Blogger's Carnival

I can hardly believe that the quarter is coming to a close, can you?! I took some time today to read through a few individual's blogs and might I say, wow! What awesome writers and thinkers we have here!

A few posts that stood out to me: 

Mandi's blog post about best practices was great! I love the spot where she discusses how blogs are intended to show off your personality. While the idea might not have been hers originally, I believe that is super important to remember and a great part of becoming a writer, blogger, and genuinely real person online. When people who read your posts feel like they can know a little more about you because you write with personality, then you feel like maybe you've done something truly great. 

Kate did a great job explaining why it is important for organizations to utilize mobile marketing. I think sometimes we forget that is a real area where we have opportunities to grow our businesses and our clientele. The picture she used was also a great resource for people to see and catch their attention.

Matt had an awesome Carnival Blog post. Using a creative picture to help capture the audience and gain interest with the setup of his blog. But his post about being social and why he didn't utilize social media and now he can't figure out why he didn't is awesome. I know I go through days where I want nothing to do with social media and always end up coming back and loving it!

Stacy had a wonderful post explaining how to organize my work and personal life. As someone who is seemingly always running around with a million things to do, I love how she tied all the elements into a thoughtful post explaining how awesome Evernote and some other products like it are. 

Overall, there are so many opportunities to learn from others. The internet only makes that easier. With opportunities to reach out and find new blogs, pins on pinterest, and all kinds of info all over the web, social media is making learning very easy. 

Thanks to all of the other blogs! They were fun to read and gather a wonderful picture of how awesome our social media world really is!

The Way of the Future

Sometimes I get caught up in social media. Whether I’m checking out my Facebook, re-tweeting a funny political comment, instagramming my most recent workout, or checking in to see who has viewed my profile on LinkedIn, I’m always reaching for my phone to check the next thing. I know that social media is here and here to stay, but sometimes I think we forget about the best part of live interaction.

I was at dinner last night with a friend, there were a lot of people waiting and I happened to notice a young couple standing behind our table. They weren’t married, but it was so awkward to watch them stand there. Both of them had cell phones out and were ‘checked out’ of their relationship. I kept looking at them waiting for one of them to put the phone down and have a conversation. It seemed like the girl was ready to have a conversation at several points and the guy was totally wrapped up in his phone.

It made me sad to think that is the world we live in. I certainly don’t want to give up social media, but I also feel it is important to recognize the balance that there are people in our world who deserve attention.

My mom always used to say to me, “Michelle, if the President was here or if so-and-so were here, you wouldn’t even pick up your phone. I’m a real person with you here, talk to ME!” Of course, I’m sure this point rings true for most of us. We often forget that the real people in front of us deserve the attention we aren’t always so readily willing to give. Despite the ease of communication using social media, I believe it is important to remember the most rich form of communication is face to face interaction.

Enjoy social media, but not at the expense of a real person! Happy blogging!

NCAA Webinar

My office hosts a special NCAA Bracket Challenge every year as a way for the Financial Advisors and clients (and, really, anyone) to have a little fun and get away from the 'business' in their relationships. This challenge offers many prizes including the chance to win tickets to the Final Four Challenge in Indianapolis next year!

I recently attended a Webinar that helped me learn how to promote, market, and follow-up with individuals interested in participating in our NCAA Bracket Challenge. I know that many of you may have remembered me mentioning this in my presentation last week.

Some of the items they suggested using were Hearsay Social, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Each advisor is assigned their own website where people can sign up to play the FREE Bracket Challenge. In doing so, it not only promotes the relationship between Northwestern Mutual and NCAA, but allows everyone to see the brand, Northwestern Mutual.

The webinar offered valuable language, ideas for events (including cyber events), and opportunities to utilize the tools provided by Northwestern within the given social media at the top (in order to keep things compliant).

Overall, I felt like I recognized a lot of the format of the presentation in terms of feeling like I know how they were doing it because I had done it several times by then. It was fun to 'attend' because I could relate to what they were saying.

How Private is Your Profile?

A little food for thought: Privacy is a huge issue when using social media. Often times privacy settings can change or more information than you realize is ‘out there’ so to speak. This video shows how much is out there and brings awareness to the fact that we really do live our lives so that anyone and everyone know who we are.

If you haven’t considered before what impact or who can see your information, consider now how you or your organization are being seen. This is an important topic as you look into the future, especially with an organization. Be sure to have releases if you’re using people’s pictures or information on a website. As you can see, a lot of information can be gathered incredibly easily.

Remember, the benefit of social media is everyone can be connected very easily. The downside is that not everyone wants to be so well known. People know where you are and what you’re up to all the time.

Reference:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5P_0s1TYpJU