Tag: Online Communities

Does Your #SocialMediaPresence Deserve A Thumbs Up?

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How Well Does Your Use Of Social Media Connect You To Your Community? Picture From Gabor From Hungary From Morguefile.com

How Well Does Your Use Of Social Media Connect You To Your Community? Picture From Gabor From Hungary From Morguefile.com

You are not alone if you visit social media sites to get information to help you with a problem.

According to http://internetlivestats.com Google now processes over 40,000 search engine queries every second on average.

Imagine getting a thumbs up from someone in your community for posting something which precisely answers one of those queries and makes their problem go away.

If you make someone that happy they could potentially become one of your passionate customers.

How Does Your Content Solve Specific Problems?

Two weeks ago I spoke about tackling social media goals to an audience of startups and micro business people. One of the questions which came was how to create content which generates more engagement.

Audience members were frustrated having written an attention grabbing headline and great content, only to have no one comment on it.

Some entrepreneurs in the audience felt like giving up when their carefully written posts seemed to have no impact.

I thought there could be one missing element in those posts: a call to action.

What’s The Purpose Of Calling People To Action?

The audience and I talked about what kind of posts had impact and why.

We also discussed what could be done with less impactful posts to get people to engage.

We agreed that their social media content probably solved the problem which the questioner was facing.

What could be done to take that conversation further? Calling the audience to take action.

We recognised that content which stands out from the flood of posts calls the questioner to take action. Those posts invite people to engage with the content creator. The engagement benefits both the person with the enquiry and the content supplier.

Benefits Of Calling Your Community To Action

For the person with the problem it is useful to stay in touch with a reliable source of information. Who knows what further insight that source could offer in future?

For the supplier expanding their community has several benefits.

  • Their expert profile increases as more people come to know them.
  • They can experience word of mouth recommendation, as their audience likes what they do.
  • They can prove so trustworthy that people respond to their products, services or projects.      

3 Ways To Add Value With Your Social Media Presence

  • Deliver information which helps to resolve a problem for a specific community member
  • Keep your presentation as simple and straight-forward as possible
  • Prompt your reader to take an action by leaving their comment, sharing your post, hitting the Like button, or trusting you with their email address so you can offer them future service

Here’s How To Continue This Conversation

Thanks for reading this post. I hope it has got you thinking about your use of social media. What will you now do to better connect with your community?

I’ll be exploring these themes in more detail in a workshop on 12 September (more information in future posts). Meanwhile here are some questions you can feedback on:

  • Who wrote the most effective post you have engaged with this year?
  • What made you comment having read it?
  • What else did it inspire you to do?
  • Who did you share it with?


Use the comment space below to add your voice to the discussion. If you Tweet your reply to @RogerD_Said please include the hashtag #SocialMediaPresence to make it easy to follow the conversation.

How Does Your Community Benefit When You Act Like A #GoodWolf ?

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How Does Your Good Wolf Inspire Others?

How Does Your Good Wolf Inspire Others? – picture credit to Brigwer from Morguefile.com

How often do you ‘click’ with someone and find a way to support them in their goals?

I am lucky to be connected to several professional development networks. That means I have the chance to support others quite often. It feels good to pay it forward.

You have to be in the right frame of mind yourself to help someone else out. It is easier in some ways to be focused on your own agenda. Easier isn’t always best though.

Here’s a story about helping someone focus, inspired by Cherokee Nation culture.

 

The One You Feed

A grandfather and grandson are seated in Nature, deep in conversation.

The young man is troubled.

He tells his grandfather about the feelings of anger, envy and self-pity he has.

His grandfather tells him about the two wolves we all have within us.

The wolves are always circling each other, battling for supremacy.

One wolf is mournful, holding on to bad feelings from the past.

The other wolf is bright, joyful, loving and empathic.

Puzzled, the young man asks.

 

“If they are always there within us, which wolf wins the battle?

 

The grandfather paused.

His reply?

 

“It depends on the one you feed.

 

Contributing To Your Community

I know from my own experience that feeding the wrong wolf makes life miserable.

Spending too much time looking at set-backs leaves you stuck. It makes you self-centred. It weighs you down. It means you aren’t aware of others’ needs and don’t meet them.

I first experienced coaching (as a client) in the early 2000s. I had ended up overwhelmed by a project I was involved with. The experience of being coached made the process of returning to normal (being part of a team, producing great results) much easier.

 

What did I learn from the experience?

Being connected to your community is good. Being of service to that community is better. Taking positive action to help the community move forward is best.

 

How Can You Help The Communities To Which You Belong?

Tapping into your good wolf mind-set means you are better placed to help others. Your optimism inspires others to work optimistically because you understand others’ lives.

That kind of Empathy comes easily to good wolves. You can find out more about Empathy by clicking the link below.

http://bit.ly/BBC_Can_Empathy_Be_Taught_Roman_Krznaric

 

Want To Keep This Conversation Going?

Thank you for dropping by, reading this post, following, sharing and taking action that helps you experience a more fulfilling life.

I’d love to know how you change your thoughts when they get stuck in the negative zone. What’s your secret? How do you motivate your team / community to act positively and produce better results?

Leave your comments below. Your feedback is bound to be valuable to others in the community.

Don’t forget to share this post with the wolves you know.

 

 

Goals 2014: 5 Questions For People Using Social Media To Connect With Others

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Social Media Activity

Just Some Of The Ways To Be Active On Social Media

How many different channels do you use to pursue your social media goals and present your brand online to the world?  As I researched this post I realised just how many social media channels there are, and how little time there would be to make the best use of all of them.  That’s why I’m referring to just a handful of platforms.

US versus UK Social Media Statistics

US data from 2013 undertaken by the Pew Research Centre (a non-partisan ‘fact tank’) is relevant here.  They have broken down online activity to identify who is using social networking (73% of US adults are apparently) and where they spend time: Would you say your strategy is to form links with 16% on Google +, or the 22% of adults on Linkedin (which celebrates its 11th birthday on 5 May)?  Connect with the 18% of adults using Twitter?  Or do you relate more with the 71% of all adults using Facebook?

According to Ofcom in the UK 55% of adults owning mobile web enabled devices use them to visit social networking sites, or networking apps.  That’s a hefty segment of users who you could be reaching.  Assuming you can find the right channel to engage with the demographic you have

Google+ How Is It For You?

It is a timely question as JP Mangalindan, writing online for CNN Fortune and Money, has speculated about the platform’s future in a recent tech article   How productive a space is Google+ for you?

Site Statistics

We’ve all visited sites where the most recent post was six months ago.  Perhaps the site’s owner looked at their site statistics, felt it wasn’t getting enough traffic and abandoned it for that reason.  I wonder what signal that sends to visitors and to corporations like Google who created the site?

5 Questions For People Using Social Media To Connect With Others

So there is high take up with social media in general, although some platforms are more popular than others.  All of this  prompts me to ask the following:

  • What story do your posts tell about your brand (well established leader in your sector, or attention worthy new entrant)?
  • What timing strategy do you follow when you post to your social media sites (Weekly, or less often? Midweek, or weekend?)
  • How many new visitors are you adding by posting?
  • What do your visitors gain by looking at your site (insight from material you create; engagement with other peoples’ posts which you curate and repost; more information about your work)?
  • When visiting your site on mobile devices do people miss out on some of the desktop content (or could they browse and even buy in both places)?

Your answers to those questions can help you assess the return on the time you invest, in creating and curating social media posts.

Feel free to browse the other ideas relating to your work and life goals in the Archive section here, on Facebook and Google+ too.  Or if you are a Linkedin user you can View Roger Dennison’s profile and connect with me there.

Goals 2014: 3 Questions To Help You Decide Where To Offer Your Acts Of Service

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Your Connections Increase In Number When You Volunteer

Your Connections Increase In Number When You Volunteer

Were you following my previous posts about the reasons you should have a volunteering goal and the benefits coming your way from volunteering?  If you missed the posts on Contributing to your Community click in the Archive for 30 March and the Morale post is located there dated 8 April.

Your Acts of Service

That wider conversation led to me making a contribution to a discussion with Forbes online magazine contributor and Twitter user @tomwatson  You can get a flavour of the back and forth via this tweet:

This goes to show once you start offering thoughts and sharing views you quickly encounter the major benefit of volunteering: being connected means you can offer acts of service to others.

How Can Dunbar’s Number Help You Serve Your Contacts?

Mind you, if you can only hold stable relationships with 150 people it makes sense that as many of those people as possible are folks to whom you can be of service.  So here’s 3 questions for you based on Dunbar’s Number (those 150 people):

  • Do you want to offer service to your 5 most significant contacts, or do you feel obligated to do this (it is more authentic if you want to take action)?
  • What common characteristics do your top 5 contacts share?
  • How does that information shape the acts of service you will offer them this week?

Good luck to you with your offer to serve others.  You can get more ideas by checking out – and Liking if you want – my posts on Facebook and Google+ too.  Or if you use LinkedIn you can View Roger Dennison’s profile

Goals 2014: How Will You Connect And Contribute To Your Network This Week?

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Do you have a goal to connect effectively to the people in your organisation, sector, or wider community? What sort of contribution do you want to make to the people in your networks anyway?

Dunbar’s Number

Did you know research by networking advocates Editorial Intelligence suggests that you can only hold stable relationships with 150 people (a figure known as Dunbar’s number)?  If communication is part of your goal setting agenda you are under no pressure to make your connections count!

Contacts You Connect With & Contribute To

How Many Contacts Do You Connect With & Contribute To?

Engaging People

Seriously though, these are timely questions. Organisations are setting their goals for the new financial year. Their staff are creating their strategies for personal improvement.

The UK Civil Service even has Engaging People as one of its key values (although it still has some work to do, to improve the feedback process on the blog published by its Head Sir Bob Kerslake ).

Organisational psychologist Professor Cary L Cooper outlines in a blogpost for the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development that our networks not only help us to thrive, they help us to cope. He says networking is a key determinant of success.

John P Morgan is another advocate of inter-connectedness and service. You can find out more about his view here on youtube : his perspective is applicable in the UK, US, the UAE or anywhere else people act collaboratively.

Your Actions

So, now you have a different perspective of the role of contributing to others here’s a question for you to answer (making an appointment with yourself to see it through):

What one action are you going to take, this week, to make an authentic contribution to your network?

There are further ideas relating to your work and life goals in the Archive section, and on Facebook and Google+ too.

View Roger Dennison's LinkedIn profileView Roger Dennison’s profile

Goals 2014: 2 Life Planning Questions For People Over 45

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Were you between 15 years old and your mid 20s in 1975?  If you were around that age in the UK you might remember your first trip to your local – newly opened – McDonalds franchise.  You might have seen the newly released Steven Spielberg film ‘Jaws’ earlier in the year  too.  The impact of the UK economy’s 24% annual inflation rate was pretty new too; so was the trend of nearly a million people out of work.

There is quite a contrast between the UK in the mid 1970s and the country nearly 40 years later.  As this week’s Budget will reveal the economy is showing signs of resurgence after the financial crisis of 2008, which triggered a global recession.  The question is what does that change in the economy mean for your personal circumstances?

How does your age affect your life plan?

Have you reached your mid 60s with the degree of financial security you planned for?  Based on current life expectancy  projections, for British 65 year olds, will you be comfortably off for your final 21 years (if you are a woman) and 18.5 years (if you are a man)?  Put another way, how comfortable are you with the gap between what you expected from your working life and what you have got?

I’m asking as unexpected insecurity has come up as an issue with previous coaching clients.  Those in their 40s are thinking ahead, to put a strategy in place to make their future more secure.  Those in their 50s are taking action to make their next decade more satisfying.

It is unsettling to pursue one career track, or follow a portfolio career, and not arrive at the destination you had planned for.

How has the global recession affected someone in their 60s (and what lessons are there for those in their 40s and 50s?) 

Follow the link in the Tweet below to learn more about actions to help secure your future.  Then give yourself a score for your answers to the two bullet point questions that follow the Tweet (10 out of 10 means you are totally satisfied with your situation, zero means you are totally dissatisfied, 5 means you are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied)

  • How satisfied are you with the way you curate your presence across your online profiles?
  • How content are you with your approach to sharing useful information and contributing to the development of your online connections?

Total up your score adding both answers together.  If your total score is 11, or less, what steps will you take this month to improve the way you present yourself online?  How does your self-marketing strategy fit into your wider financial security goals?

What are your other self-development goals this spring?  Why not dip into the Archives at www.experienceyourlife.me for some inspiration.  There are more ideas On Facebook and Google+ too

Goals 2014: 2 Action Points To Add Value To Your Professional Social Media Strategy

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How LinkedIn Are You?

How LinkedIn Are You?

How often do you update your LinkedIn profile, compared to your professional Blog, Facebook, or Twitter content?  Go on, be honest.  Here’s another question: What goals are you addressing by using social media for professional purposes?

Don’t worry, you are not alone if you said you: refreshed your LinkedIn presence much less frequently than your other profiles; have no specific outcome related to your social media posts.  With the sea of media out there to dip into focusing on creating content can be difficult.

Recent coverage of professionals use of social media

This week two writers, Paul Boag* and Ross McGuiness** have separately pointed out that LinkedIn can be a real asset to advancing your work life goals, if you use the platform strategically.

Writing as part of the In Focus section within the Metro  Ross’s article highlights the value of building up an organic network of connections, via LinkedIn.  Connecting with people outside your immediate circle, can mean you get to offer your talents to an ever widening pool of curious people, who are already interested in your skill set.  Those connections can be in another city, country or continent.  You get attention in Denver, Delhi or Darlington if you want it.

The blog post Paul wrote reminded me of the advantages in keeping profile content fresh.  Your connections and other visitors like to dip into fresh material.  Your well-presented comments about your latest project, or newly acquired skills are valuable.  So are your contributions to discussion threads.

What actions can you take to sharpen your social media use?

I think there are two actions for you to add to your schedule this year (or focus on if they haven’t had too much of your attention before now).  These actions will help you if your goal involves consolidating your professional reputation on LinkedIn, or other social media platforms in 2014.

  • Update your content on a regular basis, to reflect your recent achievements, your newly acquired skills, or freshly gained qualifications.
  • Connect where possible to others with shared professional interests.  If that is not an option contribute regularly to online discussions about current key topics affecting your work area.  Perhaps you could even start a new conversation, based on your knowledge of upcoming trends?

Good luck with sharpening up your goal and turning your LinkedIn presence to your professional advantage.

Do check out the Archive section for more thoughts on work and life issues and feel free to look at the further ideas relating to your work and life goals on Facebook and Google+ too

 

*Paul is @boagworld on Twitter

** Ross tweets as @McGuinessRoss

Goal 2014: 3 Questions to help increase your well-being in the Year of the Male

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Plug In To Access Support

Plug In To Access Support

Have you heard the one about the man who asks his best mate for emotional support during a difficult period, and receives consistent, empathic care from his friend?  Chances are you haven’t.  Women may follow Sheryl Sandberg’s example at Facebook and ‘Lean In’ supporting each other, men don’t traditionally plug into their networks like that.

In fact British men may be spending nearly £1800 on making themselves look good outwardly according to 2012 research , but they aren’t making similar efforts to connect with their inner feelings and improve their emotional well-being.

Luckily there are new options men can adopt to tackle their well-being goals.  Those options are being explored by CALM , the mental health charity.

The charity is focusing on suicide prevention this year.  Here’s a sobering number CALM comments on , taken from a recent Office for National Statistics bulletin: suicide is the leading cause of death for British men under 50.  Such men are 3 times more likely to kill themselves than women.  That rate is comparable to the United States, where men are nearly 4 times more likely to take their own lives than women, according to the World Health Organisation .

Under the Year of the Male banner – that’s @yearofthemale on Twitter, or online at www.yearofthemale.com – the UK organisation is looking to challenge the range of influences which contribute to men’s less positive life experiences.  Perhaps we can all recognise that modern life has the potential to lead to high levels of stress, anxiety, and depression.

If you are a man and the experiences above ring bells, ask yourself how do your age, class, disability or employment status, ethnicity, family situation, religion, sexual orientation and upbringing affect your well-being?  What are you prepared to do change your well-being status this year?  Here are three more questions for you to reflect on.

  • What can you include in your health and well-being goal to make it more achievable?
  • In what ways will your goal help you live life with a greater degree of authenticity?
  • How will your goal add value to your dealings with the important people in your life?

Good luck with your actions.  Remember to check out the Archive section for more inspiration.  There are further ideas On Facebook and Google+ too

A Reminder: Your Goals Matter

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Just three hours left of 2013.  Keep an eye our for two further posts before midnight.

Meanwhile, in case you missed it, this is another chance to see my recent Tweet poll about 2014 Goals.

Get in touch, if you want to start 2014 with my professional coaching support on your side. I look forward to learning about your goals.

Well-Being: Inspirational Thinking

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Candle Flames

An Inspirational Thought

With less than 12 hours until 2014 arrives, in the UK at least, I think some inspirational words from the US are in order.

The inspiration message was offered at last summer’s May 30th 2013 Harvard commencement ceremony.  It’s available in full online, if you want to Google it.  The speaker was the hugely successful entrepreneur Oprah Winfrey.

The key take away messages?  Well-being matters.  Goals can be hard to reach.  You will be OK if you follow the direction of your own inner voice.

Enjoy this extract.  Feel free to share it, or contribute your own inspirational quote too, via the Contact page or Twitter @RogerD_said.

 

Oprah Winfrey

“…From time to time you may stumble, fall, you will for sure, count on this, no doubt, you will have questions and you will have doubts about your path. But I know this, if you’re willing to listen to, be guided by, that still small voice that is the G.P.S. within yourself, to find out what makes you come alive, you will be more than okay. You will be happy, you will be successful, and you will make a difference in the world”.