Social Media has affected my life on many many levels, be it from my love of music, to the success of my business down to keeping in touch with friends in an easy and enjoyable way, and of course making new ones.
Some people are scared of social media, and also don’t understand it, I hear that from my clients all the time; they ask me ’how should they be on Social Media’, what should they do, how should they react to people, how can it help their business, ‘ how do I find the time etc, my take on it all is be no different to who you are in life, be yourself, just because we now communicate in a different manner to which we have in the past doesn’t mean that we should lose sight of how to be human beings, all the values we have in life should be transposed to our relationships online, and just as in life, if people cross the line they can be ignored, so there is no real need for fear, as Mari Smith once said ‘If you don’t want to see it on the cover of the New York Times don’t put it on Facebook, which is just such a logical way of looking at it all, I share things from my life that I want to share, as my friends will attest, mostly my cat and The Beach Boys! But in doing so I also share my work and in combining the two people see who I am, and hopefully they then realise they can trust me with their business and employ me to make them a website.
I have some great fun in social media land, it led me to make a website for one of my musical heroes, it led me to meet some great people and it also brought me closer to the people in my community, yes there are those that prefer good old fashion chats over the garden fence, as do I but the world has turned and we now need to embrace it, there is no point avoiding it and hiding your head in the sand, and the merits far outweigh the loses.
A few years ago I took up the challenge of writing a blog each and every day for a whole year, I remember day one very well, and I was fired up with all the enthusiasm of this new challenge, I do enjoy my blog, it has never been a chore for me, but even I must confess coming up with an idea for each and every day was a bit of a task, but hey I did it, I wrote about special days of the year, why we have a pancake day, Easter, Midsummer’s day, I asked friends to contribute to it, I wrote book reviews, film reviews, music reviews, I threw everything at my blog and what that made me realize is, that that’s what it’s for, yes you need to talk about your work from time to time, but really it’s an on line diary, and the joy of a blog is it’s the gift that just keeps giving, those words you used on that blog will be on your website working for you for as long as your site is live, therefore unlike a newsletter in which you would read it and bin/delete it the blog is there forever, you as a business have no idea what might lure someone to your site, but what you do know is you want to keep them there once they have landed. Some of the blogs I have written in the past to be honest I had forgotten and sometimes when I google things there I am, it has most certainly given my website its ranking, I have never used any other form of advertising or SEO it’s been all in the blog, and I tell that to all my clients and show them how they can do just the same as me with their business.
That year flew past and I must confess I was very happy when the New Year rolled around, but I didn’t stop there, I carry on blogging to this day and ask my friends to contribute, for a few reasons really, a, as it would be pretty dull if it were me all the time, b, as they have very interesting businesses that I feel should be shared and c, because they will share it with their chums too… and so it goes round.
