There are times in life when you have those moments of realization. Those moments of how much you have to be thankful for. You look around your world, your business, family and life and realize how blessed you really are. It's often the little things that make it so. It's the flowers on the Magnolia tree outside, the bike rides to school with the kids and the friends we have online. Sometimes it's the little 140 tweets or the private Facebook messages that make you tear up in a few seconds. It's new friends, old friends and real friends. It's friends across the globe, friends in your back yard.
As I pondered some of these thoughts the past week after my Granny passed away I wanted to share my promise to you. Granny was such a testament of endurance, strength, kindness, giving and faith. She was honest, always told you how she felt and was the first to cook you a good meal. If there was a problem she knew it was nothing that couldn't be solved with a good discussion over some chicken, cornbread and a good piece of chocolate cake.
In our family a promise is a VERY big deal. Our promises are kept. I have never broken a promise to my kids, ever. They know if mama promises something, I will do everything within my power to deliver upon the promise, no matter what it takes.
First of all if you are reading this I want to thank you. I am so very thankful for my loyal blog readers. It is you who has built me, who has helped form my writing, my blog and helped grow our business. You have helped put food on our table when you share our posts with your friends. You have helped put food on others tables as we do the same for them. You have helped inspire me and our community with your comments, laughs and deep debates.
I appreciate the fact you are here. I appreciate the fact you are honest, tell me what you think even when it hurts. I am thankful for your words, your teachings, your engagement, your time and your friendship. I believe the heartbeat of social media is people, real people just like you.
I have some words for you too. As I look deep within myself over the coming months as our business jets to the next level, I want to ensure we keep a solid grounding, that we remember where we started, that regardless of the size of account and clients we work with we are the same people. We must remain human, humble, giving and not let success change us. We must fly together, taking people with us as we are all stronger as a team than we are as one.
My promise to you social media friends:
1. You will always get me. There will never be another voice writing, tweeting, Facebooking or pretending to be me. No matter how busy I get, you get me.
2. I will never choose my friends by a number. I do not and will not ever choose to talk to you or not talk to you by the number of your influence score, period.
3. I will never spam you. If you subscribe to our email newsletter or other subscriptions I promise never to sell or rent your name or spam your inbox with junk.
4. I will be honest and tell you what I think, even when the truth hurts.
5. I will listen to and expect you to also be honest with me, even when the truth hurts as we grow better together doing such versus telling each other only what we think the other wants to hear. I want the truth, period.
6. I will never trade high readership numbers for good, quality content. I will always do my best to give you the best, most relevant content I can.
7. I will push you to be your best, even when it hurts.
8. I will never stop encouraging you to eliminate the Random Acts of Marketing (RAMs) and trade them for a real plan with real goals and objectives.
9. I will never trick or lie to you on my blog or any other online social network or platform to get you to take action such as sharing a post, subscribing to a newsletter etc.
10. I will not fake happiness if I am having a bad day. I will share my ups and downs with a goal that we grow together.
11. I will listen to you and your opinions. I will read your content, understand your perspective the best I can. When I ask you for your opinion on a decision I need to make, I will really consider it, not just let it go in one ear and out the other.
12. I will be open to your perspective and differing opinions. I will welcome a debate as long as it is professional and respectful.
13. I will not tolerate trolls or abuse of anyone on this blog or any other platform we own or use. I will not tolerate usage of bad language or over all negativity.
14. I will protect you, help you and be the best online and hopefully offline friend I can be.
15. I will not hold your comments of stating I tweet too much against you! I know I tweet a lot, you probably tweet a lot. We can help one another remember what matters in life.
16. I will remind you and encourage you to take time off to enjoy life. Check out #handsfreemama at www.handsfreemama.com. It changed my life in so many ways. Read her blog and I am sure it will do the same for you. I am proud to say we are a hands free home now. It is still a challenge but something I am willing to take on for life!
17. I will reply to you the best I can. We have much going on in both business and life. I will do my best to acknowledge and thank you for your tweets, retweets. I will read your comments and respond to them as appropriate. I will read your private messages and emails when I encourage you to take it offline.
18. I will listen to your needs. Please be bold in telling me what you need. How can we help you? What content do you need? What can I do to be a better friend to you? How can I help your business grow?
19. I will hold strong to my beliefs, even if they don't align with yours. I hope that we can find mutual respect.
20. I will not push my beliefs on you. Even if my morals or beliefs differ from yours, I will not push mine on you.
21. I will tweet, blog, post what I think, believe and feel. Please know that if I tweet something that doesn't align with you or your goals I am not judging you, criticizing you or wanting to hurt you in any way. I am simply sharing tips and advice for those who want to listen. I share what I know works, yet it doesn't obviously mean you have to do it. The only right way to do social media is the way that works for you and your business.
22. I will never quit tweeting about my faith. God has changed my life and brings me so much joy and peace daily. If you don't like it, I am sorry but my faith is a part of who I am and what I am. I hope that you can accept me for me and even if we don't see eye to eye on such we can respect one another.
23. I will love you, respect you and be the best friend I can humanly be to those that earn such place in my heart. I don't expect you to do the same unless you genuinely want to.
Thoughts?
What is your foundation for social media? What are your beliefs? What promises are you living or do you need to make to your social media friends?
Heartbeat of Social Media Series
This blog post is part of a new series titled “The Heartbeat of Social Media“. It will include a deep look at how communities work, what people are doing within them and how businesses can better understand how they can fit in, provide value and derive benefit as both a business as well as individual people.
Subscribe to the series for updates and access to special videos, webinar training and more. Would love to hear your input and have you participate in discussions and debates as we challenge each other to be part of what makes the social network heartbeat healthy and alive in 2012!
