Hello again; Since there has ben such good response to posts recapping the google hangouts, I thought I would continue the practice. I think we had another good event last Wednesday. And I’m looking forward to an even better one this coming Wednesday April 9, at 10 PM Eastern, 9 PM Central, 7 PM Pacific, etc.
After two very solid shows, this week’s was a little bumpy. Google moved the box where i invite people into the hangout after it is started, and it took about half the show to find the box and invite everyone. This meant I was trying to carry on a monologue while searching for the invite people box. I finally found it, and me and Mitchell had a nice conversation about social media. Well, we picked up where I had left off talking about my experiences with the various social media networks. The question came from Ashley Faulkes of www.madlemmings.com and I wish I had done a better job of answering him. I will say now that most all of my social media activity is conducted using email notifications whenever possible.
The Show Video
You can click this link to watch the show video on my site.
And if you want to click a direct link to the video on youtube, then go to
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFNs_FKznF8
Social Media Network History
Thought I’d share a bit of my history with social media. You will notice a progression. Its one I suggest for all new website and blog owners. Pick one network and really invest yourself in it. Once you feel you have mastered that network, then move on to another one. I started with Myspace. At that time it was still the dominant network, and people were using it to create websites similar to pages on Face Book now. It was accessible for most things, but I never got the hang of the website part of it. I was glad when Face Book came along. And I loved FB when I first started using it. They had a mobil version that was so easy to use with my screen reader. I would often look up and find out I had been reading posts and replying to them for over an hour at a time. I don’t view that time as wasted because I was getting to know people. It wasn’t like I was playing farmville or slots, but it wasn’t the most productive use of my time. So they may have done me a favor when they started making all the changes that made their site more difficult to use with speech. I don’t know if it was before or after I started with Face Book, but my next network was Merchant Circle. I still use it although not as faithfully. It is very accessible with a screen reader, and I highly recommend it especially to business owners who don’t need to target customers outside of their local area. They also have a way to create websites and blogs on there. Next, I joined linked in which is my favorite site. First, because it is strictly for professional or business users. It may have started as a site for posting job listings and resumes but it has come so much farther. I find it the most accessible of all the major networks. They have made some changes that my screen reader didn’t like. They changed the groups so much that I had to send a request to tech support. But in their defense someone from Linked in got right back to me. They gave me instructions I could follow, and the problem was solved. Next, I joined twitter. I don’t care for the speed at which the feed updates. I find that people are friendly on there. The 140 character limit does keep people from rambling on. This is th only social network I am on where at least once a week I visit the site and respond to all activity that happened since my last visit. This may have something to do with the fact that I can easily navigate twitter using night owl. However, they do have a good email alert system for when friends post while I am absent. After that, I joined google plus. It was completely accessible until just recently when the circles part of g plus stopped talking to my screen reader. I also wish they offered more extensive email notifications as that is how I prefer to handle most of my social media interaction. Then I expanded into the world of Pinterest. You can read about that here, but I have managed using it just fine. And I am finding that the more I am on it the more other people are using the 500 characters that Pinterest gives you to describe your photos. So, now you know where I’ve been. Next we’ll talk about where I’m going with social media.
Future Social Networks
Now, I want to talk about a few networks that I am new to or that I have complaints about. First, my brother Michael suggested Reddit. He said its a site with a lot of passionate users. I joined it, and it looks promising. However, you have to enter a captcha for every action. And there is no audio or non visual option for this captcha. So, even though I would love to share my posts on reddit, I don’t because of this. I know I could ask my brother Patrick to solve it for me, and I would if I only had to do it each time I sign int. So, if you are a member on Reddit, please make it known to the site owners that they need to join the other top social networks and fix this. Next, I want to talk about triberr and bizsugar. I am new to both of these and hope my readers and viewers will give me some pointers. I understand bizsugar more than triberr. Its a site where people share business related posts. You have to build up credit by commenting on and sharing other peoples posts. Until you build up that respect, you can only post one link a day. This isn’t a problem because I usually share more posts from other bloggers than I do of my own anyway. I am looking forward to being more active there. And triberr is one I’m just starting to wrap my mind around. It seems you join groups of people called tribes and tribes share info and posts with each other. so the more tribes you belong to and the more members in each tribe the better your posts will get shared. I’v joined some tribes and I’m trying to meet more people there. I could use some help figuring out how to comment on a post there. I can find the enter field but can’t figure out how to post the entry. I hope you will reach out to me on the social media network of your choice. And please subscribe to me on youtube.
Mitchell’s New Site
My moderator Mitchell Walker got a new website this week, so I wanted to mention it here. The url is http://roguegeeks.weebly.com He told me in four days he has already had 50 plus visitors. I told him that that wasn’t right. lol I told him that if I wasn’t his friend, I could hate him for that. Then I told him people all over the world would probably hate him for such quick results. I then told him that in my first year I was lucky to get 250 visitors in a month. He also talked about his resource page., so I want to list that too. If you have a service, you are welcome to suggest it be added here. Rogue Geek’s Network I explained to Mitchell that as soon as possible he needs to get a self hosted site so he will own his work. I then went on to mention that my friend lorraine reguly of www.wordingwell.com has written what i consider to b the definitive post on the whole subject of when to decide to go from free to self hosted and how to go about it.
MVP Network
MVP On Demand is the brand name for my friends at the brian the hammer jackson radio show on blog talk radio. I appear there most friday mornings to talk about my business and small businesses in general. They do a lot of good work by having guests on with causes to promote. Brian probably falls somewhere between howard stern and paul harvey. He is very funny and also pretty smart, but he is never going to be featured on american family radio. He has a great staff who have helped me a lot. They include Carrie Brooks, Kelly Corbin along with dianne ellen and her daughter. They have put me in contact with the lady that runs their production company. She is going to edit a video i took recently of a product demonstration so it can be turned into a proper commercial for the sure step process. I will be doing this one at my expense. but they explained to me that I shouldn’t be doing that. So, in future i will b telling clients that I have a production company I work with and what the costs will be to have a professional commercial quality video made. It isn’t all that expensive. And if any of you are interested, we can work with any existing videos that you have recorded. We can also quote a project from beginning to end including story ideas, recording the video, and editing it for prime time use.
The Blog HOp
Then I talked about being invited to participate in the blog hop. I thanked Johnny bravo for inviting me and mentioned the two ladies Elaine hunt and kerry kijewski who participated with me. I mentioned that i decided to make a concerted effort to involve other blind bloggers because of visiting many of their blogs and being disappointed that no on was reading their posts or leaving comments and shares if they did. so, please visit these blogs.
Guest Opportunities
I mentioned that to me guest opportunities are only good if both parties benefit. I then told people that when i have been in guest opportunities i have worked my but off promoting the site owner. And I am hopeful of getting more such opportunities in the future. If you would like me to write a guest post or take part in an interview for your blog or podcast just ask. I can get together with you via email skype face time or google hangout. I’m very flexible. I’m also very open and honest. I look forward to seeing what else is in store.
Sharing Is Caring
I would love it if you would share the video or the post or both with your friends and family. I would also be very happy to finally get one of my videos favorited on youtube. I noticed that youtube has installed even more sharing buttons, and I hope you will use them. But If I have to pick one favor to ask you, it would be that you visit the sites of the people mentioned above. These people have taken part in or supported me in some other way. I believe I should always be humble and show my thanks any way I can. Thanks for your help with this.
Well, that’s it for this week’s recap. I always love hearing from my readers, so feel free to drop me a line through the contact form. Whether you have a question, or just want to chat; I’m here for you. Perhaps you just want to say hi and get to know me or tell me a little more about yourself. That’s fine too. I hope to here from you all soon. Thanks and take care out there, Max
Hey Max,
Great recap and looks like a good hangout last week. I feel horrible that my schedule has conflicted so far with most Wednesday nights. I have a board meeting this week although I’m sure I’ll be home in time but with all the meetings I have outside the house this week that’s just putting me further behind so I’ll have to spend my time getting caught up I’m afraid.
So glad that Mitchell has been there to help you and I appreciate you sharing with us what all you’ve been doing as far as social media. It still impresses me all that you do. Hey, maybe this will be a great way to do away will all those captcha codes since you can’t see them nor or there any voice recordings for that particular type of program. We can only hope right.
Sounds like you are as busy as can be and congratulations on the Blog talk radio spot most Friday mornings. Way to go Max and I’m sure that it’s helping you get more recognition.
Just wanted to stop by and say hello and tell you again what a great job you’re doing. I do hope to see you soon on one of your hangouts.
Have a great week.
~Adrienne
HI Adrienne; I appreciate your taking the time out to read the post. I know you are very busy. I’m sure we will meet up on the hangout or in person or somewhere else soon. I am grateful to have mitchell around. and i will be happy to see him progress too. I need to get going on a new logo so i can start the indegogo campaign to fund the youtube show going on the road. I agree with you those stupid captchas need to go away. Are you as surprised as i am that a major site in this day and age doesn’t have a non video security question? Yep we are all too busy. that’s just the way life is. The penny dog treed a cat that patrick had to rescue. and we had a couple pretty days, but its going to rain again tonight I hear. and the radio show is fun. they asked on linked in about a year or so ago for small business owners to come on. I did it once and got asked back. now, they miss me when I’m not there, and I feel more energized when i do the show. this week I have to miss it to follow up with my doctor, but they have promised to be on the hangout. thanks for all your support and encouragement. You are a great friend. Take care, Max
Max, this is a very interesting rundown on your use of social media. I’m sure it is frustrating that you wanted to use Reddit but it didn’t work for you. I find that it is too easy to spend hours keeping up and haven’t figured out how to resolve that yet.
Hi Beth; It makes me feel better to know others struggle with this too. Like i said having difficulty accessing social media networks may not be a bad thing in that it forces me to concentrate on more productive uses of my time. I keep up with most of them through email alerts. I would appreciate any suggestions you have for triberr as it seems to be one of the flavors of the month. thanks and good luck to you, max
Hi Max
This is the second time I’ve read about the hangouts and do you know I have no idea what that’s all about. In your next post maybe you can provide some more details for newbies like me.
Lenie
Hi Lennie; a hangout is a video chat. It can b public with lots of people having a conversation. It can b public with one person sharing information and images or videos with a group. It can also be private just for the members of a club employees of a company or even two people wanting to chat via video. thanks for reading th post. Hope you will submit a question for this week’s meet up. take care, max
Max, I have used all those sites. I have not gotten to Reddit. My husband is addicted to it and loves it. I have not done anything on you-tube. I am on stumble upon, tumbler, and Google plus. However, I need to use them more. Keep up the good work and thanks for sharing. =)
HI Chrystal; I forgot about stumble upon. It is starting to fall out of favor, but I like it because its easy to use and I always get page views after posting a link there. I haven’t tried tumbler, and you know about my recent troubles with the circles on g+. Please ask your husband to message the reddit team about the captchas. I am planning a crowd sourcing for my youtube show, and I understand reddit is one of the top places to promote such events. Or maybe when I’m ready, I’ll just ask all my blogging friends if they will post to that network for me. smile and youtube is another one where you can build relationships and learn a lot about blogging even if you aren’t ready to record your own videos yet. people on there need subscribers and people to like, favorite, comment, and share their videos. thanks for the comment and take care, Max
Hi Max,
Glitches are bound to happen, but glad you were able to work them out.
I recall asking if Mitchell had a website and the answer was “soon.” That was fast, but you may want to encourage Mitchell to secure a domain with his own name or brand name, rather than having a subdomain off Weebly. That’s great for a start, but most people want to protect their content have having their own domain.
Max, I’m proud of you. You’ve put a lot of work into being successful and networking online and off. I will try to listen in to the radio show.
Kind Regards,
Bill
Hi Bill; I had already suggested he do so. He plans to in the next couple of weeks. and it means a lot hearing you say you are proud of me. I did manage to work through the glitch and think I know what I did wrong. Mainly my computer runs better during a hangout if I restart it prior to beginning the hangout. And I figured out how to add people to the hangout on air circle. I just count down from the top box in the selector kind of like when i used to count steps. And I have learned a lot about using the various social networks. I probably won’t be doing the radio show this week because I have a doctor’s appointment. But the people at the brian the hammer show are supposed to join me on the hangout tomorrow. by the way I am a sponsor of the show but its a small interest. I get a special rate because I invested in them back when they had a smaller audience and weren’t getting much ad revenue. I respect you and really appreciate your encouragement. Take care, Max
Hi Max. Seems as though the program is building momentum. I still have only sporadic internet access but hope to join you one of these days. Continued success !
hi paul; thanks for your continued support. I know you are out there pulling for me. when it is meant to be we will get together. by the way yesterday i had eric weigand join us for the whole show and we had several people leave comments during the show who didn’t come on. and i now have a hashtag for questions to the hangout. It is #askmistermidway hope you will share it on twitter for me. thanks again and take care, max
I tend to spend my time between G+ and twitter. I have not had time to go for Reddit, but now I hear that they have not made their site properly accessible, it does not make me want to bother. In this day and age, there should be no question of making all social media accessible to everyone. Thanks for pointing that out.
Hi A. K. thanks for your support on the reddit question. My brother michael tells me their communities are very active too. I find myself spending more time on twitter lately. and i now have a hashtag for hangout questions and I know how to review it to see what people want to ask. the tag is #askmistermidway hope you will mention the hangouts, the hashtag, and this post on social media. and let me know if there is anything I can help you with. thanks again and take care, max
I haven’t attempted Reddit yet, but kudos for trying it out!
thanks jen; i only tried it because my brother recommended it. and if it weren’t for the captcha issue, i’d probably b using it. instead i’m trying to find my way through tribrrr. take care, max
Thanks for sharing a bit of your history with social media and the ups and downs of each network. I am active on triberr but have not attempted Reddit yet.
hi susan; thanks for the comment. I think reddit is the only such network that I haven’t managed at least some level of success with. would love to hear more about your experience with triberr. take care, max
Hi Max- Great post. It looks like that hangout worked for you last week. I have not gotten into hangouts. It is so hard just keeping up blogging. I also no longer are work on the computer at nights. I spend so much of the time not only blogging, but G+, Facebook, Linkedin and twitter, that I I have not had time to go for Reddit. It is hard to know which one of the social medias is the best to use. You have come a long way since your first post so keep up whatever you are doing because it is working for you. Aren’t the blogging groups wonderful.
hi arleen; you are right there is so much out there and we can only do so much before we burn ourselves out. If Michael wasn’t so high on reddit I wouldn’t have even bothered with it. I think I do the videos because i sometimes feel a little trapped behind my laptop. I feel like there are things I could be doing on a face to face basis that can’t be done over the net especially in a market like mine where there is still a lot of old school thinking. Many of my contacts are actually with the wives and children of business owners because the husbands and founders haven’t yet realize the value of online or don’t believe they have the time for it. yes these groups are wonderful. thanks to being part of bloggers helping bloggers and others I now have a long string of posts with more than 10 posts. I have a few with 20, and a couple with 30 plus. thanks for being the friend to keep the streak alive. tai care, Max
Hangouts are an awesome way to get together for training or sharing.
Triberr is one that I have been working on for about 6 months. It seems to be a great platform as long as you are comfortable with posting what someone else wrote without reading it first. If not, you have to remove all the special settings that make it a great platform.
hi cheryl; I’m starting to enjoy the hangouts more. it helps having mitchell there to moderate. like this week when he was able to add a new person during the hangout. I don’t mind trusting the people on triberr because most of them are also bloggers trying to build up their readership. i need to figure out how to comment on posts. thanks for your comment. Take care, max
It was really nice to have a recap and the way you are experimenting and becoming popular. It was great that Mitchell helped you. It was nice to know about your social media and thanks for sharing with us.
You struggled a bit to find invite box but I am happy you managed it at the end.. Congratulations on Blog Hop and Blog radio. You are doing a great job.
This time I could not leave your name in my roll call as thread till 13 April is closed and I just read your post.
Hi Andleeb; yes Mitchell is a blessing. without him i may have given up on the hangouts. I certainly wouldn’t have made this much progress without him. but that’s what happens when you keep your heart open. the lord brings people into your life. I am getting known thank goodness but would rather be getting paid. smile I know more sales ar coming. Glad you njoyd the post. Let me know if I can do anything for you. As for the roll call I don’t worry about those at all. I know i should as part of the group. but i figure i follow the spirit of it by reading other people’s posts and posting comments to anyone’s blog who has commented on mine. thanks again and take care, max
I love that you worked your butt off for your guest post promotion. I have had some great guest bloggers and some that just left me with more work than I anticipated and funnily I felt guilty when they didn’t get as many comments as I would normally get!!
hi becc; here is something i learned while promoting them. I made contact with new people and new groups. I racked my brain thinking who could i tell about the guest posts that i had never thought of before. It motivated me to reach out to blindness organizations and join groups for the visually impaired on social media. I now have new face book friends and twitter followers because of it. and you are so good at what you do because you do feel bad for them even if they didn’t hold up their end as high as they should have. but then i was very lucky. I didn’t have to chase these opportunities, they were offered to me by friends I had met online. thanks for your encouragement and tai care, max
I must have been sleepy last week, because I managed to miss this update. Glad I caught it now. I’m going to go find you on Pinterest when I’m done here.
I’m not a huge fan of Triberr, but I know some people who swear by it (Ashley for one), so it’s definitely worth checking out. I don’t know Bizsugar well, so will check it out myself, but like you, LinkedIn is one of my favourites.
hey debra; isn’t that why the experts tell us to include links to relevant past posts? smile I’ll be interested in your opinion of my Pinterest post. One thing has changed since then. They no longer put links to the people that pin on a profile for you to check out. However, I get around that by occasionally clicking on a profile and seeing who is following them. Linked in is the best. some of my more meaningful contacts were made through linked in. My main thing is its serious and so am I. I have always ben too serious or too old for my own good. but the site blogging and all the rest gets me going. thanks for taking the time to read my posts. Take care, Max