Or, how I fell into the habit of hanging out for fun and profit on social media only and my call to fix that by taking on my Fab 45 Day Challenge …………….to Post (gulp) Daily!
What follows: Communication nugget wrapped in a practical context and then a personal story which is optional for you but I feel enriching
This 1st post undertakes my promise to myself to:
- 1. Get back to the great love and foundation of my professional life – writing, and writing well.
- 2. Set a working and (re)energized example to my clients, some of whom I have seen struggling with that illusory balance we hear about.
How did we get here?
I’ve been away from my website. You may have noticed. That is, unless we are connected on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter or Google+. I’ve short changed you on pithy posts and useful bytes of information.
Stop cheating on myself and working on the self discipline to returning to post FIRST on my own website is the personal challenge I have taken on for the next 45 days.
It’s a blunder if social media is simply the only thing we do.
Yes, it’s fun.
It is also fast.
Mostly, it is also very friendly.
You have the feeling of community as it blows away the loneliness of working as many of us do in physical isolation, like so much digital dust.
Whooshhh.
The world we all live in now, however, is an integrated one. We aren’t simply one pixilated program and neither are the wares of our talent that we sell.
A mix of offline and online activity is needed to both market and to network for sales and to nourrish our creative souls.
Online, I think is a must now. The combination of meeting our market on AND off line is the key to our communication success.
Sometimes, I envy my older sister. She is sufficiently my senior that her life, constructed almost purely ‘in real’ can be lived without too much disturbance, old school.
The most virtual she gets is a phone call, and a fax.
If I need her to see something like precious family new baby photos, I email them to one of her adult children and ask that they get her in front of one of their screens when she is next over for dinner.
And so, in simply one example close to home, we are reminded of the importance of building and sustaining relationships. From family to clients, an integrated model can help get your message in front of your intended audience. You strive to deliver it in a way they can most easily receive, digest and be motivated to set time aside to connect with you.
You do it because you believe in the importance and quality of your message. And you respect the other person’s sommunication preferences.
Since we all struggle for time to exchange ideas or questions, isn’t it best if we help our contacts find us through the noise of the marketplace? Those decibels shred our time, energy and patience. Our attention spans, even when nabbed by some appealing, or even urgent message are so stretched our listening bandwidth is minimal!
And, am I the only one tired of having only simplistic sing songy slogans slung at us because I and you, we are told repeatedly have the attention spans of guppies?
Let’s defy that descriptionm together.
Speed, distance and the filters that come with such fast lives require us to reach out in more than one medium.
Start with one. Master it. Then, once you’ve got it working, my best advice is to let it earn for you or attract the sign ups you want. And then, look for the next thing to work for you, while it chugs along.
- Don’t wait.
- Don’t panic.
- Don’t overload yourself or your readers.
Do add a few manageable layers so that you can be found in different places at different times or in different formats to deliver information to meet your customer’s needs when and how they use it best.
(optional enrichment segment)
What of my senior sister, might you ask?
Well, she does access the net and this is how:
We spend several hours, cumulatively, each year with her on the phone, sometimes we go fancy shmancy and we use the speaker function at both ends.
I then Google or search in some way for the people, spellings, meanings or health info that she either requests or I call to share and read out loud.
The charming part is that we share our skills of looking and listening and we share our time. She phones in from the east and I sit minding the lateness of her day in my time zone in the Pacific North West.
It’s still human 1 on 1 time, older and younger siblings. The discussions are usually a delight, and if not, then at least instructive, and caring.
The reach of rivalry or discord surmounts all technical barriers and asserts itself, no matter what.
Thankfully, for us, that is rare. We’re at an age where there is no time to waste. Still, the distance coupled with the satisfying closure of being able to put down a hand held receiver firmly into its cradle at the end of a rough connection does give us time out to chill before the next round of reach through technology.
Got a comment. Share below and we’ll blend it into this challenge!
