The perfect moment when you know

How do we recognize the right opportunities in life, or find ourselves at the right place at the right time? How do we meet the right people to do business with? How do we know who is our perfect partner, the one and only, forever and ever?

Well…if you know the answer to the last question, I am “all ears,” because I still have no clue.

Dr. Phil and I have nothing in common, because he KNOWS it ALL, and I…well, you get the idea. This is exactly why I am not writing about relationships, and prefer to talk about subjects I know rather well—social media and marketing.

Many people think that the principles of marketing (of any kind) consist of four main pillars, or some may refer to them as the 4 P’s—Product, Place, Promotion and Price.  And for the longest time I believed that as well…just as I used to believe in the Tooth Fairy, Santa Claus and other imaginary friends. My quest for true marketing success began with the shocking discovery that one of the major “P’s” was missing—PLANNING!!

Every successful marketing campaign should start with PLANNING:

• What will your PRODUCT do on the market?
• What is the best location, or PLACE (distribution) of your product?
• How will you effectively PROMOTE it?
• What PRICE is your market willing to pay for your Product?

For people who are foreign to PLANNING, stop reading this and google “Planning for Dummies,” because only a delusional person believes “We’ll play it by ear” is a good working model for a business. The most impressive and successful marketing campaigns are products of rigorous planning and consistency.

Normally the PRODUCT ideas are not complicated. Almost everyone believes that whatever they’re about to offer is the “best thing since sliced bread.” Google is building self-driving (and soon to be self-flying) cars, Apple will soon be implanting phone chips directly into our brains (and fighting the FBI on their removal process), and God only knows what the Kardashian clan has in store: a fully clothed Kim Kardashian selfie (OMG) may shock the world soon. My only plea to the army of motivational, inspirational speakers and “best-selling” authors—whatever you sell, make sure you know at least ONE person who will actually buy it.

The PLACE/distribution allocation is not the biggest hurdle for businesses, either. If you are a local business and know your zip code, you can start planning your distribution chain by registering your business with Yelp and Google My Businesses apps. I hope that in the year 2016 I don’t have to explain to anyone how to create simple Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram pages for businesses. If you really want to feel social media savvy these days, get on Blab…just make sure you have something to say. And by “something” I mean something useful and valuable to OTHERS.

I am going to skip the PRICE discussion. The “art of marketing” is never about price. Your pricing strategy should be based on knowledge of your market, competitive analysis, and the value you deliver with your product. In my opinion, quality solutions that solve real problems for customers, empower them to be successful and profitable, or inspire them to excel, are worth much more than their “cost-effective” siblings. But it is always a good practice to have several tiers of packages—we, as consumers, love options. Some luxury brands, like Louis Vuitton, have only two tiers of pricing—there are the “one monthly mortgage payment” purses, and the “forget about it” luggage items…but when your brand becomes the Louis Vuitton of your market, price will be the least of your worries.

Now let’s discuss the Holy Grail of all marketers—THE RIGHT AUDIENCE (i.e. people who will actually be buying something, instead of just wasting your time) and how to effectively spam…oops, I meant “promote”…your product to them.

But before that…let me surprise you by saying that the first step of your PROMOTION starts with YOU and the creation of YOUR OWN PERFECT digital world, YOUR OWN BRAND, everything that you represent, whether it is your business, your company or yourself. You need to start BRANDING—or, as the marketers say, creating brand awareness—way before your big product launch. Make sure:

• Your website is up-to-date and easy to navigate.
• Your logo is included on your images and email signatures.
• Your mission statement and your message are clear—A Confused Customer Buys Nothing.
• You use quality images for your posts. I use Canva (a great graphic design tool).
• You are searchable on social media platforms. You won’t believe how many companies and businesses I’ve turned down because I couldn’t find them on Facebook or LinkedIn.
• You engage and inspire your followers with your content. Be the “Red Bull” of your business—make your customers feel like they can fly.
• Your digital representation is exactly what you say in your marketing campaign—business that changes the world or makes it better (even you sell mortgages *yawn* or insurance *double yawn*).

Your yearly marketing budget is around 5% of your sales revenue. Sounds like a big number?

The social media revolution won because the old “Mad Man” promotional advertisement model could not carry on anymore. It takes more planning and preparation than just three martinis at lunch.

My professional advice—hire a marketing analyst or a marketing agency to build that Perfect Digital World. They do it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They study other marketing experts. They go to conferences to learn different techniques and tools. They spend countless hours on Twitter, Periscope and Instagram. It is impossible for any business owner to have the time to do it THE RIGHT WAY. Marketing is storytelling. Let them write your story, the way you always wanted it to be told. Watch Andrew Stanton’s TEDTalk on Storytelling

To paraphrase Jim Rohn, my favorite sales coach of all time, I urge you to let go—

Let your lawyer be your lawyer, let your banker be your banker, and by all means, let your marketer be in charge of your marketing efforts.

If you still think that a so-called “cost-effective” paid advertisement on various social media platforms (like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn) or mass emailing software alone will sell your product, you are setting yourself up for a big disappointment.

Your Audience Optimization and Promotion tool suggestions are a part of your Marketing team’s job. The timeframe for growing your social media and digital exposure depends on the nature of your business. Statistically, it takes from 9 months to a year.

The moment you know that your own digital presence is the best it can be and your own house is in order is that perfect moment when your vision and your message are clear, your feet are firmly on the ground, and your brand is thriving.

How do you know that you are ready for your big push? You just do, because it feels right…just like that perfect kiss on Park Avenue under the neon lights of the glorious City that Never Sleeps. 

Primum non nocere or My New Year’s resolution for 2016

Don’t Tinder me, baby! (LinkedIn for Professional Use Only)

                                    

How many times do you want to do, say or write something important, but hesitate because those inside voices always stop you:  Not now, this is not the time, you might hurt someone’s feelings, someone might sue you if they get offended…

I have wanted to write about online bullying and digital sexual harassment since the day I have discovered social media and brutal world of online publicity. God only knows how many times I have stopped myself from writing about a HUGE elephant in the room—that being the online code of sexual conduct or rather the NONEXISTENCE of such a code—for the same exact reasons: What if I offend someone, what if it doesn’t matter, what if I am not strong enough to stand by my beliefs? This blog would probably never have been written if I didn’t come across an article (from a very reputable publication) called “Don’t Hate Me because I’m beautiful.”

The article is about research conducted by two Israelis analysts, on who gets advantages during a recruitment process and why. “Bradley Ruffle at Ben-Gurion University and Ze’ev Shtudiner at Ariel University Centre looked at what happens when job hunters include photos with their curricula vitae, as is the norm in much of Europe and Asia.” Their “shocking” results:

Attractive female candidates have lesser chances to be hired than their not-so attractive sisters. They might be shocking to many readers, but not to me.

I saw this article as a sign from above, a chance to finally write about my own story—of an intelligent, attractive professional trying to succeed in life using her brains (trust me, I am smarter than a fifth grader) and her ability to learn quickly, manage difficult tasks, be strong when others need a shoulder to lean on, and be brave enough to step up when others are afraid to move. 

This is my story of the digital sexual and emotional harassment that I’ve been dealing with for many years, simply because of the fact that I am an attractive woman who dared to become a professional in a social arena. Who would have thought I would have to become a Gladiator…

LinkedIn was originally designed as a social platform for strictly professional use, job hunting, sales and marketing promotions and opportunities, co-worker and former colleague connections, and recently, for writing and blogging opportunities. But like many social media sites it has gradually transformed into a “free-for-all”  with “Gangs of New York”-type communication. Anyone can say or write whatever (they feel) is appropriate.

The most depressing thing is that I get more offensive emails and indecent, often creepy proposals on LinkedIn than on any other social media platform!!! Tinder is a little tiny “sandbox” compared to this giant ocean of hookups and date proposals.

Here are some groups of people I get harassed by:

“Online-only trolls”—offensive but not malicious.

Troll #1:  “Oh, are you single? Would love to have you.”

My mind writes back, “I’d love to smack you, you little $h-t!”

I usually don’t respond to these.

Troll #2:  “Do you use Cyber Dust?”

Me:  “No, What’s Cyber Dust?”

Troll #2:  “Oh.. it is a discreet chat application with no traces left.”

I know a little bit about the Internet, enough to know that everything that goes out to the cloud has traces. Well, I installed Cyber Dust, and my recent contact immediately started sending me his naked pictures. My stomach could not bear this torture, and I quickly deleted Cyber Dust along with the guy (who, I suspect, never saw a mirror in his life).

Troll # 3:  “You are so beautiful.”

Me:  “Yeah.. I get that a lot.” (My buddy Gary taught me this sarcastic expression.)

Troll #3:  “When are we going for dinner?”

Me:  “Never sounds good.”

I usually get bored after these altercations and stop responding.

“Cross-platforms trolls” —people you meet on Facebook, Twitter, etc. and then connect with on LinkedIn. Those can be slightly dangerous, judging by their comments.

Once I posted that I was bringing my team to one of the trade shows. Here is a comment I received from one Facebook/LinkedIn “buddy”:

“Oh you went from being single to having a boyfriend, now you are having a team, what’s next- an army?”

To this day I am trying to decrypt this sentence, looking for a small drop of common sense and failing every time. Meanwhile, I have blocked this “Winston Churchill” from all of my sites to eliminate his ingenious comments.

Stalkers—very dangerous, they can show up at your door!

One time I made the mistake of including my cell phone number on my LinkedIn profile. I started getting bombarded by random texts at wee hours, messages on Twitter, and emails to my personal email account from a guy who probably would have camped outside of my house if he didn’t live abroad. Thank God for Atlantic Ocean!

There is no such thing as privacy on social media. I’ve learned that the hard way. I’ve had to block a person whom I’ve met in real life from my LinkedIn account, because of his suspicious daily interest in looking my profile. Immediately I got a text asking if I changed jobs. I told him that my job is not his business and blocked him from my phone as well.

But today’s email put my entire troll email collection to shame. Here is what I received:

“Like that Steve Jobs post is one of my favorites! (he meant one of my posts) So . . . only a social media diva with a shamelessly courageous personality would appreciate how it came about that I’m messaging you.

Your pic caught my attention and profile did make me crack a smile. I’m sure you’ve left a trail of broken hearts and spirits around the globe, but no matter. We have much to discuss. If you care to. I’ve traveled the globe giving lectures about Internet search and touch on social media as part of that. And I’ve never thought of it, but yes, help demystify it all for many. Let me know when you’re planning to take me out . . . and where. Lol. Have a great day.

ps: several of your pics look like you’re wearing a wedding ring. If so, please disregard this message (well, except for the part about having a nice day)”

For some unexplainable reason, people think that they can violate your privacy just because you are active on social media.

Yes, LinkedIn has blocking features, and thank God for those, as they stop some people from writing nonsense. Unfortunately, other people don’t take online rejections well—in their minds, attractiveness is a valid reason for harassment. They see an attractive person as an object who almost “deserves” to be abused. Professional social media sites make it difficult to fight this openly, because we are supposed to be “professionals” and should be courteous to each other. But not all of us play by those rules.

I am certainly not one who can be easily run over.

My beauty (inner and outer) is a priceless gift from God, for which I am endlessly grateful.

My heart is just as beautiful as my face, and it belongs to only one man—not the whole LinkedIn nation.

My beauty is my blessing, and no one can tell me it is my curse or my fault.

Jim Rohn once said about mixing people’s roles in your life “Let your banker be your banker, let your lawyer to be your lawyer.. ”

Do me a favor, keep your LinkedIn professional footprints clean.  You never know who will write about you next.. 

I write about social media, people and technology – @natashajuhasz on Twitter and IG

What type of Social Media platform are you? Personality Quiz

Honestly, I suspect those personality quizzes are purposely created to waste other people’s precious time.

Do I need to know what type of politician I would have been if I was one? Hmm, I hope none of them, and frankly I don’t express my political views publicly.

Another, even more useless discovery: “What kind of horror movie teen star are you?” The last time I watched a horror movie was on Halloween night during that infamous snowstorm that left most of the Northeast without power for weeks. The moment I realized it wasn’t my smartest move, while “Scream” characters were being merciless sliced and diced on a blue screen, my lights started to flicker and eventually went off completely… Suddenly, the Halloween “spirit” felt uncomfortably close in the dark.

Why do we want to know what kind of celebrities, rock bands, songs, or Harry Potter characters we would have been? How does it feel to find out that you are  #7F7F7F HTMX Hex color out of all 50 shades of gray? I bet it feels amazing!  What kind of car or, better yet, plane are you? If I was a plane I would be a Concorde—loud and deadly 

I read my Facebook friends’ quiz result posts with—declaring them to be dead presidents, rare minerals, instinct animals, etc.—with one thought in my mind: “Are you that confused about who you are?”

Confusion is a Goliath of social media. It is THE main reason why people hate, fear and don’t use social media to its fullest potential either for personal or especially business purposes. Social media with its millions of platforms, constantly changing at the speed of light, reminds me of my ADHD brain. It never rests.

Not long ago, Google + was declared the best thing since sliced bread, and now, according to Jack Smith IV, a MIC reporter, “It pulled out the photo-sharing and editing functions from Google Plus and turned them into a single app, called Google Photos — leaving Google Plus an obscure, mostly forgotten feature with a vague and uncertain purpose.” http://mic.com/articles/119522/google-just-ripped-the-gold-teeth-out-of-the-rotting-corpse-of-google-plus

Flickr lost its followers and the market share to Instagram in photo sharing. Apple is coming out with a new iPhone 6S later this fall… Who knows what Android has in the store? I think the new product should be called “Google Brain.” I can see a big demand for that type of technology in today’s market.

The most common mistake people make about social media is profiling channels and their audiences:

Pinterest is for middle-aged women;

Snapchat is for kids;

LinkedIn is for professional use only (wishful thinking—trolls love this site!);

Ello is for communists, who also believe in a “money free” society;

Brigade is for politicians (Here’s your chance, guys! This beta site is ready for you to rumble. Bring your boxing gloves when

you to sign on!);
Periscope and Meerkat are for news reporters (bad idea, apparently—just ask my favorite Periscoper, Jack Smith IV);

WordPress is for bloggers;

Instagram is for selfie addicts (Kim Kardashian should start an “Instagram Anonymous” 12-step program);

Reddit is for engineers;

Apple Music is for battling Taylor Swift “Gangnam Style”; 

Youtube is for those who finally figured out how to use their camera phones;

Twitter is for people who find it challenging to type more than 140 characters. and finally,

Facebook is for changing the status of your personal relationship from “Happily ever after” to “It’s cheaper to kill that B$tch!”

Unfortunately, this far-from-complete list of social media platforms will continue to grow and evolve more rapidly as time goes by. People will always feel the need for another, better and unique, one-of-a-kind idea for attracting today’s consumers and their precious 8 seconds of attention.

The unfortunate reality is that you will never catch up. I repeat: You will never be equally successful on ALL existing social media platforms—even if you are Donald Trump, and one day wake up with the strange urge to become the U.S. President.

Let me give you 10 helpful tips, or “hacks,” as they’re called nowadays, on how to simplify your social media initiatives and make this experience enjoyable, meaningful and profitable.

First of all.

• Relax.You are not the only one who’s confused.
• Follow 10 people who are successful on their social media platforms. Out of those, choose five you like and then cut down to the three who make the most sense in their presentations to YOUR Business.
  • My suggestions: Guy Kawasaki (Youtube); Kim Garst (Facebook and Twitter); Sean Gardner and John White (LinkedIn); Jack Smith IV (Periscope); and Gary Vee (Youtube).
• Start building your first “out of the box “ tool kit, with LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Youtube channels

Simple so far? Yes. Clear? I hope so.

• Be a true leader. Meaning a leader who has followers (we are all VIPs in our own minds). If you are the CEO of a big corporation, at least create a Twitter account. By the way, Michael Dell and John Legere (T-Mobile CEO) are avid Twitter users. Do you think you are busier than Michael Dell?
• Give it some time and expect at least 6-9 months of a ramp up for your social media initiatives.
• Don’t scale too soon by buying the latest and the greatest social media and marketing automation tools in the beginning. Wait, and enjoy your learning process…slowly. Constant Contact  or MailChimp (emailing software) can handle all of your first mass emailing campaigns.
• Start in your own backyard. Build your fan club inside your company.  Make asking questions a part of your clarity tactic. Be aware that some people don’t like to comment publicly.  Generate conversations in private messages. Just don’t stalk them—the same rules apply in digital space: No means no.
• Please, do all of us a huge favor and get a professional photographer’s help on creating your social media avatar. I know, smiling can be challenging sometimes, but you can do it.
• Blog about things that matter. Tell your fans a story about how your product and services changed someone’s life . Well, maybe not that dramatic…but try to write something compelling and fun. 
• While trying different things and marketing on all those platforms, just follow this formula  Clarity = Customer (where all of your focus should be) + Content (what they like to read) x Common Sense (remember, Google Brain is not coming out anytime soon)

In reality, social media selling is a very simple concept: It is a buying not a selling process.

And not to forget our quiz subject, my answer to the question “What type of Social Media platform are you?” is:

“The clearest one—the one that makes sense to my audience.”

The magic of my 4 C’s formula of Success in Social Media Marketing and Sales—

Clarity = (Customer + Content) x Common Sense

—is that it very often materializes into the fifth “C”—Cash

Houston, We have a Problem!

Frankly, I’d rather write about new social media apps, like Periscope and its most popular broadcaster, Jack Smith IV (The Periscope Jesus) than address the rising public concerns about privacy and copyright violations that triggered last weekend. Some careless (let’s choose that word, instead of “dumb”) mobile users started broadcasting the Mayweather-Pacquiao boxing match to the whole world FOR FREE via Periscope broadcasts.

I didn’t have any interest in watching that fight, but the sudden buzz around “The Fight of the Century” was almost impossible to ignore.

The richest fight in boxing history was expected to eclipse the PPV record of Mayweather-Oscar De La Hoya in 2007. The record-high PPV ($100 for HD) was the cheapest way to watch. Ticket prices on the secondary marketing were more than $5,000, and closed-circuit seats in town were being sold for well more than their $150 face value. (http://www.mlive.com/mayweather/index.ssf/2015/04/floyd_mayweather_vs_manny_pacq_3.html)

Some resources indicated that Mayweather received $300 million by winning the fight.  HBO and Showtime raked in an estimate $400 million-plus for last Saturday night’s match.

But they couldn’t stop the ocean of people live-streaming the fight all over the world—anyone on Twitter could easily tune into a stream on Meerkat or Periscope. At one point, 10,000 people signed into a single Periscope video feed. 30 broadcasts were taken down by Periscope; others ended before the company could make a move.

This was not the first time piracy has occurred over this live-streaming app.  HBO has already sent legal notices, demanding that Periscope take down accounts that illegally stream “Game of Thrones.”

HBO wants tech companies to develop automatic sensors that scan for piracy and block it. YouTube already has something similar. (http://money.cnn.com/2015/05/04/technology/live-stream-mayweather-pacquiao/)

I always say that for every “nerd” (remember, the nerd is the new cool) who writes a program, there are two or more nerds who will hack into it. Nothing is unbreakable in a digital world.

I wrote in my previous blog “Internet Security Just like the Tooth Fairy,” that if we don’t pay for a product, we are the product—our information, our contacts, our buying preferences become social networks’ property.

I am going to pause for a second before I start painting a gloomy picture of a total Internet security Armageddon and risk sounding like that Nationwide commercial during the last Super Bowl.

(Nationwide Insurance Agent)

I didn’t get to watch Amanda Oleander’s Periscope broadcast, because I died waiting on them to make it compatible with Android.”

Side note – MY own opinion.  Amanda with her 79,490 followers and 9,777,342 hearts (likes) is a total waste of a digital space. I know, she is a very likable, nice girl, she is a beautiful human being…but when I heard that Carly Fiorina announced on Periscope that she would be running for President next year, I tweeted:  If Carly Fiorina takes Amanda off Periscope, she has my vote! For the life of me, I can’t find any value of watching her painting Mona Lisa or talking about NOTHING stopping at the red lights. I call her a “Periscope Kim Kardashian.”

Now, back from Hollywood and TV networks to the real world, shall we? We, as consumers (not the stakeholders), can care less about HBO and Showtime losing a couple million bucks on some viewers’ poor choices to share something that didn’t belong to them.

But we care about our families, our businesses, and our privacy. The last thing I want this world to find out is that I am a “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” (Bravo reality TV show) addict. But if I start searching for who slapped whom during the last episode, the show announcements will start to appear not only on my Facebook wall, but on all of my friends’ timelines as well. The word would spread: “Tashie is a drama queen!”

All joking aside, I was completely blown away, when reading Aaron Hand’s article in Automation World, “Cybersecurity Preparedness Doesn’t Measure Up,” by just how vulnerable networks are in the oil and gas industry.

At OFS (again, just for clarification, we are manufactures of optical fiber, not a furniture store), I just recently started learning about our oil and gas marketing projects and technologies. I knew about the industry’s digital and social media marketing from attending the Energy Digital Summit  (you can see me in this video quite often) in Houston for the last two years. Interesting fact, though: we never talked about Internet security!

Everyone talks about how conservative the oil and gas industry is in general—not agile, late in adapting to social media and digital marketing, some companies are still using spreadsheets for accounting, etc.

But the facts Aaron addresses in his article are more than alarming:

• 90% of companies surveyed by Oil and Gas IQ and a commissioned security provider agree that it is vital to respond to a security incident within hours, but only 40% have incident response plans in place.
• “Hacktivism” (the use of network attacks to support a political agenda) has become one of the biggest concerns for oil and gas companies
• Only 11% are fully confident that they can handle the hacks appropriately , 37% are “not confident”
• 23% aren’t even actively monitoring their networks. 19% have not segregated their Informational Technology (IT) and Operational Technology (OT)
• Recovery from a cyber attack could cost an oil or gas company between $529,105 and $1.06 million

Activities over the past five years have shown that critical infrastructures are targets for cyber attacks. Wow…now it isn’t just Hollywood’s money.  It’s YOUR money, and more—your security.

At OFS (disclaimer- although, I work for OFS, all opinions are my own and not of the company) we use fiber optics technology for data collection of downhole conditions, pipeline monitoring integrity, sensing in subsea exploration operations, etc.  And if you use this technology and your data is hacked, because it’s sitting somewhere on an old unsecured server, that breach will put a huge dent in your pocket.

Firewalls, networking patches and updates can simply be overwritten. Remember when I said that for every nerd who writes software, there are two or more who will hack into it? Exactly… Call in an expert!

 Protecting your data and your privacy is not spending: it is an investment and your business responsibility. (Natasha Juhasz) 

I don’t know many security companies, but I can recommend one: “Razorpoint Security Technologies“. Its CEO, Gary Morse, was featured on major TV networks like CNN and Court TV. He’s a likable, trusted guy with an established client database, as well as a devoted father of three beautiful girls. We never buy from people we don’t like or trust, right?

Now let me tell you why the Mayweather-Pacquiao piracy story is relevant to cyber security. Eventually, every technology will go mobile. Your daily operations, your communications, your routing…most everything. And if Periscope (owned by Twitter) cannot stop these unlawful acts from happening, there is no guarantee that one fine day your data won’t be broadcasted to others, just as easily as the Fight of the Century.

The only worse thing I can imagine is if Amanda Oleander were to move from Los Angeles to Houston—a catastrophe for the oil and gas industry.

I am not an Internet security expert—Razorpoint Security Technologies and Gary Morse are—I am just a girl with a dream…dreaming of a world with fewer Kardashians, and more Jack Smith IVs.

Photo- Amanda Oleander (www.twitter.com)

“Periscope Jesus”- the Real Deal

First, let me make a disclaimer of using the word “Jesus” somewhat loosely in the title.  I didn’t make that name up; it was someone else’s reference, so, as they say, “Don’t kill the messenger.”

My discovery of the live-streaming apps began at the Social Media World Summit in beautiful San Diego.  Some attendants ran established PR and marketing agencies, virtuously typing their Evernotes on their slick and elegant MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs. They were Tweeting, Snapchatting, Periscoping and Meerkating breakout sessions in real time, setting my ADD-infected mind on virtual fire.  It seemed like I was the only person who didn’t know about Ello (“anti-Facebook” social network which claims not to sell your information to other marketers and not to spam you with a gazillion senseless ads).

But since Ello was “so September of 2014,” the major buzz was about live streaming apps – in particular, Periscope.  The built-up tension around predictions as to whether Periscope would kill its closest rival, Meerkat, was similar to betting on thoroughbred horses at the Kentucky Derby.  Everyone had their own favorite.

I’ve never used Meerkat, so I can’t tell the difference. Both apps perform similar tasks- they let you stream live videos with chat capabilities. So I am sticking to what I know, my sweetest new social media addiction – Periscope live streaming broadcasts.

Some Facts about Periscope

Their website says “A picture may be worth a thousand words, but live video can take you someplace and show you around” (and you have no idea where some of the broadcasts can take you… different countries, people’s homes, fridges, bathrooms, bedrooms… hey, it’s freedom of the Internet).

The company was started by a small team of 17 web developers in Silicon Valley with headquarters in San Francisco, of course (“nerds are the new cool”)

When it first launched – Periscope generated a buzz of about 51,000 tweets and has collected nearly 111,000 mentions over the past month—mostly in the last few days. (Topsy.com)

Twitter acquired Periscope in February, apparently looking to bring the nature of its frenzied, real-time text updates to life on screen.

Periscope allows users to save videos so people can view them at a later date, or perhaps over and over again (@nicklavars http://www.gizmag.com/periscope-iphone-live-broadcaster/36754/). As far as I know, Meerkat doesn’t have that option.

I am not sure what exactly sparked my curiosity when @JackSmithIV, a sassy and techie New York Observer reporter living in New Jersey, appeared on my Periscope timeline one night. Maybe a bold(ish) headline like “NYC Journalist smokes cigarettes in a room, ask me about technology, and the media, other bullshit or whatever,” zapped my attention. Maybe it was what some people call a gut feeling. I always unconsciously know whether people are “real” or not. And, boy, this guy was REAL!!

The moment I started watching him talking super-fast, a hundred miles an hour, smoking nonstop his Camel Blue’s, singing “Adaptation” by The Weeknd in between answering questions, I knew I was hooked. I was hooked on his energy, the way he was interacting with his audience, his smart and sassy answers, his way of gracefully standing up to trolls*… and his genuine gratefulness towards his fans for following.  I could not stop laughing when I heard him say “New Jersey is located within psychological distance from NYC.” Everyone, from both sides of the river, knows this to be true.

Jack’s Periscope broadcast success was instantaneous! Kids (most of his followers are in their 20s and early 30s) fell in love with him to the point of no return. He was real, super techie, he was ONE OF THEM, and they worshiped him like “Periscope Jesus.”

What many people fail to realize is that success in any type of social media, whether it’s live interaction or chat, lies in delivering a true VALUE to others. It is a buying rather than a selling process. Nowadays, people will figure out that you are a fraud and have nothing to offer within New York Minute. Relevancy is one of the keystones of the social media strategy – and Jack is a megarelevant. He lives and breathes technology, new gadgets, software platforms, hacking tools, new jargon… and he is passionate about his career. At age 25, he is a senior writer for NY Observer. Not too shabby, Mr. Smith.

He are some questions he has to answer (over and over) during the broadcasts:

“Are you gay?” – No I am not gay.

“Are you on cocaine?” No, I am not gay, and I am not on cocaine.

“What’s in your fridge?” I am not gay, I am not on coke and I am not showing you the inside of my fridge (this line gets lengthier, when “trolls” begin asking incredibly offensive questions) – Not gay, not on coke, not showing you inside my fridge, not talking about my compensation… Single (ish)…

The single(ish) statement made the crowd go wild. (For a moment I couldn’t see Jack’s face – my phone screen was covered by floating colored hearts from his adoring fans, who now were on a mission to find out the identity of that mysterious “ish”…)

You might ask: “So what’s the point of this story? Another kid, probably on drugs (but he is NOT!), talking live on his phone to thousands of infantile kids, “doped” and oblivious just like he is. And to make it even worse, he smokes!!!!” Well, if we would only stop profiling our millennials for a second, we would see that guys like my virtual friend bring enormous value to the internet community. Gigantic, I would say!

During these short two weeks of broadcasts I’ve learned about –

• Periscope updates – landscape viewing is in the works; it’s still very glitchy, but it’s a super easy-to-use app (not available for Android platforms yet, though)
• Motherboard – is an online magazine and video channel dedicated to the intersection of technology, science and humans.
• Ello (no clue why our world needs another, but broken, Facebook)
• 
• Yik-Yak social media platform – used in colleges for kids with common interests
• Glitch art – a digital program Jack uses to create different images by manipulating data. Check it out on his Instagram @JackSmithIV
• Tumblr –Jack’s favorite app.  Personally, I feel completely lost on that platform, so if anyone is offering Tumblr classes on how to engage their audience, please let me know.
• Google+ and Blackberries are dying
• Google Glass tanked, because it didn’t bring much value to compensate for the obstructions created when users wore those glasses. (Not everyone likes to wear glasses… I, for one, am still in denial and refuse to buy “readers.”)

Technology, innovation, and creativity are not showing any signs of slowing down in their evolution and progress. They transform, re-appear in different forms, and inevitably change our lives in spite of  in spite of our nostalgia for rotary phones and drive-in movies (well… we still have those in Connecticut). You may not find any value in Apple Watch, or in growing your Twitter community, or you may never have heard of Canva (just ask Guy Kawasaki), but you can’t escape the reality that innovation turns into the value you were looking for. Yes, it brings a lot of noise and distraction into our professional and personal worlds. The trick is how to tenaciously navigate through the noise, like all the Kardashians’ nonsense, and look for the real deal…

Jack Smith IV – a senior writer for NY “Observer,” not gay, not on cocaine, who will not show you inside of his fridge, is THE REAL DEAL. So are you.

I am not telling you which social media platforms are right for you; trying something new every day is the only way to find out. I am just a girl with a dream, dreaming of an app that will obsolete the use of reading glasses .. forever.

50 Shades of Patience

This morning I was caught by surprise by someone (whom I’ve never met) telling me that Russian people are not known for being nice… Just like a volcanic eruption, my first attempt to reply would have been loud and deadly. Forget about Pompeii. My text (if I were to send it) could have burned and buried under the ashes of anger and disbelief the whole of Manhattan (where that person works), along with Queens and Westchester County, just for good measure

And then I paused and took a deep breath. My whole life I’ve been blessed with wonderful friends and mentors. Almost everything I’ve learned in my life has been from others, and for that I will always be thankful.

The most valuable lessons my mentors have taught me were how to be patient and how not to change people but to accept them just the way they are. Patience and I were born on totally different planets, and for as long as I can remember I’ve been unsuccessfully seeking her in my professional and personal backyards. I knew we would eventually meet, but I’d rather it be SOONER than later.

I’ve always had trouble understanding and dealing with some of my peers at work, my schoolmates, and even my own family members without mentally visualizing them slowly burning in Dante’s Inferno.

Why can’t they do it quicker?

Why can’t he walk a little faster?

Till this day, it still remains a mystery why my kid always waited till the last moment to do his school projects!  Horrific memories of 9 PM trips to Wal-Mart to buy construction paper still give me nightmares and uncontrollable shakes. Now I know why lions eat their young: one word –HOMEWORK!

When one of my mentors suggested reading “The Art of War,” I was skeptical. How much patience can I learn from a military general? Plus, he wasn’t Russian, and I can’t read Chinese! Well, the modern English translation helped with the language barrier, but I still had my doubts. Again, the book is about war, not peace.

Lesson #1 – To be understood, you need be clear.

If words of command are not clear and distinct, if orders are not thoroughly understood, the general is to blame.”

Patience test.

I bet everyone knows at least one person who suffers from “Reply to All” email syndrome. Compared to the number of individuals infected with this virus, Ebola statistics are very modest. The biggest problem is that the doctors are intensively looking for an Ebola cure, but “Reply To All disease” still remains untreatable.

On February 14, 2015, one of my LinkedIn connections decided to wish all of his friends on this website a Happy Valentine’s Day.  I was among those “fortunate” ones to receive his wishes in my Inbox.  I thought it was cute…until everyone started to respond using the “Reply to All “button. The first twenty “Thank you” messages I deleted immediately. Then I just started to watch how my neatly organized Inbox was slowly turning into a chaotic parking lot of an unsolicited gratefulness. Patience, Tashie, I said to myself, monotonously deleting 70+ cute little messages with images of hearts, puppies and kittens.

It is Valentine’s Day, a day for the celebration of love…or maybe for watching that awfully boring “50 Shades of Grey” movie.

I would not write about this incident, if not for the fact that, the very next day, I received another mass email from the same individual, stating that from now on he would be sending out daily inspirational messages to the whole group of “chosen” ones. I held my breath and closed my eyes…  It was like a moment straight out of a horror movie, when the music gets louder and the shadow of a hand with a knife appears on the shower curtain…

It was time to be clear. I emailed the individual (the mass sender) and kindly thanked him for his thoughtful messages. My second sentence was short and crystal clear – Take me off your mass mail list, and if you don’t do it, I will delete your connection. Oh, and I think I said please. (Who says Russians aren’t nice?) Fortunately this story has a happy ending – my “mass emailer” sent me an apologetic note and I never heard from him again.

Lesson #2

Set an example. A leader leads by example not force.

Acceptance test.

My favorite LinkedIn coach, Kevin Knebl, asked me once: how can you make someone to do something? “I can’t,” I answered.  “All I can do is to show what works for me and what doesn’t.”  I’ve been staying in shape for many years, but my best results in fitness were reached from working with a personal trainer, who later became my close friend.

One day I was watching a commercial for Focus T-25, a super extreme 25-minute-a-day workout program offered on DVDs. “What a scam!” I exclaimed. 25 min of doing anything around my house would never give me the results I always wanted. I almost instinctively blocked the benefits of this offer in my mind! Only working with my beloved Mr.Q would give me my lean, “mean,” defined, muscular body. So I immediately shared those thoughts on my Facebook page: “Guys, don’t spend your $120 on this piece of crap, it doesn’t work.” I didn’t bother asking my audience about their fitness program preferences. I wasn’t patient; I was just too eager to broadcast my own opinion.

As I soon found out, one of my FB followers actually used those DVDs at home and lost 17 pounds (and good for her!). Working out at home, 25 minutes a day, fit perfectly in her schedule!

Personal training helps many people change their eating and workout habits – but what works for me won’t necessarily work for everybody. Fitness is all about YOUR determination and patience. I will always accept your way to find a better life.

Lesson #3

To know your enemy, you must become your enemy

Patience and acceptance tests.

This one I am still struggling with. First, I don’t like to be enemies with anyone, despite my Russian heritage and feisty, fiery nature. If I interpret it correctly, it means that to understand how to deal with others, you must understand their way of thinking. Let’s try that…

I have a friend, a native New Yorker, a fun, smart, ridiculously handsome, dressed-in-tailored-suits gentleman. There’s one thing, though.  NYC is known as the City that Never Sleeps, right?  Well…neither does my buddy.

Apparently, he was totally unaware that most professionals who decide not live in Manhattan (imagine that!) are catching up on their REM sleep at 2 AM. For whatever reason, my GQ-caliber guy decides to test his texting skills at the perfect NYC time, which is normally between 1 and 2 AM. If you think those texts carry any valuable information, you are mistaken – I usually wake up to some horrifying smiley faces emotions! At 2 AM!! I honestly think that my friend secretly works for Apple’s battery life testing department! As soon as his phone battery is about to die, I get a smiley nightmare notification!

I tried to hint that after midnight texts are slightly annoying (to say the least), by asking, “Don’t you think it is little late to text?” I was puzzled (as I always am) by his typical New Yorker answer: “No, not really.” Those New Yorkers, you gotta love ’em. But how about picking up the phone and saying, “Hey, it’s been forever since we’ve seen each other. Let’s get together and catch up!”

Here is a classic example where patience and acceptance get a new booster, an auxiliary button called “BLOCK THIS USER.” Thank you, Apple and IOS 8, for this precious gift of my uninterrupted sleep!

“The Art of War” is an excellent book on strategy and tactics and how to pick and choose your battles. Whether you want to win them all by fighting, or graciously walk away and still be a winner, is your choice. You should read this book.

Why am I writing this? Dr. Steven Sobel, in his presentation “You are a piece of work,” said, “Be mindful of how you affect other people’s lives.” Most of my writing is about being considerate to others, just a little more with each day that goes by. I accept and love all my friends just the way they are – it doesn’t matter if they are sleepless in New York or Seattle.

It’s about Love. In the end, that’s all that matters.

 

 

DM or not to DM : Why I don’t Kiss on the First Date

If I ever wanted to write a comedy book, I wouldn’t have to leave my house to find the right material and funny stories. My very own “Shit My Twitter Says” (modeled on the national bestseller “Shit My Dad Says”) could be written within hours of reading my Twitter page and just copying tweets into this book without editing. To say that some of the ultra-stupid posts are funny would be understatement. They are hilarious, and I am literally in tears every time I read my Twitter page.

If you think of Facebook as the king of the social media kingdom, Twitter probably is closest to that rank, as queen.  If Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone and Noah Glass  (Twitter founders) ever imagined that their social media platform would, in 8 years, grow to have 288 million active users (2014) with 500 million daily tweets, and to generate 1.40 billion dollars in revenue(2014), the blue bird logo might have been drawn with a diamond Rolex watch hanging around its neck.

Twitter today is a robust, successful, mega-money-making machine.  And everyone (or almost everyone) is using it for the same exact reasons… to promote and sell.

My favorite sales coach, Jeffery Gitomer, in his book “The Little Red Book of Selling” says: People don’t like to be sold, but they love to buy.  I, personally, LOVE to buy.  I shop for shoes, clothes, books, electronics, anything…well, except for groceries (I hate grocery shopping with a passion). I grew up in Soviet Russia with empty shelves in stores, no decent quality clothes to wear, and no cars.  Maybe that is why the buying process is very personal and most definitely enjoyable for me.

But as much as I love to shop, I hate to be hassled. I can’t stand when people jump out of nowhere with their sales proposals, especially if I never asked for any!!

Let me tell you about some of my Twitter DMs (direct messages) to depict how ridiculous and completely irrelevant those sales pitches are. First, as a social media marketer, I highly suggest to:

Stay away from your automated message inviting me to do something, or look somewhere, I don’t want, tells me that I am just a number for you, another sales target in your store.

Steve Greenberg, has the following Twitter profile: “Author of GADGET NATION–he travels the world looking for new products and showcases them on TV –frequent guest on NBCs Today Show and Dr. Oz Show.” (I get it, Steve. You’re on TV a lot.  I’m so very impressed.)  As soon as I follow him back, he sends me a DM:

“Catch me on @TODAYshow this Thursday with @hodakotb and @KathieLGifford I’ll have HOT #GADGETS for COLD WEATHER http://www.stevegreenberg.tv ”

“Wonderful, Steve,” I write back, slightly irritated, “but I never watch the Today show (Normally I am at work at that time) and I am from Russia, sooo IT AIN’T THAT COLD!!” Do you think Steve even bothered to reply back? Just out of simple Twitter courtesy, or even just for fun? It would have been nice to hear back even something simple like “How cold does it get in Russia?” Something!!! I got nothing… Steve is on Twitter to promote HIS TV appearances, he has over 6 thousand followers, and he has no time or intention to be my Twitter friend. He is here to sell…  Next, shall we?

The Carbon Fiber—“The First Entirely Carbon Fiber Flying machine.”  Oh boy!

They follow me first, then I follow them back, and in a couple of seconds, I get a DM (of course).  This one is classic. They don’t even say “thank you for following,” because obviously the Carbon Fiber flying machine is in such a great demand. Surely the lines for the iPhone 6 were nothing compared to the line just to get a glimpse of the ingenious engineering of the Carbon Flying thing!!  Their DM says “The world’s best completely carbon fiber flying toy is still available on @indiegogo! Get yours here : http://igg.me/at/carbonflyer/x/8809027 …”

My goodness, what would happen if I were to miss that magic opportunity “while it is still available”? Will the sky fall down? Will we not be able to fly to Mars on the world’s best carbon fiber flying thingy? Will the whole aviation industry go bankrupt? Hello, Delta, we have some competition “Up in the Air”!

Who writes these one-size-fits-all messages? How impersonal with your marketing can you get?

Joe Novak @dynamojo66 DM’s me: “Get FREE REAL ESTATE BOOKS!! AND You can even post your money making system on this website!!http://moneymakerscommunity.com”

Hallelujah, Joe!  The biggest mystery of the century is solved -now I know where to get my free real estate books. If you can also tell us where to find the Malaysian plane that disappeared several months ago, we’ll be all set!!!  Just out of curiosity, I am not in a real estate business, but aren’t those books always free?

If Joe was a decent marketer who had carefully studied my buying persona, he would never have sent me this message, because I’ve never mentioned anywhere that I was interested in real estate or money-making business. If he knew Tashie well enough, he would be sending DMs like – “Does Prada make trade show shoes,” “What is the coolest planet to spend your next holiday,” “Tinder disasters,” “Social media protective goggles for people with no vision,” and many others. I love to buy books…just not books about real estate!!

This list of impersonal Twitter messages is endless. I have almost 2 thousand followers and maybe only 30 to 50 know me in person and 100 to 300 sincerely care about my interests. Another of my favorite sales authors, Kevin Knebl said, “Don’t kiss on the first date,” and I can’t agree more. First, I am an introvert; I don’t like to talk to many people, never mind kissing them. If you are a mortgage loan officer, don’t sell me your mortgages. Talk to me about the rates and trends in the market. Ask me about my house, and suggest some useful tips on how to increase its value.  ASK me questions, genius!!

Nobody likes to be hassled. But remember what I said in the beginning of my blog…well not me, but Jeffrey Gitomer: We all love to buy. And lately we are doing it online more than in stores.

As a professional social media marketer, I would suggest to anyone who is thinking of doing business on Twitter:

• Generate conversations  by asking questions. Surprise, sport! This social media thing is not all about you!!
• Play nice in a sandbox, say “thank you,” and give others recognition by retweeting their tweets.
• If no one’s interested in Twitter and your brand, then it probably sucks. Nobody cares about your brand but you, so earn your online prospects’ respect and trust. Don’t waste their time.
• Write! Either write for yourself or hire a writer. This is a new era of communications where the soft skills are more important than the technical ones
• Master your writing and write more. I am a foreigner and I write in English, so you have no excuse not to do it!
• There are tons of webinars, You Tube videos, and excellent books written on this subject. In my favorite book “Social Media Sales Revolution,” Kevin Knebl covers in details a Twitter selling strategy and various techniques to generate followers’ interest
• Post quality content; don’t post senseless pictures (it only hurts your reputation)
• If you don’t want me to write about you in my next blog, don’t automate your DM messages!!
• But very lastly, not to leave you without any value – Here is a link to the awesome and SHORT blog on everything you need to know about #hashtags, written by Director of Marketing Content at Social Business Strategies & CareerToolboxUSA, John White –

  https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/hashtags-what-you-need-know-john-white

  Sincerely Yours, A Girl with A Dream @Natashajuhasz

A Monkey with a Computer is Still a Monkey (continued)

 Social Media Revolution

I asked Kevin to rewind, to tell me the story of how his dream became a reality. After realizing that playing piano for a living was fun, but not enough to provide for a family in the Northeast, he decided to become a salesperson. Notice that the best motivational sales coaches were great salesmen first. Jeffrey Gitomer said in his “Little Red Book of Selling” about effectiveness of his principles,

“Don’t be blaming me. Not only do these principles work, they work in the Northeast, where people eat their young.”

I have lived in the Northeast for 24 years, and have worked in sales in upper Manhattan and the Bronx. I know exactly how it feels to be “eaten alive” by clients in NYC.

Kevin told me that one day he was asked by his customer to do a presentation to his sales team, because of his wonderful sales skills. His way to communicate with a client was always clear, understanding and companionable. Here it is, our first lesson – our customers trust us when we understand them, we are companionable and communicative. To be clear on the customer’s needs and expectations is the number one priority for any sales professional. Trust is earned and never assumed.

A career switch is a challenging process; you’d better be agile and adaptable if you aim for success. Kevin recognized that with the massive Internet expansion into our lives, the sales process has transformed into something completely new, a revolutionary phase of online networking, delivering value using new tools and new technology. The new “game” demanded new rules and regulations.

Telephone cold calls became ineffective and annoying (well, they were always annoying), self-promotional posts with no value were ignored, and email blasts with “Buy my $h%t” messages were mercilessly deleted.

In his book “The Social Media Sales Revolution” Kevin writes:

The Internet has created six fundamental shifts in the B2B Marketplace that are driving the future of the selling professionals.

1. Abandon Traditional Prospecting. Using online databases will make your searches more effective and relevant. Don’t interrupt people while they are busy. “Most of the important business correspondence comes in through their Inbox, not the phone line.” I personally was thrown out of Friendly’s headquarters in Wilbraham, MA for the very aggressive sales bullying of their security director. Use LinkedIn and emails to introduce yourself. Don’t be a bully, like Tashie. (Note from my editor: It’s very un-Friendly to throw someone out, Geez!)
2. Become a Marketer First and a Seller Second. I totally agree that marketers are salespeople and vice versa. Kevin defines marketing as “participating in activities that create opportunities to sell.” That can include networking, emailing, customer visits, email blasts, trade show campaigns. So, how would he define sales? “Selling is what you get to do if your marketing works.” Everything is interconnected in a sales process. Salespeople don’t point fingers at marketing if you didn’t close the sale. And, marketing, don’t blame engineering for not meeting the deadlines if you weren’t ready with your campaign. And, engineering, don’t blame either marketing or sales if your crap doesn’t work. The finger-pointing game doesn’t benefit anybody. Moreover, it hurts the customer, and therefore it hurts your business. Put that finger away…
3. Build Your Sphere of Influence. If you are an experienced sales professional, you are already networking with professionals in your field, participating in chambers of commerce, business and social organizations. You know that “most of your business comes in forms of referrals – strangers to whom you are recommended by a mutual contact.” The shift to online marketing hasn’t’ changed that. The benefit of networking in the digital era is that you can build your online presence before you contact your prospects. The rule of 80/20 applies here as well. Don’t ignore the 20 % of movers and shakers who will recommend your business to others…if you are an expert, of course. So, go ahead, serve your online gang, be useful, and be original on the digital battlefield of other “gurus.” As for me, my originality is in making people laugh. Find yours, and you can use it to expand your influence.
4. Become a value generator. That is my favorite game changer. This is the core of content marketing. A value is a    new fortune (I forgot who said that). This concept ties directly to your expertise level. Be valuable. “If you are a source for timely, relevant information that your sphere of influence can find benefit in – the market will come to you to obtain that advice.” IF YOU BUILD IT, THEY WILL COME. (I love that movie!)
5. Build your Personal Brand. Have you heard the term TOMA? I hadn’t. It is top of mind awareness. “In social media it is determined by two factors

• The quality of information (advice) that you provide to your sphere of influence
• The frequency with which you provide your information, which determines how often you are top of mind.”

In other words, don’t be sharing any random pictures, just because you think they’re funny. Communicate with your online community on regular basis (frankly, I am terrible at being consistent…working on it, though). Following those two simple rules, you can graduate to TOMATO (which is stands for top of mind awareness through others). Well, work on building TOMA and TOMATO will come! And by the way, it doesn’t matter how you say TOMATO – it will still work.

   6.  Work the Window. Kevin writes, “This one will take commitment and discipline,” describing rule #6 and 4 cycles in the B2B process:

• Buyer has no need
• Buyer identifies a need
• Buyer chooses vendor; buyer makes purchase
• Need fulfilled, buyer again has no need

How can we get into that “purchasing” window? “The popular misconception… that the purchase decisions are driven mostly by the efforts of the buyer to find a seller…” Ok, now we’re getting warmer in our quest for the Holy Grail of Sales.

Drumroll, please!!!

The magic sauce is in your branding and consistency

Disappointed? I doubt it. There is no magic in sales; there’s just hard work, dedication, professionalism, willingness to help others, and maybe a little luck. I am lucky; I got the chance to write about people like Kevin.

I know that for any sales professional who is struggling to strike conversations and build relationships online, this book can be a map to Sales Heaven. Kevin covers topics such as building a LinkedIn community and how to use Twitter and Facebook for business, and he teaches about online etiquette and building trust. You have to read it to find out.

One more thing I want to add before you run to Amazon to buy Kevin’s book: Don’t forget that you still have to do the hard work of serving your customer. If you give a computer to a monkey, it will still be a monkey. New tools and gadgets will not make you smarter. You make them smarter.

After all, I am not teaching you how to sell; I am just a girl with a dream. Dreaming of that special place where it doesn’t snow 500 days a year . (if you missed the joke, read the first blog)

A Monkey With a Computer is Still a Monkey

 

Part I – A monkey

I can’t honestly say I was a gifted child. I had lots of energy and decent brains (wasn’t quite a genius, but you couldn’t call me a dummy either), I was doing fairly well in school, and I was the loudest kid in my class. Being only 5 feet tall, I naturally wanted to be heard, rather than seen, so my gut-wrenching squall could be heard from the farthest corners of a classroom, while teachers tearfully begged me to use my “inside voice.” I have many similar “talents,” but my biggest blessing was my curiosity.

The number of questions I could ask per minute could be easily compared with heavy artillery cannonade in the battle of Waterloo…loud and non-stop.  As a poster child for ADHD, I was curious about everything – computers, languages, people, animals, relationships, theater and drama… other people’s drama (later in life I have learned to avoid the last one like the plague).   Networks and data communications were easy to learn, computer competency was in vogue, and I decided to make a career out it. Funny to admit, but troubleshooting computers and network routers was much easier than explaining their malfunctioning to the computer users.

Years later, I developed new skills and changed jobs. My curiosity led me to the Constitution State (somehow my internal compass got damaged and it went upwards, towards … more snow). But one thing remained the same – my love for new technologies and gadgets.  I was learning new platforms, downloading new apps, implementing new processes – more exciting, innovative and fun. My  “I have arrived” moment came when I discovered the magic world of Digital Marketing..   Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, oh my!!! I could skip all the way to the Emerald City of Sales just by following the Yellow Brick Social Media Road.

Selling and creating FREE online marketing campaigns seemed easy and natural. I didn’t think twice about jumping into the ocean of self-promotion, sending out messages – “Come to my booth, I’ll be at XYZ show!” “Stop by my booth and ask me questions!” Brrr…those waters were ice cold! I tried to “swim” a little further, posting some funny pictures without any purpose or valuable message to get positive responses, likes and shares, but nothing seemed to work.  People tried to connect to me on social media channels for the wrong reasons, clearly mistaking LinkedIn with Tinder for people with jobs.

As always, I started looking for a solution by asking questions, trying to find who could help me to network the new, “social” way on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc. My director suggested reaching out to Kevin Knebl. Thank God my employer hadn’t hired me for my spelling. I felt like I was on “Wheel of Fortune,” trying to buy some more vowels to spell Kevin’s last name…Later Kevin confessed that he wouldn’t dare try pronouncing my last name, either.  (I don’t blame him; sometimes I forget it myself).

Part II – Kevin’s story

From his website http://kevinknebl.com I learned that Kevin is an International Speaker, Author, Trainer and Coach. His clients range from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies. Ok, I was thinking skeptically, another social media “guru.” Ok, so he co-wrote a book… But the title of the book, “The Social Media Sales Revolution: The New Rules for Finding Customers, Building Relationships, and Closing More Sales Through Online Networking,” started to get my little bit of my attention. I was very interested in building more relationships online, but I still wasn’t sure if he was the right person to ask questions. Does he know anything about the Holy Grail of Online Selling? But wait. Suddenly my attention got the list of facts about Kevin. As a true ADHD “freak”, I started to read from the bottom of that list –

• Played piano professionally in the New York City area
• Married a woman whose wedding he was supposed to play at
• Yes, that last bullet point above is true

Whoa.. Kevin’s got sense of humor!!!  He is real!!!  His wife was supposed to marry someone else and she didn’t because…she married Kevin! Only later I found out how amazingly in love Kevin is with his wife Karin, how passionate he feels about his family and his three children- Anja, Tristan and Calais (that’s Princess Calais to you, my readers). Every morning he posts on Facebook a “thank you” note to God for another blessed day. When was the last time you talked to God on Facebook? Yeah, that’s what I thought.  But Kevin does.

His LinkedIn training videos on YouTube show his professionalism, knowledge of the subject and priceless humor. I know “funny” when I hear “funny.” A New Jersey native living in beautiful Colorado, he often jokes that “some of the folks who never been to Colorado, think it snows here 500 days a year, and that it’s always like a scene of The Shining.. “ He got me thinking about 500 days a year, and I burst out laughing…I must have had my blonde moment.

Kevin “has been delivering customized LinkedIn training longer than almost anyone else on earth.” Why? Because a word travels faster than light (hypothetically speaking). If he wasn’t successful at his job, nobody would listen to him! Simple! Kevin towers (literally, he is a tall dude) over the “bajillion” self-proclaimed LinkedIn gurus and sales authorities thanks to his professionalism, kindness, and love of life.

I felt an extreme and uncontrollable urge to write about this amazing man – a devoted husband, a loving father, a friend and a teacher. I asked him for a phone interview. I wanted to know his secret, his special “sauce” to the Social Media “meatloaf-beatloaf”

Here’s what he said….

Part III

Social Media Revolution in my next blog . Stay Tuned, Folks!