Dive into the archives.
- Pro Bono and Free Services: Is It Possible To Give Too Much?
Last Thursday I was taking part in a weekly discussion among designers called DCTH (Design Community Twitter Hours) and this question came up: When do you draw the line between pro-bono & just helping for free? A very interesting discussion followed and it got me thinking about my own experience with offering my design services pro bono or for free. In this post I want to share some of those experiences with you and how they have influenced my business approach as well as the impact this has had when I began applying it to my social media interaction.
- Surprise!!! Social Media (and Life) Is NOT A Competition
Spend a few minutes browsing through recent headlines about social media and you will most likely be left with the impression that all of the networks are in a fierce competition with each other. Facebook is the king, with more paticipants than any other. Twitter recently boasted that its users are posting an average of 50 million updates a day. Google Buzz burst onto the scene and the pundits immediately pitted it against the others in comparisons and contrasts. The list goes on and on, with countless also-rans and quickly-developed newcomers waiting in the wings, all hoping to compete for your membership and usage.
Zoom in and take a closer look within the individual social networks and you will witness users clamoring for significant increases in followers and friends, regularly checking numbers and trying a myriad of techniques to grow their counts to what those who are paying attention might call ‘respectable’. Tools that rate, rank and grade feed the frenzy and give us all the ability to measure our success in order to insure that we are doing things ‘correctly’.
A few weeks back I got involved in a conversation on Twitter in which another user (identity to remain anonymous) was tweeting complaints to TwitterGrader (a tool that ranks users based on an algorithm that goes beyond simple numbers). This person was upset because they have almost twice as many followers and updates as I do, yet TwitterGrader listed me in the top 5 in my city while leaving him somewhere further down the list. I told him it really didn’t matter and that this whole thing is not a competition, to which he responded vehemently, “EVERYTHING is a competition! LIFE is a competition!”
Really? Is that the world we live in?
- A Social Media (and Life) Lesson I Learned From My 12-Year-Old
Today is my son’s 12th birthday.
It seems like only yesterday that he was without a doubt the cutest toddler on earth, and as the youngest in the family it is definitely with much melancholy that we approach the incoming teen years with him, never to steer through the early childhood years again. From day one he has been his Mom’s “baby”, the youngest and only son and more-than-willing recipient of all the benefits that are a part of that special mother-son bond. So it is probably most difficult of all for my wife to watch him grow into a young man. Still, we are proud of who he is becoming, and it is part of this that I want to share with you in a simple but profound lesson I have learned from him.
- Don’t Let Your Bad Attitude Or Ethics Ruin It For The Rest Of Us!
The other night my wife and I went to our eldest daughter’s high school basketball game to cheer her on. We took our regular spot up at the top of the bleachers so we could lean back against the wall rather than slouching on the hard wood for the entire game. As we settled in, we noticed a few parents from the other team had the same idea and were setting up camp about 15 feet away. We commenced with the standard smile and nod acknowledgements and then turned our attention to the beginning of the contest. What transpired over the next hour inspired a range of emotions, from anger to frustration to disappointment. And I’m not talking about what happened on the court.
- Behind The Avatar #5: Introducing Freelance Graphic Designer Beth Daniell of EDGD
I don’t recall exactly how we started communicating, although I’m sure it was either Twitter or Facebook, but I have recently been enjoying getting to know Beth Daniell of Elizabeth Daniell Graphic Design (EDGD) through a few online conversations and interactions. Beth is a graphic designer who has made the shift to running her own freelance business and using social media to expand her networks and clientele. As we began conversing and sharing thoughts I knew she would be a perfect candidate for my friends and readers to meet, so I asked if she would be interested in participating in this series. She has generously taken the time to answer a few questions and share some insights into who she is. I invite you to get to know her and connect with her yourself so you can go beyond the surface and see who’s Behind The Avatar.
“Over the past 15+ years, I have found the inspiration for my design style through the cities I have lived in, the people I have met along the way and my love for all things unique. My education in various art forms is a concrete foundation for making me the artist I am today.”
- 190+ Links For October 09: Freelance, Web Design, Social Media and SEO!
One of the primary services I try to provide on Twitter is a seemingly endless supply of resource and news links in subjects that I am interested in. Primarily these include freelancing, web and graphic design, social media and search engine optimization (SEO). So today I have gathered some of the top links i have shared over the past month and organized them for you to bookmark and sort through at your leisure.
- Are “Lists” The New Twitter Status Measurement?
Let me start this off by saying that I have not made use of Twitter’s new “List” feature because I don’t use the Twitter web interface nearly as much as I use Tweetdeck (here’s a great article explaining Lists). At first glance it seems that the new feature is very similar to Tweetdeck’s “Group” feature that enables me to create groupings of specific people who I wish to organize their tweets and perhaps watch them a little more closely than others or for particular reasons. After doing a little research there is one apparent difference: lists are public. My groups in Tweetdeck are not.
I believe this is not just a good expansion of the social networking capabilities of Twitter, but it is also very strategic. I would be willing to bet that the geniuses behind Twitter, while creating a very useful addition to their already powerful and revolutionary tool, have also taken into consideration one of the driving forces behind its popularity: the competitive human nature that pushes for social media status and measurable success.
- Social Media Strategy Minus Human Engagement = Business Fail
Last night I went to my daughter’s first Freshman Chorus concert. Of course, my little girl’s voice stood out among the pack, but the beautiful sound of angelic voices blending perfectly together was wonderfully soothing and enjoyable, even though the majority of the songs they were singing were remarkably antiquated and, in my opinion, emotionally sterile. As a musician myself, I am admittedly a bit of a snob, but this was more about a lack of connection with and passion for what the songs were about. Each selection, including the big finale splattered with corny unison hand claps in what I guess was an attempt to display enthusiasm, left me disappointed for my daughter’s personal musical progression. Afterward we discussed the differences between singing well and singing with a passionate desperation from the depth of your soul. This is a perpetual rant for me, and one my family is probably exhausted with. But every time we sit through an American Idol show, or hear another sticky sweet pop song on the radio, or encounter anything else that pits passion against perfection, I can see that they get it, and that’s important to me as their father. If there is one thing I most want my children to carry with them throughout their lives, it is an intrinsic understanding that the pursuit of their passion is primary and that without it they will not only never be completely content, but they will also fall short of giving the world their very best.
At this juncture you are probably wondering what any of this has to do with the title of this post. Don’t worry. I didn’t use the title to lure you here to listen to me rant about musical integrity and passion, or how proud I am of my children. The point is this: whether it’s your own personal endeavors, or your business pursuits, or your new social media strategy, I believe you can only get so far on just doing it well. Without real, personal, passionate human interaction, your end result will always be limited.
- Behind The Avatar #4: David Yarde of HowsYourBlog.com (and more!)
I have been following David Yarde (@dsmy) on Twitter for a little while now and recently started subscribing to HowsYourBlog.com so I could take in his thoughts and insights about writing, blogging and more. David is a self-professed “design junkie” who seems to have a lot of things going on and new ideas springing up all the time. He and his wife Angie (@missneela) run Sevenality, a web and graphic design studio located in the Kissimmee, Florida area. David’s an interesting, friendly guy who I thought would be fun to get to know a little better, so I invited him to be a part of this series so we all could meet the man behind the avatar.
- 15 MORE Designers You’ve Never Seen On A List Before
There seems to be an endless supply of “undiscovered” and “undocumented” designers. You know the ones. All those talented people who are lesser known for whatever reason. Maybe networking is not their thing. Or they don’t do social media (yet). Or they’re just too busy working to try and promote themselves enough to be noticed by the design blog roundup writers. Whatever it is, it is most often not because of a lack of talent! Somehow most of the same designers end up on those lists, so being one of the “unknowns” myself, I am using my little corner of the internet to promote my fellow designers.
So here today I give you 15 more designers that, until now, you’ve never seen on a list before. Check out their websites. Follow them on Twitter. Connect with them on their other social networks. And let’s continue to encourage the growth of the design community.
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