Latest posts from Danny Brown

Enjoy the latest posts from Danny Brown, and feel free to add your own thoughts in the comments after the post.

Building Social Media Bridges

As I?m writing this, there?s a ton of rain pouring down outside. There?s a really biting wind and the light is starting to fade, even though it?s only mid-afternoon ? not a day for going anywhere. Winter is definitely on its way, even though fall has just arrived. So what better time to make social media plans to get you through the dark months ahead?

Make Meaningful Friends

As a way of meeting new friends that can offer help both personally and professionally, Twitter is one of social media?s greatest tools. What started out as a fun conversation can suddenly offer inspiration to change the world around you. So here?s a suggestion.

Between now and the end of the year, make 100 new friends on Twitter. But don?t just add friends for the sake of numbers ? use the search option to meet people that would normally be outside your radar. And when you?ve befriended them, talk to them. Make conversation and listen at the same time. I guarantee you?ll enjoy it.

Explore the Sphere

As much as I love to write, I also love to read. Books, magazines, blogs ? you name it, if it?s got some form of text I?m there. But I used to be guilty of staying in the same niche. Reading only blogs that were in my industry or hobby list. So I began to watch who was being recommended on Twitter. I looked at the blog links in my comments section ? and I?m glad I did.

I?ve found some truly great writers that I would never have known had I remained in my bubble. I heartily encourage you to break out from your bubble and expand your reading circle. I?ve learned some great things ? I?m sure you will too.

Housecleaning

I still have too many social media accounts. I’m getting better at being focused, but I know I don?t need some of my current micro-blogging sites or social network memberships. So I?m cleaning my social media cupboard out. Narrowing the list to two at most in each field. Instead of being spread thin across many, I hope to be more effective across the few.

These are just three things I?m doing to keep myself busy and entertained in the months ahead. What will you be doing?

image: sgs_1019

Why This Blog’s Community Rocks

A blog’s community can be many things.

It can be long-term subscribers; it can be first time visitors. It can be “only” readers; it can be regular commenters. It can be every day attendees; it can be folks that visit once then read every other post from a feed, never to visit the actual blog again.

One thing that every single member of a blog community has in common, though, is the connection to each other through the blog (and vice versa).

And that connection can be the very heartbeat that keeps a blog alive.

If a blog’s community is the heartbeat then you, the folks that make up this blog’s community, must have one of the strongest communal beats around, because you have some of the biggest hearts.

You showed that yesterday when I asked for a “birthday wish” to celebrate this blog’s two-year anniversary. You showed it when you granted that wish and visited the blog of a girl called Stacey Monk and showed her she wasn’t alone in her sadness, and that you were there with support if and when she needed it.

When people ask why I blog, the answer I give more than any is this: because of the community.

I already considered myself hugely fortunate to have you here, to have you read my thoughts and share yours in the comments afterward.

I can safely replace “hugely fortunate” with “full-on blessed”.

Thank you for being you.

image: himmelskratzer