engagement – Page 3 – @DanaMNelson

June 24, 2010

A Community Comes Together

This year, the farmers market, downtown received quite a bit of social media chatter early on in the year for having a larger variety of vendors.

Last month, one of those vendors was asked to leave based on the product that they sold. The reasons that they were asked to leave in many people’s eyes were not valid reasons based out of perhaps ignorance for the products.

The owner, who had established a local e-mail database, sent out a notice regarding their situation, ending it with a call to action asking GAGE to do something about it.

That chatter quickly changed and suddenly the downtown farmers market exploded all over social media. I saw several blogs regarding the situation. One in particular was written by a newcomer to Evansville who utilizes her blog, twitter and Facebook very effectively. Through the power of social media, the particulars surrounding the circumstance of this farm being removed from the farmers market became known to a large number of people. Those people started talking, and spread that news very rapidly. (See her blog here – With updates)

This news struck a chord of emotion with those people who frequent the farm, with those people who appreciated the product, and with people who’d never even been there; based on principle.

My point is this: a well-written blog, circulated amongst the followers of that blog, that is also

promoted across multiple platforms (a link to it was place on twitter and Facebook) can have an extraordinary impact on a community.

Community can mean:

a small micro area such as your downtown area
a certaingroup of people like environmentalists
people who are traditionally stereotyped
the planet we live on and ourselves as a whole race

No matter the size or scope of your community

you have the ability to change it.

I remember thinking when I was growing up:

“How can I change the world?”

Thanks to the power of blogs, cross-platform social media, and our tendency as humans to truly want to help one another, a single person with a small physical voice can translate that voice to words and change the world. YOU have the power, you can change it.

So tell me, how are you going to change the world?

May 24, 2010

Re-ignite People’s Potential by Changing the Rules of Engagement

Guest Post by Janet Laane Effron

Performance, productivity, attitude… we’d all like those to be first rate in the people we work with (and in ourselves). But sometimes we get saddled with an individual or a team who are walking definitions of the dead opposite. Sometimes these people aren’t inherently deadweight, but are talented individuals who have become under-performers. If that’s the case, the challenge is to

re-ignite their potential.

My best lessons in managing those situations came from outside the office.

Through various volunteer roles, I’ve had the opportunity to work with a few young people who had a healthy dose of non-motivation and bad attitudes. Some of them acquired those traits honestly, having spent quite a few years in what would be politely called “non-nurturing environments”. Some felt worthless and powerless; they didn’t see “change” as something that was possible. So they walked through life with a mix of bravado and apathy; pouring their energy into defiance and avoidance instead of building their abilities and achievements. When working with them, it was easy to fall into a trap of having every interaction be a point of conflict. And that wasn’t going to get anyone anywhere.

Some changes were needed. From me. So I learned to set people up to succeed. And I became hyper-vigilant about catching them doing things right and doing good things; avoiding the trap of only giving negative feedback; instead finding opportunities to praise and encourage. That doesn’t mean I relaxed standards; it does mean every effort was made to help them avoid pitfalls while trying to meet those standards.

The changes were undeniable. The impossible became possible. New motivations grew and replaced the apathy. It wasn’t all sunshine and daffodils, but the net result was a growth of ambition and enthusiasm that was well beyond the starting point.

You don’t have to look far to find people who have felt powerless and frustrated in the workplace; who spent too many years working in organizations where innovation and initiative were not welcome. There are probably some on your team right now who stopped trying long ago, and who drag everyone else down. Now, they might simply be lazy and annoying and that’s the end of it; those situations have obvious solutions. But when it’s a talented person whose potential is salvageable, it’s pretty good odds that if you set them up to succeed, and catch them doing good, they just might amaze you with what they achieve.

May 20, 2010

First Impressions – Changes in FB Policy, Again

Yesterday, Facebook abruptly changed its Facebook fan page policy. In summary, you will not be able to have a custom landing tab for your fan page, unless you have 10k fans or the page administrator works with their ads, account manager. If you suspect that that means you will have to pay to have a custom landing page if you have less than 10,000 followers, you are probably correct.

This change was announced, quietly by Facebook with an apology that no mention was made of it sooner. If you do not already have an ads account representative, you can submit a form which looks like this:

Notice the budget amounts listed. It does appear that Facebook is looking to monetize the growing trend of businesses using fan pages.

A lot of people are really upset about this change, in particular Twitter chatter and blogs from businesses that sell the service of making customized Facebook tabs. My perspective is different.

When asked, I would provide custom landing pages. However, it is not my sole business model. I did not actively promote custom landing pages as a way to gain fans.

So I am responding, not out of fear for the future of my business, and not out of the stress of dealing with past clients who may now be upset.

Personally, I’m not really upset by this change. Actually, I’m still very grateful for Facebook and what it has done to change the way that we as businesses communicate with our peers, our vendors and our clients. That has not changed.

If you have strong, engaging content on a regular basis, that shows people that you are listening, are responding, and that you care. Your business page will then get you more fans overall than a flashy well-done graphic that you paid a lot of money for people to see as their first impression.

So to you, small businesses, medium businesses, and large companies that are new to Facebook., not yet at your 10k mark: Remember that every post you make is potentially now a first impression.

Make sure you approach your Facebook strategy with this in mind.

Hint: if you post content that is informative, educational and engaging, people will willingly share this information on their own . They will be a brand advocate for you as they share your content on their pages.

Which is your ultimate goal: to have the most fans? Or is it to have the most fans who love and are actively involved in sharing your content?

March 11, 2010

Valiant Defined…

Wife of one
Mother of three
Grandmother of seven
She is:
• caring by nature– after all, she has a degree in nursing
• a business owner
• a good neighbor
• a caregiver
• a protector
• a friend to many

This woman is many things to many people. As I have become acquainted with her over the last few months, I feel like I’ve known her my whole life. She’s often appeared with a plate of cookies to make me feel better. I have watched her life unfold and I am amazed at the extent to which she’s involved in, actively giving and outreaching to the community, personally and professionally.

She is a caring neighbor, weekly driving her elderly neighbor to the hairdresser, the grocery store and other places she needs to go.

She is a caring sister to her brother who is experiencing severe health challenges.

At the end of the day, she should be utterly exhausted.

However, from her social media posts and in talking to her, you would never know it. She is happy for the opportunity to care for new grandchildren. She is happy to be entertaining family on a Sunday. She is happy to drive that elderly neighbor to the salon. Her medical background helps her to act as her brother’s champion. She’s glad to go to work. She treats her employees as family, honors them and lifts them up verbally and in writing. Most importantly, she does this publicly on social media.

She could so easily think, “pity me; look at all have to do; look at all of my burdens”. But she doesn’t see it that way. She doesn’t dread work, because she truly loves the people with whom she works, and this shows.

Valiant, is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary, as “strong, courageous, to be of worth, marked by or carried out with courage or determination.”

That pretty much describes this woman, my friend, Debbie Valiant.

Debbie and her Husband Walter own AmeriStamp SignARama. They were given the Integrity Torch Award from the Better Business Bureau and are finalists for the 2010 Small Business of the Year Award From The Evansville Chamber.

No matter the size or scope of your community

you have the ability to change it.

(And video of the entire presentation is below the nuggets)

(And video of the entire presentation is below the nuggets)