Of all the social networks that are popping up across the Internet , ActiveRain still remains heads and shoulders above the others. Reflecting the best of Web 2.0 and our participation in it, we are a group that never lost sight of why we are here. And those reasons can be as varied as we are as individuals.
These reasons collectively are not just self serving but serving each other as friends, colleagues and above all professionals with a high level of self pride in our respective professions.
What sets ActiveRain apart from the others are some special features that have been in place since day one. One way to categorize them is to listen to the motivation speakers that say about our life plan. In every instance they speak of our quest or the milestones in our lives, and they remind us that we must be able to measure them to be able to track our progress in the pursuit.
ActiveRain set up its system on a points system that gives us with encouragement to build relationships with our colleagues and consumers and as a range we can use to track our progress. It also encourages and rewards us to build friendships and exploit this opportunity to help shape the overall message that the site takes to each of us and consumers. We all benefit from the pearls of insight and wisdom that the contributing members give so freely.
Being effective with our message also requires us to be consistent. Our stories and messages will always be varied but to hold the interest of others we must be consistent that our message is delivered with some regularity.
If you have read certain books and develop a kinship with the author, you will most often look for more offerings from that author. If the author just stopped writing, you will take action and find another author to replace the one you liked. It's no different in the world of blogging. If we fail to provide consistency, our consistent readers will move on to other voices.
I have come a very long way from the beginning when I wrote my first post on ActiveRain. I discovered the site in November of 2006. Set up a profile and had no idea what I had signed up for, other than that I would be listed in a directory of real estate professionals.
In late March, I received an e-mail from ActiveRain that Jeff Turner had added me as an associate. I had no idea what that meant, but I did know Jeff. So I logged on to ActiveRain, and I discovered that in fact it was a blog site and I started to read some of the posts that Jeff wrote. I read about encouraging others to write posts that would encourage consumers to take a look at us and consider us as their needed professionals. And still others that were giving insight into how to use the available resources for improving the blog posts.
On the last day of March 2007, I thought I would really like to give this a try, and so I wrote my first post. I received a couple welcoming comments and thought Wow, this is very cool, and I want to do this. Of course I didn't really understand all the jargon being used so I set on a course to ask about it and then hopefully to learn and understand it.
Over time, I did learn. On one occasion as I recall in my first week, I got a comment from a gentleman that said his pet peeve was posts with words that were misspelled and I that I had one on my post. In fact, I felt sort of foolish and embarrassed and wanted to fix it, but how? So I asked and discovered that ActiveRain provides an edit button to fix things as needed. Frankly, I hadn't noticed it before or even what all the different features were as yet. So I fixed the post and sent him a thank you note. On the next post he came back and commented again, this time it was complimentary. Feeling relieved, I knew I could learn and proceeded with excitement to do so.
What we all need to remember is that as new people come to be part of this growing family here on ActiveRain, don't forget they probably don't know what all the buttons and different features are for and their wall of words is just their wanting to give to us and to a part of us. And yes, to be recognized for their participation. Help them by taking the time to write them and give some guidance. That welcome sure means a lot. Feeling alone and trying to figure it all out yourself is a big task and help will always be appreciated.
So now on my trek to the Summit, I head there knowing that it was all of you who helped me along the way, and I don't want to take the rest of this journey without you. You belong right here with me. This are our journey and no one gets left behind. So reach out your hand, and we will go the summit together.
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CONGRATULATIONS on the BIG 100K!!!
Hey William, congratulations on the milestone. The next 100K will be even easier.
;)
;)
