Wednesday, June 26, 2013



I once read about a lady psychologist who was assigned to counsel "Boat people."
 
What can I possibly offer? she thought.  I have never been a refugee. I have never escaped a country. I have never endured the hardships these people have endured.
 
She found, though, in talking with them that they had the same concerns her other clients had. "I met him on the boat, but he hasn't called. Do you think he will?

"I don't believe that people are looking for the meaning of life as much as they are looking for the experience of being alive."--Joseph Campbell

 On June 26 13  Blog Writer Jeff Goins wrote:

Yesterday, I spoke with a group of authors, and one of them asked me, “What should I be blogging about?”


I replied with a question: “If we were to get together for coffee, what would we talk about?”


She then proceeded to tell me her life’s story — a harrowing journey through fear and shame to self-actualization. It was beautiful.


As we considered her experiences, we concluded that what made her story interesting wasn’t any particular incident. Rather, it was the universality of emotions: worry, shame, guilt, fear, passion.


She wasn’t describing the challenges of becoming an author. She was describing what it was like to be human.
 





 
 
 


Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Twitter


You know about twitter don’t you? I have recently joined up and have found it to be a plethora of good stuff—so so stuff too.

Oh heck, because I’m a poor speller and wanted to know how to spell a word, I looked it up on my reference guide and was hit with a photo so abhorrent it knocked the good thoughts right out of my head.

People who focus on gore: Cut it out!


Okay, back to life in the positive lane.

Shake it out.

I was talking about twitter.

For you who are new to tweeting, here is a definition:

A tweet is a micro-blogging service that enables users to send and read text-based posts up to 140 characters. These mini-posts are known as “tweets.”


Yesterday, while sitting here about to format my own book for Kindle, lo and behold I was followed on twitter by somebody who is expert at formatting. Yay! Thank you  www.WriteIntoPrint.com  Let’s talk.
 
Another find on twitter was Tom Ewer http://www.leavingworkbehind.com
 
How important is twitter to bloggers? Ewer asks.

"Very," he says.

Your Twitter presence is only as useful as your tweets.

If you have an established a brand elsewhere but tweet rubbish, you might attract users simply because of your brand, but that’s all.
Consider every tweet you publish as a brick in the building of your brand.
Promote yourself, yes, but engage with others. Do not think of it simply as a platform to promote your own content.

Ask questions.
As I pointed out at the beginning of this post, Twitter is extremely useful for using the talents of others.

No one is obliged to answer your questions. If they do it is because they want to do it.
Answer them too.

Persist.
That is the key to success with twitter and with most endeavors.

Focus on quality
 “ Establishing valuable relationships with a select few people is far better than having one-off exchanges with everyone and their mother.”--Ewen

 
I love that people thank people for following them, but to say so on their tweets seems a waste of space, and boring for the rest of us to read. I believe the best way to thank someone is to re-tweet them.

So, my advice would be to have tweets with substance, something people want to re-tweet.

Another thing, and tell me if I’m wrong here, but I just do not understand automatic or a paid service to get followers--although I know it is a numbers game. I prefer to be selective. I do, however, like to honor the person who follows me by following back.
 
 

Thank you.
If you have any tips and tricks for getting things done on Twitter I would love to read them.

P.S.
Think of it this way if you produce quality content consistently and over an extended period