Sometimes my weirdness turns out pretty awesome

So..this past weekend a family stayed with us we’ve never met. By never met…I mean in person – I’d talked with her a LOT and seen pictures of her family growing up over the past 8 years. EIGHT YEARS! Amy and I met 8 years ago when a group of us blogged on MSN Spaces. Since then…after Spaces retired, we’ve kept up with one another through facebook.

She’d posted she was planning holidays to Drumheller and West Ed, I saw it and immediately demanded STAY WITH US! Her and her 3 kids did! What a FANTASTIC weekend! We played games, went to the Royal Tyrrell Museum, Centrefest, had a campfire and caught some belly dancing at It’s All Greek to Me.

Every night my husband would ask…”Seriously, no surprises? She’s what you thought?” Nope, no surprises. No awkward moments. No OMG WHY ARE THESE PEOPLE IN MY HOUSE! It was like having an old friend here to catch up with. The ONLY thing I was surprised by was her voice, because I’d never heard it before. She said mine was bang on to what she expected. I guess she just knew I’d have a high pitched whiney voice 😉

So…REAL relationships CAN be built online, just sayin 😉

Thanks for coming Amy, we had a great time with your family!

From my Brain to yours

I took a Webinar yesterday from Gary Vaynerchuk called “How to Fully Commit to Social Media”.

ya, I know. Brenda, could you BE more committed (addicted) to social media? But I knew he had a good rep and I wanted to hear him speak and his thoughts on marketing. His talk was on how old school thinking can leave you in the dust.

Here’s some point form things I took away from it. My thoughts are in italics.

  • What to automate on social media? ZERO. People think I’m crazy when I tell them this. IF you’re automating, you’re not present.
  • Engagement changes the relationship. Actually talking to people, using their names, giving a shit. Important stuff.
  • Being romantic in business is the easiest way to go out of it: don’t hold on to how things were! Saying “we’re doing fine without social media” is resisting change. Change is GOOD people! Embrace it 🙂
  • Social Media sites have the cleanest data that exists. Nielsen has low sample sizes and doesn’t represent the actual #’s
  • The way we need to reach people is not a 30 sec commercial. Must be more creative, less salesy – you have to actually care now. People need to connect, need an emotional attachment.
  • Your message is getting spammy, unless you show that you care. If all you do is promote your services and never engage, you are spam my friend.
  • Social media is connecting us like we are in a small town. This makes me SO FREAKIN HAPPY!
  • World is changing quickly – Need to get dramatically more creative by actually giving a crap.
  • Social Media isn’t a short-term platform, but a long-term investment. You won’t see results in a week, a month. Got to be in for the long haul.
  • Google+ is in trouble, but don’t bet against Google. Maybe they’ll buy Twitter. WHAAATTTT??

And my absolute favourite quote of the session?

While we are getting more Jetsons, the Flintstones are winning.

Tell me that isn’t awesome. Technology, technology, technology, if you aren’t building relationships, you may as well fly off in your bubble.

 

Gary is a New York Times and Wall Street Journal Best-Selling author who is also a self-trained wine and social media expert. Check him out here. (did you catch that? Social Media AND wine!