I try really hard as a parent to keep current. The radio in my van is tuned to the top 40 station, I Facebook, and watch YouTube videos that get jammed in my face or land in my inbox. My texting skills are pretty ok for a person who has to hold her phone at arm’s length to read the screen. Relating to my kids I find, is easier with more common ground and more common knowledge. Granted I have to keep an urban dictionary bookmarked and I am never totally sure if a status update is actually a song lyric or a reason to panic. Perhaps I am missing the mark but one thing is certain; if I am not trading information equally with my kids at the very least my lameness gives them something to laugh at.
Regardless of my prowess I muck along and to be quite truthful I really enjoy the electronic age and it’s social network sites.
I have a Facebook social circle that exists separately and parallel to my intention of creeping my children’s pages. I am partially ‘Linked-in’ and I don’t just send text messages, I receive them as well. I have not one but two Blogs, that’s pretty 2012!
A few months back, in an effort to expand and update my pulse on social networking, I joined up with Twitter. That took some getting used to, just the act of ‘Tweeting’, ‘following’, ‘Re-Tweeting’ and ‘Replying’. To date I have amassed 2000 tweets; messages that have flown out into the social atmosphere for everyone or no one to read, as the case may be. At first I was intimidated and I am sure I broke a lot of ‘rules’. Then I got comfortable and I’m sure I broke even more ‘rules’. I am still trying to figure out how to choose who one follows and how to break those followers into manageable lists. Lists I am sure are why most of my tweets gratefully fly under the radar, because I’m not on lists (public ones anyway) So I’ve not lost much sleep worrying about who might be watching me bumble around and figure this whole thing out.
Then I started seeing big players tweet about personal branding, selling your social presence, and personal mission positioning. WOW! A moment to rethink this twitter thing please, have I jumped into the wrong sandbox again? I thought we were all just having fun. I didn’t know that I should be tracking my Klout and delivering only valuable information. I should have done some research. Now I’m finding out that there are deadly social mistakes you can make that will kill your social networking reputation and damage your feed. Frig, I just wanted to bitch cleverly about my pet peeves, share a laugh with others in the throng of everyday and spread some positive perspective. More and more I’m learning however that there is this other side to a social network life.
So for clarification, just in case someone wants an expanded Bio…I’m offering this as an overview of my tweeting position.
My Brand is whatever happens to be on sale.
My Goal is happiness – my own. Fortunately for my friends and family they get to come along for the ride because my road to happiness is solely dependent on helping others achieve peace and their dreams.
What I’m flogging; hope mostly, because I am usually hoping like hell that people care enough about something to change their world.
The message I’m sharing; be grateful that you are on the green side of the sod.
What I tweet; the upside, the glass half full and the occasional personal reflection on how my children, pets and husband are systematically investing in my future emotional instability. I pass on good deed info and appeals for help. Oh and if I think I know the answer I will stick up my hand and blurt it out.
My Value; I am a smart ass know it all with a propensity for sticking my nose into conversations it wasn’t invited to. I don’t grasp social convention fully or care about mistakes – mostly because I am alive to enjoy myself and mistakes (or trying to correct them) have lead me to some of my greatest joys and accomplishments.
Follow me – I might follow back. Although, I hate to disappoint you; I’m not here to impress anyone or impress upon anyone. I am only here to have fun, survive the adolescence of my children and participate in the occasional good deed. I can’t even pretend to know what I’m doing. It’s highly unlikely that following me will increase your Klout and I can’t promise that I won’t irritate you with positive comments, blog post sharing or pictures of my dog. But my lameness is at the very least, good for a laugh – Just ask my kids.
The handle you want to warn your friends about is @micheskitchen oh, and if I have pushed your follow button and you have no patience for lameness, feel free to block my view. I probably won’t know the difference.
Gratitude today that I don’t have a clue how to market myself, I never have to worry about breaking my brand or about forgetting who I am.
Gratitude, Hope and Smiles should never be kept to yourself,
Michelle
