I Chose West Virginia for You, Child

Twitter Week in Review

I'm posting a Twitter Week in Review at the request of @MikeMueller, who is HOT.  (I am contractually required to disclose that.)

If you don't know what Twitter is, shame on you.  Just create an account.  And then do NOT look at the public timeline because as a Newbie it will drive you INSANE.  Find people you know and stick to Home.  Twurk (Twitter lurk) for a while if it makes you feel better. I can only show you Twitter through my own perspective.  This report leaves out most of my favorite Twitterers, but it's only meant to show you a bit of what Twitter is all about.  You guys already know I love you.

I'm following @ResPres (Jeff Turner) across the country right now because he is tweeting (telling Twitter) all about his trip.  And if you are following him, you're going to learn MANY different ways to communicate with people.  That man is HOOKED UP.  Learn from him!!

Anyway, here's a taste of Twitter.  It's pretty random, so this is, too. :)

(That one was after someone used my name trying to sell something to a friend -- said I had endorsed them when I HAD NOT -- and it was through Active Rain.  Check with me if you got similar spam.)

Of course there are interesting conversations:

Twitter is a great place to connect people to your other online territory.  I got to hear Jeremy Hart (@NRVLIving) on his radio show, and I even got to feel like a participant.  (PS I met him recently and he is fantabulous!)

You'll find lots of locals on Twitter.  I have one friend that is doing GREAT business thanks to her local Twitter connections!!  For me, it's more about getting involved more with my local bloggers.  This is FestivALL week in Charleston, WV, and of course there is coverage of the event in Twitter. 

I enjoy the randomness of SecretTweet, which reminds me of PostSecret.  It's just people saying stuff they can't say other places, sometimes sweet, sometimes sad.

And we're all working on this one:

This is in NO WAY a complete report of what happens in Twitter. Because of who you follow, Twitter is different for each and every one of us.

This week I asked for book recommendations and got a whole long list of good reading material.  (Thanks, guys!!)  We've celebrated birthdays both real and fictional.  We share coffee in the mornings, keep each other going during the day and sometimes even ::Clink!:: a glass together at the end of the day.  If ever you can't sleep, you can tweet.

So come Tweet with us.  ***Don't leave a comment***, join Twitter and find us, talk to us there. :)

The Power to Change Your World

I’ve been blogging and networking on a national scale for a while and just recently have even been able to meet some of my online friends in trips to Arizona and North Carolina. It is WONDERFUL to see that in person they really ARE who they are online! (Or at least that’s been my happy experience so far!)

But lately I’ve made friends with some local bloggers mostly thanks to Twitter. (Twitter is an AMAZING tool for getting in touch, getting to know people and learning about new stuff FAST!)

One local blogger, Jason Keeling of A Better West Virginia, has put some serious work into promoting West Virginia in a positive light and organizing other WV bloggers to help him do it.

He’s used West Virginia Day, a holiday celebrating WV’s birthday, as an occasion to begin changing the mistaken stereotypical ideas about West Virginia. One look at 304blogs.com (a tremendous resource for WV bloggers created by Bill Gardner and Dave Epp) and you’ll see the positive responses already flooding the internet!

We’ve had coverage in The Charleston Gazette, on WOWK TV and on West Virginia Public Broadcasting. I think that after today’s efforts, attention will only grow.  Link love from so many sources is not a bad thing.

If you’re wondering why I’m telling you all this, it’s because this is something you could really learn from. We ALL have local bloggers. Seriously, if you look at WV here in AR, you’ll see why I’ve had friends that have joked in the past that I have the only computer in WV.  There just have not been that many Active Rain bloggers from West Virginia.  If *I* have a band of local bloggers, YOU DO, TOO.

Meet them. Make friends. Think about what you could do together to make your area a better place.

As a blogger, you ARE the media. You DO help create whatever impression people have about where you live.

There. Now that you know how to do it – what are you going to do about it?

I Met Arizona!!

Well, I met some parts of Arizona, and some of those fabulous people who live in my computer!

This trip was for training and meetings, and I think part of my job is getting to socialize and play with these online people. Well, I don't have a written job description that says that, so maybe I slipped that in there on my own. Hey, when your boss is Jeff Turner, maybe socializing just seems natural -- that man knows EVERYONE. (Or will -- if you haven't met him, just wait. It will come.)

I LOVED Arizona. It is a beautiful place and I finally got to figure out what "dry heat" is. In case you're like me, stuck in humidity all the time, it's like when you first walk out of the house and realize "it's hot out here", but before you want to race back into the air conditioning. It's almost like a reduced calorie heat, if you can imagine. Random tip: do not wear open sandals for a desert walk amongst the cacti. Lesson learned.

We RES employees got to learn a lot more about the company, it's direction and our place in it. As if I didn't already love Real Estate Shows enough, I love it even more now! There is a heart and soul to this company and I am so proud to be a part of it. I can't wait for the new stuff that's coming up! (You're going to love it!!)

But the best part of all was meeting the people! For the first time I met Juli Salvante (Jeff's sister and my boss), Bill Leider, Joyce Spano and Jenna Harvey. I got to meet a whole crowd of RE.net people who live in and around Phoenix – Debbie Lieberman, Candace Jay Thompson, Steve Belt, Jonathan Dalton, Dru Bloomfield, Phil Sexton, Nick Bastian, Heather Barr, Max Chircov, Christoph Schweiger, Mark Eckenrode, Jon Griffith, Irene Hammond … and this is the danger with listing people – I know I missed some! If I missed you, please slap me upside the head and tell me to edit this, OK? Thanks.

You can see a little of our get together in my (what else?) Real Estate Show below. Nick, if only you’d gotten to me sooner, I might have worn that sparkly dress. ;)

BOOM, Baby!

OK, I still hate video.  That is unlikely to change anytime soon, even as cute and easy as my little Flip is.  (And I will tell you about the Flip, later.  I will.)

But I thought I’d never want to get in front of the camera again.  Why would I torture myself like that??  Seriously, people can stare at me and who knows what I’ll say or how it would sound?  I’m a frequently foolish girl, but doing video is just really beyond even my pale.

And then Laurie left me a comment.

"The video is GREAT- except,
you really should have worn a mother of the bride dress for drama."

BOOM, Baby!

Suddenly, I wanted to make a video with me in that dress.  Didn’t even matter what I was saying, I wanted to be in a gorgeous blue and gold sparkly mother of the bride dress, for drama.

See, Laurie and I go way back, in blogger-time.  She stopped in first to visit me on a post where I was in a rant – rare for me but when I have a reason I will let fly.  As this was the first she’d read from me, this is who she thought I was.  (This is a constant danger – any post you write could be someone’s first impression of you.)

Laurie called me on what I was saying, and she had a good point.  She was right about what she said.  And I had just slammed that post up there and gone to bed. 

Some friends here leapt to my defense (thank you, so much) and there was some back and forth, because … well, because Laurie is not a weak person, and she KNEW she had a point.  (She did!) 

I woke up to emails telling me not to worry, they were taking care of it.  (Taking care of what?!)  OH.  Well.  I guess if I’m going to rant, I’m going to have to be prepared to hear the other side of things, huh?  I left it all to stand.

Well, Laurie kept reading.  She realized that one post was NOT me.  (Do not expect locals to give you another chance in this case.  Not happening.)  She wrote me, and we hammered out our differences.

A while back Laurie sent me some nice gifts, just out of the blue, and among them was a dress she had meant to wear for her daughter’s wedding.  It is BEAUTIFUL, sparkly and swirly and ever so nice.  It is one of the prettiest things I have ever owned.  And it was from Laurie, just because. 

She told me to party in it, spill wine on it if I want, but just to have a great time and celebrate with my little Chickies Tall One and Little One.  She's my friend and she wanted share something beautiful with me, just because.  Just so I'd smile.  (You know I did!!)

Why am I telling you guys this?  Because sometimes the person who slams you is not your enemy, so don’t be so quick to slam back.  

And because sometimes all it takes to get to get over a silly fear is a sparkly blue dress. 

Let's Mixpo!

OK, let’s talk about Mixpo.  I’m still figuring it out but I welcome you to join me.

AR sent me a cute little Flip video camera (SO portable!!) and signed me up with Mixpo.  There is probably a fee for Mixpo, I don’t know.  But it’s cooooool, and I bet you’ll want it.

I've uploaded one video to Mixpo so far and it was EASY.  It takes you through the process, step by step, and gives you some pretty nice options.  I haven’t played yet with editing, my video was pretty straightforward.  But I did like that it let me add some text up front (another opportunity to play with Rich, mwahaha!) and that it let me pick which shot from the video I wanted to use as the frame people see before viewing.  (VERY nice option, YouTube just takes a scene from the middle and sometimes it is barely related to your main point or is just plain old unflattering.  Better to have a choice.)  It also was much faster uploading than YouTube.

So uploading is easy, just trust me.  Follow their instructions, 1-2-3.

The cool thing has been looking at the stats on the video.  Oh yes – this was designed for business and they mean to tell you what’s working and who’s watching.  This is what you need to know.

As this wasn’t directed to my locals but to all of AR, I have views from across the country.  If I were using this for work, I’d be zoomed in on WV and trying to keep them happy.  (But as WV is not an AR hotspot, I have not a single view there.  So sad.)

Here’s a screenshot of the Mixpo stats:

First off – I have no idea what “Impressions” would be and couldn’t find a definition on their site.  I had to write them to ask and have not heard back.  (Guessing that’s when someone watches a bit, just gets an impression?  Maybe their eyes just touched the page the video was on?  Really, no idea.)  Then there are views, and conversions are I suppose the ones that took the bait and looked for more info.  I have very little extra info in there yet, so if you looked I apologize for wasting your time.

Playthrough is pretty cool.  I know that 204 people watched the video.  Of them, 137 watched the whole thing.  And as if THAT is not surprising enough, 27 people watched it AGAIN.  (Why would you punish yourselves so??)  Still, if this had been for business, that would be golden.

Then my favorite little bit is the map.  See those little flags with Viewer Locations?  They tell me who watched, how many times, and if they looked for more info.  Oh, the things the internet gives away!!  I had to check with a friend to make sure it was right, did he really watch it that many times?  Yes, he did.  (Cut it out, already!!!)  <Still hate video.  You can zoom waaaaaay in on the map and peek in people’s windows if you want.  Really, TMI. 

Last is referring sites, which I guess would be cool if I had some.  It’s pretty much AR, Mixpo itself and then Twitter, thank you so much @gotbob.  *Ahem*

So far my assessment of Mixpo is cooooooool.  I like knowing who’s watching and whether they got anything out of it. 

We need to be able to gauge how well anything is going to work for us if we’re going to give up some of our precious time doing it, right?  Mixpo will help you put it together and put it in front of your audience.  They'll also tell you whether or not it’s working and will help the people who find you get in touch with you from your ad, which is what they call the video.  I suppose they’re right.

Mixpo, A+ so far.  I’ll be back!

Hidden Gems in the Rain

I got tagged by the fabulous Diane Aurit (Hi, Diane!) to pick a “Hidden Gem” from the ranks of AR.  This was started by our lovely Melissa Grant (And Hello, Melissa!) to try to help draw attention to some of the lesser-known but deserving AR bloggers. 

This is really, really hard.  Believe it or not, writing a Meme is easier!!  (Seriously!)  There are so many people that I admire and like here that it’s a VERY difficult thing to pick just one!  I have a list of about 100 that I’d like to just print and say, “Here, read these.”  

But when I sat and let myself just go quiet for a second, there was really only one choice.

My “Hidden Gem in the Rain” is Lysa Napolitano.

Lysa is an amazing person, caring and knowledgeable and FUN.  The way she writes would be a good lesson to nearly everyone in AR – she writes about what has meaning for her. 

She’s not trying to write about what she thinks you want to hear and hope it comes out OK.  She writes about what she loves, and in reading her blog I feel like I’ve been offered a chair and asked to stay a while.  She’s not fishing for business, she’s just communicating with people who share her interests. 

This is an important thing for you to understand: Do not try to please everyone.  Just being who you are is a niche all it’s own.  Writing about topics that have meaning for you will connect you with people you’ll enjoy talking to and possibly even working with.  Your blog does not have a formula you have to obey – follow Lysa’s lead and write about what you love.

From Lysa I have learned all about Florida wildlife.  (Little One is using Lysa as a reference in a report at school this very afternoon, and is so impressed that I have a friend who knows all about whale watching!)  Her pictures are amazing.  Imagine the patience she must have!

Lysa speaks honestly about her past, exposing personal pains in the hopes of helping someone else.  She has a true volunteer’s heart, knowing that it’s enough to help even if you don’t see the results.  I believe that she has touched many hearts through her words.  She writes about riding, fundraisers, protecting children and her own experiences moving.  We know her pets, her favorite hangout and her Sweetie.  (Does Steve mind if I refer to him as Sweetie?) 

Lysa just does it RIGHT. 

The pictures below are Lysa's and are used with her permission.  (I asked and she gave without even knowing why I wanted them, you see how sweet this girl is?)  Click the pictures to go to their corresponding posts.  The graphic is Lysa and me on the MV Sparrow, which is currently traveling from Danger Bay to visit actual Active Rain members in their towns.  This graphic is used with permission from Jack Boardman of the New Codgers.

   

    

And I suppose I'm supposed to tag two more people to write about their Hidden Gems.  I choose Brande Bradford and Harold Watts.   Go on, get to work!  :)

Spelling with Flickr

Found: Cool "Spell with Flickr" toy.

Why: Because wouldn't it make a cool way to call attention to something important on your blog?

Awesome Detail:  While using this letter generator, click on a letter you're not crazy about to see a new version.  Aah, that's better!

Now: Go play.  Thank you.

Thank Goodness Most of Us Don't Think This Way

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

Still struck me as funny because it seemed so true. 

My Snowy Yard, Up Close and Perfect