You oughta be in pictures, and that includes on social media. My Pinterest account is christanyc. My Instagram account is onefineyogi. These channels are important to me for one main reason: 65% of the population is composed of visual learners so it pays to learn how to communicate with pictures. I am not a naturally visual personal. I am one of the oddballs who is almost entirely an auditory learner so communicating in visuals is very difficult for me. Pinterest and Instagram have greatly enhanced my visual abilities and they are fun to use. This is the big difference between Instagram and Pinterest for me: most of my Pinterest pins are pictures that other people have taken that I find interesting and Instagram is composed of photos I take.
Pinterest Think of this as a visual bulletin board that is neatly organized by topics that you choose. I’ve created boards that include Inspirational Words, Healthy Food, and Yoga. Some key points:
You can either upload images you’ve created or you can upload images from just about any website. When you upload from a website, you can click the uploaded image on your board and it will take you to the site where you found it. I mostly use this latter type of pin to help me bookmark websites that I want to be able to quickly refer to for recipes, visual inspiration, and new product ideas.
I also frequently pin pictures and quotations that I want to use for future blog posts and for the Compass Yoga and One Fine Yogi Facebook pages.
I use Pinterest to say hello to friends whom I share interests with (Hi, Sharni!) and to trade ideas back and forth with my sister, Weez, who is even more passionate about Pinterest than I am!
I am not too focused (yet) on building a following or following a lot of people as I mostly use it for my own reference and utilize keyword searches to find images that relate to what I need. As I begin to make more of my own products within my business, I expect that will change.
Instagram
I was very late to the game on Instagram, mostly because I was a bit freaked out when Facebook stated they would begin selling Instagram images for their own profit with no attribution to the people who created the images. After many people, some quite famous, abandoned and closed their accounts, Facebook quickly changed its tune.
I got into it about 2 months ago because it did seem like a fun platform to use and I wanted to share with the world more of the pictures I actually take. (Admittedly, I have just a *few* photos of my adorable pup Phineas!) It’s kind of like a visual diary of places I go and things I see. I mostly use Instagram mostly for fun and not much for work, but that could change in the future as I get more familiar with the platform and Facebook provides new functionality.
Putting it together
With these two platforms, I’m really trying to improve my visual thinking and visual explanation skills. So far, it’s been fun to play around with these and I have seen vast improvements in my design work as I spend more time with visual content. If you use these platforms, I’d love to hear what they’ve done for you!
“How dare you settle for less when the world has made it so easy for you to be remarkable?” ~ Seth Godin
I’m about half way through my series of posts on my social media strategy. Yesterday I came across this quote by Seth Godin and it crystalized for me why it’s so important for us to use social technologies. Several years ago, it was impossible to put our experiences, points of view, and concerns out into the world. Connections to individuals whom we admire were difficult to make and difficult to maintain. There was a lot of knowledge pent up inside of people’s heads and hearts. Social media has liberated information, connections, and our ability to share what we know and how we feel. It’s democratized information on an incredible scale. It’s a gift.
You are remarkable and unique. You are living a life that no has lived before and no one will ever live again. And that life is worthy of contemplation and consideration. You have a contribution to make, a gift to give, with your point of view. The world needs your perspective. Social media gives you a way to broadcast it to anyone and everyone. Yours is a voice that needs to be heard; social media is your microphone for your message.
This is why these tools are so important and why your participation is crucial. This world has a lot of large-scale problems that need attention, that need massive amounts of brain power, care, concern, and action. Social media is one way to rally us together, to help us unite our energies so that we leave this planet a bit better than the way we found it. That’s the mission for all of us – to let our light shine, collectively and individually. Are you on board?
Twitter is one of my favorite social media channels. You can find me at @christanyc. I use it in a number of ways personally and professionally.
1.) Connect, connect, connect
Twitter has liberated connections. If someone is on Twitter, they want to be found. With a simple @(their Twitter handle), you can reach someone to ask a question, give a shout out, or tell them about something you think they’d find interesting. By connecting, I’ve turned Twitter contacts into offline friends, mentors, and business partners. On a personal note, I’ve even dated a few great guys that I initially met via tweets.
2.) Learn and stay up-to-date with breaking news
Twitter is a great source of information. People constantly post interesting links and breaking news is now often first reported on Twitter rather than major news outlets. If you are an information junkie, Twitter is the place for you to indulge.
3.) Share
The flip side of learning is of course sharing out things that matters to you. I often tweet about charities I support, products I love, people who inspire me, and places I’ve been that deliver great experiences.
4.) Find your pack
This is a big one for me. Twitter is a wonderful place to find people who care about the same things you care about. You can find them and they can find you based upon hashtags, keyword searches, and common followers.
5.) Promote
Because I talk about my professional projects via Twitter, people who are interested in the same kind of work can connect directly with me about it.
6.) Get help
I often ask questions on Twitter when I need help with something – advice, referral, or general curiosity. My favorite Twitter help story is about JetBlue. I was in Florida visiting my family and my flight was cancelled due to a snow storm. I couldn’t get through to Jet Blue customer service on the phone so I tweeted them. I had a new flight booked in under three minutes – confirmation number and all.
7.) Live tweeting and Twitter chats
When I’m at an event – often a conference – I tweet interesting tidbits, soundbites, pictures, and links live from the event. This lets people who aren’t at the event get a chance to experience it and helps me to connect with people who are also at the event. Twitter chats are conversations around a specific theme with a wide range of people moderated by a single individual. Both live tweeting and Twitter chats can be discovered by their hashtags.
8.) Prospective work
I monitor my Twitter account closely for followers and people who favorite or retweet my tweets. I’ll often reach out via a direct message, follow-up tweet, or write to them via the email addresses on their websites. This has helped me discover great professional partnerships that I wouldn’t have otherwise been able to make. I recently did this after Advertising Week. I sent out about a dozen follow-up messages to people whom I had interacted with on Twitter in some way related to the event. I got a reply from almost everyone and a number of them led to meetings that may turn into collaborative projects.
9.) Sales, giveaways, and exclusive invitations
I’ve done a few different giveaways via my Twitter account. A lot of brands do this as well. If you have a brand that you love, check them out on Twitter. Many brands offer all kinds of exclusive opportunities that you can only get on Twitter.
As you can see it pays, literally and figuratively, to be on Twitter personally and professionally. In addition to my personal Twitter handle, I also manage the Twitter accounts for @CompassYoga and @OneFineYogi. Those accounts are less active than my personal account, though I use the same types of strategies for them.
Are you on Twitter? How have you made it work for you?
I stood on the corner of 11th and Bleecker staring at my email on a shiny screen through teary eyes. I found out that one of my sweetest and most dedicated yoga students lost his long battle with cancer. Today I’m going to his funeral to celebrate his long, happy, and bright life. I’ll be remembering his smile, laugh, and very kind disposition. More than anything I’ll remember the peace that washed over his face as soon as we began the meditation portion of our classes. I’m so honored that I had a chance to know him; my life is richer for it. And I hope in some small way his was, too.
In additional to my personal Facebook page, I also have Facebook pages for Compass Yoga and One Fine Yogi. It took me a long time to decide if this was a good idea. I wasn’t immediately convinced that brands could do something valuable with Facebook though eventually I came around to seeing the power of it for brands.
Compass Yoga Facebook Page
The Compass Facebook page includes inspirational images (and some with humor!), quick snapshots of yoga philosophy, links to our recent blog posts, updates on classes, event notifications, and gives students and supporters a way to connect with us quickly and easily to ask questions, give feedback, and make recommendations. I’d also love to encourage more fans to use it to interact with one another – we’re working on that piece. I used to put together a regular e-newsletter but I’ve decided to put more time into Compass Yoga’s Facebook page for several reasons:
1.) Facebook provides a two-way communication channels and is more dynamic. An e-newsletter is a one way communication tool that’s sent once in a while and many times goes unopened. By industry standards, if 20% of your subscribers open your e-newsletter, you are doing really well. Compass has always had 40%+, but that means that 60% of people never read it. 2.) Facebook gives us a way to connect people to one another. An e-newsletter just gives people a way to connect to us. 3.) The new Google inbox has all but killed email marketing. Many people have given up on email altogether in favor of social media. I will admit that I’m beginning to lean this way as well. 4.) E-newsletters are also difficult to share (meaning even when you click the share button, very few people ever open those shares) and time-consuming to create. A Facebook post is highly shareable and visible by a wide audience.
If you love yoga, or you’re just curious about it, I hope you’ll join us on the Compass Yoga Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/CompassYoga
One Fine Yogi Facebook Page
For a few months, I’ve been working on ideas and designs for One Fine Yogi, a line of yoga-inspired products in a few different categories. I’m still getting my head wrapped around this concept, and sorting through how I’d like it to take shape. Profits from the product sales will support Compass Yoga. While I figure out the direction for the product line, I post inspirational messages and images on the One Fine Yogi Facebook Page. If you need a boost in your day, I’d love to have you become a fan of the page: https://www.facebook.com/onefineyogi.
Facebook has been a great way to inspire people off the mat and to connect with supporters directly on a daily basis. It also helps people know that Compass Yoga and One Fine Yogi are run by real people who care about their health and well-being.
How do you use Facebook as part of your online presence and strategy?
Tomorrow, I’ll chat about Twitter – one of the social media channels I use most frequently.
As promised, my first blog post in this social media strategy series is about how I use my blogs – Christa in New York: Curating a Creative Life and Compass Yoga. I started blogging daily at Christa in New York: Curating a Creative Life on 5/31/07. To date, I’ve written 2,291 blog posts that have collectively received 250,000+ unique visitors across 60+ countries. It’s given me a way to learn, share, help, and celebrate. This blog has been a gift to me, personally and professionally, and there is no way to express how incredibly grateful I am to everyone who’s ever read it.
Blogging helps me connect with people even when we are separated by geography
My friend, Alice, was the editor of our school newspaper and she kindly published a few pieces I had written during our second year. My friend, Stephen, asked me if I planned to keep writing after we graduated. He said I should start a blog. I asked him who would ever read my blog and he simply replied, “I’d read it.” I remember that conversation as if it happened yesterday. That conversation changed the course of my life. I didn’t know it yet, and I don’t think Stephen did either. Some of our most poignant life moments happen that way – they come and go and it’s only upon reflection that we realize how very important they are.
My first blog I got started blogging on Blogger.com exactly 9 years ago to the day on October 15, 2004 while I lived in Washington DC. My first blog was Eyes and Ears Wide Open and it was on blogger. My first post began: “I’ve been journaling for almost 20 years, and the time has finally arrived for me to get some of these thoughts out of my head, off the closed pages of my diaries, and out into the world. I hope that someone reads them and gets something out of them.” I published a total of 26 posts.
Blogging has shaped my career and my life
On May 31, 2007 I sat down on my couch and started my current blogging adventure. That simple site was largely responsible for helping me secure my first job out of business school at Toys R Us. My boss, Bob G., became my mentor and supporter. During my interview, we chatted about my blog – I had put the URL on my resume. Bob loves a good story, and I told him I was trying to figure out how to become a good storyteller. Today, we’re still trading stories…on Facebook.
Once the recession hit in 2008, I knew I needed to jump to a new job. Like all specialty retail, Toys R Us was heading for the cliff and I didn’t want to go with it. My blog helped me to secure a new role at American Express because my daily posting showed I was disciplined and committed. The job itself was great in terms of the work, but my bosses were the worst I have ever had in my career. Additionally, the company was about to go through one of the most frightening times in its 150+ year history. Lehman Brothers failed 5 weeks after I started my job, and I had a choice: I could be scared and keep my head down or I could pick my head up, sit at the front of the class every day, and learn as much as I could for as long as I was there. I chose the latter and wrote about many of my experiences, without naming American Express, on my blog. The posts are all there, as are the many lessons I learned along the way. *Blogging gives me a way to process what I learn and archive those learnings for myself and others.*
I stayed in that role for 16 months and when a friend told me about a new job in product development, I sold my story like never before. The competition for the role was fierce. I put everything on the line, including my growing interest in blogging and social media. That key point – that I blogged every day about my life and hit “publish” – helped me secure the role and that began my journey as a product developer in technology in a deep way. My blog gave interviewers a way to get to know me on a highly personal level. I also made a lot of dear friends in that role who taught me so much, many of whom are still a wonderful part of my life. I will always be grateful for their presence, acceptance, and support.
Finally, my blog led me to connect with so many people around the world who care about things I care about. Some of my favorite friends found me through my online writing, and to this day their support has never wavered. It is that support that helped me believe I could make a go of writing full-time, or at least give it a healthy shot. On June 15, 2012, I took the plunge to freelance and start my own content development business, Chasing Down the Muse, and in 16 months, I’ve never looked back. It’s been a wild ride; one I am grateful for every day.
The Compass Yoga blog
In March 2010, I started Compass Yoga, a nonprofit to get more yoga to more people in more places. When I published the Compass website, I had no idea how my idea would develop, nor all of the incredible people I would meet on the journey. This blog has 270 posts though I now publish much more regularly on it than I did at the start. Most of the posts are re-posts of content from other sites that discuss the therapeutic benefits of yoga and meditation. Occasionally, I publish a product review and world yoga news.
Through the incredible efforts of so many people, the Compass Yoga blog has been named one of the top 100 yoga blogs and one of the top 10 yoga blogs on Twitter. These kinds of tributes are humbling, shocking, and motivating. What began as one small class at my local library has become a source of comfort for so many people, and most of that credit goes to the amazing teachers, students, board members, donors, supporters, and volunteers who make Compass Yoga what it is – a place online and off that welcomes and accepts all voices in pursuit of a healthy, happy existence.
Blogging helps me find kindred spirits
She who does not howl will never find her pack. For me, blogging has been a way for me to shout about things that inspire me and are important to me, and connect with people who share those interests. Through my blogs, I have been able to create a living, breathing tapestry of my own personal history and the many fantastic characters who have played a part in making me the person I am. It is a deeply satisfying endeavor, something that helps me carve a life I love. It’s been a tool to discover who I am, and it’s given me a way to contribute and pay tribute to the lives of others.
Tomorrow’s social media strategy topic: How I use Facebook.
Today I’m kicking off a series of blog posts about how I used different social media channels. I’m writing this series for a few reasons:
1.) To let people know all of the ways we can connect online
2.) To help people who are interested in building / enhancing their own social media presence
3.) To crystallize the strategy and value of my own use of different social media channels
Social media has been an important part of my life because it’s allowed me to stay connected with people, even if they reside on the other side of the world. It’s largely responsible for being my partner in crime as I carve my own professional path as a writer. I’ve made so many friends through social media that I’ve lost count; I’ve actually become so close to some of them that I often forget that social media is what initially brought us together.
Tomorrow I’ll “chat” about this blog, as well as Compass Yoga’s blog, and how I use blogging on a daily basis in my personal and professional life. Because it bears repeating, I’ll also recount my story of how I got started blogging and the friends who inspired my blog writing.
For a few months, I’ve been working on ideas to combine my love of technology with my passion for health and wellness. I posted my first invention idea on Quirky to accomplish this: a temporary web-enabled health tattoo to reduce stress and anxiety. I’d love it if you’d hop on over to the page where it’s posted and like it if you’re so inclined: click here.
What this invention does:
This invention utilizes temporary tattoo technology currently available to monitor muscle tension, temperature, and blood pressure, all early indicators of stress and rising anxiety. Connected to a mobile app, the user would receive a ping from his or her mobile device and be led through brief meditation and breathing exercise to help reduce his or her stress level. The user can then chart stress level over time for personal reference and review with healthcare providers. This invention raises awareness of our stress level while also giving us empowering tools to manage it when we need it most.
A few different circumstances inspired this idea: 1.) At Advertising Week I learned about epidermal electronics tattoos that are temporary films applied to the skin to monitor vitals signs like temperature and blood pressure 2.) My sister, Weez, had such a tough day last week that she got a backache for two days from the stress 3.) While I love there are so many e-health apps that are now on the market, many of them require us to manually input a lot of information, making them cumbersome and time-consuming to use 4.) Some scientific studies have shown that stress is one if the root causes of as much as 90% of all disease
What the heck is Quirky?:
Quirky is an online platform that gives independent product developers like me (and you!) the opportunity to put their ideas out into the world and have the crowd vote on the ones that they find most useful. To date, they have enabled the development of 398 of these ideas with a community of 544,000 inventors.
Yesterday I went back through the play I wrote over the summer to make some additional edits as I prep it for playwriting fellowship applications. It is a deeply personal work that is layered with lots of bits and pieces of me inside all of the characters.
Many are pieces I am not especially proud of. They are bits that often feel like microscopic shards of glass that I step on over and over again. The hardest part of writing it has been to see the light, the humor, and the release, even in the moments of the play that portray incredible pain and sadness.
People have asked me if it’s a comedy or a tragedy. There are bright spots, and dark spots. It’s happy and sad and happy again. It’s a roller coaster. It’s a different ride for each character because they all know something different. Want something different. Feel something different. They each live the same set of circumstances and yet each has a different lens on them. They’re all trying to heal. They’re all trying to survive the plot and emerge from the other side a better person. It’s a lot like real life. It’s messy, and beautiful, all at once.
A good editor can make all the difference between a quality piece of writing and a stellar piece of writing. An editor is a jeweler: she needs the raw material with high potential that she can cut, buff, and shine into brilliance. The Mötley Fool taught me a critical editing lesson that I am afraid I have long missed and plan to remedy.
Every editor I’ve ever had has told me about the importance of a strong lead to grab a reader’s attention. The Mötley Fool taught me the importance of a strong close but for a different reason than I ever considered. A strong close is a reward to a reader for sticking with a piece. I’ve spent so much time shining up my leads that I fear I’ve neglected the humble and critical close, and I plan to fix that.
A solid piece of writing leaves the door open for consideration and discussion. It takes a reader off the page and into the world with the ideas and opinions that the writer is compelled to share through his or her words. The opening is what draws a reader in, though the ending is largely what remains when it’s all over. It doesn’t need to be pretty or neat, but it does need to be powerful. It does need to be satisfying while also stirring intrigue. It has to make readers glad that they stuck around and cause them to seek out more from the author. Ending well ensures that there will be new beginnings down the line. Many thanks to the Fools for this lesson. I am better for it.
Christa Avampato 