Your Brand On Facebook: TMI?

Image via CrunchBase

Yesterday morning, I logged into Facebook (as I do each morning) and saw a post from my cousin’s wife that my cousin had suffered a major heart attack the night before and had open-heart surgery. Thankfully, he will be ok, but the shock of this happening to my cousin at such a young age was intense.

His father wasn’t too thrilled to learn this had been posted on Facebook before he had a chance to let family and friends know what was going on. He was fairly upset that another family member put it out on Facebook but concluded, due to her age, “That’s just this generation, I guess.”

We are living in a time where generations are divided about what constitutes too much information, or “TMI.” To younger generations, putting the word out about significant life events through social media is a quick way to keep friends and loved ones informed. It helps avoid the hassle of individual phone calls, text messages, or emails — and helps keep attention on the task at hand, in this case, helping care for my cousin.

Now that this situation is known, the family is less sensitive to using Facebook to stay on top of the situation. Why? First, because it’s not private anymore. Second, because the updates are relevant and important for those of us following his progress.

The question of brands over-sharing on Facebook is a bit different. The dynamics of what should and what shouldn’t be shared are very different. But there are similarities, too. Posts need to be relevant and they need to come at the right pace. Not surprisingly, there is a direct relationship between the two. The better the posts, the more often people will want to see them.

via mediapost.com

You can follow the ‘via’ link above to go to the source and read the rest of the article if you’d like to dig a little deeper…

Roll It Forward

“How was work, honey?” I asked. “What’s in the box?”

He looked at me with those You really have to ask? eyes. “I got laid off,” he said.

It was 2004. It wasn’t like today. Five years ago, it really wasn’t that big a deal to lose your job. Besides, this was the third dot-com technology company where Chris had worked and he was a very successful executive. He’d have another job in no time. In fact, a recruiter had just called the house earlier in the week.

And then he continued: “And I’m not going back to work, Mel.”

“Excuse me?”

I was pregnant with our third child. We had just renovated our house. I had just started my life-coaching business. We needed his salary to make ends meet and keep up health-care benefits.

He answered, “I hate what I do. I’m going to start my own business.”

Then I said to Chris something I’ll never live down, “All that self-help crap about pursuing your passion—that’s for strangers. You? You get a job.”

I’m not proud of it, but that is exactly how I felt. I tried to rally friends and family to my cause. I tried to bully him to go back to work. I pouted. I moped. I cried. I protested. And the worst of it, I doubted him. It nearly destroyed our marriage.

Until my friend Lauren asked me, “Mel, what do you really want?”

via successmagazine.com

My good friend Dana VanDen Heuvel shared this great article with me and I’m passing it on to you in hopes that it will be a blessing to you as well…

A little over 10 years ago, I was a happy and successful Account Executive at Apple, living my dream. Like the guy in the article, I had multiple high-tech rugs pulled out from under me. Making the transition to becoming a ‘reluctant entrepreneur’ has not been easy on me or my wife and family, but it has also been beneficial in ways too numerous to mention. Being called to being an entrepreneur or freelancer may not be the path you would have chosen — heck, I would have been happy to work for Apple until they pulled me feet first from my company car — but that wasn’t in the cards. THIS is what God has called me to do and I’m sometimes I do it despite, not because of, the odds.

If the content of the quote resonates with you, follow the ‘via’ link to read the rest of Mel Robbins’ article…

Make your LinkedIn profile as effective as it can be…

…while avoiding common mistakes. I’ve collected some great resources for you here…

Social media fairy tails

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Great stuff from patgermelman’s blog…

“There are social media formulas that you can pick and choose from and adapt to fit your schedule, staff, and resources. There’s a virtual candy store of platforms and options. Here’s the secret…they all take work. There are no silver bullets. If someone claims to have all the answers they most assuredly don’t. If you get help from an expert and something doesn’t sound right, then it isn’t. You know your organization better than social media experts and any plan can be tweaked and adjusted to fit your organizational needs.” Source: patgermelman: Social Media Fairy Tales

The rest of the content is equally compelling! Go to the source for the rest of the article. btw, who’s the guy in the picture? Why did I use him?

Phone or Email Support? Why not PDC…

PDC is Personal Digital Coaching and it’s totally different than the kind of experience that’s being discussed here…

“I’ve been reading with great interest this past week as some of the leading web application companies discuss their philosophies regarding the providing of phone support for their services.” WebWorkerDaily » Archive Phone or Email Support – Which Do You Prefer? «

Give me a call at (920) 486-4798 or contact me through the contact page…

Spirit of the Entrepreneur

Are you an entrepreneur? Want to be one? Then it’s good to ponder this…

What exactly is it that sets entrepreneurs apart from the rest? What is it that makes certain people believe in themselves enough to take the prospect of failure head-on and have the determination to come out on top? It takes a special kind of person to set an idea in motion, riding the highs and lows from humble beginnings to ultimate success.”

Click here to read more…

No, I haven't stopped blogging…

…but I have been bloody busy with the Agritechnica trade show in Hannover. I set up a social media dashboard in the menubar so you can track the work I’m doing with AGCO in Germany. So sorry, but with doing social media 12 hours a day, I just haven’t been able to maintain my normal editorial schedule for my business. Needless to say, there won’t be a ‘top tactics and tools’ post today — next Tuesday, I hope I’m recovered from jet lag enough to right on ‘tactics and tools’ #5 – Shareaholic!

Share, share, share…

Hmmm. Looks like everything you need to know about social media you may have learned in kindergarten. Not quite, but this confirms some of my preconceived notions…

“There are hundreds of ways to exploit social media to help your business or to build your personal brand but one that should stand head and shoulders above any other is the simplest of them all and has been around for as long as we have been on the planet….help other people. It sounds really really easy and you probably don’t even think it warrants you reading the rest of this post but if you stop and think about it for a second do you really help others? Do you consistently go out of your way to help others and put their needs above yours?

Let me let you in on a little social media secret: helping others is the key and any work you put in to help others will come back to help you in the long run 10 times over. The beauty in this day and age is that it is so easy to help others through social media now. You just have to want to.

It’s not going to happen in a week or even a month (although it can) but if you make it your mission to help people online in whatever way you possibly can it will always come back and make your day when you least expect it. I am not just talking about re-tweeting somebody or linking to them in your blog but actually going properly out of your way and helping somebody else to achieve their goals. Not your goals, their goals.” Source: Why you should help others to help yourself in social media

btw, few people do this better than my buddy Dana VanDen Heuvel of MarketingSavant. Go to the source and read the rest of the article, but check out Dana’s site too if you haven’t done so — it’s one of the best you’ll ever find on the topic of thought leadership and internet marketing…

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7 Ways To Have The Greatest Day of Your Life

I love ‘Dumb Little Man’ — one of my favorite blogs — and here’s a great post from Alex Shalman…

“When I ask someone how their day is going, the response I get most often is, “Fine.” Most people settle for fine, are happy when things are fine, but can’t fathom the possibility of creating the greatest day of their life — whenever they want!

I believe that people are scared of achieving greatness. Without giving it a second thought, the idea of being great seems as if it would come with a lot of work and huge responsibility. By now it’s no secret that the things that have brought us the most pleasure in life are those that we’ve given more time to and put more work into. Even if you misfire and don’t hit the greatest day of your life you could end up short at an awesome day. This will take much effort on your part.

It follows that in order to have a greatest day, whether overall or in a certain category, we must push ourselves harder than ever before. In order to reach that milestone we must earn it. Sometimes through sweat and tears, and sometimes through using our minds.” Source: 7 Ways To Have The Greatest Day of Your Life

You’ll have to go to the source to read the 7 ways…

;-)

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Not the kind of Monday motivational message you might expect, but it was still worth a laugh. Happy Monday!