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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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Please Say Thank You In Business

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thank-youSaying thanks is so simple. Why doesn’t it happen more often? Are brands and people too busy? Or, do they just plain old forget they asked for something?

As a public relations practitioner with a media relations core, my job was pitching media every day for eight hours straight in Chicago’s agencies. I don’t recall if I thanked the reporters for running my story back in the day; but I sure as heck do it now.

When someone works in earnest to reach a reporter and speak upwards of 3-4 times to get a story to run, there’s a bit of professional ‘raderie going on. A relationship gets launched, and someone is asking the other for a major consideration.

If that work is rewarded, it would seem obvious a “thank you” is in order. A simple email would suffice, right?

Last fall a very personable PR woman connected with me about her client’s book. She pitched me the story, sent me a book, and I delayed writing a post on it. With little time to read much around the holidays, I forced myself to dive in gladly as the book was worth the read.

A blog post ensued and another reference followed with tweets and likes, and posts throughout the interwebz. What was the result? The author said, “You’re too kind” on a Google+ post and the PR person is nowhere to be found; no acknowledgment.

I’m not a reporter; I’m a professional blogger with a large community. As a result of that blog post, I helped push sales of that book; probably 10 I can tap from my community alone. In this day of oodles of books and budding authors, I’d say 10 is decent.

I wrote awhile ago about thanking Twitter followers for RTs, something I did up until I joined 25 tribes on Triberr. I couldn’t take the hour a day it would take to thank folks, and that always makes me cringe. When you’re trying to build community, it’s so helpful to acknowledge those who give.

This isn’t a whine or rant.

This is a reminder to everyone in business that the words “thank you” are not overdone, unexpected or unwanted.

Please say thank you in business. It’s more than just common courtesy; it’s the stuff relationships are made of.

My Sincere Thanks

And, with that said, I owe deep gratitude to several business partners who assisted and continue to assist on my nightmare tech journeys:

  • Heather Solos, community manager with Feedblitz, has been a savior helping me rectify Feedblitz issues with my site. Did I bring those issues onto myself? Yep, most likely; that didn’t stop her from sorting through my issues and getting me up and running. Thank you, Heather.
  • Ginny Soskey, is a doll (she looks like one, too), with Shareaholic. I’m using Shareaholic sharing toolbar on this blog and site. I’ve tried many, and each has issues. I’m in love with this tool for bloggers, and the options and variety of sharing features is amazing. They’re getting bigger by the day, but that didn’t stop Ginny from helping me immediately when my share bar went awry. She was on it, learning how to troubleshoot while sending me screen shares and tips on what to fix over here. (Turns out it was Chrome cache; a problem as I had no idea we need to clean our cache on a consistent basis otherwise funky things happen.)
  • Adrianne Mayshar of HubSpot is a gem. She’s been riding herd as lead cowboy (isn’t that word like actor…you don’t need to say cowgirl?) through a serious set of integration issues I’m having and continue to have. I appreciate her customer service and that of senior support tech Victoria.
  • Scott Quillin, of New England Multimedia, has given undying and relentless support and encouragement as well as ears, eyes and dedication to my tech needs. Not only has he designed this site for me, he has become my IT liaison to help free me from the confines of tech nasty. I cannot say enough good about this man and his client service; astonishing.

I thank them; I thank my readers and this community. I thank you. I appreciate deeply.

 

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