I remember the moment I knew I wanted do be involved in music. I was in the 4th grade, and the band from the local high school had come to perform a concert. The band started playing a rousing rendition of “The Muppet Show Theme”, and I honed right in on the saxophone players. It was the coolest thing I’d ever seen. From that moment forward, I was driven to do everything I could involved with music. I learned to read music, and I was in the recorder band (I eventually got to play alto recorder which made me by far the coolest one in the band in my eyes). Later on, I joined the choir. Music stayed with me all through high school, and of course I took up the saxophone. I even got to play “The Muppet Show Theme”, a dream come true for me. Later in high school I joined a marching band, but eventually gave up the sax once I moved out on my own, as my apartment neighbours didn’t appreciate my late night honking. As time went on, I moved away from performing music, and stepped more into the music scene. I landed my first job in TV in 1990, where I got to produce a local music show called “Soundtrack”. My job was to run around town with a camera and a reporter and interview bands; some not so famous, and some famous (Barenaked Ladies, Los Lobos, and Metallica to name a few. It was loads of fun and I got to live my passion for music through my other passion, creating TV. I consider myself very fortunate for that opportunity. After I got out of the TV biz, I got back into performing music. I sang in a choir for 4 years, and then an a capella quartet for 2 more years after that. Then, I kind of dropped music altogether. Life got busy, new things came along and while I still enjoyed listening to music, I was no longer part of the scene or performing. At the end of last year, I realized what a huge gap that had left in my life. At the beginning of this year, I decided that I was going to find ways to bring music back into my life. I wasn’t really sure how that looked at the time, but I just put it out the universe, to see what would happen. The first thing that happened was, by a strange twist of fate, I ended up joining a rock band. We’re called Rock, Stock and Barrel, and though we don’t have any gigs booked yet, I’m having an amazing time jamming and singing with them. The second thing that happened was, back in February, I got a call from my friend Rob Lane. We met for lunch, and he told me about MyMusic. As he spoke, I began to get more and more excited about the idea…a single site where people can search, discover and share music content from across the web. When Rob asked me if I (and by extension, Jester Creative) would be willing to head up the social media and content marketing activities of MyMusic, it was like all of the stars had aligned. You mean, I get to do the thing I love (social media and digital storytelling) for the thing I love most (music)? I think I may have said “YES!” to Rob before he even asked the question. Fast forward to today, and I’m pleased to announce the launch of MyMusic.com in public beta. The company is growing fast, and what you’re going to see over the next little while is the evolution of this platform into what I believe will be the leading site where people find, share and discover music content online. Jester Creative is thrilled to be part of the MyMusic team. Go check out the experience at www.mymusic.com, and subscribe to our blog, where we’ll be posting lots of great music articles, as well as exclusive interviews with some of the world’s top artists. You can also follow us on Twitter and Like our Facebook page too! There’s nothing like your first love, and I really feel like everything I have done in my musical life and work thus far has prepared me to take on this new adventure. Music is one of the most important things in my life, and I couldn’t be happier to be doing what I’m doing.
Curiosity
When I was growing up on a tiny island on the west coast of Canada, we didn’t have a lot of the things that city kids did – no movie theatres, no McDonalds, no cable TV. So we had to find other things to do – and that often involved being gently pushed out the door first thing in the morning by my Mom. We spent our days riding bikes, playing in the woods behind our house, exploring the world around us. That exploration led to a curiosity that has stayed with me my entire life. People sometimes ask me how I have learned everything I know about digital storytelling and social media. Back in 2006 when I was first introduced to this world, I entered it with that same sense of curiosity that I had traipsing around in the woods when I was 9. I firmly believe that curiosity is the key to learning anything new and learning it well. In order to be curious, you have to give up a lot of your inhibitions about technology, communication and putting yourself out there. That’s hard for a lot of people. Here are a couple of tips that might help. Stop being afraid. Stop being afraid you’re going to break things. Stop being afraid of “doing it wrong” (and stop listening to the self-righteous “gurus” who pontificate on Twitter about how everyone else is doing it wrong but them). Stop being afraid of what other people will think. Fear is the thing that freezes most people in their tracks when it comes to communicating online. Many people I know who are just delving into the social media world consider themselves “lurkers”. Sure, you can learn a lot by listening to the conversation, but that will only take you so far. Where it gets really interesting is when you start contributing. Maybe you @reply to someone on Twitter. Maybe you ask a question on Facebook. Perhaps you write a post on your blog. There is nothing to be afraid of. If I’ve learned anything, it’s that the online community are very welcoming, and accepting. Join in the conversation, you’ll see. And if you’re shy to meet people, let me know. I’m always happy to introduce people. Oh, and by the way, you’re not going to break the Internet, I promise. So point, click, and explore. It won’t hurt one bit. Try things. Being curious is about trying new things. It’s like lifting the lid on a box to see what’s inside. Sometimes you’re surprised. Sometimes you’re shocked. But if you’re curious, you’ll always learn something new. Don’t be afraid to click (on links you trust, not spammy messages!), read, sign up for things, and try them out. I try just about every tool I find, at least once. Some I like and keep using, and for some I end up deleting my account. By trying things, I learn what works for me and what doesn’t. I learn why it might be useful (or why it’s not). I read reviews, and I ask peoples’ opinions of things. All of the information that I gather by being curious about things goes into forming the thoughts and ideas and opinions and expertise I have. And perhaps most importantly, I tell others about what I’m learning…through this blog, our podcast, and by giving courses and public speaking. The act of explaining things to other people helps me to understand things better. Curiosity is, I think, one of the single most important characteristics you have to have if you’re going to truly master something. So get out there, start asking questions, start clicking, and trying and exploring and experimenting. You’ll soon find your entire experience in this crazy online world will reach a whole new level.
Sometimes It’s What You Don’t Know
Remember how I occasionally will get on your case a bit about what it takes to overcome your fears and just get out there and start telling your stories? Well, I’ve been away from this blog for a bit, working on publishing some other things, so I haven’t been bugging you about it. But I’m back, so consider yourself warned. As some of you who follow me on Twitter or Facebook may be aware, my husband Greg and our friend Tom are making a horror/thriller web series called “Scream All You Want“. Right now we are in the middle of shooting, and it’s consuming many of the weekends and evenings of our cast and crew right now. Things are going well, and while it’s tremendously exhausting, it’s been a lot of fun too. As we’ve been going through the production process, I’ve been making some observations about the process of creating something and putting it out there online for the world to see (what I like to call ‘publishing‘). Here are a few things I’ve discovered. You don’t know what you don’t know. While both Tom and Greg do have considerable script writing and video production experience between them, neither of them has ever made a web series before. For better or worse, they dove head first into the project without really having a sense of what it would actually take to accomplish. First they had an idea. Over time, that idea evolved into a script. Then suddenly we were auditioning actors. Then before we knew it, we were shooting. Each step in the process, nobody was really sure how things were going to pan out. But since we didn’t know, we had nothing to lose. Some people might call that naiveté, some might call it blind faith. Some might even say we are crazy. We’re probably pieces of all of those things. But when you don’t know what you don’t know, it’s actually a bit of a buffer. Because you don’t have to make assumptions about what might or might not happen. You just basically point the ship in the general direction of the shore, and go from there. You don’t have to do it alone. Back about a year ago when Tom and Greg came up with this idea, it was just the two of them, sitting around at a pub, having a pint and thinking about the idea. But as time went on and they moved forward, they did something really smart – they started to bring other people in on it. By association and sheer proximity, Tom’s wife Tracey, as well as myself, were happy to be brought into the mix early on. But it was when we put the call out for auditions that we realized that this process of creating something no longer rested squarely on the shoulders of the guys with the idea. Our casting call generated 55 inquiries, of which about 40 actors came out to audition (of which 8 now make up our main cast). We have a crew of anywhere from 12 to 16 people depending on the shooting day. We have had local businesses, friends and family members allow us to use their restaurants and pubs and antique shops and homes as our locations for shooting. And every single one of these people is a volunteer. Guess what? You don’t have to create alone if you don’t want to. You just have to ask, and you will find in front of you an amazing support network. Find the people who are willing to help. Say an enthusiastic “YES!” when they ask what they can do to support you. Welcome their ideas and creativity, and treat them well, and what you create will be that much better. So what are you going to do now? There’s something to be said for stepping into the unknown, for jumping out on that ledge and just creating something new, then showing it off to the world. Yes, it’s still scary – really scary. It’s really, really hard work, and it’s exhausting. It will make you laugh your head off, and you’ll probably want to cry your head off sometimes too. But you know what? I’ve learned that if it doesn’t make you scared and exhausted and exhilarated and want to cry and laugh at the same time, it’s not really worth doing. So what are you waiting for? Go create something of your own. Share it with the world. Because it’s worth it.
Practicing Safe Social Media
A few weeks ago I was privileged to be invited to Woodroffe High School to talk to the students there about using social media responsibly. I spend a good deal of time talking to people of all ages about social media, and for me, the opportunity to spend a few hours with high school students was at once exciting and terrifying. It’s been a long, long time since I’ve been in a high school auditorium, particularly standing at the front of it. As the principal introduced me and I took the stage, I flashed back to my days playing alto sax in Jazz Band – only this time my solo was of a slightly different nature. As grownups, we are often quite fearful of letting younger people use social media. Heck, we’re often fearful of it ourselves! We are still trying to figure out why that person is “following” us on Twitter while the average teenager Facebooks circles around us. Our fear often leads us to spend more time telling young people what not to do, and blocking their access to things, rather than teaching them how to communicate safely online. We talked about the ideal privacy settings for Facebook, and what kinds of things are good to share (like fun things happening in your life, links to cool stuff, photos of your pets) and what aren’t so great (airing grievances, talking bad about others, your questionable behaviour at last weekend’s party). We even touched on cyber bullying (what to do if you’re being bullied or witness someone else being bullied). But much as I wanted to make the students aware of the potential risks of sharing anything and everything on Facebook though, I also wanted to give them some ideas. So we talked about how much fun it is to share cool stuff online. We also discussed ways that they can use the web as a creative outlet, to show the world their writing, photos, music, or videos. And we also looked at how social media can be used for studying, research, and to scope out colleges and universities. I had a great time, and based on some of the students who came up to me afterwards, the message got through to at least some of them! I even got this little write up in the Ottawa West EMC paper. But I really want to hear from you. Do you know any remarkable teens who are making the most of social media? I’d love to hear their stories in the comments. Photo by gumdropgas
The Secret to Understanding Social Media
If you’ve been following this blog for any length of time, you’ll be aware of the tremendous impact social media has had on my life and career in the past 6 years or so. It’s brought about incredible opportunities for my business, allowed me to meet and become close friends with many wonderful people, and it’s changed the course of my teaching career. So many people are clamoring to figure this space out right now. What does it really mean, this fundamental shift in the way we communicate? Why should we care? How do we do it? Where do we start? These are all questions I hear on an almost daily basis. It’s why I am doing what I can to help teach people, point them in the right direction. And I do feel like I’m helping. I’m seeing former students and current clients have success with using social media and it is extremely satisfying to know that, in some small way, I’ve been able to help. But a lot of people are still scared. They are hesitating because, although they have read all the books, taken some courses, and subscribed to the blogs of smart people, they still don’t feel ready to start. They are afraid of messing up, going down the wrong path, of not getting the results they want. So they hold out, waiting until the right moment, when they have enough information and enough knowledge and enough comfort. The problem is, that moment will never come. Why? Because social media, the online world in general, is always changing. One minute, Facebook looks a certain way, then they change it all. Then Pinterest comes along. Then some other tool goes away (or goes out of fashion). More people start using mobile devices. Design trends change. The online world is ever changing, ever evolving. And the truth is, you’re never going to catch up. You’ll never know it all. None of us will. So how can you really even start to figure it out? There’s one secret. You have to be willing to put in the time. And the reality is, it takes a LOT of time. People ask me often how I learned all this stuff. I did it over hours, days, weeks, months, of sitting at the computer, day in and day out, reading and learning and being curious and then actually trying things. I broke stuff. I put it back together. I tried something. I tried something else when it didn’t work. I found efficiencies as I went, and implemented them. And yes, while I was doing it I had a full time job, family commitments, side projects and friends. I simply had to find the time, because I knew it was important. So I sacrificed a bit of sleep, and some favourite TV shows, and I did it. There’s this weird stigma about spending time with social media. Some people look down their noses at me when they see I have tweeted over 60,000 times. I used to defend this, say things like “oh, well, most of those are @replies!”. Now I don’t make excuses for it anymore. I’m proud of my 60,000 tweets. Yes, it took me a long time and many hours. But as a result, I deeply “get” Twitter. I have invested a significant amount of time and I now understand so much more about interaction, human behaviour, group dynamics and how to use the tool to effectively promote and tell great stories. So, what’s the secret to getting a handle on all this stuff? You must be willing to put in the time. And you need to stop thinking that you have no time. I started this post at 6:30am this morning. I could have slept in, but I know that practicing this craft of blogging is important. Today I will spend less time with my nose in my email inbox, less time doing busy work and more time exploring how people are conversing. I’ll be looking closely at the audiences I need to connect with right now. I’ll be learning everything I can, and it will probably take hours and hours. But then, and only then, will I begin to understand this crazy online world for a moment. Then tomorrow, it will change. And I will need to do it over again. You have the secret. Now go spend the time. Photo by Val.pearl
Zen and the Art of Getting Over Yourself
Yesterday I did something totally out of my comfort zone. I went to a recording studio and laid down a few tracks. The studio, in case you’re curious, is in my friend Dennis’ basement. He’s got quite the set up. Dennis asked me to come by after he heard this recording that I did using my iPad and Soundcloud. That was my first step out of my comfort zone a few weeks ago. I have been learning how to sing and play guitar at the same time for about 25 years (yeah, I know), and I figured that I’d gotten this song to the point that I’d just record it. I had no intention of publishing it. That would be insane. What would people think? What if I suck? What if people think that I am showing off? What if I suck and people say I don’t just to be nice? All of those ridiculous things went through my head. Then I just hit Publish. You know what? The world didn’t end. I didn’t suck. A few friends thought it actually sounded pretty good. I started to feel comfortable with the idea of publishing songs I’d recorded. And then Dennis emailed me and said “come over, and we’ll record the song in my studio.” And then I was out of my comfort zone all over again. For those of you who have never recorded in a studio before, it’s a fairly unnerving experience. First, I had to lay down the guitar track. Yep, just me, playing guitar, singing along in my head, trying to make sure I got the chords right (did I play that G for 4 bars or 6 bars?). I am not a confident guitar player so that took a lot of concentration. Then it was time to record the vocals. We set up and the second I heard my voice coming back at me in the headphones I started to feel a bit nauseous. What was I doing here? Am I nuts? Whose voice is that? Is that the right note? Forget it. I can’t do this. But I took a breath. And I sang. What’s With the Hangups? I believe that the primary reason people don’t do things is because they are too worried about what other people will think. So that novel never gets written. That course never gets developed. That song never gets composed. That blog never gets started. That startup company never starts up. Think of all the creative ventures that have gone by the wayside because people were too afraid to try. Think of the dreams that haven’t come true because people were so afraid to look silly. You know who taught me not to be afraid to just sing? Bob LeDrew. I didn’t even know Bob when I saw this article back in 2008. In fact, that article is how Bob and I met. Now we’re great friends, and he’s a source of inspiration to me in so many ways. He taught me that it’s okay to get up on a stage (or into a recording studio) and not be perfect. It’s okay to stumble a bit at first, as long as you learn from it and keep going. He taught me that it’s okay to believe in yourself. And that it’s essential to get over yourself. Comfort Zone, Shmomfort Zone I’m convinced we use that comfort zone thing as an excuse. (Oh no, I can’t do that. I’m not comfortable. It makes me nervous. I’m too shy.) Pardon my French, but screw that. We really do need to get over ourselves. As my good friend and business partner says, we need to “outshout the voices” in our heads that tell us we can’t do stuff. We need to fight through the nervousness and the nausea, and just start doing what we want to do, in spite of it. Because you know what? I sang my guts out yesterday. I fought through the knot in my stomach and I did it. And it sounded good. And I had fun. As for the results of my efforts, you’ll have to wait while Dennis works his magic on the mixing board. But rest assured I’ll be showing the world when it’s done. Because I’m so over myself. And I know now that living a creative life requires that. So you? What are you going to do to get over yourself and just do that thing you’ve always wanted to do? [photo: Greg McMullen]
Are We Information Junkies?
Last night while sitting at a pub with some friends, the topic of information came up. My friend Tom, in particular, had a few interesting things to say about it. I asked him if he thought that constantly being tapped into the stream of information that the online world affords us was bad thing. Is our constant connection to blog posts, news articles, video, podcasts, Twitter, and Facebook more detrimental than positive? Are we a culture of information junkies? His response, essentially was “no”. He basically said that in fact (and I’m paraphrasing) we have always been able to tap into information whenever we wanted to. Back in the old days, Tom said he used to scour through encyclopedias, magazines, and books all day long. He was always consuming information and learning new things. I thought back to my younger days and realized I did much the same. You probably did too. The difference is, said Tom, these days information is with us wherever we go. We carry the encyclopedia, and magazines, and book in our pockets. Information is always there, on any topic. It’s an amazing thing, said Tom, and it’s a good thing. He’s right. Earlier this week I thought about taking some time off from the digital world. I did put my devices away for a period of time, got outside, did some offline things (something I often do anyway). But I realized something rather quickly. I enjoy the stream of information. I love reading, and learning new things…online, I learn something new every single day. I like feeling connected to other people. I don’t get to see my friends like Diane, Liz and Jon in person very often because we live in different countries, but sharing a friendly hello via tweet or text, or watching them talk on a video they’ve made fills me with joy and love. Other friends like Glenda and Becky, I’ve never even met in person before, but they are as much a part of my days as if they were my next door neighbours. I want to check in with them. I love to say hello, and find out how their day is going. This doesn’t make me an information junkie. This makes me human. I also love to share. I feel like I’m on this journey of learning and finding new information together, with everyone I come in contact with, online and offline. It’s one of the reasons I became a teacher. I love to share the things I’m learning. I love it when people share things they’ve learned with me too. It enriches every part of my life, and I don’t want to “take a break” from that. I don’t need to. I flipped on the TV yesterday afternoon, just out of curiosity. I don’t watch a ton of TV, especially not in the daytime. As I flipped the channels, I discovered that about 98% of what I was seeing was the equivalent of eating the worst kind of junk food – mindless, ridiculous “reality” programs highlighting only the worst in people. When did gawking at people behaving badly become a form of entertainment? Yet these programs continue to stay on the air. After about 10 minutes, I shook my head in disgust, shut off the TV, and picked up my iPad again. I happily spent the next hour finding and reading and sharing and connecting and learning. So you know what? You can go ahead and call me an information junkie. It’s a badge I’ll wear proudly. I would much rather fill my head with healthy knowledge and love than junk food. I’d much rather connect and share with real people than stare at some mindless, static box that isn’t the real world at all. And don’t worry. I still like to step outside and smell the roses and hug people in person too. The beauty is, I get to do both, and most importantly, I get to choose.
The Myth of Distraction in the Classroom
Back when I was in school, I remember the teacher telling us to take out a note book and a pen, and face forward and pay attention. There we were, twitchy teenagers, forced to have laser-like focus on every word the teacher said (or read). There was time for questions at the end. Inevitably, my mind would wander. I’d be thinking about everything but what the teacher was droning on about. I’d doodle instead of paying attention. I’d pass secret notes to my friends. I’d glance frequently at the clock, impatiently waiting for the bell to ring. When it did…freedom! This was my experience at school about 90% of the time. Flash forward to 2012, and now, most students no longer take notes on paper…they use tablets, laptops and even smart phones. Except we still, for the most part, don’t allow these devices in class. Yesterday, I was pleased to be sharing the bill with my pal Dave Hale, one of the brightest young guys I know. We were speaking to the 2012 graduating class in the Business Marketing program at Algonquin College about social media strategy. When Dave took the stage after my talk, the first thing he asked the students was why they didn’t have their devices out on the desk. “You should be taking notes on your laptops”, he said, “You could be tweeting this session to your friends! You can look up some of the sites I’m going to talk about!” I could feel the teachers in the room shifting in their seats uncomfortably. Did he just tell them to use their phones? Go on their laptops? But…we spend so much time telling students NOT to use these devices in class! They are too distracting. If they are on their iPad they won’t be paying attention to my lecture! And I HAVE to cover this material with them! It’s on the final exam! Distraction-free learning is a myth. Often people of my generation and older will make the assumption that young people these days are too distracted. They are constantly texting, emailing, and surfing Facebook while watching TV and talking on the phone and playing video games, all at the same time. They have an inability to focus on a single task and as a result, they are failing to learn. Grades are suffering and attendance is at an all time low, and many teachers are blaming text messages and Facebook. But students’ failure to learn isn’t about distraction at all. Unlike us, their brains are wired for the connected world. Whereas old folks like us have had to learn how to cope with new technology, these young people have been exposed to it their whole Iives. They are conditioned for connection. Distraction isn’t the problem. The problem is that kids these days are wired differently, and we are still trying to teach them using old methods. Three hour lectures are no longer effective (I’d argue they never were that effective). You can’t force someone to sit perfectly still and listen while you PowerPoint them half to death. Nobody is learning with that method. We can’t just “cover material” anymore. Shoving bullet points and monotone monologues and book chapters at students results in a classroom of disengaged, bored, and ultimately failing and non-attending students. Asking them to regurgitate material they have supposedly “learned” through this method only teaches them how to regurgitate information. Give them an experience, not a lecture. We have to take a good hard look at how students these days are learning. In order to be successful, we must stop teaching retention of facts, and start focusing on mastery. This means embracing the way students’ brains are now conditioned, and accepting that their brains are different from ours. It means using that very technology you think they are so distracted by to show them ways to use it to learn, and not just learn, but do and try and experiment and explore with it. It means no longer building lesson plans around “covering material”, and instead developing creative ways to give students a positive, supportive environment in which to learn. Distraction isn’t the enemy of the classroom. Irrelevance is.
Content Aggregation: Making Information Useful Again
Every day, I am reminded of what an amazing thing the Web is. We have access to the whole world in the palm of our hands, and connect to people on the other side of the planet in an instant. How fortunate we are to be alive at this transformational time in our history. Information makes the world go ’round these days. That fact alone is at once both awe-inspring and completely overwhelming. Our access to information is changing the way we perceive the world, and it’s happening at lightning speed. The volume and pace of information flow can be difficult to manage on a good day, and many people are struggling. I find it goes one of two ways – there are some who embrace the flow, diving into the stream and swimming along with the current, and there are others that stick to the shoreline – watching the flood travel by, never quite being brave enough to test the waters, for fear of being swept away. I suspect that most people fall into the latter category. Finding the patterns. The human brain is designed to decipher patterns. Remember the Fisher Price Puzzle Ball? It was one of my favourite toys when I was little. You pulled it apart and all of the little yellow pieces inside fell out. Then it was your job to figure out which piece fit into which hole, to get them back inside the ball. It is a great toy because it builds up a child’s skills at deciphering patterns – something we are inherently designed to do. What does that mean to how we decipher online content? Simple. The Web is a sea of mostly unorganized information. Sure, it’s linked together, but when you break it all down, it’s just billions of pages of information. Imagine if all of that information was in a big giant spreadsheet. Useful for computers, maybe, but not very useful for our human brains. We humans are naturally inclined to try and find the patterns in chaos. So for us to truly understand things, we need to set things in some sort of order. There are a lot of people out there working on this problem. They are trying to take the sea of online information and aggregate it into some kind of order, to make it easier for people to understand and use. It’s not about the tools – until it is. The introduction of the tablet computer has been one of the most transformational shifts in consumption of information, not just because of their portability, but because of apps. There are dozens of content aggregating applications available now for the average tablet – tools like Zite and Flipboard do it best in my opinion, but there are plenty of others too. These tools allow you to hone the flood of information to just the things you are interested in, and Zite even learns as you go; when you “like” an article or select an interest or author, a recommendation engine chugs away in the background to further refine the content you see. The result is a very personalized experience. Pinterest is also making leaps and bounds in this area. The reason it’s so popular is partly shiny object syndrome, but mostly about content aggregation. People are curating content around specific interests, and making that content available for others to see and share. It’s intensely personal. As much as having access to the Web means you can truly find ANYTHING you want, humans still have a strong desire to have a personalized experience online. As time goes on, it’s becoming less about opening the fire hose of information, and instead, about providing people with a series of garden-hose sized streams that they can pick and choose from. I believe that personalization and aggregation of content is going to be the biggest game changer of our connected world, because it cuts right to the core of what makes us human. It helps us to decipher the patterns in an otherwise chaotic online universe. As time goes on, you’re going to start to see more and more tools and services that help us to make order of the chaos. The Web that floods information to everyone is going to be customized to the Web YOU want to experience. It’s part of the way there now, but I believe it’s on the verge of exploding. And I think that is a really, really good thing. What say you? [photo by racineur]
5 Ways Twitter Has Changed My Life
Today is my 5th Twitter birthday. Yes, back on March 7th, 2007, I joined Twitter. It was a life changing moment for me. I’m not trying to be dramatic, it’s absolutely the truth. Probably the question I’m asked the most by my clients and my students is, “What’s the big deal about Twitter?”. Well, in celebration of my 5th anniversary, I am going to share with you 5 reasons why, of all the social media tools out there, it’s Twitter that has had the most impact for me. Here is how Twitter has changed my life. 1) I’ve met Jon Swanson, Jason Falls, Tom Leroux, Tracey Vibert, Bob LeDrew, C.C. Chapman, Amber Naslund and many, many more people on Twitter who I now consider great friends and important people in my life. I’ve had the distinct pleasure of meeting them all in person too. So, when anyone says you can’t create real relationships on Twitter, I just hug my friends and smile. 2) Many of the clients we have at Jester Creative today are people I have either met directly on Twitter, or people who have been referred to us via people I know from Twitter. Why? Because I’m here, spending time, sharing what I know and what I care about, and building a reputation as someone who is reliable, fair, and does good work. I’ve put in the time. 3) I started podcasting because of Twitter. My husband saw a posting on Twitter from this guy Stefan Halley who happened to be looking for a cohost for his weekly social media marketing podcast. We connected and the rest is history. Oh, by the way, Stefan lives in Sweden and we’ve never met in person. If not for Twitter, it’s highly unlikely we’d have ever had a chance to connect and collaborate on this project, which is one of the most rewarding things I do. 4) Twitter is where I learned pretty well everything I know about social media. Back in 2007, there were no workshops, courses, or certificate programs for social media. We were all in it together, figuring things out and experimenting and exploring. Sure, I had some good mentors in guys like Mitch Joel and Chris Brogan (as we all did). But I learned of their latest blogs and podcasts through Twitter. I asked them silly questions, and checked out what seemed like a million links and tools and techniques. Because of the education I got at Twitter U, I now consult on social media, I’m a professional public speaker on the topic, and I’ve developed hours of training and coordinate an entire college program focused on social media and digital marketing. 5) I’ve found a community in my home town on Twitter. The first thing I did when I joined was I did a search for people in Ottawa. I figured it was as good a place to find people to follow as any. Boy was I right. Ottawa has a thriving Twitter community, and every day I’m thankful to be part of it. People like Dennis Van Staalduinen, Don Chow, Mark Blevis, Andrew Snowdon, and Kelly Rusk keep this community alive and ticking, by sharing snippets of their lives with us every day, organizing events and doing so much good for our town. Want to build community on Twitter? Start by looking out your own back door. It really has been a wild ride this past 5 years. I owe so much to the people who have been there to teach me and support me, and for those who believed in me enough to take a chance. Thank you and as I eat my celebratory cupcake today, I will be toasting you all! [photo by Theresa Thompson]