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Tennis Balls And Twitter Peeps!

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A Tennis ball Author: User:Fcb981

A Tennis ball Author: User:Fcb981 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Along the top of Brian Vickery’s blog’s navigation menu is a list of clickable links to blog posts about sports. For all but one, I have a quick note:

  • In high school, I was probably the worst basketball player ever.
  • I played in the all-star co-ed 12″ softball game and ripped the webbing between pointer and ring man on my right hand playing second base.
  • I currently play USTA 4.0 tennis.
  • I just got my yellow belt in taekwondo (watch for my reaction to that evening in an upcoming Happy Friday Series post).
  • I played flag football in Chicago rec leagues and LOVED the adrenaline rush.
  • I coached kidlet’s rec soccer for five seasons.
  • I work out, but should do more.

What’s that all got to do with anything?

The cool part is it gives me seven good reasons why I can write for Brian Vickery and belong…besides the fact that he made one of the first guest appearances for my Soulati Media On The Street series, and I’ve had the privilege of meeting him IRL twice.

Far-Fetched Sports Analogy

Whew, now that we have our bonding straight, let’s dive in and cover off on one really far-fetched sports analogy with social media.

As I play tennis about six hours weekly, I also pick up several hundred tennis balls using a hopper, that metal ball picker upper. If you try to jam three balls in between the grooves, you struggle. If you grab two balls at a time, there’s no problem. If there are oodles of balls collected in the corner, you kneel and use your hands; it’s faster.

There are so many was to pick up tennis balls:

  • Do you first grab the errant singles spread around the service line?
  • Do you start in the corner of the court by the tarp and work toward the center?
  • Do you find the half-way mark and move right or left toward the corner?
  • Do you pick up the fewest balls and leave the most to others?

You absolutely get my drift. I wrote about tennis balls and business strategy once, but today, I’m just writing about tennis balls and social media. There is no right way to pick up tennis balls; they all get picked up regardless, but it’s sure fun thinking about it (work with me).

Twitter Peeps Are Tennis Balls

Now, think of each person you interact with on Twitter as a tennis ball. I’ll give you a minute to visualize all the peeps who tweet as a tennis ball.

They could be Wilson, Prince or Dunlop. They could have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 numbers. They could be Pro balls, training balls with dots or different colors.

All those balls in the corners, collecting? That’s your live stream of all the followers tweeting all day long. On occasion, you take a look and pick through a few for a good retweet; just like picking out the best balls to serve with.

How about the balls that are your favorite brand? I always liked playing with Dunlop best, perhaps it’s because it makes tires. Wilson balls always stink; they seem to lose their bounce fastest. Prince balls are decent, reliable; no complaints.

In your Twitter stream are there Dunlops you’ve favorited into a list to track what they say? How about the Wilsons who seem to be less bouncy with little energy? Do you unfollow or ignore? And, I love those Princes who aren’t really royalty, but they’re certainly loyal.

We’re not going into racquets for this piece, as this tennis ball analogy is as far fetched and grasping at straws as I can get. Eh, Brian?

So, the next time you hit your HootSuite dashboard and see the left-most column of hundreds and hundreds of tweets streaming in, take a peek in that corner to find the best ball and serve it up to your stream as a courtesy.

When you see a peep having a downer day, and perhaps he’s a Wilson, give him a volley with a bit of snap to share some energy for a healthy rally.

For those Princes you rely on as your doubles partner? Keep their feet moving with fancy content so the team wins the match.

But, remember this…every ball, regardless of whether it’s flat or bouncy finds its way into the hopper. That goes the same for your stream of peeps, too…treat each like a tennis ball and everyone gets picked up.

 

This post originally appeared July 1, 2013 on Brian Vickery’s Social Media Sports Analogies Blog

 

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Is The Passion Descriptor Overdone?

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French Fries

French Fries (Photo credit: fritish)

People are throwing around the word passion like it’s salt on French fries. It’s becoming a very popular word to describe spirited energy and excitement about something — whether it’s business, facing the day, or doing PR, for example.

I consider myself a passionate person in a number of ways — I have an incredible passion for blogging; I write with a voice that is WSYWIG — people are surprised to Skype for the first time and see that I am how I write.

I am passionate about public relations. It angers me when my peers get short shrift in our profession because others don’t understand how or what we do.

Having a passion for various aspects of life are also part of the total package. Does that mean people with passion are born with it, or can it be taught? Does passion come with maturity and a few years under the belt? Is it all about experiences others don’t have?

Marketers try to tap the passion about their products when writing copy or with storytelling. I get that…people need to tap inner emotion to bring out the pocketbook and build loyalty and evangelism.

What I hope doesn’t happen, though, is that the word passion becomes boring. People with instinctual passion for their approach to life bring a zeal others strive for.

If passion becomes mundane, then we who have that inner light naturally will need to use another word to describe our zest for life.

What’s your definition of passion? Do you think it can be taught? Is it something innate or does it ripen with time and seasoned expertise? Do you think passion is being thrown around like salt on French fries?

This is one of those blog posts where I’m just thinking and don’t have the answer; maybe you do.

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Today We Reflect And Celebrate

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Every year on this day exactly (told you my lucky number is 13), reflection is in the air. About what you say? Let me share:

  • Being In Business. My years as a solopreneur, agency owner, freelancer, dog walker and kid/house sitter have been the most rewarding for healthy spirit. I was working for myself. It was and is up to me how much money I can make and how hard I can work. Being accountable to yourself and whom you hire in business is heady stuff. It requires constant attention, thinking and action. Along the way, there are peeps to meet and relationships to build; there are even folks to care for. That’s what drives me, this being in business stuff. It doesn’t matter how one defines me; if I’m the one determining how money rolls in the door and buying my own health insurance and dropping pennies into a retirement plan, then I’m in business; bona fide.
  • Being A Single Mom By Choice (In Business). The path I took to motherhood is unlike most other women. It is rewarding and stressful and puts perspective on money-making like you wouldn’t believe. I’m no longer able to squeak by on a dog-walker wage; I have to earn the beau coup bucks for the kidlet. She lends a wonderful purpose to why I get up every day and work to the bone to rinse and repeat. There’s no other way to select the single-mother-by-choice (not without nice $$ luggage, mind you) than to be in business for self. Yet, I have never defined myself as “mother of kidlet;” my identity remains “Jayme Soulati and this is my daughter.”
  • Social Media. In 2008, I was a single mom in business in a dreary basement not in Chicago with zero friends and negative zero ability to go find them. I was seriously depressed with my place and then along came Twitter where I began to meet some astonishing new friends who Mark W. Schaefer summarized nicely about in his 1000 post yesterday. He and Jon Buscall and Jenn Whinnem were the earliest of my social media friends, soon followed by Erica Allison, Gini Dietrich, Danny Brown, and a boatload of others from the early Twitter banter days. Yes, Twitter was a nightly festival; it rocked with banter and #RockHot snark. I did 140 with peeps around the world, and I was whole again. Last year on this day I sat for hours in the morning thanking well wishers on Facebook; this year (just 365 later), I’m having to do that on Google+, text messages, Twitter, LinkedIn AND Facebook. It’s heady, celebratory and so amazing how Twitter (and social) changed my life.
  • Values. Twice in business in the last five months I made the choice to walk away from a client and leave money on the table. Prior, that was unheard of; I would take it on the chin, buck up and carry forth to earn the almighty dollar. Today, not so much. If it feels bad; if I find a lack of respect (the value that has risen to the top of late to my surprise), then I need to move along and overturn the stone elsewhere for the buried treasure. I thank you Peg Fitzpatrick for your gift Monday. The smiles that created on this face were day-long.
  • Opportunity. I kid you not when I tell you I feel like a kid…in a candy store! From a lowly PR peep in Chicago who got a chance at Manning, Selvage & Lee because I had researched the name of the managing director, James O. Ahtes, and the hiring VP, Dutton Morehouse, had never met a corn detassler, to a marketer, social media upstart (I can’t be an expert), professional blogger, and now digital marketer and self-published author to be…OMGosh…may I tell you the sky is the limit, please? And, will you believe me? It takes gumption, passion, and a zest for learning to keep on. Some made fun of me when I wrote this post on 50 Shades of Wiser as I had used that darn book title everyone loves to hate. Had anyone stopped to really read it, the theme there was about aging gracefully in this social media sector where maturity is a benefit and seasoned doesn’t mean salt.
  • Celebration. Today, I celebrate you. Each of you in this community and beyond who take time to comment and let me know you’re not lurking every day push me to excel and strive for the next innovation. You can see it happening, I know, and your patience as I churned through the steps to get here today is appreciated. Never one to jump in first, it takes me time to look at all the angles and find a way to carpe diem (the one thing I took away from advertising class at the University of Wisconsin) and DIY (which I’m trying not to do as much!). For all of you here who have contributed to where I’m at today, thank you. My wish is for many more with you, right here.

Reflect AND Celebrate!

 

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Social Media Presents 50 Shades of Wiser

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Happy Thanksgiving! 65 w dandelions growing! W...

Happy Thanksgiving! 65 w dandelions growing! WTH? via soulati

Social media has not only leveled the playing field for small businesses, it’s enabled professionals of all ages to compete.

If you’re not learning, you’re dead.

The opportunity social media presents for learning is so vast that anyone, regardless of age, who has gumption, passion, and energy can compete with youngsters in a highly successful way. More and more, avatars with gray hair are populating Twitter. I’m making an assumption they are aging gracefully and wiser as a result of social media.

Someone on a Google+ Community posted a suggestion that we should petition Advertising Age for a Top 50 Over 50 instead of the customary Top 40 Under 40 feature. (I concur.)

What prompted this whole post is a short email from a woman I never met or spoke with. She mentioned she was 50+ and was feeling the light dimming on her career path because she was a former print graphics artist. She had little enthusiasm for PowerPoint graphics nor did she know where the road ahead would lead.

…which got me really thinking, and that’s always dangerous.

Mastering what social marketing presents for anyone in the at-large field of marketing communications would take a lifetime and then some. So, instead of saying you’re all washed up at 50, why not re-invent and re-invigorate and get excited about the learnings available for the plucking?

How I’m Reinventing 

I’ve just signed on with Hubspot. Don’t you say a word, internet marketers and digital marketers and SEO folks; I’ve heard enough about your negatives about their poor technology. (I concur, and it’s terribly out of my control.)

I plunked down the money because I know myself. I know that I need to go large to ensure I do what’s required — the lessons, landing pages, website tweaks, buttons, and etc. to make the leads pour in and put my website to work.

It’s called inbound marketing or digital marketing, and it’s an area I’m investing in. Everyone who’s been a loyal member of this community knows I’ve written willy-nilly for three years on this blog. I’ve not needed to care about analytics and blogging ROI. Life has changed, and that’s prompted engagement in a whole different way.

I’m jazzed, nervous, worried, and 100 percent vested in making this thing go and grow. I’m greeting a side of marketing I’ve been circumnavigating.

With each accomplishment, I feel bolstered with energy and excitement about what the future may bring. When I get my first genuine lead in my dashboard I’ll rejoice; when I get my first slice of new revenue, I’ll celebrate and know I’ve made the right choice.

When you hit 50 as a professional, your career is not over; in fact, it’s just beginning. How many companies would relish hiring a mature practitioner at the leading edge of social marketing to guide them strategically?

Fighting Cherry Pits

With that said any of you who thinks life is a bowl full of cherry pits right now (no matter how old you are):

1. You have to find the strength from within and want it.

2. Set your goals and aim high.

3. Take little steps and do it right; earn confidence.

4. Consider obstacles a challenge; find a solution around them.

5. Align with a solid, excellent core team of IT folks.

6. Grow your business by investing when that decision is right for you; you’ll know.

7. Rejoice in each accomplishment, but do celebrate.

If you have any tips you can add about how you feel about getting wiser each year, let me know…this is a topic we may be revisiting soon!

 

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How Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer Teaches Social Responsibility

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Region 1 DVD cover (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Ever watch it…”” How many times? If you’re over 30, you better tell me about a dozen. If you haven’t seen it in awhile, crank it up…’tis the season.

My dear best BFF Jim Faris inspired this post, and he was struck by how significant the themes coursing through this were akin to today’s lifestyle moments.  Let’s see, how many lessons and teachables can we glean from this 45-minute program produced by innovators Rankin/Bass in 1964?

  • Anti-bullying
  • Heroism
  • Friendship
  • Love and family
  • Athleticism and popularity
  • Misfits or unique individuals who don’t fit the mainstream
  • Teamwork
  • Career pathing

Bet you didn’t realize just how many of those themes were buried in this “children’s” movie, did you? Good thing there’s a happy ending as this little program is chock full of in-your-face mean to anyone who doesn’t conform.

Now that we’ve grown up, we can see deeper into hidden meanings within these scripts and still watch alongside our innocent children. When you write and add hidden meaning into your works, do you think readers get it?

Next time you’re sitting in front of a show your kids pick out (or a young person) and you really don’t want to watch it, try to change up your viewing experience.

Look at the set; listen to word choices; look at hair styles and accessories; watch for fashion faux pas; determine whether they have the blonde acting dumb or the heavy-set kid being clumsy.

When your kid laughs, tune in to what makes them howl and join in the fun for a bit of ‘raderie.

Same goes for blog writing — stick a bit of humor and fascinating stuff in the post and impress the community…or, just be yourself and let the you shine through. Just like the writers of Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer, the creativity and hidden message are yours.

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