people

Shadows and Beacons Redux

In a recent post, I asked whether you were a shadow or a beacon. I wanted to explore the area of those who look and learn compared to those who learn and lead.

There was no real right or wrong to either stance; simply a different approach. Sometimes being in the shadow works better than being a beacon; other times vice versa.

The post generated a great discussion and outlook in the comments section, and it reinforced why I always feel incredibly lucky to have such an amazing community around this blog. That you share such amazing insights with me and everyone else here – I’m always grateful.

One of the comments was from Sally G., who blogs over at SallyG.me. I thought the comment was perfect as a standalone blog post – so here it is. Enjoy.

I am sometimes a Shadow. I observe from a place where I?m not in the way, I maximize the light that is beamed by others and I determine the compatibility of what I see to what I believe will work for me.

I am sometimes a Beacon. I have shone bright for those who are where I once was, I illuminate my best practices, my valued resources, my key connectors and connections ? rendering them visible and accessible to all who may determine them an appropriate match too.

I am also all the nuances in-between ? flickering between shadow and light, much like the sky in the image you?ve chosen. Sometimes I?m a dark cloud that gets completely in the way of my own success ? blocking any light from shining. Until the point where I?ve built capacity, or confidence, or experience ? igniting my embers to the point where I?m blazing trails once again.

I am relatively new to Social Media. If not for the sanctity of the Shadows, I would not have been so quick to assess what seems to work, what seems more smoke and mirrors than real value, and what must be avoided at all costs. If not for the Beacons, well ? same assessment.

I feel that knowing your position in your Readiness and Values Spectrum will ultimately determine the role you take on in affecting the vision of others. When you have something of true value and significance to offer ? no Shadow can contain you. If your fuel is void of Integrity, Passion, Purpose and Value ? in time, your light will burn, or fizzle, out.

photo credit: BUR?BLUE

Are You a Shadow or a Beacon?

Take a minute to ask yourself a question ? are you a shadow or a beacon?

Are you merely following the crowd and what they think is right, or are you following your own path and leading the way?

If the answer to the question is the former, then you?re a social shadow ? always following, never questioning.

You need to change this now if you want to be more than just a shadow.

Like so many others, you?re trying to get to grips with social media, social networking, social marketing ? in fact, you?re probably all socialed out.

Everyone telling you which social tool you should use to expand your brand ? Digg this, Stumble that, and don?t forget to Twitter while you?re at it. While it?s true that you need to Socialize to make these applications work for you, it?s only true if you?re using them effectively.

Social shadows, always reacting to the social media/network scene as opposed to being pro-active, aren?t using this online social scene effectively. The result? You and/or your business is always the perennial ?almost man? ? you know, the movie co-star that never gets the girl or the audience?s love.

Yes, you?ll get the sympathy vote ? but who wants that? Wouldn?t you rather have the leading love interest in your arms?

Now take that and transfer it to your business. Your love interest is your customer ? your co-star vying for their love is your competitor. Just like you need to have the best scenes in a movie to be the star, so you need the best impressions of your company to be the star of your field. You know that social media can help you here ? but only if you?re the leading man, and not standing in the shadows of the supporting cast.

Light Up Your Shadow

Use social media and networking properly to promote your brand and business. This doesn?t mean adding hundreds of people just to try and be noticed ? instead, offer worthy participation. Leave comments on blogs with tips on solutions to a question, or recommend sites other than yours for knowledge bases. Once people see you?re not out for yourself they?ll look to you for advice every time ? guess what? That?s a new follower/customer you have.

Be an innovator. Come up with new ways to position yourself as the business to come to for your product. Grow your brand using social media as the tool instead of social media using you. Use a blog to offer your own personal and radical views that may or may not appeal to the mainstream ? initially, at least. Instead of writing what you think people want to hear, write what you want to read.

Don?t worry about interest being small at first ? after all, true pioneers are the ones that forge ahead offering real value and knowledge; all they need is time for everyone to catch up. And they will ? contrary to popular belief last generation, this public loves change.

Ready to light up your beacon and lead the way?

photo credit: Xavier Fargas

Social Media and Travel ? A Social Media Success Story by Jeanne Dee

What could be better than traveling the world on an open ended tour?

At Soultravelers3, we have been amazed to find absolutely stunning opportunities, beautiful connections and world wide collaborations through social media.

When we began our open ended, family world tour in 2006 we had no idea that it would play such a big part of our journey? and our lives.

We travel the web 2.0 while we travel the world and it expands our benefits as well as the benefits of our audience that travels with us virtually.

We are the opposite of geeks, don’t own an iphone or ipod, yet our world traveling digital lifestyle as a family led us to be early adopters in some ways, primarily in social media. We knew nothing about blogs when we began, but wanted to share with family and friends, plus create a memoir for our child, so we are shocked that out of the estimated 200 million? travel-related websites on the net, that we are in the top 20 today. We were stunned when our first Youtube travel video went viral with over a million views.

We live richly and travel the world on just 23 dollars a day per person and find ourselves to be accidental trail blazers for a new way of being. Social media has also played a huge part in our daughter’s education as? a 21st century global citizen which is the primary goal in our journey ?(as well as wanting to spend more time together).

The very best part has been the people that we have met that have enriched our journey beyond measure in so many unique ways.

Before leaving, I researched information about what digital piano to buy on a piano forum and by chance the most helpful person was a man from Spain who lived an hour away from where we would winter. That family became one of our best friends in Spain and our guardian angels.

Our daughter takes piano and violin lessons via Skype webcams with teachers on a different continent, both found through social media. We find great travel secrets by asking on social media and we share the great secrets that we discover.

The positive stories are truly endless and I wrote about some a while back in a popular post called “Twitter and Travel 2.0”. We’ve had a lot of fun meeting up with some of the people we’ve met online, like Wendy Perrin from Conde Nast Traveler who invited us to do Hallowe’en with her family when we were in New York City meeting the thousands of disadvantaged school kids who followed us virtually through a non-profit. Her kids were fans of ours because of our Youtube videos and they all had a blast together.

When I had a bike wreck on the Danube and landed in the hospital in Austria, a quick tweet on Twitter allowed my mom and sister to find us and call us. When I tweeted about my daughter taking an online? class with John Hopkins University’s CTY program, a teacher sent her the books she needed from London,? gratis because he was a fan.

Perhaps the biggest way social media changed our lives is when we got a Twitter Direct Message out of the blue which resulted in a featured story in the New York Times from one of our favorite writers. That led to many literary agents finding us and now we are writing a book. Social media makes it a small world today!

About the author: Jeanne Dee is an internationally recognized travel guru and creative lifestyle design consultant, via her award winning website Soultravelers3 that National Geographic Traveler called “One of the best Family Travel Blogs in cyber space”. Find us in Social Media via our Google Profile.

Rules of Business

Rules are the sticks of those in charge to beat us with.

Rules are the lines that are drawn to stop us overstepping the mark.

Rules are the barbed wire fences of self-important power mads.

Rules are the reason companies go bust and blue collar loses while executives move to the next golden handshake.

Rules, though, are made to be broken – just ask Adam and Eve.

If two tiny people can defy God, just imagine what you could do with a little imagination and a questioning of the rules.

Rules are only rules because we let them be. Sometimes it’s good to break them.