It’s been a huge couple of days; ending with (almost!) catching up on my work when I finally managed to put head on pillow at 2am.
So, this morning, it’s been great to clear some emails then head to the ECDP at at Talara for some colour sorting.
So I mentioned recently that my cousin from England was coming out to Oz, to stay with us for a few days. Well, the few days turned into almost-a-week, which was even better – plus, he left just as my family decided to come down with a vomiting bug, so he and his family left at just the right time, I think!
During his stay, we visited my parents at the retirement village where they live. Here’s my cousin Phil with my dad. A strong family resemblance, wouldn’t you say?
It was lovely to also meet and spend time with his fiancé, Jo, and her daughters, Darcy and Hope. My kids loved them to bits and were quite upset when they left. In fact, Mr 3 unfortunately ‘dropped’ my iPod onto concrete in his distress – chalk up two devices, now, with newly cracked screens. I’m seriously going to have to look into stronger cases for them, I think!
Here Phil and the family are laughing because Mr 3 is ‘copying’ me, taking photos on the iPod while I take them on my iPhone. They thought it was hilarious, that he was pretending to take photos – until I showed them that he actually *was* taking photos! They were amazed that he could navigate to the camera all by himself. I mentioned that he’d being doing taking both photos and videos for about a year now…
So that was last week. And it ended with me being sick all weekend. By Sunday I felt ready to die. I was SOOOOOOO overwhelmingly nauseous that I swiped one of Hubby’s Phenergen tablets – which knocked me out for a good few hours. When I did eventually wake up, it was like trying to move through thick, cloying mud. It was incredible!!! I’d never been like that before – ever! (Well, the mud yes – at Emu Gully some years back now, but that’s another story!) And the nausea was gone, which was great. What was not so great was the realisation that the nausea had been masking three very distinct stabbing pinpoints of pain in my stomach. Which was not so much fun.
But it’s Monday now. Hubby and Miss 7 have just left for school, and I’m heading off soon to meet with a potential client; then later head down to Caboolture for a ‘Round Table Discussion’ of three schools. It should be an enlightening day. Hopefully my still very tender stomach will be able to handle it all…!
Have a great day, dear readers!!!
So this morning has been a lot ‘slower’ than normal. Not through choice, but through exhaustion. Long story, and I won’t go into it here. But part of my ‘slower’ morning was actually taking the time to brush my hair in front of a mirror. (Normally it’s an ‘in the car at traffic lights’ kind of hairdo).
So anyway, I was standing in front if a mirror (again, VERY unusual experience; standing still…) and I noticed the extra white hairs that weren’t there last time I brushed my hair in front of a mirror. ‘Well, duh!’ I thought. Bound to happen, really. They’re my ‘hairs of experience’. Wisdom hairs. Maybe!
So my first reaction was to reach up and go to pull out the more obvious ones… but I caught myself in time. You see, on my 35th birthday, a few years ago now, I made a pact with myself- no more pulling out white hairs. Considering I started this habit on the day I found my first one, which just so happened to be my 18th birthday, that was almost half a lifetime of habit that I had to overcome! Still an’ all, I haven’t pulled out another to this day. My hair can grow old gracefully (because I’m not sure that *I* will be!)
LOL
(Maybe they’re not too obvious in this light… or any other light too, actually!)
Maybe I’m just going crazy. But the world seems to be turning faster and faster, and life seems to be getting busier and busier – is that right? Anyone else noticing this?
Cos right at the moment, I really feel like yelling “Stop the world!! I wanna get off!!!”
Is it just me?
CC Image courtesy Sean MacEntee at http://www.flickr.com/photos/smemon/5091040324/
(LOL ‘Extended family visits ‘ as in ‘cousins’, ‘uncles’, ‘aunts’ etc, not ‘close family members staying for extended periods of time’!)
So I mentioned on Wednesday that my cousin is coming to stay with me. He arrives later today, and I’m really looking forward to it, seeing as I last laid eyes on him around 32 years ago, when I was 5 and he 7 or 8. He lives in Kent, and is travelling to Oz not to escape the Olympics but because his fiancé has just discovered her father (she’s been looking for him her entire life) and he lives in the Whitsundays. So my cousin, his fiancé, and her two daughters, will be here in just a few hours, and will stay for almost a week with us before heading north for a few more weeks.
Just SOOOO excited!!! (Better go and clean the kitchen, hey!)
I’ve been blessed with pretty much zero athletic ability. Physical prowess isn’t something I have ever really valued highly. Okay, okay, when I was younger, I was a fairly good ballet dancer. I even won a couple of trophies for it! But the love I felt for dancing quickly waned when, in upper primary school, my dance class and I all passed the junior grades, and ‘graduated’ into pointe shoes, but my father didn’t want me to continue because I was such a tiny child and obviously not yet physically ready for such potential damage to my feet. So they all continued, and I didn’t. Oh well.
And dancing was about the only ‘sporting’ activity I was really good at. I’ve never really followed – or even been interested in, for that matter! – the cricket or footy codes, and even State of Origin is kind of a ‘ho hum’ in our house. So ‘Olympic Fever’ is just not going to catch on under my roof. Hubby feels the same. 
Opening Ceremony hasn’t even hit the TV screen yet, and already we’re complaining to each other that ‘there’s not going to be much on’ for the foreseeable future!
It’s fortunate then, that my cousin is coming to stay with us for part of this Olympic period. He’s my father’s sister’s eldest son, recently turned 40, and I haven’t set eyes on him in about 32 years. I’m really looked for ward to seeing him! (Plus, that should help me forget about the non-offering on TV for a while…!)
CC Image courtesy thedcms at http://www.flickr.com/photos/thedcms/7406700284/
I’ve just caught this tweet:
A big warm welcome to Semester 2 everyone! 😀
— QUT Info Studies (@qutisg) July 22, 2012
and I’m guessing that Semester 2 has just started. Which is cool; it marks two years since I started this Masters in IT. When I started, I had 12 courses ahead of me. Now I have just 3 left. Two of which are core courses, only offered in Semester One, and the third of which, an elective, I’m *doing* this semester. And by *doing*, I mean ‘applying for Advanced Standing’. So I’m pretty stoked about being able to do that!
Actually, when I think about it, I’m pretty stoked with how my studies have gone to date. Considering that, prior to July 2010, my last stint at ‘hitting the books’ was November 1995, I’m done pretty well. In this Masters, I’ve received 4 High Distinctions, 3 Distinctions and a Credit (and I must emphasise that the credit was for an elective I took – foolishly, in hindsight – from a different faculty, with rather different standards, and we just didn’t seem to get along too well.) So at present, I’m pretty happy with my GPA of 6.375, and last year I accepted an invitation to join the International Golden Key Honor Society – something that I never knew existed, but am now a part of! (To save you googling it, like I had to, it’s a group for University students who are in top 15% of achievers. They meet, do charitable works, that sort of thing.)
So I have three courses – 2 cores, 1 elective – to go (and professional practice to complete, which will make up the final 12th course). And this semester, I’ll be writing up a 3000 word application for ‘Advanced Standing’, which, if approved, means that it’ll take the place of the elective, and I’ll only have the two courses to go. It’s such a head-spin to think that, by this time next year, I may in fact be a fully qualified Librarian, and able to add ‘M.IT.’ after the ‘B.Ed.’ after my name. How COOL is that!!!
I think I’ve blogged before about the great iPad App “Playschool Artmaker”. Well, I discovered recently that you can use your own backgrounds. Photos that you’ve taken, can now be added to with the Playschool toys and other bits and pieces. So my kids have had a field day! Here’s one of Miss 7 and Mr 3 on the playstation, being cheered on by the PlaySchool toys…
And Mr 3 has decided that he likes ‘hiding’ the people in the photo by covering them with al foil. You just gotta love his creativity!
We also found out that you can make a whole “story”, using the photos and videos that you’ve previously made using the App. But I’d better not add one here; it’d be far too huge! You’ll just have to take my word for it that the stories my kids make are just so darn cute…!
(Oh, and in case you were wondering… No, this is not a paid ad. LOL!)
That’s how my life feels right now. It’s just so jam-packed… and I love it! Okay – I’m up again, on my computer, posting at 5.52 am, after settling Mr 3 at 2.48am and again at 3.52am, and then deciding to just stay up because I’ve got so much to do anyway…
So the weekend before last, Hubby and I spent Saturday together. No kids. (Yes, this is actually rare enough that it rates a mention. Sad, really…!) and we visited IKEA. We’ve been married almost 18 years, and only now am I learning that his dislike of ‘clutter’ means that he dislikes bookshelves. He prefers furniture with doors – cupboards, wardrobes, buffets, etc etc). Rather a revelation for a wife who loves books (yes, @jobeaz, the physical variety! I haven’t really warmed to the whole idea of eBooks yet!) and who has lots and lots… and lots of them.
Never mind; I’m adaptable. So I started planning how to ‘de-clutter’ (without spending too much money, of course!) and this meant that yesterday was furniture-moving day. I re-worked the girl’s bedroom (Miss 7 got the shock of her life when she got home from school!), Mr 3’s bedroom, our bedroom, the dining room, and have started on the lounge room. This Saturday will see two large pieces of lounge room furniture moved to my in-laws, to make room for the new TV/entertainment unit (not yet purchased, but it’ll be coming from IKEA) and the new lounge (again, not yet ordered, but this will be from Fantastic Furniture because I really like their ‘storage’ lounges) – oh, and the orientation of the furniture in the lounge will also change 90%. So it’ll be (eventually) like a whole new house. (And maybe that’s why it’s been over 15 years since I visited IKEA!)
So that was yesterday. On the work front, I discovered last night that a tweet I sent got retweeted by three people.
https://twitter.com/BloxhamMkting/status/224774127473541120
One of these accounts has over 19,000 followers! And a reply tweet I got form another of these people (in South Africa, by the way) said that she loved my link; and that her friends were currently sharing it around on Facebook. So how COOL is social media!!!
It’s Monday. It’s 4.54am. I’ve been up since 2.30, courtesy Mr 3 and a couple of nightmares. I’ve just finished my weekly blog entry for Bloxham Marketing, and I’m pretty proud of it (considering the time of day, and the lack of sleep, I’m quite impressed with myself) but right now I’m feeling too lazy to think up another post for “Hmmm…” for my regular Monday entry… so I’m going to cheat and re-post the same content here. Sorry! (Actually, I choose to think of it as sharing my granule of wisdom with my ‘personal blog’ audience as well as my ‘work’ one… LOL) Plus there’s a bonus – it won’t be posted there until 8.30am today. So – those of you who are up early – get to read it first. Yay! (LOL again) Here tis:
**************
The ‘Survivor’ Guide to tweeting for your business
Survivor: Outwit. Outplay. Outlast. It’s exactly these three ideas that you probably want for your own business, right? To stay ahead of your competitors; to remain viable in your marketplace? Me too! So – what can the Reality TV show Survivor, the creator of this phrase “Outwit. Outplay. Outlast.” teach us about using twitter for our businesses? Read on!
1. Form alliances
From that very first season, the importance of ‘alliances’ was obvious. Those in an alliance, got to the final tribal council. And the strongest member of the alliance, won. It was as simple as that. On twitter, we need to do the same. Form alliances. Follow others. Engage with them (retweet their good stuff; reply; converse) and respond genuinely when your followers retweet, reply to, or engage with, you.
And the idea here is to be genuine. People don’t readily ‘form an alliance’ with automated tweets. Okay – I admit it – I used an auto-responder on my @BloxhamMkting account for a while back there, which automated ‘Thanks for the RT” and “Thanks for the mention” and “Thanks for the follow” – until I realised just how quickly this was turning off the exact sort of people I wanted to engage with. The genuine ones; the leaders in the fields I was seeking to be a part of; and (of course) my own followers. I also realised how much I hate automated responses filling up my own @mention stream – even worse, my DM inbox. This convinced me. Now I use auto-responders only for the tweets I send (and no, not to just send the identical content to Facebook as well!) Want strong ‘alliances’? Engaging with others is the best way to form them.
2. Honesty – always the best policy
On “Survivor”, it’s always easy for the audience to spot the fake. Watching the show then becomes more interesting, as we’re waiting to see when the double-crossing character finally gets ‘caught out’ in their lies and deception. Often it’s those who’ve been the most ‘honest’ who get the fartherest. Likewise on twitter. If you’re tweeting for your business, realise that there are people out there who don’t like your business (especially if you’re a big company!) and that you’re going to probably get some flack for things that you have, or haven’t, done. So be honest when people tweet that negative stuff. Acknowledge that something’s gone wrong. Use the instantaneous nature of twitter to try to rectify the problem. Your community will appreciate the honesty.
3. Loyalty will get you further
Loyalty. Let’s face it – in business, that’s what we want, right? A loyal customer base. But there’s only one way to get their loyalty – be loyal to them. Be dependable. Be consistent. Be the brand that they know that they can rely on. On Survivor, those who remained consistent throughout, engendered the most respect – and that’s whether they were consistently ‘nice’ or consistently ‘evil’ (to use ‘Survivor’ terminology, here) – wholly and solely because they were consistent. The people who formed alliances with them, respected them because they were dependable. Those characters who (again, using ‘Survivor’ terminology) flip-flopped, back and forth between different choices or different strategies? They lost the respect of the other players extremely quickly. When you’re tweeting for your business, this is the last thing we want! We want the respect of our customer base, right? So be loyal. Be consistent. Be dependable.
4. Have a strategy
Think ahead. Know your business plan. And – sparingly, and where appropriate – share parts of that plan with your followers. Use your strategy to inspire your loyal customer base, just as those who were the leaders in their tribes shared their vision of the next strategic move with their allies. On twitter, use the functionality to reward those most loyal; and also to get your message out and extend your reach. New eBook? First mention of a new product release? Just a thought – let your loyal followers be the first to know! Whatever your strategy; devise it, and follow it!
5. Adapt to the situation
Some of those ‘Survivor’ challenges are absolutely crazy. But that’s what makes the show so entertaining. Likewise, some situations in business are going to see you doing things that you never would have expected. Three years ago, you never would have been reading a blog post about how to use twitter for your business – and what tips a reality TV show can give you on the topic!!! But you’ve adapted, you’ve changed, as the world has changed. Kudos to you! Just don’t stop now. The world *is* changing – faster than we can even realise it – so we need to adapt. Yes, today we need to ensure that we’re tweeting for our businesses; retweeting, replying, and genuinely engaging with others, however… who knows what may lie around the corner? We’ll need to rise to conquer these new challenges. If we don’t, we’ll end up in the business equivalent of Tribal Council, where the real world equivalent will snuff out the remnants of all of our hard work and say “The Marketplace has Spoken”. And none of us wants to be there, so we?!
So – five ideas that ‘Survivor’ can teach us about tweeting for our businesses. What did you think? Did I miss any? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
**************
Well, that’s been my thinking over the past couple of hours (in between settling my little man from his night-time horrors). Sorry again that I’m not feeling up to writing a whole heap here. But I’d love to hear what you thought of my BloxhamMarketing post!
And have a great day, dear readers! (I think I might head back to bed now. It’s cold out here and it may (please, God!) remain dark and quiet for another hour or so yet…)