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10 Tips Why To Appoint A Social Media Executor

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Fatality and happenstance are occurring faster than furious these days. What does that mean for we in social media who are engaged more than frequently every single day of the year?

If you blog that means you have at least the Big Five channels on which you engage. You then have a second-tier list of additional apps and channels on which you’re building community, too (e.g. Instagram, GoodReads, Zemanta).

Should ever your unexpected demise occur, have you thought of how your online community should receive this news in an appropriate fashion? There is a grapevine on the Interwebz.

When our colleague, Trey, left this world of his own volition several years ago, it was horrifying to us all, and the gossip mill was alive and too well with untruths. No one took control of his blog or channels to set the record straight.

It is our responsibility to pave our pathway to the future with golden bricks; leave a legacy that keeps people speaking about you in high regard. What that means is we should not leave too many loose ends; this includes our online persona, brand identity and the many core communities we’ve established, grown and now nurture.

This entire post came to me last night, out of the blue. I have done no research to ensure what I write below is accurate; these are my own ideas. If you have others to share instead or in addition, please do. Perhaps there are services and apps people can use, too.

10 Tips Managing/Being A Social Media Executor

1. Look around your community. Is there anyone you really trust and have also had privilege of meeting IRL? Do you engage with them weekly, and is that relationship solid? Pick someone and broach this conversation. Ask them if they would be your social media executor.

2. Give them the log in information to your blog. Provide a set of instructions and expectations, as well. You should give them the name of your estate executor (at this time) so as to expect a phone call (hopefully not for decades).

3. In your will (do you have a will, peeps?), add this person’s name and contact information so the executor of your estate can reach them immediately and share the news with factual information.

4. Write The Final Post and add it to your blog dashboard in DRAFT form only. Ignore it!

5. When your social media executor gets the news, have them publish “The Final Post.” I’d also suggest the social media executor add an addendum to the post.

6. Write a draft blog post entitled, “NEVER POST THIS; for Social Media Executor.” In this piece, you will share the log in information for all the social media channels on which you engage.

7. The social media executor will communicate with the estate executor and plan how to announce on each channel that the owner of this identity will no longer be posting.

8. Give communities the opportunity to express their sentiment on that person’s channel. The social media executor will know how to communicate with each community and allow people the opportunity to share and ask questions.

This step is so critical, but maybe that’s my view and others may not agree.

9. Write down your expectation about how you’d like people to know such news. If you want to abruptly close channels with no intermittent period, then say so.

10. Have the social media executor close accounts as appropriate after communicating with the family and/or estate executor.

(Quick P.S.: The title is awkward as the 10 items are more “about” how, whether to appoint, how to be one and so there wasn’t a great way to express; hopefully you got the gist!)

 

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How Zemanta Pushes Blogger Link Love

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Image representing Zemanta as depicted in Crun...

Image via CrunchBase

A little-known blogger content curation and link-love plug in has taken me by storm, and since sharing is what I do, I want to let you in on the Zemanta secret.

Sign up is free for bloggers who use a variety of platforms to write. When you add your post to the WordPress dashboard, Zemanta populates suggested other posts from bloggers world-wide with content similar to yours.

In addition, you can use its image curation tool, too, although I’m less enthused about the quality/breadth of images that are free and without copyright issues.

 

Also part of the Zemanta suite are in-blog links and tags. I turned off the in-blog links — Zemanta was providing live links for words like Apple and Wikipedia and other general word choices and this didn’t appeal.

The tags, though, are usually spot on, and I welcome help on how to tag a blog post as I generally don’t put enough of them with the story.

Once you join the Zemanta network and add your blog(s) to your profile, then your own blog content will populate across the ‘sphere and other bloggers can include your posts in their work, too.

The very first day I used this service, I had no idea what to expect. I found someone’s bicycle-sharing post in NYC and included it; lo, the gentleman came over and actually stayed to comment awhile!  That was very cool.

You’ll see how Zemanta populates your blog with relevant stories YOU CHOOSE at the bottom of the story. It’s like adding another resource section to your writings and expanding peoples’ reading pleasure beyond your own material.

Customization 

Last night, I added about 15 bloggers I don’t like to miss to my Zemanta network. When this network writes on the topic I’m writing about, Zemanta will pull from these archives and curate content into “My Sources” in my dashboard.

I also looped my Instagram and Flickr accounts here, so my images are populating in the dashboard, too! Talk about efficient…love that, as I spend more time hunting for a decent image and get awfully lazy about it, too.

The good thing about Zemanta (beyond what I’ve already said) is that it’s all about choice; you can select what, when, if you’d like to use anyone else’s stuff. The best thing for me, is that it takes time away from finding links beyond the blogs I already hit to add link love. So, I’m jazzed right there about new sources populating right in my dashboard.

So, give it a whirl…What can go wrong?

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Sex, Drugs, Scandal — BAM!

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English: General David Petraeus in testimony

English: General David Petraeus in testimony (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Yet another one bites the dust. Former Army General David Petraeus who resigned as chief of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency Nov. 9, 2012 is now a dishonored member of the Walk of Shame Club with such well-known celebrities as Armstrong, Woods, Clinton, Kennedy, Schwarzenegger, Edwards,  Sandusky, Weiner, Spitzer, and hundreds of others.

This post today has no tips on how to avoid such a scandal. This post today does nothing to support those dishonored. This post is merely a rant of disgust that We the People can no longer trust that our favorite athlete, elected official, appointed official and those we hold in the highest regard in the upper echelons of celebrity in this country will act professionally and without sexual or drug-induced scandal.

What the fuck? (The first time I’ve ever used this word in my writings here; I apologize to anyone offended.)

Instead of waiting for those we should trust to prove they’re dishonorable, should we already think they’re not trustworthy at the get go and that their “private” life is actually one of trysts and pseudonyms?  Are they just “too clean” and we should think there’s an affair somewhere behind the scenes?

How about this marriage thing? Every one of these gents above was married at the time of their disgrace. Not only do their wives and children suffer, the entire company or political office or sports team or foundation also suffer in tremendous shame and horror.

What can we do except open the paper and flick on the news with a click every day to see more of the same. Are you getting used to this sort of thing? Has it become mundane and old hat?

If so, then we have to stop and pull back to the core of our values and demand that those who lead this nation uphold public office and stop letting extreme power and alleged invincibility go to their body parts.  We have to stop accepting a smarmy, “I’m sorry,” and demand more; how about paying back tax payers for the money it costs to investigate these scandals (especially if they sit in public office)?

I have no answers, Friends. Do you?

 

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First Blog Post: 15 Tips for New Bloggers

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Keeping up with my Sunday pattern of posting one from the archives, this post below was one of my very first written March 22, 2010. Upon reading it, I’m impressed this list still has merit nearly three years later…what tips might you add based on your own blogging journey? Lastly, how about publish your “First Blog Post?” (Still relevant and well written?)

From Soulati’-TUDE! Archives:

Now that I’m officially a blogger, it feels pretty cool. I’m eager to put all the back-end stuff behind me and concentrate on perfecting and building the network. Unfortunately, I need to dig deeper for the patience as it’s all part of the larger journey.

In spite of my short time here, there are tools a newbie blogger needs to stay the course. Let me suggest several based on direct experience in the first two weeks:

  1. Patience and Perseverance. Without high levels of patience, a new blogger cannot persevere.
  2. Tech Know-How. IT knowledge is not a necessity, although it’s a bonus. Some of the more daunting areas are installations, code, ftp, renaming files, creating databases on c-panel and so much more. When self-hosting a WordPress blog, be prepared to be frustrated.
  3. Know your limit. Hit a wall? Ask for help; hire the experts. I didn’t, but needed to. (I had hit my wall, but a guy on Twitter blew me off for a week, and it angered me so much I insisted on doing this myself.)
  4. Time. Blogging requires more time. Obstacles and snafus galore and solving each take precious hours. See number two.
  5. Listen at a higher level. When speaking with clients, colleagues, friends, peers, listen for the next blog topic. After any conversation, if something strikes you, jot down key words to trigger topics.
  6. Keep a notebook, folder. Keep the notes, posts, items you read in a manual notebook or desktop folder.
  7. Rip tear sheets. Familiar with this term? Public relations practitioners use it when one of our stories we’ve placed hits. Get oriented to tearing out stories and filing into an idea folder. I’m already tearing sheets from Advertising Age, BusinessWeek and the Wall Street Journal which offer an array of ideas.
  8. Follow and subscribe. No better way to get post ideas then to follow people on Twitter lists via or . Subscribe to blogs in a reader. That way when on the road, you can access posts galore and delete subscriptions not making the grade.
  9. Use a dictionary/thesaurus. There’s nothing like a good dictionary to help find the right word or look up a synonym. Each post I’ve written has required reference to the dictionary. I’m expecting a few grammar lessons along the way, too.
  10. Be aware. Being aware is more than just combing content for ideas. Curiosity is the first step towards greater awareness. Surf 10 minutes daily on Technorati and get a sense of topics, style, and popular bloggers’ content. With awareness comes relevance.
  11. Engage on Twitter. A blogger must have a Twitter account, but all tweeps don’t have a blog. Twitter is the first best marketing tool for a blog; it’s a built-in audience who already finds you credible enough to follow. Blog posts are first promoted on Twitter. Whether you include Facebook in this marketing scheme is up to how you use it (friends/family or mix of business).
  12. Be responsive. When you post, the objective is to get attention. The ultimate goal is to get comments and furthermore subscribers. Answer everyone with appreciation who takes time to jot a note.
  13. Queue the posts. It’s Sunday morning. I’ve written 3.5 posts. Am thrilled to have something in queue for the week. Find that quiet time to draft skeleton content. Come back to it and edit. Find support points from the Web to empower the message.
  14. Learn! Already after a solid week of blogging, I’m thrilled with learning opportunities. While I thought Twitter was wonderful, blogging beats it hands down. I now look at everything through the blogging glass…is this a good topic? Is it a trend? Where can I find the data to support this statement? Do I need to back up my opinions? Shall I link to that site? Should I self-promote the blog on another’s post? Does this content resonate? Who cares?
  15. Respect one another. Everyone is entitled to opinions. It’s what makes the blogosphere rich. Set a positive tone with the goal of garnering respect.

What might you add to the list, please?

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Harvard B-School Prof Zeros In On Happiness

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“…once you articulate how success will be measured, everybody tries to game the system so that they are measured in the best possible way,” said Clayton Christensen, Harvard Business School professor and co-author of, “How Will  You Measure Your Life?“

Here’s one man who, in the last four years, suffered a heart attack, was diagnosed with cancer and had a stroke which caused him to learn to speak again one word at a time, is the embodiment of inspiration and how we need to forget about the pay check and live with a loving heart.

In my home, I’m teaching Kidlet to “live with a loving heart.” Each time she shares a fifth-grade drama story with me, I inform her to focus outward, live with loving heart and be kind.

Clayton Christensen is using theories from his new book in business school so that his students can find happiness and integrity. He shares the following, extracted from CNN Money, October 2012 in The Money Interview, “How Should You Measure Success? Management Guru Clayton Christensen Says To Total Up Your Relationships, Not Your Pay Checks.”

What’s below is an extrapolation from the article, so I alert you. I am so enamored of this interview and this man’s amazing heart (at Harvard no less!), that I had to put it here for you, too.

Clayton Christensen says, “I believe that the source of our deepest happiness comes from investments we make in intimate relationships with our spouse, children and close friends.

There’s a big difference between motivation (in the workplace) and incentives. Many of the factors we think will cause motivation, such as fair pay and a good manager, won’t make you love your job.

The things that really make our careers are almost always the opportunities that inadvertently arise. We need to have a better balance between a deliberate strategy and staying open.

The satisfaction you get from investing in other people stays with you your whole life.

Be impatient for profits (in business). Get to market quickly as you can with the least money possible to figure out, “Does this strategy work, or do I need to tweak it?”

The more I focused on the problems in my life, the more miserable I was. Every day of my life I need to find somebody else who I could help to become a better person. Once I started to reorient my life in this direction, the happiness returned.

The most important piece of planning for retirement most of us need to think about…is, ‘How are we still going to orient our lives on helping other people become better people?’”

My Thoughts

This interview moved me so much I immediately sat down to write. This man, “arguably one of the most influential thinkers in management today,” has put his personal health crisis into constructive teachings for others to create a legacy based on helping others succeed, focus outward and not engage in self pity.

Each of the bullets above, extracted from his interview in Money magazine, are solid reminders and counsel for each of us to look within and determine if narcissism or nurturing control our way of life?

And, please do find and read Peg Fitzpatrick’s blog posts I’ve included here. After I wrote this piece, Peg’s post on Happiness Jars appeared the next day; talk about good karma in support of my happiness pathway. For me, the word, “happy” is elusive. I never know how to answer it when someone asks me whether I am, so I never do. I skirt it. The bar is so high, the expectation so fierce to be “happy.” What about you? Do you answer that question with a resounding “YES?” Can you?

 

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