3 Facebook & Twitter Lessons from Sweet Ivy Bean

Twitter Training, Social Media Speaker, Technology Speaker, Facebook speaker

I learned about Ms. Ivy Bean at the end of her 104-year life, but in a matter of weeks, I became enraptured by and ended up learning a lot from this amazing woman. Aside from learning she loves fish and chips, which she had every Friday at the nursing home, I also learned she is a big fan of Peter Andre, an English-born Australian singer–songwriter and television personality (pictured here kissing Ms Bean), she loved chatting with her thousands of fans and friends on Facebook and Twitter and said being online kept her from “falling asleep so much.” Probably the two most important lessons I learned from Ivy Bean is to continue learning all of your days, make friends with strangers.

In 2007, Ms Bean learned to use the computer when social services brought laptops into the nursing home where she lived. She joined Facebook at age 102 and when word spread that she was the oldest Facebook user, she became a rockstar, quickly hitting her 5,000 friend limit. That was when she discovered Twitter, which she said was much easier to use. She tweeted (over 1000 tweets) about her life in the nursing home. Some were mundane and some so sweet you just wish you could have spent many an afternoon sipping tea with her. Here are just a few of my favorites:

Twitter for Small Business, Technology Speaker, Gina Schreck, Ivy Bean on Twitter

Ivy Bean, Twitter, Technology Speaker, Social Media Expert, Gina Schreck

Ivy Bean, Gina Schreck, Technology Speaker, Social Media Expert, Twitter and Facebook Training

Technology Speaker, Social Media Expert, Ivy Bean (IvyBean104) on Twitter

Social Media Expert, TWitter Training, Technology Speaker, Gina Schreck, Ivy Bean (IvyBean104) on Twitter

So what can we learn from the incredible Ivy Bean?

1. Be authentic and caring. Ivy loved hearing about and often commented on the adventures and family matters of her followers. She also shared her concern with her house-mates when they were sick or even once when another resident, Kathleen, “went missing for over 10 minutes” and the police had to be called.

2. It’s okay to let people have a peek into your world. Ivy shared her excitement about getting an invitation to meet the prime minister but she also admitted that he wasn’t as good looking at Peter Andre! She shared her love of fish and chips and the joy she got out of having tea with her friends and playing Connect 4. These snippets allowed people to grow to love Ivy and truly connect with her.

3. When you are open to learning something new, your world just might open up something new and wonderful for you! Taking up Facebook at 102 years of age and then Twitter shortly after, Ivy Bean discovered, and connected to, a world she had never known. She became a source of inspiration and encouragement to those down the hall in the nursing home as well as people around the globe. She was treated like a celebrity and was having fun with her new friends.

Thank you Ivy for connecting with the world and leaving a lasting legacy!

I hope to grow up some day to be just like Ms. Ivy Bean!

What can you do to inspire those around you this month? Share your inspiration.

@GinaSchreck

Gina Schreck

August 1, 2010 | Filed Under Facebook, Social Media, Technology, Twitter | 2 Comments

5 Steps to Import Your Blog into Facebook

This morning I was working with a client, trying to explain over the phone how he can pull his blog into his new Facebook Page, and I felt as if I was playing that game where you sit blindfolded and have to get someone to draw something you are thinking of, using verbal communication only.

Somethings are just easier to do yourself than to try and explain. I ended up writing the directions down and sending them via email, but by 3pm, I had two other people asking me this same question on our Gettin’ Geeky Page so I figured I’d better get this out!

Since you put a lot of effort into a blog, you want to get all the exposure you can. You can import your blog into your personal profile on Facebook as well as your PAGES. Here are the steps to follow (it may sound a bit confusing but hang in there!)

1. Go to your PAGE and click on EDIT PAGE on the left.

2. Go down to APPLICATIONS (sometimes you have to click on BROWSE MORE . The search box is in the upper left- type in BLOG and you will see several options including NETWORKED BLOGS (SOCIAL RSS is another good one).

3. When you click on the Blog app you will then need to click the link ADD TO MY PAGE (under the picture on the upper left). If you have multiple pages, it will ask you to choose which page to add it to.

4. Now you go BACK to your PAGE and select the Blog tab that should now be showing. You will have to now pull the blog into the tab from here. You are almost finished.

5. There are a few boxes to check and then you must SAVE your settings and then TEST the publishing to make sure everything took.

There … that wasn’t so hard now was it?

Share your blog address here for all of us to check out too!

@GinaSchreck

July 29, 2010 | Filed Under Facebook, Facebook PAGES, Social Media, Technology | 4 Comments

The iPad Project: Surviving a Week without My Laptop

On our recent trip to Hawaii to attend my sister’s wedding, my hubby convinced me to leave my laptop at home and just take my iPad and phone to stay in touch with the world. It sounded interesting. It sounded a bit scary.

The challenge was, I was conducting a Webinar the day after we got home and then speaking at a conference two days after that and I was concerned that I may need to sneak in a bit of early morning work on these while away and didn’t feel completely confident it could be done on my iPad. I saw it as an opportunity though; One that would help me finally find a place in my heart for this lovely iPad, which up until now has just been an oversized iTouch or expensive iPod. Sure I had a few fun apps on it and the Schrecklet loved playing games on it, but I had not moved it into a business tool category yet.

So I mustered up the courage to kiss my laptop good-bye, just for the week, and pack my iPad.

Here are some of my observations and benefits of traveling with my iPad:

1. Checking in and going through security at Denver’s International Airport was much smoother than when traveling with a laptop. Not only did I not have my big red laptop case, but TSA didn’t even require that I take the iPad out of my purse. Smooth sailing through security …except for that bottle of nail polish at the bottom of my purse! Curses–I usually catch those small items and stick them in my pocket! (NOTE: The TSA folks in Honolulu did not have the same smooth-sailing policy and required me to remove the iPad from my purse and lay it in a bin by itself.)

2. When sitting on the plane and the antsy 9-year-old boy in front of me slammed his seat into the reclined position, the iPad did not get lodged into the tray or seat back like my big laptop usually does! SWEET benefit I had not anticipated!

3. Obviously the small size made it great for throwing in my bag and heading down stairs to grab coffee and do a wee bit of work before the Captain woke up and the added benefit was that I didn’t look like a total idiot bringing my laptop poolside when I should have been relaxing. The new cool-factor served as kind of a disguise for any workaholic! (Which I’m not! I know, denial is one of the signs, but really…I’m not!)

4. Aside from music in my iTunes library, I had a collection of great magazines, podcasts and audio books that I had downloaded before we left, and before we even landed in Honolulu, I had read an issue of Wired Magazine, listened to half of Tony Hsieh‘s book “Delivering Happiness,” and one TWIG (this week in Google) podcast! Nothing says geeky vacation like laying on the beach with a few good episodes of This Week in Google with Leo LaPorte, Jeff Jarvis and Gina Trapani! (Can’t you hear the ukuleles in the background now?)

I do have to admit that the iPad connectivity was sketchy and I could not get online many times to even check email, so I ended up at the end of the week loving my (HTC) Nexus One phone all the more! That baby doubled as a great camera, email reader, Facebook app for posting content, a GPS navigator for getting us around the island, and of course a phone occasionally for making a call here and there! (NOTE: I do not have the 3G service on my iPad so I could connect, or try to connect, to the Marriott’s wifi service, a few others I met there were trying with 3G service and could not get a strong enough signal)

There were a two apps I had loaded onto my iPad that helped get me through the week though.

1. Thanks to the prompting of my tech-savvy and Mac enthusiast assistant, Marci Dahms, I signed up for LOG ME IN, which allows you to access a desktop (previously set up) so that in an emergency I could pull documents or files off of my PC at home and work on them and send them to a client in need, which did happen.

2. Because I had Docs To Go loaded on my iPad, I could open and edit a Word doc with no problem. This is also what you would use if you wanted to show a PowerPoint presentation from your iPad. (You would need to add a $69 adapter that connects to the projector.)

So all in all, can you survive on your next business trip with only your iPad? I say of course you can…as long as you bring your smart phone!

Let me know if you have successfully traveled with your iPad sans the laptop. I still feel that with a little more time, I CAN make another attempt at it.

@GinaSchreck

July 26, 2010 | Filed Under Mobile Technology, Technology, iPad | 8 Comments

Becoming Mayor of Tipsy’s Liquor World & Other Technology Dangers

I “performed” last night at IGNITE Fort Collins a fun comedy routine about the dangers of using today’s technology. The IGNITE programs are spreading across the globe (and one is coming soon to Second Life for those who can’t get to one physically). The basic premise of the IGNITE programs is 15 or so presenters are selected to give a 5 minute presentation each. These presentations must have 20 slides that auto-advance every 15 seconds, making them fun, fast, and highly entertaining. Last night the presentations ranged from “Being Married to a Gamer” and “The Anatomy of a Harmonica” to “Understanding the Barter System.” Each one was unique and FUN!

Here is my “comedy routine” I titled “Becoming Mayor of Tipsy’s Liquor World & Other Technology Dangers”

If you’d like to see more of the entertaining presentations from last night’s IGNITE Fort Collins event, check them out HERE.

Happy Friday and REMEMBER DONT TEXT and WALK without your iHELMET.

@GinaSchreck

June 18, 2010 | Filed Under Gettin Geeky, Social Media, Technology | Leave a Comment

Tending to Your Social Media Garden

I love spring and summer. I love sleeping with the windows open and hearing the birds in the morning. I love waking up at 5:30 to go out in my garden to water the flowers, skim leaves out of the water fountains, making sure the water levels are up, and frequently planting a new potted plant that I found the night before. I even enjoy pulling a few weeds here and there. My husband asks, “Is the garden ever finished?” I try to help him see that a great garden is a daily commitment. It is never finished, it just keeps getting better and better.

Growing your social community is a lot like a garden. It takes a daily commitment to do the work each day. You will need to check on your relationships, nurture a few that are wilting and even pull a few weeds each day. Too many people want the beautiful garden without doing the work. Those are the people who end up buying fake plants or paying someone to come each week to do the work for them. Let’s take a peek into both of those Social Media Gardens:

Buying fake plants is the same as those who jump into the social media arena and connect with thousands of people that they have nothing in common with or that they really have no interest in conversing with. They just want the appearance of a big garden. Take a look at the “FOLLOWER” list of some people and you will see it filled with spammers, porn accounts and the default Twitter bird picture that shows it is most likely a spam account. Now look at the profile page of that gardener and you will find one way conversations that are most likely automated. Little if any @replies to people because this gardener is simply focused on sticking more fake flowers in the dirt.

While there is nothing wrong with paying for a little help, and who wouldn’t want a gardener to come and help make your garden look its best each week, BUT you have to be careful that the gardener doesn’t take over your vision or your garden might end up looking like Disneyland with sculpted Mini and Mickey in the front yard! There are tools that can help you automate SOME of your social media chores, but you still have to get out in the garden to nurture the relationships each day. An example of a problem that can arise when you replace your presence in the garden with automation, is posting Facebook PAGE updates using fabulous tools like TweetDeck, Hootsuite or any other third-party tool and not paying attention to comments or questions that might be posted. You will not always see comments or questions unless you walk through the Facebook Page garden.

If you are going to hire someone to help you, be sure you don’t abandon the garden. There’s just no way around the fact that SOCIAL media tools are still about the SOCIAL! Without the daily work, all of the time and effort you put in to start your garden will return nothing but weeds.

Here are 4 tips to simplify your work in the garden.

1. Start with a plan. What kind of content will you be providing? Who is the community that you will be connecting with?

2. Log in to each of your sites each morning. Welcome newcomers, provide value to your community, respond to questions or comments. Be social.

3. Use automated tools (TweetDeck, Hootsuite, etc) to schedule posts for regular events or tips that you provide.

4. Take time to enjoy your garden- post fun content – recognize loyal followers- show your personality!

What are your tips to keeping a beautiful social media garden? Share them here with other gardeners!

@GinaSchreck

June 10, 2010 | Filed Under Facebook, Gettin Geeky, Social Media, Technology, Twitter | 1 Comment

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