Tag Archives: Social Media

Coaching

Holiday Shopping in the Age of Outrage

Are you being naughty or nice?

At some point in our recent history it became acceptable to take whatever possible perceived slight and propel it to a public tirade against all things we don’t agree with.  Whether it’s red coffee cups or Black Thursday shopping the holidays are a perfect target for this false fury on the internet.  Any slight, real or perceived, is now the catalyst for a tweet storm or Yelp review with all the civility of an Archie Bunker diatribe. Why do we allow ourselves to fall into this mode of thinking and what can we do about it?

Salespeople are not out to ruin your holiday.

In the vast majority of cases, salespeople are trying to do their best to help you while making it through the crush of harried, rude customers who live by the mantra, “The Customer is Always Right.” (Personally I think whomever came up with that slogan never actually worked with customers, but that’s just me.) Try imagining dealing with a hundred demanding, complaining, immature kindergartners in an 8-hour day and you start to get the idea what it can be like on the sales floor. Yes, I know there are sales people out there who want nothing to do with their jobs or the customers they are there to assist.  Those are the rare ones and should not be used as an excuse to mistreat or abuse anyone working with the public.

Would your grandmother approve of your behavior?

If you stand back and watch the way some people act during holiday shopping the only thing you can imagine is their grandparents would have been appalled. Failures in common courtesy, decorum, and behavior become passable because they might miss out on the last hoverboard on clearance. How difficult is it to take advantage of the holidays to act the way we should be acting all year long, and recognizing people for showing the common decency and behavior which should be the norm?

You will still be loved even without that “thing”.

For some reason we have gotten into the mindset of, if we fail to deliver on a holiday wish, we will no longer be loved by the recipient. Honestly if that is truly the case you were never loved in the first place. Do your best to give from your heart but don’t attach your happiness to the happiness of another.

“Your” holiday is not more important than “my” holiday.

There are multiple holidays and traditions observed during this time of year, all equally important to the people who observe them.  In none of those holidays is the mandate to diminish, criticize, attack, or downplay any other. (If you think “your” holiday does subscribe to that thinking, you need to do some reading and get educated.) Show respect for the observances of everyone.  You don’t have to prove yours is the best by diminishing another. Also, any time “your” holiday is not given top billing and the genuflection you feel it deserves, it is not an attack on the holiday or the religion.  That’s a self-important, arrogant view that has no place this time (or any time) of year.

Remember the “why”.

Remember why you celebrate your holidays.  Think about how you would explain their importance to a child.  Follow those words carefully even in crowds of bustling shoppers or at 4 a.m. in line on Black Friday. Make the greatest gifts you give this year be to the people you don’t know and may not ever see again. Carry the gifts you receive forward and know that the warmth and caring of the holidays doesn’t come with a receipt, a commercial, or a sales flyer.  It’s time to let your heart grow three sizes.

Some readers will recognize this post from the last two years but based on the current climate and state of our interactions with others I thought it would be worth a reminder. If we allow interactions with others to negatively impact our emotional well being our productivity suffers along with ourselves. Avoid adding more stress to an already stressful time of year by staying on task, being patient, and being productive.

Here are some related articles about productive shopping you may find of interest:

Creating a low effort shopping list with Trello

How Android Wear and Google Keep Saved My Day

What do you think about this topic?  Why not share? Come over to the community and let us hear your ideas. Comment here.

Coaching, Techniques

The most productive option on Facebook

Productivity and Facebook don’t go hand in hand and for good reason.  Facebook can be a rabbit hole of immeasurable depth drawing you further and further away from accomplishing things. How do you deal with this? What’s the secret to staying on track and concentrating on things that will help you be productive?

Unfollow

Now many people are hesitant to use the unfollow option in their news feeds because of FOMO (fear of missing out). I’m going to challenge that notion right now. Unfollow is NOT the same as unfriend. Unfollow is basically saying you don’t want to talk about that topic now. Doesn’t mean you’ll never want to do it in the future, you just don’t want to do it as much.

Think about it this way.  We all have friends or relatives we like to be around and interact with, but we also know there are certain topics to not bring up with them for fear of them going off on a tirade or devolving into the verbal battles of last Thanksgiving.  In person how do you deal with this?  You walk away.  Unfollow is the same principle.  It’s not a matter of telling someone to shut up but rather just turning your back on the conversation for your own mental well-being.  The other person can rant, rave, scream, yell, and advocate for the flat-earth theory of alien visitations all they’d like…just not to you.

Being productive on Facebook is less about ticking checkboxes and more about using your most valuable resource (time) to get what you want from the experience. Allowing others to hijack that resource for their own wants and needs devalues your time and empowers them. It’s your time, use it as you want, not as someone else has decided you should.

It’s not me, it’s you

I use the unfollow option liberally. My newsfeed is just that…mine. I don’t have the interest to spend my time reading content that does not positively contribute to my daily life, my family, or my overall well-being (including entertainment). I recommend you do the same. Control your information, manage your time, and be productive (and judicious) about the world as it comes to you.

Uncategorized

Holiday Shopping in the Age of Outrage

Holiday Shopping Behavior
Are you being naughty or nice?

At some point in our recent history it became acceptable to take whatever possible perceived slight and propel it to a public tirade against all things we don’t agree with.  Whether it’s red coffee cups or Black Thursday shopping the holidays are a perfect target for this false fury on the internet.  Any slight, real or perceived, is now the catalyst for a tweet storm or Yelp review with all the civility of an Archie Bunker diatribe. Why do we allow ourselves to fall into this mode of thinking and what can we do about it?

Salespeople are not out to ruin your holiday.

In the vast majority of cases, salespeople are trying to do their best to help you while making it through the crush of harried, rude customers who live by the mantra, “The Customer is Always Right.” (Personally I think whomever came up with that slogan never actually worked with customers, but that’s just me.) Try imagining dealing with a hundred demanding, complaining, immature kindergarteners in an 8-hour day and you start to get the idea what it can be like on the sales floor. Yes, I know there are sales people out there who want nothing to do with their jobs or the customers they are there to assist.  Those are the rare ones and should not be used as an excuse to mistreat or abuse anyone working with the public.

Would your grandmother approve of your behavior?

If you stand back and watch the way some people act during holiday shopping the only thing you can imagine is their grandparents would have been appalled. Failures in common courtesy, decorum, and behavior become passable because they might miss out on the last hoverboard on clearance. How difficult is it to take advantage of the holidays to act the way we should be acting all year long, and recognizing people for showing the common decency and behavior which should be the norm?

You will still be loved even without that “thing”.

For some reason we have gotten into the mindset of, if we fail to deliver on a holiday wish, we will no longer be loved by the recipient. Honestly if that is truly the case you were never loved in the first place. Do your best to give from your heart but don’t attach your happiness to the happiness of another.

“Your” holiday is not more important than “my” holiday.

There are multiple holidays and traditions observed during this time of year, all equally important to the people who observe them.  In none of those holidays is the mandate to diminish, criticize, attack, or downplay any other. (If you think “your” holiday does subscribe to that thinking, you need to do some reading and get educated.) Show respect for the observances of everyone.  You don’t have to prove yours is the best by diminishing another. Also, any time “your” holiday is not given top billing and the genuflection you feel it deserves, it is not an attack on the holiday or the religion.  That’s a self-important, arrogant view that has no place this time (or any time) of year.

Remember the “why”.

Remember why you celebrate your holidays.  Think about how you would explain their importance to a child.  Follow those words carefully even in crowds of bustling shoppers or at 4 a.m. in line on Black Friday. Make the greatest gifts you give this year be to the people you don’t know and may not ever see again. Carry the gifts you receive forward and know that the warmth and caring of the holidays doesn’t come with a receipt, a commercial, or a sales flyer.  It’s time to let your heart grow three sizes.

—–

Some readers will recognize this post from last year but based on the current climate and state of our interactions with others I thought it would be worth a reminder. If we allow interactions with others to negatively impact our emotional well being our productivity suffers along with ourselves. Avoid adding more stress to an already stressful time of year by staying on task, being patient, and being productive.

—–

Here are some related articles about productive shopping you may find of interest:

Creating a low effort shopping list with Trello

How Android Wear and Google Keep Saved My Day

Uncategorized

Google+ is dead…long live Google+

It would appear that Google has a longer vision for Google+ now that they have stripped out many of it’s original core functions (i.e. Photos). Looking at the changes to the community as a focus on just that…communities and collections…it will be interesting to see what the long play is for the network. So many people have derided the network for a lack of participant numbers as compared to other more popular ones. As a long standing member of Google+ I can honestly say that what the network may lack in quantity it far exceeds in quality. Personally I have no qualms about having fewer members than Facebook or Twitter if it means the conversations are deeper and more intelligent. I’m looking forward to seeing what the changes bring as part of the network and the future of the network as a whole.

Update

Nope…it’s dead.

Uncategorized

Google+ is dead…long live Google+

It would appear that Google has a longer vision for Google+ now that they have stripped out many of it’s original core functions (i.e. Photos).  Looking at the changes to the community as a focus on just that…communities and collections…it will be interesting to see what the long play is for the network.  So many people have derided the network for a lack of participant numbers as compared to other more popular ones.  As a long standing member of Google+ I can honestly say that what the network may lack in quantity it far exceeds in quality.  Personally I have no qualms about having fewer members than Facebook or Twitter if it means the conversations are deeper and more intelligent. I’m looking forward to seeing what the changes bring as part of the network and the future of the network as a whole.
Uncategorized

Walking 10 Miles in a Virtual World

When you spend as much time in the mobile online world as I do, rarely does something surprise you.  Quickly jaded against the newest fad, I tend to cast a skeptical eye especially when it comes to mobile gaming.  For a game to draw me away from my preconceived notions as to what a mobile game is and what it could aspire to be, we would have to be talking about something significant.  Then I was introduced to Ingress.

I’ll leave it to you to research exactly what Ingress and how it is played (but just remember this…Viva la Resistance!)  What I want to address is the merging between the virtual game and the real world.  In this game which is so geographically connected to the real world, you might expect those connections to be a novelty rather than a linchpin.  You would be wrong.  The combination of geographic locations combined with the requirement of geographic proximity to those locations compels, no requires, a player to leave the confines of their comfy abode and move about in the real world.  Interaction with other players face to face is unavoidable and highly desirable, with strategies and actions increasing in effectiveness when working in collaboration.

My participation in the Philadelphia Anomaly event (ask a player and they’ll explain what that is) introduced me to people I have never met before and likely would never have cross paths with.  It took me to parts of Philadelphia that I only knew from documentaries and history books even having grown up near the city.  It instilled a sense of teamwork for common goals, excitement for success, and determination in the face of defeats.  A game that challenged me physically, intellectually, and socially; all outside the confines of my comfort zone.

Ingress is a game that defines the merger between the real and the virtual gaming experience to the favor of the real.  For once, we have something that tries to put as much reality into our virtual as  virtual into our reality rather than skewing towards one or the other.  In the world of social media, any game, tool, or event that helps dispel the common wisdom that social media is isolating and instead brings people together both in virtual and real ways is something worth being a part of; it is the future but it’s time is now.

A note to all players…Resistance and Enlightened alike…when you look at the game, the relationships, and the world of interaction you are creating realize this:  the Shapers…are you.

Uncategorized

Showing Some Love through Content Sharing



foilman / Foter / Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Occasionally I will run into the question about sharing, +1’s, Favorites, and other ways in social media to take content you have found interesting and pass it along to others in your circles.  For those of you who are new to the party, or may just have a different perspective than I, let me “share” how I approach sharing on two main services:  Google+ and Twitter.

Google+

When someone I follow on Google+ posts something I like, but not necessarily enough to pass along to other people or to comment on, I give that post a +1.  It’s my way of agreeing in a quick, tip of the hat type of way.  If a post inspires me, or to paraphase C+C Music Factory, makes me say hmmmm, I’ll comment on the posting.  Think of it as a +1 with interest.  Now, if a post really engages me, to the point where I find it so interesting or like it enough to give it the stamp of approval of my name, I’ll share the post.

The whole structure breaks down to how much a post or an author interests me and how much I want to share that interest with the others who follow me.

Twitter

Twitter is similar but a little more limiting as to when I can comment on things due to the 140 character limit.  In that world, I follow the favorite – retweet – reply model.  If I like a tweet and I want the author to know I like it as well, I’ll favorite the tweet.  If I want to make a point of my followers seeing a tweet, I’ll retweet, and if I want to add my two cents, I’ll reply.  The key for me on Twitter is not so much the sharing of the original tweet as it is interaction with the tweet’s author.

Social Sharing

The advent of social media has taken our ability to share the content that affects us with a larger audience than ever before.  As long as we adhere to these kinds of standards and don’t do dastardly things such as stealing content and taking claim for work that isn’t ours then the sharing nature of social media benefits us all; personally and professionally.

P.S. – For that mom out there who was confused about my sharing her daughter’s blog post…it was done so more could enjoy her post.  Every writer needs a vocal, sharing audience.  🙂