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GOD TWEETS TOO!

I’m new to Social Media, and I like using Tweetdeck because it’s easy to figure out.  It gives me a variety of  customized panels for what I want to see, and it also allows me to predate & time my Tweets, so updates can be posted when I’m unable to do so, physically.   While scheduling a client’s ad to be tweeted the following day, I remembered that my phone seems to ring the most “on the hour, quarter, and half-hour”, so I scheduled the tweets to go out at extremely odd times throughout the day.

Well, a power greater than I orchestrated the greatest timing of a tweet ever!!  I was asked to join a meeting to discuss ways in which to grow “likes” on Facebook through an upcoming promotion of my client, Trinity Home Design Center, on Froggy Radio, through some spring and summer event sponsorships.  While discussing, and stressing the power behind other social media’s such as Twitter, Twitter Tribes, and Social Networking groups & events, one of my pre-timed Tweets went out.

And then it happened.  The tweet was RTd (re-tweeted)!!  And it had been RTd by a member of the  #FWtribe I had just mentioned I was now part of!    I clicked on his profile… then slowly turned my phone around for everyone to see.  The RTer, @WmJHartman, had at the time, 10,979 FOLLOWERS!  The looks on the faces around the table were priceless.  They immediately understood the power of what just happened.  Trinity could not have achieved reaching over TEN THOUSAND potential customers with their "TREAT YOURSELF THURSDAY" ad so fast and cheaply without the influence of social media and the people moving it!

Many believe you’re not supposed to marry religious things with business, but I don’t act alone.  Never have, and never will.  And I’m telling ya, a miracle happened in the timing of that tweet!  It certainly could not have been orchestrated to happen as perfectly as it did!  I will continue to do three things; 1) Time those tweets between the hour, quarter-hour, and half-hour marks,  2) Be an upstanding tribe member - there's power there, and  3) Continue to trust that source, greater than I, to make things happen!!

MIRROR IMAGE

I learned a lesson last week.  It was to be true to WHAT I am, even during times of change.  In taking on Social Media as a new color in my design pallet, I was so consumed with Ads, Tweets, Blogs, and Facebook "likes" for my clients, that I reached a point where I didn't know what to say.  I knew the importance of why, and the mechanics of how, I just couldn't think of a what!  It was terribly frustrating because ideas are generally not a problem for me.

Well, I met a new friend for coffee, and we took turns sharing about our careers, how we've discovered, developed, and remade ourselves, over the years.  I noticed as we talked that she was more interested in my Interior Design experiences, than she was my new found Social Media life.  Well, the reason for that is easy to understand - I too am excited about interior design and the homes I've done.  Social Media is the "new dress" in my closet, design is the "favorite Prada shoe". 

That was my problem.  I was trying to leave the Interior Designer out of the Social Media Administrator.  And doing that left me with nothing to say.  I have a quote, "Everyone loves a designer, they just don't want to pay for one!"  So why not use the talent, hard earned degrees, and certifications in design, to shape the words of the articles I write?  Design is a part of my soul, a part of my makeup, shouldn't I let it influence everything I do?  There are plenty of men and women talking about social media, and teaching it's platforms, but there aren't too many with a passion for color, layout, design, and architecture.

I was hired to do their social media because I understand their business from the designers perspective!  I've brought my clients to them. I've put their products in thousands of homes.  I understand how the homeowner thinks - I've worked with more than 200 a year for 15+ years!  That's what I do!  That's my niche!  I'm a designer who is also proficient with graphic, web, and social media!  What a combination, huh?  The very moment this realization came to me, new ideas started jumping around in my head like hot beans in a frying pan - and I'm not a cook!

It's like looking in the mirror... I can change the image that's reflected back to me by what I'm wearing on the outside... but the inside stays the same.  Now, translated into "design speak" that's; I really, really, like my new dress, but I LOVE my Spanx!! 

YOU & I

One of my favorite blogs to read is "Sharisax is Out There," by Sheri Weiss.  In her blog titled, "When Communication Adds Up to a Big Fat Zero," she gives tips for becoming an active listener.  One of her tips was to leave the word "I" out of the conversation when talking with another.  My eyes stopped at that point, unable to read another word.  That line had spoken directly to me!  Eerie.

I decided to give it a try at the first meeting of Social Media Breakfast/Fort Wayne, this past week.  When I went up to the table for check-in, the first question they asked was, "And you are?"  It was soon followed by, "Where do you work?" and "What do you do there?"  Of course, I answered all three appropriate questions with "I" responses.  FAIL!  I thought to myself.  Perhaps I should have practiced?

Before I had my coffee in hand, I had answered several other questions with "I" responses.  I certainly was not going to win "Miss Personality" that morning!  Leaving out "I" was so much harder than I thought it would be.  "I" was clearly defending its territory in my brain!   "I" didn't want to go away.  "I" wanted to be present at the social!

Consciously, I forced myself to stay focused on one little word - You!  Although I had messed up a few times, my awareness improved with every conversation.  Learning to be an active listener would take practice.  And with practice it would become easier.  By trying this awareness technique, two noteworthy things were discovered that morning:

• First, "I" could share the spotlight with "You" and we'd both feel good about the time spent together in conversation.

• And second, next time make sure I'm the first to ask questions!  ~smile~

Now, can someone please tell me what to do with that "me-me-me-me" chorus in the background?  ~wink~

For a little music with my blog, enjoy Toby Keith's video of

"I Wanna Talk About Me."

                                    

No One for Hire

I love clean surroundings.  My brain is connected by some invisible force to the areas around me.  When they are organized, my thinking is organized.  That kind of thing.  I work from home, and to stay focused on my work I can't be thinking about the dishes in the sink or the laundry that needs washed.  So I try to keep things picked up... but I also share my home with a hard working husband who already does more than his share.  Two adult college students who can do disappearing acts at will after lengthy bouts of unconsciousness.  A shedding Siberian Husky, named Sonja, who I think is trying to clone herself from the hair she leaves behind.  And two yellow cats, named Calvin & Hobbes, that think they own the place.  (I'm just the staff that's here to serve them.)  We also seem to have an invisible elf.  

If I ask, "Who left this cup sitting here?"  Or, "Who tracked in the mud?"  The usual answer is, "It wasn't me!"  I have only to assume the elf is guilty.  I wake up in the morning to leftovers missing from the fridge, more dirty dishes in the sink, computers left running, lights turned on, and books laying around.  Again, when I ask about it, no one did it.  No one left the garage door open.  No one left the video controls out.  No one has left a sticky mess of who-knows-what on the kitchen counter.  No one left the dog tied out all night.  And no one had a friend call the house at 1:00am.  No one seems to be guilty.  So, I must assume this elf of ours is named, No One.  And No One needs to work for me.

Yes, I'd like to hire No One.  Just think of what could be accomplished if I had this little guy on MY side. 

"Who's doing the laundry?" they ask.  

I could answer, "No One."    

"Who's fixing dinner?"    

And again I could say, "No One."    

They cry out, "Where's my keys?" 

And I can answer, "Maybe No One has them!"

"Who's turn is it to clean the cat litter box?"  Well, No One will do this too.  

Yes, No One and I will make a great team!  My surroundings may not get any cleaner, but I sure would be a lot happier about it.  Now, if I just knew where to find the little guy.  Seems he lives in a place called, I Don't Know.  And when I find out where that is, maybe I can get my missing twenty bucks back too!

 

Sorry kids - I couldn't help myself - No One made me do it!! 

Out of Ink

Has your well planned-out life ever taken a turn in a direction you never thought it would go?

I've been a designer my whole life.  From graphic design to interior design, and suddenly I find myself going down a whole new path called, social design!  Who would have thought there was even such a thing?  I mean, without stepping into the 'ol when I was a kid routine, I do remember when homes did NOT have computers.  And now computers fit into your pocket and travel with you around the world.

 

My careers seem to change as our technology and economy does.  And last year I laughed and told a friend I was going to be a professional facebooker.  It sounded so - naughty.  Not knowing that in just two months I would be accepting the position of "Social Media Administrator" for Trinity Home Design Center in New Haven, Indiana.  Where I soon discovered that e-mail and Facebook only scratched the surface of social design.

I jumped in head first.  Reading books and blogs.  Post and tweets.  Taking notes on social media marketing from the best of the best until I had a mile high stack of note cards and my pen ran out of ink.  Wading through what seemed like knee-deep egos that spewed out a language in short hand, full of acronyms I had no clue about - only to learn that I had so much more to learn.   I was just a full fledged newbie on the ground level again.  And THAT scared me. 

There exist within me a strength that comes from a source greater than me.  To be the best I can be.  To work hard and build the tallest building instead of just knocking all the others down.  So I stuck my fear on a shelf.  I organized those note cards and I refilled my pen.  I started this blog for experience, and I've put my very transparent thoughts "out there" for all to see.  Why a glass pen in the great age of computers?  Because words can hurt if written with a heavy hand.  But hey, that could be another blog.  Right?