followers regardless of whether it is from your company or not.”

In a Nutshell

This webinar confirmed many of my own philosophies, one of which is to work consistently and be persistent in your marketing campaigns. The new thing I took away from this is to always be experimenting. When I asked the attendees on Twitter what they felt was a good timeframe to experiment in, @TodaysBride suggested a month, which again, I agree on.

In the field of getting followers and getting them to share your content, go for what complements the look and feel of your business; rich media such as images, video and slideshare and relevant content will get you both followers and shares and retweets. Adding in for Linkedin, that people want professional content that shows them “how to be great at what they do, find opportunities and grow their career”.

Also add in the webinar leader’s acknowledgement of the 80/20 rule (80% content that offers value to your audience, is informative, helpful, that their followers can benefit from. Tips, best practices, industry content, photos, etc., then 20% on your own products and/or services).

The last two points on “How to target the Right Audience and get the most relevant Traffic back to your website” and “How to avoid wasting money on ads” were geared more towards those advertising with Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter or those who are considering advertising, but I will say the one phrase that stuck with so many on Twitter who listened it – “Marketing without data is like driving with your eyes closed”. If you are serious about making your business grow you need to track your campaigns and especially the results of those campaigns! For the audience who pays for social network ads, this was a great section of advice on how to utilize FB, TW & LI’s tools to the fullest, not just throw money at the Big Three and let them do all the work, because doing that you will be wasting your money. The advice there alone is enough to warrant a future post of its own.

So…

Did the Webinar deliver? There were mixed feelings all over their Twitter hashtag #WLW14 as one would expect from an event so hugely attended. Beginners, seasoned social networkers & companies can be hard to please when all in a virtual room together.

Personally I agree they went over much material experts already known, but there were also quite a few take-aways that I will be sharing with my social networking clients and applying myself in my own business. I found many, many points that were important enough to write down the during the flurry of slides and breakneck speed at which the hashtag was literally blowing up my TweetDeck application.

The other great thing is, if you got nothing out of the webinar at all in what was said, you now have a common topic of interest with those on the #WLW14 hashtag to share to create a Know, Like and Trust relationship with new potential customers on the social networks.

One Last Thought

I feel sorry for those that bailed so quickly and didn’t stay to the end of the webinar. The examples of successful businesses the Big Three gave were important because the real value came in the explanation of how and why their example’s content worked for that particular business. That alone is what made this webinar so outstanding! How often do you get to hear the heads of marketing for Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter not only explain the machine that drives it and how to use it, but why it works for some and not everyone in the first place!

If you understand this, you can take what they were trying to teach us to the bank with any business, no matter what type it is! If you missed this part of the seminar, do your business, your clients and your audience a favor – find a company to explain it to you. We here at Civic Site Design would be happy to cover it during a one-on-one consultation, just drop us a comment at the end of this post with your contact information to let us know you’re interested!