Social Media and The Tipping Point (Part 2 of 3): The Stickiness Factor January 14, 2011

If the Law of the Few determines who is sharing your social media content, the Stickiness Factor determines why. You could have the attention of every key influencer in the social media world, but if your message isn’t memorable and/or important, the Mavens, Connectors and Salesmen (referenced in Part 1 of this series) won’t have any inclination to share it.

“The specific quality that a message needs to be successful,” writes Malcolm Gladwell in The Tipping Point, “is the quality of ‘stickiness.’ Is the message — or the food, or the movie, or the product — memorable? Is it so memorable, in fact, that it can create change, that it can spur someone to action?”

So how do you do it? How do you create a blog post, Facebook update, tweet or YouTube video intriguing enough to attract attention, and substantial enough to evoke a response?

Again, it’s the Law of Attraction.

If your messaging is saturated with sales pitches, all you’re going to attract is negative attention. In the social media world, people are looking to find and share thoughts and information that inspires change in their life. Yes, products and services have the power to change lives, but it’s your job to “package” your messaging in quality content, not thinly-veiled promotions that prove you care little about genuine engagement.

State your intention in terms of what you want to accomplish with social media. Yes, you may want to build your business, but get to the heart of the matter. How do your products and services help people?

For instance, my intention with Fluttering Ivy Media is:

To inspire people to apply the Law of Attraction to their social media experience so that we can all manifest together an abundance of mutually beneficial:

• Connections
• Knowledge
• Community
• Opportunity
• Wealth

Instead of sales pitches offering my social media consulting services, I create content that people can use to improve their lives whether they utilize my services or not. I make it memorable and/or important with my unique take on social media as it relates to the Law of Attraction. If and when my readers decide to hire a third-party for social media help, chances are good I may come to mind.

As David Meerman Scott so bluntly states in The World Wide Rave: Creating Triggers That Get Millions of People to Spread Your Ideas and Share Your Stories, nobody cares about your products or services but you. What people do care about is information that helps them improve their lives, or experiences that inspire them to think and act differently, laugh, even cry. These should be your goals with every post you make.

Read Social Media and The Tipping Point (Part  1 of 3): The Law of the Few

Coming Soon: Social Media and The Tipping Point (Part  3 of 3): The Power of Context

With gratitude,

Meredith Simonds, Social Media Reviewer, Blogger and Consultant

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The social media suggestions in this post are general and brief. To see what a comprehensive review entails, check out my Social Media Services.

Why Social Media is Inherently Good [#SOCIALGOODDAY] September 23, 2010

Question of the Day: Can social media make the world a better place? (photo: Point Mugu, Malibu, CA)

On this Social Good Day, the question posed to us by Mashable and (RED) is this: Can social media make the world a better place?In my view it already does, simply by its very existence.

Even if you’ve never studied the law of attraction, or you write it off as “voodoo” science as my father likes to call it, I suspect you already live your life accordingly.

Wherever you want change, that is where you focus your energy. Putting positive energy toward whatever goal you have in mind inevitably attracts results. That’s how your thoughts create your reality, provided you have the emotional motivation and necessary action to back it up.

SOCIAL MEDIA IS INHERENTLY GOOD

1) Social media has the power to amplify the law of attraction a million times over. Social Good Day is a perfect example. Last week I’d never heard of (RED) and AIDS in Africa was the furthest thing from my mind. Today, hundreds of thousands of people (if not millions) are all focused on trying to solve this problem together. Without social media, how in the world could that be possible?

2) Social media is a channel for expressing our thoughts into permanent written and visual form, which only serves to increase the energy behind these thoughts that have the power to manifest anything we want. Instead of having an idea that we let slip away, social media offers a quick, convenient means of sharing the very ideas that, collectively, can build upon one another to make a big difference.

3) Social media is a doorway for welcoming into our lives friends old and new whose thoughts and goals are mutually beneficial to us all. We follow and friend people who share our interests and backgrounds. As a result, the ideas we share with one another are bound to be met with a great deal of engagement and support, increasing the likelihood of achieving the momentum necessary to realize our goals.

Every day is Social Good Day, but here is Mashable’s list of ideas for how to spend this one:

• Sign up to attend or organize your own Social Good Day meetup on Mashable’s Meetup Everywhere page.
• Tweet about what your solution is using the #socialgood hashtag. We’d love to hear your solutions @mashable & @joinred. (RED) will host a stream of tweets including the hashtag on its website.
• Share your solution in the comments below.
• Write a blog post and share it.
• Post to Facebook about what you or your company is doing.
• Record a video about your solution and upload it to YouTubeYouTube with the #socialgood tag
• Join (RED) on Facebook and Twitter to share your ideas on how to help fight AIDS in Africa using social media.
• Get inspired by watching the 30-minute Spike Jonze and Lance Bangs documentary The Lazarus
  Effect on YouTube. Presented by (RED) and HBO, the film follows the story of HIV-positive people in
  Africa who undergo a remarkable transformation in as few as 40 days thanks to access to treatment.

More about social media and the law of attraction.

With gratitude,

Meredith Simonds, Social Media Reviewer, Blogger and Consultant

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Start Your Social Networking Close to Home May 29, 2010

New to L.A., I'm starting my social networking close to home, in the High Tower Garden Apartments nestled into the Hollywood Hills.

One of the reasons Facebook is such an effective marketing tool is that you’re starting with your most responsive target audience: your friends (and okay, a lot of casual acquaintances).

Yes, we’re all more likely to do business with people we know rather than strangers, but there’s more to it than that.

Every time a friend “likes” something, you’re going to consider liking it to. It’s the domino effect. A ripple. Word of mouth at its best. And this is a lesson we should perhaps apply to all of our social networking efforts, whether you’re looking for new clients or new friends.

To most effectively widen your social circle, concentrate your efforts close to home, and work your way out.

NEW IN TOWN

I just moved to Los Angeles where I signed a year lease on a darling garden apartment in the Hollywood Hills – an area formerly known as Hollywoodland. For the price, I couldn’t have found a better location — the High Tower Garden Apartments which as I recall from the ad were built in the 1930s. Mine is one of a dozen or so units nestled into this lush oasis of trees, ferns and flowering vines.

Though Hollywood Boulevard is just a couple of blocks from me, it feels worlds away. As someone for whom reclusion comes all too naturally, it would be easy for me to hide away here with my cats and my computer. But I’m in L.A. for a reason — to experience this city that has a creative energy I have been in love with since I was a child.

I’m like a kid in a candy store here. Around every corner is yet another fun, intriguing place I want to be, with people I’d like to know.

It’s overwhelming, so I’m taking the easy way out.

I”m starting my social networking close to home.

RIPPLE IN MY POND

Though it goes against my every instinct, I not only introduced myself to my neighbors but I actually invited them to do things! As a girl who grew up moving as much as I did, struggling to make friends about half the time, my fear of rejection is deeply ingrained, but just that it turns out. Fear. After three weeks, two of my neighbors I can already call friends, each of whom has a unique roadmap to this city that I’m now invited to explore.

So I’m taking this close to home theory seriously and working my way out in a social networking blitz across the city! Okay, maybe “blitz” is a bit of an exaggeration. Let’s just call it a journey.

WHAT YOU CAN LEARN FROM ME

I will blog my journey as I go, visiting all the places (and the people they hold) that catch my eye along the way.

Plus, I’ll do a mini, abbreviated version of my Social Media Action Plans for the shops, landmarks, events, restaurants, clubs, museums, tourist attractions and other destinations I visit. I’ll talk about what they’re doing right and I’ll talk about what they could be doing better — from Twitter and Facebook, to YouTube and Flickr. And perhaps more importantly, I’ll let you know if the real deal lives up to the online hype. If not, why not, and what you and I can learn from it.

WHAT ABOUT THE LAW OF ATTRACTION?

There are no coincidences. Every experience you have, and every person you meet, you attracted to you for a reason.

Everywhere there are messages for what you should do next, often in the form of synchronicity.

The day I picked up my key, my landlord and the realtor gal who showed me the place remarked how great another new tenant was who just moved in. Message. Once I was settled, I introduced myself to Victoria and now we are good friends.

When moving stuff into my place, the first neighbor I met greeted me with one of the firmest, friendliest handshakes you can imagine. Message. I am welcome here. And after getting together for coffee, Sarah is another neighbor I now call my friend.

Yesterday, when I was going out front to snap a picture of the apartment gate for this blog, I ran into my neighbor Danny. Synchronicity. After talking for a bit, I remarked how I’d heard it through the grapevine she was thinking of getting some goats. She remarked what a sucker she is for rescuing farm animals, a dream of mine to do one day on my own animal sanctuary. Now we’re going to go visit The Gentle Barn together, a local non-profit that fosters abused farm animals. Then just as I was walking away, she asked if I do yoga. They’ve got FREE yoga classes at Runyon Canyon every day. Message. I’ve been looking for a fun, affordable place to start doing yoga again. Free I can afford.

THE REAL KICKER

After I signed my lease here, I got a call from a friend who used to live in L.A. years ago — a screenwriter who has been a real source of support and inspiration to me. I told him how I’d found the perfect place. At Highland and Camrose, by the Hollywood Bowl.

“Oh, I used to live in that area,” Tom said. “On High Tower Drive” (i.e., my street!).

Coincidence? No. Just the universe telling me the place I attracted to start my new life is exactly where I am supposed to be.

With gratitude,

Meredith Simonds, Social Media Reviewer, Blogger and Consultant

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Following World Peace: Nikola Tesla, Social Media and the Law of Attraction March 21, 2010

As Nikola Tesla suggested, the key to avoiding conflict is eliminating the distance that divides us, in all its forms. Social media may serve to bridge that gap, with the help of the law of attraction.

For a new project, I’ve been researching Nikola Tesla, a 19th and 20th century inventor and engineer. I’m interested in his work with scalar energy but beyond that he’s considered one of the main contributors to the development of electricity as we use it today. In reading Tesla’s autobiography, My Inventions, I came across the following passage that brought the benefits of social media to mind. Though Tesla is speaking specifically about war, his point can apply to human conflict in all its forms.

TESLA WRITES OF WORLD PEACE

“War can not be avoided until the physical cause for its recurrence is removed and this, in the last analysis, is the vast extent of the planet on which we live.

“Only thru annihilation of distance in every respect, as the conveyance of intelligence, transport of passengers and supplies, and transmission of energy will conditions be brought about some day, insuring permanency of friendly relations.

“What we now want most is closer contact and better understanding between individuals and communities all over the earth.”

Then today I saw this @mashable: Social Networking Usage Surges Globally. Based on statistics collected by the Nielsen Company, there are 314.5 million active social networking users around the world, with each person using these networks an average of 6 hours per month. It seems to me this is the kind of progress Tesla envisioned — an “annihilation of distance” for the “conveyance of intelligence” and “transmission of energy” for “permanency of friendly relations.”

Still, I hesitated to blog about the connection, as I wasn’t sure I wanted to touch on the concept of war. Per the law of attraction, focusing on what you don’t want will only attract it to you. And, in fact, that is precisely what happened. I was debating about this blog in the living room today. The TV was on and I thought it may distract me but I decided to leave it on anyway. While reading over this passage in which Tesla references war, the local newscaster announced “Hollywood turned out today to protest the war in Iraq.” Turns out today is the 7-year anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion.

Synchronicity spoke (i.e., I attracted it to me). Indeed, this is a timely topic worthy of a blog post.

ATTRACTING PEACE THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA

To the heart of the issue, can social media bridge the gap that divides us? Not just among nations, but organizations, political parties, families and individuals? Maybe the answer lies in application of the law of attraction. If we approach social networking as an opportunity to connect with people on shared points of interest, our differences will come to pale in comparison to our similarities. When looking for friends or followers online, focus on those whose interests you are attracted to. Your expressed interest in them will return the favor.

For instance, when I’m deciding whether to follow someone on Twitter, I put a great deal of weight on the content of their bio. If they state religious or political views different from mine, I look for something else that can bring us together. Maybe they are an environmentalist, like me. Or they’re a vegetarian, like me. Or they’re a writer, like me. Then their tweets that reflect our shared point of interest (i.e., attraction) are the ones I retweet. And vice versa.

In other words, instead of using social media sites to focus on the differences among us that create conflict, we can focus instead on the similarities. And ideally these similarities are made immediately evident in a quick scan of a profile page. So to that end, include in your bio all the descriptives you can to present all the versions of you.  Imagine 314.5 million of us doing this on a regular basis — a number that is only going to dramatically grow larger. One day we could all be connected via social media, preferably on points of interest that ultimately promote the shared interest of peace.

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonynetone/3717759677/

With gratitude,

Meredith Simonds, Social Media Reviewer, Blogger and Consultant

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My $100 Million LOA Action Plan: Seriously, 6 Steps to Think and Grow Rich March 14, 2010

By July 24, 2012, I will be in possession of $100 million thanks to these 6 steps outlined in Napoleon Hill's 1937 Think and Grow Rich (of course, with the help of LOA-inspired social media campaigns

A couple of months ago a dear friend of mine recommended I read Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. I made a mental note then buried it in my subconscious

In true synchronous fashion, the universe remembered for me.

A couple of weeks ago, I saw the same book lying on my boyfriend’s father’s coffee table. I expressed interest and though he was in the middle of it, he said he’d read it more times than he could remember and he gave it to me.

I started reading it that night and was immediately struck at how much of it I already knew. As implied by the title, Think and Grow Rich is about the law of attraction — that our thoughts (and subsequent emotions) create our reality. Not that Napoleon Hill calls it that (the law of attraction, I mean), though he does call it “the secret” — the title Rhonda Byrne chose for her blockbuster DVD and book on the subject.

Think and Grow Rich follows the same basic premise as outlined in The Secret — 1) Ask, 2) Believe, 3) Receive — but in a 6-step process that looks like this.

6 STEPS TO THINK AND GROW RICH

First: fix in your mind the exact amount of money you desire. It is not sufficient merely to say ‘I want plenty of money.’ Be definite as to the amount.

Second: determine exactly what you intend to give in return for the money you desire. (There is no such reality as ‘something for nothing.”)

Third: establish a definite date when you intend to possess the money you desire.

Fourth: create a definite plan for carrying out your desire, and begin at once, whether you are ready or not, to put this plan into action.

Fifth: write out a clear, concise statement of the amount of money you intend to acquire, name the time limit for its acquisition, state what you intend to give in return for the money, and describe clearly the plan through which you intend to accumulate it.

Sixth: read your written statement aloud, twice daily, once just before retiring at night, and once after arising  in the morning. As you read — see and feel and believe yourself already in possession of the money.

Now I am even more intent on reading all of the law of attraction books I can get my hands on. Though the principle may be the same, it seems I can always learn more from a new interpretation of “the secret.” For example, step two in Think and Grow Rich is a new application for me in terms of what I intend to give in exchange for a desired dollar amount. Certainly it is implied that I will provide a service or product in exchange for money, but what is the inherent benefit of those products and services?

Take, for instance, my broadest statement of intent inspired by the Think and Grow Rich 6-step action plan:

By July 24, 2012, I will be in possession of $100 million — money that will come to me at various amounts from time to time between now and then. In return for this $100 million, through education, art and by example, I will help increase the flow of creative energy within and among all living beings for the mutual benefit of all.

“My $100 Million Creative Energy Action Plan,” as I call it, then branches off into a detailed outline of each project (i.e., revenue source) through which I intend to funnel my own own creative energy, ranging from social media consulting, to book sales, to writing and producing various film and television projects (all of course supported by law of attraction-inspired social media campaigns).

Anytime I find myself doubting the reality of me achieving such a grand, glorious goal, I remind myself of the following, and ask you to do the same for your own desires. As Rhonda Byrne notes in The Secret:

“In the moment you ask, and believe and know you already have it in the unseen, the entire Universe shifts to bring it into the seen…. The law of attraction will powerfully move all circumstances, people, and events for you to receive.”

It is our job to dream it, pursue it, believe it, and receive it.  The universe will take care of the rest.

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/suzanneandsimon/1746100821/

With gratitude,

Meredith Simonds, Social Media Reviewer, Blogger and Consultant

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