social media

Chasing Your Dream While Keeping Your Day Job

This is a guest post from Andrew Weaver, a photographer, blogger, and self described social media geek. He has an interest in helping others improve their lives both personally and professionally. He authors the blog Leave It To Weaver and you can connect with Andrew on Twitter.

I’m no social media expert. I’m not a PR maven. I’m not a marketing guru. I won’t show you how to get thousands of followers on Twitter.

I don’t have any New York Times’ best sellers. I don’t have a Fortune 500 company to tell you about. I can’t show you how to make millions sitting at home.

I’m just a guy with a dream. I’m going to wager many of you are in the same boat.

I have a love for writing and a dream of growing my photography business. The goal is to one day leave the daily 9 to 5 grind behind and to be doing what I love for a living. If you have the same goals, I understand that it can be difficult to know where to begin.

We live in extraordinary times. The Internet changed the game and social media brought the game to a whole new level. There has never been so many tools available at our fingertips. Geography is no longer a restriction. The list could go on and on. The point is, it has never been easier to start your own business.

If you have a day job that takes up most of your time, it can be a little tricky starting your own business. So how to begin?

If I were to give you just one basic tip, it would be to utilize social media. In today’s world it is imperative to have some form of online presence, especially when starting a business in your spare time.

Social media provides you with exposure and a cheap way to market your business. You don’t have to be on every site out there. Just a couple you can devote some time and effort to. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. Pick your poison and start building.

Build relationships. Build conversations. Build communities. Build fans. Build your network. Build, build, and build some more. By the way, building is much different from non-stop self promoting. No one likes a border line spammer.

Think about this. Without social media how many of you would be reading Danny Brown’s blog? How many of you would know much about Chris Brogan without Twitter? How many of you would care that Guy Kawasaki uses ghosts of anything without social media? If you are building your business from scratch and very few people know much of anything about you, there’s no good reason not to utilize social media. Start building.

Finally, I’m going to throw in one last bit of advice for free. Get rid of the excuses. Whether it’s fear of the unknown or any other reason, quit
using lousy excuses for why you refuse to utilize the tools the Internet has to offer your business.

3 Favorite Excuses YOU Can Not Use

No money. How many successful Internet startups do you know that opened with a huge budget? Quit using this excuse.

No time. This will be the most tempting excuse if you have a day job. Quit asking about social media if you’re going to instantly turn around and say, “I don’t have time for that.” You can and will make time for anything you really want.

No knowledge. It’s good to be knowledgeable in your field. It’s good to do your homework before you dive into a business in any field. At some point though, you have to dive in. You must get to work. Quit hiding behind your fear of starting your own business by saying you don’t know enough yet. Get to work and learn as you go.

You may just be a girl or guy with a dream, but there is no reason you can’t be working to achieve that dream. Social media is one of the best ways available today in helping you get there. I like how Seth Simonds’ bio on his Twitter breaks it down: “Drink some tea, ignore some experts, pursue your dreams…”

A Tale of Two Twitters

It’s been quite a few days for social networking site Twitter.

Many users are up in arms about a recent change that Twitter implemented regarding replies to other users.

I’ll be the first to admit that, originally, I thought it was a major overreaction on the part of the users who were complaining the loudest. After all, the problem stemmed from something that was never a part of Twitter’s original toolset.

So, to take the stance that a lot of users were taking (abuse and bile directed at the Twitter team being just part of the response) seemed an ineffective way to try and make a point.

There are still people doing that, and I don’t think it helps the situation. But that’s by the by. What is clear now is that there are two very distinct sides to this situation, and both have merit.

Twitter Is Right

The reasoning behind Twitter’s “meddling” with the reply system is that it can be confusing. They discussed this very topic over a year ago on their blog – unless you’re up to speed on Twitter’s kinks and terminology, it can be a very confusing place. Hashtags, @’s, RT’s and? tweetchats are just some of the idiosyncrasies that await users.

As Twitter looks to find the model it needs to succeed from a business point of view – and it is still primarily a business model in progress – it needs to be as accessible and as easy to use for the majority as possible. This means having less confusion, which Twitter thought the reply system caused.

Cue the amendment and subsequent Twitter user backlash.

Twitter is Wrong

One of the effects that the new Twitter reply system has had is that it’s effectively blacked out the feed of many Twitter users. Whereas before you could see a friend’s conversation to another user even if you weren’t following that other user, now you no longer have that luxury.

So this means that users that only follow a small amount of other users will have a very barren feed. This was pointed out really well to me by one of my closest people on Twitter, and something I may not have realized initially (sorry, Freddly!).

So, instead of seeing all the conversations that I’m having with everyone I’m connected to (and possibly checking them out as well), Freddly can only see the conversation if it’s to someone she mutually follows. This is where the new Twitter reply option is letting users down.

Those of us with a lot of connections will be fine – others, not so much.

Endgame

So, what’s the solution? There are a lot of angry people around, and this is leading to a lot of friction on both sides. The pro-change camp say that you can still find new people using the search option, and if you don’t hit the Reply button then everyone following you will see the message.

The anti-change camp suggest that it’s nothing less than censorship and that Twitter is bowing down to the celebrities and post-Oprah crowd. They suggest boycotting Twitter until the old reply function is reinstalled.

Twitter, for their part, are listening to the criticism (constructive and otherwise) and trying to appease users with halfway house solutions.

Bloggers are sharing their views, some calmly and sensibly, others not so much. It’s a touchy subject and one that’s causing a lot of heat in the Twitter feeds.

From my own perspective, it doesn’t affect me as much as it may others. The people I’m connected with and converse with are mostly mutual connections to others, so the conversation hasn’t really been affected on my feed.

But, I can see why this isn’t the case for people like Freddly, and on that count, Twitter seems to have messed up a key part of the user experience. It’s clear to see that there’s some major work ahead for Twitter to try and satisfy both camps.

In the meantime, though, I’m not sure if the mob mentality will help or hinder this process. And seeing some of the Twitter power users asking “Social Media or Social Control?” seems sensationalist.

How about you? What’s your take and where does Twitter go from here?

photo credit: Archie McPhee Seattle