This is my first assignment in the Social Media bootcamp I am following, organised by Michael Q. Todd.
Although I am playing around in social media a lot, I never really felt organized in it. I just did what felt good and followed my guts. I hope this course will give me some clarity and new strategies to follow.
The first assignment is to write a blog post with an honest appraisal of my social media experience so far, using Michaels post ‘Your 7 Simple Pillars to build Online Success‘ as a guideline.
These are my 7 pillars.
- Find your pot of gold and stick to it This is probably the hardest part to all humans and goes from cradle to grave. If you do not find your passion in life, your pot of gold and what makes your heart tick, there is no goal really. In social media I see a lot of people retweeting, repeating, reposting what other people create. If you are unable to find your pot of gold (and I am sure everyone has one), there is no creation, no originality and therefore no success. Does that mean that we cannot learn from our masters and teachers? Certainly not. We can copy our masters but more important is to become your own master in what you do.Does this sound heavy? Just think about your childhood. What did you like to do most when you were young and playing? I remember demonstrating in my street with a self-made banner on sticks that said: “no more school” and felt very successful in getting a crowd behind me. I remember my surprise at the followers I got. My quality lies in the fact that I am able to collect a crowd and draw the attention to something. There, I said it.My passion is Raja Yoga, which means connecting to the Highest Source of energy. Yoga means connection. Social media means connection. My goal and passion in social media is to use social media as a way to help people connect to their Source as well.
- Don’t be afraid of technique As a webdesigner, clients often thought of me as some computer expert. Well, I am not a computer expert. When my hard-disk crashes, I bring my laptop to the
bicyclecomputer repairman. But, I do keep up to date with the software I am using. When I want to use something, or want to automate something, I am a quick learner of software tools that will get me there. I am not afraid to try new tools. But I am also trying not to be attached to them. If my goal is clear, any tool can get me there. The tools I use are under my command. It is not about technique, it is about strategy. Discussions about the differences between Mac or Pc, Facebook or Google+ are totally irrelevant to me.To me, the Empire Avenue game plays a big catalytic role in measuring the tools I am using. For each action online in any online tool I am collecting points. It gives me great insight in which tools work best for me and for the people I want to reach.
Empire Avenue Connection Scores
- Give and add value I think the best strategy online is to share. People want to share, we want to give. The best things in life are for free. The whole internet consists of information people shared for free. This is the biggest power of the internet. In any online action you do, there is no sense of giving, then most likely your action will not lead to success. If you are afraid that what you post will be stolen, then don’t post. As soon as you push the ‘publish’ button on any tool, you give it to the universe. When you keep this in mind, the universe will give back to you in the same amount or even more. Sharing is giving and giving is receiving.In giving and receiving, timing is everything. Do not use twitter when you are tired. Do not write a blog post when you feel down. If you see Twitter, Facebook and other social media tools as a way to interact, look at it as if it were a cocktail party. You dress up (mentally), find yourself in a good mood and then go and engage with the crowd. Only when you feel fresh and recharged, you can give to others. Posts, tweets, comments will be useless when you feel drained. With every action, online or not, you transmit energy. When there is no energy, do not act. For me this means, that my best time is early mornings. For other people this maybe evenings or nights. But for me after 8 pm, most things I do online are not giving energy, but rather taking. I use the evenings to read some and listen to music and stopped forcing myself being productive at that time.
- Be social Say thank you when somebody mentions you in a tweet. Re-share a post when somebody adds it to your timeline on Facebook. Click Plus when somebody makes a comment on your Google+ posts. Answer, engage and be attentive. People will feel the energy you sent out in this too. If somebody mentions you in a tweet, you can give back with mentioning them in your tweets, or a Follow Friday tweet.
- Create a party Social media is here for years now and is here to stay, and yet I still hear the same old prejudices that say: but I don’t want to share my whole personal life, I don’t care about people tweeting about what coffee they drink and where. If you don’t like what is being tweeted, posted and YouTubed, do it better! Be challenged to make a party out of your own life. Social media is not about locking yourself up in a room and stay behind your screen all day. Look at the beauty that happens outside. For me personally I love attending lectures, going to museums and talk about it. Having small children my time and geographic area for doing this is limited but there is a lot going on in my garden and kitchen table. Look at all the crafting we do and sharing it. I love the activity that is going on in my small housebound world here. If you think your life is boring, start making it exciting!
Forest walks, play gardens and our crafting table is my world. I make a party of it every day.
- Pay it forward Give help and receive help to get shared. Do other people share your same goal? Add them to your circles, share their posts, give shout-outs. Being online alone is no fun. Get in circles, groups that can share your content and pay it forward. Don’t be afraid to lose anything when you promote your competition. The pie is big enough for everybody.
- Think BIG I don’t mean a little bit big. I mean HUGE. Transcend the role you are playing now or the role you think you are playing. Are you a housewife? A mother like me? Are you trying to run a business and get the laundry done in between? It doesn’t matter. You are infinite. You are what you create and what you can create is much bigger than what you see now. You can be a King in your next life. Don’t hold yourself back with false modesty. Thoughts like “nobody is interested anyway” or “whatever I do is meaningless” are arrogance really. Who are you to judge? Let your audience judge about that. You just create the best you can and skip any limit.
