Journal

Don’t Let the Worst of Us Define the Best in Us

Today is a day that continues to impact Americans everywhere. The world at large also changed on this day in 2001.

Nothing has been the same since, for good or bad.

One thing that we must also recognize and face, though, is something my friend John Haydon shared.

“I will never forget the fear, ignorance, and hatred towards Muslims in the United States after 9/11.”

Sadly, this isn’t just the States.

I left the UK in 2006, and the vitriol and hatred rising towards anyone that “wasn’t British”, following the London bombings in 2005, was painful to see, and a key reason for leaving Britain.

As we saw on this day 14 years ago, tragedy can bring out the best in us. But it can also give rise to the worst in us.

Don’t?let the worst of us define the best in us.

As much as there are bad people in every race and religion, there are also good people countering the bad.

If we judge the many based on the actions of the few, the few will eventually become the many.

And we’ll only have ourselves to blame.

My Social Media Story – It’s All About Connecting, Clicking and Caring

This is a part of a special series looking at how social media has impacted the lives of its users. This week, the story comes from Mark Longbottom.

I guess you could say my social media story started in 1981 after leaving school, going to college and meeting like-minded people.

From this point to the last, or next post on Instagram, I?ve lived socially and sociably looking to connect globally with like-minded people no borders or boundaries.

How else could I progress if I only talked to people in my neighborhood, and refused to learn from those out of reach over the border whether an ocean or kitchen table?

Always looking to connect, talk and listen while being available and accessible – SOCIAL.

Using the relevant media/medium to connect and talk to relevant/irrelevant people – MEDIA.

Working as a conceptual artist, performance artist, graphic designer, web developer and social media consultant, I always look for people to connect with and learn from with interaction, participation and response always the focus.

My belief in social is simple:

Social media is all about being YOU, but remember it?s not about YOU.

Through the 1980?s/90?s I was an active Mail Artist sharing creativity with a massive global network of artists through the postal service.

From 1988 to 1991, I asked people to send me ?Grass 1 Blade or More? with an exhibition of 346 samples from 50 countries. The show was more about the answer and engagement to the question than the product, as is most artwork.

I also spent around 15 years performing as a ?Living Sculpture?, with up to 8-hour performances analysing my audience embracing, enabling and enjoying their participation and response.

The experiences learned from the interaction of mail artists, and the analysis of audiences often 200+ people changing every minute of a day, are part and parcel of what I use and utilize everyday in my ongoing online social media story.

[clickToTweet tweet=”Social media is all about being YOU, but remember it?s not about YOU. #socialmediastories” quote=”Social media is all about being YOU, but remember it?s not about YOU. #socialmediastories”]

I?ve taken my offline communities online and developed new and wider networks on all the major platforms.

One of my largest and longest pieces of conceptual artwork was a LinkedIn group, based on showing how people would genuinely talk to each other in a supposed professional environment.

My social networking activity continues to connect me with 1000?s of people who I can call friends and family.

So from the first ‘zine I posted around the world in 1983, to the 1000?s of likes/followers on Instagram everyday now, the story won?t stop until I do.

My story is about being an active user and not a theorist.

Technology will come and go but the constant will always be people ready to talk – so if it makes sense talk back, if not then share what they say with someone who you know and think they should know.

It?s more than just sharing things with friends.

It?s all about connecting, clicking and caring.

About the author: Mark Longbottom is a social media consultant based in Huddersfield, England, talking and working sociably with people everywhere.?

Consulting, creating and championing social media activity that makes sense.?Let’s undo things, let’s be sociable, let’s talk now.

Should You Care About Losing Blog Subscribers?

Yes. No. Maybe. It depends. I know ? crappy answer, right? But each one can be applied to the question of losing blog subscribers and if you should care or not.

After all, as bloggers, we?re more often than not told that ?it?s all about the list?. This usually refers to an email list, and why building one is important for your blog?s growth.

I?m not going to get into the ?do I need a list or not?? question – there are plenty of other blog posts dedicated to that topic already.

No, for this post, I?m going to assume you already have a list. Additionally, I?m going to talk about subscribers to your blog, as opposed to subscribers to your newsletter, as there is a difference and for many bloggers, their blog subscription list is the only one they?ll have.

So, with that in mind ? should you care about losing blog subscribers? Let?s dig in.

Yes ? Your Subscribers Are Everything

When you start blogging, you might have many goals. Some of them could be to make money; some could be to share your thoughts with others; and some could be just to have a platform to get your writing mojo on.

Either way, to succeed in any of these goals (with perhaps the exception of the last one), you need readers. And, if you get readers, you want them to turn into subscribers.

[clickToTweet tweet=”Anyone can click a link on Facebook or Twitter. But it takes commitment to subscribe. #blogging” quote=”Anyone can click a link on Facebook or Twitter. But it takes commitment to subscribe.”]

After all, anyone can click a link on Facebook or Twitter and come over to read your stuff. But it takes commitment from a reader to want to follow your content religiously enough to actually subscribe. They?re saying they prefer you over the millions of other bloggers out there.

Because of that, you should care on losing them, and take steps to find out why they left.

Look at the content you wrote just prior to them unsubscribing and see if it?s a valid reason (perhaps a different tone or style from your normal stuff).

Email them and thank them for subscribing up until then, and ask if they?d mind sharing why they left.

If you are changing the style of your blog, and you see subscribers leaving, create a poll and ask readers their thoughts on the new direction.

By being pro-active on understanding the reasons for the unsubscribes, you can take the action needed to halt the slide.

No ? It?s Your Blog and People Don?t Need to Read What They Don?t Like

The best bloggers (at least for me) are the ones that polarize opinion and question everything. Of course, that doesn?t mean you need to be an asshat in all your posts ? just don?t follow the herd when it comes to your opinion.

For example, if you?re blogging about blog tips, try and steer away from making every post a list one about the Top 10 this or a Best 20 that. Sure, list posts are great traffic generators and, when done well, can offer a great resource. But often they can be overdone and offer little.

Instead, share your lessons and how the most unlikeliest of sources can teach you about blogging.

https://bobwp.com/teaching-pigs-to-swim-the-rise-of-the-emotionally-intelligent-blogger/

Or, if you write about social media, ignore the standard ?Why Google+ is great for business? posts and offer a rebuff on why the platform is struggling to be relevant for the majority of businesses out there.

By offering your stance on popular topics, especially if the stance goes against the popular grain, it helps you stand out as someone to listen to, since you clearly don?t buy into the hype of the Johnny Popularity bloggers.

Of course, the ?problem? with this is that people don?t like to hear they may be wrong, or the platform they put the most love into isn?t as great as they want it to be. This is where you often lose blog subscribers ? but that?s okay.

When you lose subscribers like this, it?s for a clear reason ? you believe one thing and they believe another. Sure, you could try and persuade each other the merits of each other?s point of view and, sometimes, this works.

But, for the most part, people can be stubborn ? and no-one benefits from a protracted discussion that clearly isn?t going to be resolved.

So, let your subscriber go. He or she clearly won?t enjoy your content if it?s against their beliefs; and you?re not going to enjoy the constant jibing from them because you don?t see eye-to-eye.

Let them find a blog that?s more suited to their stance, and leave you to write for the readers that actually want to be on your blog, because these are the ones that will be your biggest ambassadors as you grow your blog.

Your Turn

Of course, like any opinion piece, there?s no right answer. Well, except mine? Joke!

But the question of blog lists and subscribers is a big one, and one that has no definite right answer. After all, we all have separate goals on what we want to achieve with our blogs.

So, how about you? Do you bite your nails each time you see an unsubscribe and wonder what you did wrong? Or do you shrug, smile, and carry on as normal?

Share your own thoughts and experiences below – I’d love to hear your take.

My Social Media Story: Social Media, Me, and How I Got The Girl

This is a part of a special series looking at how social media has impacted the lives of its users. This week, the story comes from Graham Todd.

Social media means many things to many people and for some it can mean terrible things. Bullying, politics and wars and probably the next recession will be blamed on it.

But I won at social media.

I got something amazing from it and I spend my life using it and showing people how great it can be.

I run an online marketing agency – but I?m not going to tell you about that.

I?m going to tell you a story about me, a humble van driver with a smartphone.

From Whine to Wine

Years ago I didn?t really amount to anything.

I left school half way through my A-Level English course and I bummed around in dead-end jobs and lived with my parents until I was 23. Nothing really remarkable there.

I then scored a job as a van driver that would propel me into the world I now live in and help me escape from the life I thought I was trapped in.

I was a van driver. I delivered wine for 11 years, and I guess I thought that I was going to do that forever.

But one day I went to a stuffy wine dinner and heard from an equally stuffy wine merchant that he was in fact smashing it on YouTube.

?YouTube? Him? But this business isn?t even on Facebook!? I thought.

I decided, right there, that I needed to do something about this.

The wine merchant I worked for were very traditional, so online marketing was not on their radar. Their digital output was? well about as up-to-date as their overused fax machine!

So I put them on Twitter. I signed them up and I tweeted as them for three months before admitting they were indeed ?online?. ?At that point they asked me how much each tweet cost.

At first I failed because I tried to sell wine. But when I finally got that idea, I shared the wine merchant?s story and journey. People really liked it.

[clickToTweet tweet=”People want you, not a fabricated version of you. Truth from @SocialMediaTodd #socialmediastories” quote=”People want you, not a fabricated version of you. #socialmediastories”]

I became a local person to tweet. As a van driver, I knew what was going on and I was able to give people guidance for the town of Warwick and also for Twitter.

Thanks to this pedestal I was first in line to help organise the first ever Warwick Tweetup (a real life meeting of people on Twitter). It was the first of its kind in the area and sparked a trend for many more.

And then something happened.

From Online to Offline

I still remember to this day when I laid eyes on Jo.

She had a very attractive profile image (she was wearing a tight fitting dress with a pink top and every red-blooded man wanted to know who she was).

She signed up to come to my first Tweetup and I was excited to meet her. I was, actually, besotted with that digital image.

But she didn?t show.

She bottled it and didn?t come. (I later found out that she did that a lot.)

The first Tweetup was a great success and the radio and local paper were interested in what we?d achieved. But I had a day job. So I went back to that and carried on.

Months later we held another Tweetup. It was also a great success and we raised money for charity.

Jo didn?t make that one either.

So to meet Jo I had to make the excuse of delivering wine to the advertising agency where she worked. And, I can say this now, I stole a bottle of wine from the back of the van and delivered it as a ?sample? for her business.

They did then buy wine from us after that, far outweighing the ?stolen? bottle of wine, but I didn?t really care about that.

I just wanted to meet the elusive Jo.

It was an awkward meeting, and a quick one, but I met her? the lady from my phone.

When Things Are Meant to Be

After that we exchanged tweets (as we had done before) and although we were both spoken for (married) we continued to chat and work on local projects and community stuff.

We became close friends but we both knew it was only for business, community and stuff like that. Nothing would come of it.

? I didn?t know it yet? but I?d met the woman of my dreams on Twitter.

On the eve of 2013 I found out that my now ex-partner had been less than faithful for a number of years. I suddenly realised that actually? I wasn?t stuck in this life that I had.

I left. Right there and then.

The first person I called was Jo. She always knew what to do and the first person to tell me everything would be ok was Jo. She still is.

Fast forward a few very tricky months. I?ll keep that part off the internet! Suffice to say that after that time, we were both single.

In July 2013 I won an award for my community work on social media and I went to the awards night with Jo.

On stage in front of 300 local businesses I thanked her and told everyone, without spelling it out, that we were now ?Todd and Jo?. In my haste I forgot to mention much else.

The Monday after that Friday night ceremony we started our business together. At first I joined Jo?s business but then we set up our own company as a new venture.

Two years on we?re running a very successful agency and loving every minute of it.

And They Say Social Media Isn’t “Real”…

Jo followed me on Twitter back in 2011. Now in 2015 we run over 20 social media accounts and spend all day (and night) together.

They say that relationships are being ruined by social media and they?re right ? sometimes.

But social media also makes great things happen.

Jo is ?the one?. She?s the person I?m meant to be with and we just work so well together. She gets me. I get her (most of the time) and we both love what we do.

I love writing – funny for someone who quit A-Level English, but because of my writing, or more importantly my bad spelling and grammar, Jo found me. She?s a proofreader and when I consistently made the your/you?re error she noticed me (for all the wrong reasons).

But she noticed me.

Social media has changed my life. It got me the girl. The girl in the hot pink and grey dress in the photo?

Social media is a very important part of my life? because it gave me the most important person in my life.

Thank you, social media.

About the author: Graham?Todd (known as Todd) is a social media trainer, speaker and co-owner at Spaghetti Agency. Spaghetti are a social media and online marketing agency based in Warwickshire, UK, helping business and brands to get found online.

Todd is a passionate, vocal and unstoppable fan of Twitter, Facebook and blogging and can be found mostly tweeting as @SocialMediaTodd (may contain selfies)

We Are All We Have

We?re born with our eyes closed, and we leave with them closed.?In-between, for however long we?re on this planet, our eyes are open.

And yet, sometimes, it feels like they?ve stayed closed since our first breath in the open air.

We see colour, but we see it as something that makes people different and not in a good way.

We see love, but it?s the wrong kind of love if it?s between people not of a different sex.

We see beliefs, but we rip them down and start wars to force our own beliefs on others.

We see so many things that are beautiful, but we taint them with our own twisted vision of what?s beautiful.

But we are all we have.

If only we opened our eyes, we would see we are all the same.

We live; we love; we laugh; we cry. We experience the same joy when a new child is born. We experience the same pain when our loved ones die. At our very core, we are all the same.

We are all we have. More than that, though, we are all we need.

It?s time to open our eyes to that.