Two Hours in San Francisco with Jen & Brittany

It was our last few hours in San Francisco and what did we do? Brittany from The Domestic Geek and I left the hotel at 8:30 a.m. and took a cab to see the painted ladies which I was so confused about. You don’t want to know what I thought we were going to go see. Lol! I did grow up watching Full House and even watched Fuller House on Netflix but, I NEVER knew the famous Victorian homes were called painted ladies. We stood across the street at Alamo Square Park and took pictures. Fun Fact: In addition to Full House the homes appeared in Bicentennial Man (1999) and Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978).

Touring San Francisco

Next we decided to walk to a nearby restaurant for brunch. We even saw Petit Crenn a “popular” Modern French Bistro location along the way. Brittany pointed this out to me. It was on Chef’s Plate another Netflix feature with Chef Dominique Crenn. The Grove was absolutely perfect. I loved the outdoor seating area but, we opted to sit inside. We ordered our breakfast. I had lavender lemonade with the Grove French Toast. Brittany had the warm cinnamon roll bread pudding and it looked delicious. We chatted while we ate breakfast and then decided to start walking back to the hotel and sight-see along the way.

On our walk back to the hotel Brittany says that the Twitter Headquarters is really close by and there was no way I was going to NOT stop by if even for a second. Twitter is by far my favorite social media platform. I got so excited! We took a few pictures and continued our journey back to the Westin St. Francis where we stayed. I was intrigued by a free standing restroom on a random corner. I think it’s super convenient, just nothing I’ve ever seen before. Brittany said that it may be because of the high homeless population rate in that specific area.

Brunch at the Grove

Can you believe we got back to the hotel a little after 10:30 a.m.? Check-out wasn’t until noon. We were both packed and were making transportation arrangements to get to the airport. I NEVER carry cash on me so our next adventure was finding a Wells Fargo ATM so I could pull some cash. We couldn’t decide on Uber, Lyft or a Luxury Car Service. We found a Wells Fargo ATM and then located a nearby branch after the fact. I took care of business and then on the way back found an UGG Australia Store. I couldn’t pass it without going inside because you know… Shopping!

The UGG Australia Store didn’t have my Bailey Bow Tall in store but, referred me to their website where it just happened to be on SALE! I love buying clothes and boots off season because you can always catch a good sale. So, now we got back on track and had to get back to the hotel to check-out and head to the airport. We had flights within thirty minutes of one other. I did express check-out which was so convenient. We decided to use a luxury car service and chatted the entire way to the airport. We had been chatting all morning and even the night before.

Blogger Friends & Moto Makers!

Brittany, I had a blast tagging along on your morning adventure. I got my steps in walking around San Francisco. I was tracking my steps on my Moto 360 and I know you were too. Lol! Thank you. It was great getting to know you throughout our trip and I can’t wait to connect (in person) again. Until then I’ll see you online. We’ll have so much more exciting things to talk about come September! I can’t wait… *wink*

HIRL With Social Media Expert Corvida Raven

So, not only is it essential to engage on twitter but, if you are present and do it at the right time you just may make someone’s day and yours simultaneously. The other morning I had woken up and immediately checked email and twitter like I normally do. Sorry, if you thought that washing my face or brushing my teeth came first. That’s the second thing I handle after waking up. Ha! I had a tweet from Corvida Raven asking if I was in Durham already. I had tweeted her earlier in the week stating how excited I was to finally get to meet her at the AT&T 28 Days event. She didn’t know I resided in Durham. I replied “Yes, I live here.” In a matter of seconds I got a text message from my online and offline friend Regina Twine asking what I was doing? Corvida had made plans for the day but, due to our funny North Carolina weather she could no longer do what she planned. At this point she just wanted to relax after traveling, before she had to be interviewed by multiple media outlets and speak at the AT&T 28 Days Concert Series event.

Regina asked if I was available to host Corvida for the day and at the same time Corvida was sending me a DM to discuss the same thing. Me host one of the awesome social media icons I look up to in my home for the day, sure why not! After a phone call and quick clean up my home from tornado mini me, I was on my way to meet Corvida. We made our way back to my home but, not before stopping at Bojangle’s for some breakfast and we talked for a while before she got some much needed rest. We are both of Caribbean decent, we discussed being brought up the strict Jamaican way and of course we could not “NOT” talk about technology. It was very nice to meet and get to know Corvida outside of being a social media expert. She’s down to earth, and REAL, I love to meet people who tell it like it is. Mini Me was drawn to Corvida and he showed her his iPad 2 and played a few games while she watched him navigate his way around his tablet better than some adults.

Corvida and I discussed the importance of using social media and engaging on multiple platforms for different reasons whether business or personal. When Corvida spoke at the AT&T 28 Days event about Digital Media = Participatory Media, it made perfect sense. Why do people listen to what we have to say? At the end of the day we can all learn something from one another. We are all educators that have information to share and students in situations where we can learn. Using social media is also a great way to network online and start building relationships. There have been many instances where I met someone online and maintained a relationship with them until we actually got a chance to meet in person whether at a blog conference or a networking event. It’s like seeing an old friend that you haven’t seen in a while even when you are meeting for the first time. It was simply divine intervention at the way this particular situation played out and it was an amazing experience.

Jen & Corvida

For Immediate Release: Extra! Extra! Read All About It…

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

CONTACT: Jen Lawrence
Jael Custom Designs Inc
jen@jenoni.com

Unofficial Bloggers Sponsor Anthem (Music Video) Parody

Durham, North Carolina, April 25th – In this day and age everyone’s a star! Come join us and bare witness to a new era in the blogosphere… just like athletes who rap and rappers who act now this blogger sings!

True die hard bloggers who value content, want to network with fellow bloggers, build relationships and connect with brands by attending conferences each year, some several times a year. Each conference has choice individuals that are sponsored by brands to represent the company and endorse their product or service.

This video is intended to let brands know that out of many bloggers you don’t have to choose just one. There are so many dynamic bloggers out there that using the same recycled individuals seems a bit one dimensional. Whatever happened to viewing different perspectives? This is the concept behind the Unofficial Blogger Sponsor Anthem. We would like brands to know that alternation provides a far greater reach.

Jael Custom Designs is a graphic design and virtual marketing company who specializes in social media outreach. The founder Jen Lawrence is a professional marketing coordinator, heavy social media enthusiast who lives her brand everyday through engagement with her followers and building relationships. For more information, contact: Jen Lawrence at jen@jenoni.com or Twitter:@jaeldesignsinc and visit www.jenoni.com You can also RSVP to this event via Facebook. Join us for a fun social mixer with local businesses, bloggers and social media enthusiasts! If you’re not local, there will be an online launch and you’ll be able to view the video along with us. Don’t you just love technology!

One of My Favorite Quotes: “Instead of thinking outside the box, get rid of the box.” -Deepak Chopra

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Where Do You Hang Out Online And Why?

The reason I ask this question is because I see many different people using formulas that work for them on social media networks to get their messages out. I happen to think I’m most influential on Twitter, 2nd place I’d say Facebook and then my blog. I tweet out links and send my blog feeds to Facebook which brings people back to my blog. Most of my traffic comes from Google via my Google Analytics. Right now I have 885 Google Friend Connect subscribers, I have over 200 subscribers for my RSS feed, I have 805 “Likers” on Facebook and 5, 342 followers on Twitter. I try to continuously grow these platforms on a daily basis. I don’t really engage on my Facebook wall. I will answer a question or comment left on my wall but that’s about it. I only post when I have new content going up. I try to blog every three to four days, I can’t fit blogging daily into my schedule. As long as I blog every 3-4 days I feel as though I’m being consistent.

I’ve seen situations where someone has thousands of people following a blog, and they have a high percentage of “Likers” on Facebook but, they lack a huge Twitter following. The next is a low blog following, a high Facebook “Liking” and average twitter following. There’s also low Facebook “Likers”, average blog following and high Twitter following. You can have many scenarios with this formula. I want to know what works for you and why? Why do you prefer Facebook over Twitter or Why do you prefer Twitter over Facebook? Did you jump on the Google + bandwagon and why? Why did you choose the route you’re taking to promote your blog or service? I want to get to a point where I feel as though each of my social networking pages is getting equal attention and I’m growing fans, followers and subscribers across the board. So, what’s your formula and which social networking site do you prefer to frequent?

In Case You Didn’t Know, I’m Human

I felt compelled to write this post because I use my social media networks for business however, I also engage heavily on all platforms. Twitter probably has the most traffic with me subscribed to a few feeds, automated tweets and my personal tweets. The reason I subscribe to feeds is to share stories with my followers that have the same interests, my automated feeds are set up to drive traffic to my blog, Facebook Fan page and Graphic Design Portfolio. I also have an auto tweet set up to share my about.me page with everyone. I’m on Twitter continuously throughout the day so while all the feeds or automated tweets are being published I am personally tweeting as well. I don’t know if there is a solid rule of thumb to Twitter Engagement but, I tend to unfollow people that DON’T engage at all.

In the evening I tend to get relaxed and tweet whatever I want. I can be at a restaurant eating dinner. I may tweet my entrée, dessert or alcoholic beverage depending on how good it looks and how I feel. I’ve done that at business lunches as well. My timeline stays clean for the most part but, I’m a human being that attends A LOT of events, and I like to share what I’m up to with my social media friends. I’m also a mom of four so it’s not unordinary for me to tweet about my children. I have a three year old in preschool, two tweens in middle school and a teenager in high school; they give me tons to talk about on Twitter. I guess the point I’m trying to make is that I choose to use ONE twitter profile as a tool to brand my business as well as just be myself. I don’t want to have multiple twitter accounts that I need to keep up with, I have one personality and that’s what you get!

I am a small business owner however I don’t solicit sales over my social media platforms. I’m building my brand and that fact that I’m engaging, networking and building relationships allows me to market myself and if anyone should need my services hopefully they’ll think of me. I’m sure larger businesses and corporations have to handle things a little differently. I’ve been reading some really good articles and feedback from social media conferences. Angela Maier has a Twitter Engagement formula that you can look at and customize to your liking. She has a purpose and intention and calls it her 70-20-10.

Share Resources (70) – Successful learning in the 21st century isn’t what you know, but what you can share, so 70% of Angela’s timeline is sharing others voices, opinions and tools.

Collaborations (20) – 20% of Angela’s tweets are directly responding, connecting, collaborating, and co-creating with like minded twitter colleagues. From tweets like those she’s managed to make lifelong professional and personal relationships. I can relate to this.

Chit-Chat (10) – 10% of Angela’s twitter talk is chit chat. That’s where you can share whatever you’d like from favorite movies, to restaurants, mommy talk, etc. It allows you to connect with others as a human being. I’ve made some great friends on line just chit chatting. I do a whole lot more than 10% of chit chat! That’s why I’m dubbed #SocialMediaButterfly

This is what Angela does and it landed her on the top 100 list of eLearning Professionals on Twitter. Check out Angela Maier’s site, it’s VERY informative. There are still a lot of people that just tweet out feeds and links alone with no engagement what so ever, maybe one day they’ll see the benefit of engaging on their social media platforms. Two of my favorite tweets from the Awareness/ Exploring Social Media Business Summit came from:

@JoselinMane – “Your business can either broadcast messages or have dialogue on Social Media, 1 of them generates a ROI (Return on Investment)”
@AlisonTBoston – “Social is just another channel. It’s not hard. You know how to be human and communicate with people.”

I used to take it personal when someone would un-follow me on Twitter and I would try to figure out what I was doing wrong or what I said wrong, but the reality is… not everyone is going to like me and I’m okay with that. So with these reassuring messages, I intend to continue doing what I’m doing. It works for me! I hope you’ll find a social media engagement formula that works for you. Please share, I’d love to know.

error: Ask And You Shall Receive!!