Last week I posted on social media on my Facebook account that I needed to change the people I hung out with. I was not pointing fingers or making accusations, yet some got very defensive. I received comments and direct messages of concern and anxiety. People wondering if they had done something or if I was okay. Granted it was nice to see the people who genuinely cared for my well-being.  Even more, it was interesting to see those that didn’t bother to comment either way. I am not judging a fleeting moment on social media to gauge my friendships, neither should you. Friends on social media are usually taken at face value, for we don’t have much else to go on. However they many times will behave more like your friends than your real ones. What is your ROI of your social media friends? #socialmedia Click To Tweet This little exercise accomplished a few things for me. What was merely a simple statement of fact of where my head and heart was at, also perhaps provided some insight into relationships and social media? Social Media is Surface Level – We get so wrapped up in the statuses, feeds and 140 character snippets of people’s’ lives we forget to create relationships with the people. Glued to our smartphones, we would likely not even recognize the person outside of the avatar small square, much less in real life. People are easily offended – Ever type an email or text message that was taken out of context? […]

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Anyone that uses social media to any extent knows the rules change. Just look at Facebook recently, and apparently LinkedIn as well. The developers of the social media websites and applications make changes all the time. Some are for privacy, functionality or well  just because. That last one is the tricky one. As a user, when we use their product we accept the responsibility that no matter how their app works, defame or maims us we cannot hold them liable. I recently learned this the hard way. I fired myself on LinkedIn and did not even know it. Recently I updated my LinkedIn work experience to include a couple more items. I added blogging on this site as well as the freelance writing I do for Father Jerzy’s Road to Sainthood. Sounds innocent enough…right? Soon after making the changes I started getting congratulations notifications from people in my network. It is awesome whenever we get kudos especially for our art.  I received some personal notes that really made my day. Then I started to wonder what all the fuss was really about… Thankfully, I am not networked with my manager on LinkedIn. This became evident when a coworker at my day job stopped by my desk. They were checking to see if I had left yet and wanted to know if I was fired or quit. A bit confused, they said my LinkedIn profile said I had a new gig. I checked it..it did.. it had fired me from my day job. Apparently when you […]

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 Why a Social Platform is Vital to Your Business. In the day and age of social media there is no longer an excuse for  companies not be able to provide great customer service.  As a business owner, whether large of small you are under the scrutiny of the public eye. Yet it amazing how many companies will ignore their social customers. There are some companies that use the free or paid social media tools for good. They pay attention to what their customers are saying about not only them but also their competitors. For example I was having an issue with my cellphone and its data service. Out of frustration, I called them out on my Twitter account. Within moments of mentioning @T-Mobile in my comments I was tweeted back by their @T-MobileHelp account. This is the way a company is using the tools for good. By taking time to care and monitor their mentions they avoided me berating them further. One would think that all companies would handle their social platform in a similar manner. Not always the case. There is another instance recently where I took another company to task. Without giving them undo mention here, let’s just say I am still waiting for an answer. Not only can social platforms be useful marketing tools as well as quick customer service. These profiles also provide an online persona for the company. Many companies fall short when they are not being socially active. Nothing is more unsettling than when you find a site for […]

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