Lay It On the Line

I’ve done a lot of talking about best practice in social media, but I’ve never really told you about me and just why I’m here. After a short stint in the US Army , and spending 20 years in the restaurant business all I really had was a dysfunctional lifestyle, kids I wasn’t taking care of emotionally, and a relationship with a woman that was ending. Well, the relationship ended, and I found a fantastic mate, whom I married, the first chance I got. I have a beautiful relationship with my children from my previous marriage, I have two step kids that I will be adopting early next month, and a wonderful four year old little girl with my wife. We’ve bought a house, and I started my business.

In the middle of this turmoil, I decided that it was time for a career change. I chose IT as my new field and off I went to the local community Tech College, Fountainhead College of Technology. I graduated, with honours, with an Associate of Occupational Science in Information Technology. I continued on for a BS in Computer Technology, and presently have two semesters left to finish that degree. I may continue on to a Masters.

So how did I get into social media marketing? In my first semester, James Herbert, @jherbert2 on Twitter,  introduced me to Twitter, Diigo, Delicious, and a few other social platforms. I was hooked. I immediately saw this as an avenue to make my school life a little easier, and indeed it was. I grew friendships on Twitter and quickly started growing a base of followers. At various difficult points during my college career, I have utilized those friendships to help me figure out my studies.  The more questions I asked the more I marvelled at the amazing wealth of knowledge that is available in the world of 2.0. It truly is there for the asking. I contacted web designers to help me with my coding problems, and I looked to IT professionals to help me with subnetting (a particularly difficult class for me). This information was not restricted to the US, as I was able to easily find my answers worldwide.

After a couple of years in social media, I naturally started forming opinions about how it should and shouldn’t be done. I’d see websites that look like infomercials and cringe. I saw, and continue to see, infomercial style tweets and updates. Who really reads this crap, much less clicks on it? I don’t, and I’m pretty sure most of you don’t either. By this time, I and some friends had created a fairly successful blog, and community outreach group. I learned through trial and error how to get that blog to the top of search engines and how to promote it through social media. Well, if I can do it with this blog, surely I can do it for anyone else.

So, with ideas in hand, I opened Anocial  Social Media Consulting, and by the way, all the calls I get with people saying the company name all kinds of different ways, let me say now that it is pronounced “ah-no-sh-al”.

My wife and I decided that I have three years to make this business happen. I’m glad we decided on three years, because one of the first things that I learned about social media consulting was that I new nothing about being a social media consultant. Sure, I knew social media and how to promote through its use, but the ins and outs of marketing are, for a large part, still a mystery to me. However, like I said, information out there is available if you will just ask. A few marketers like Mark Schaefer, @markwschaefer on Twitter and his blog {Grow}, have been more than willing to to help me on my journey.

I have, not once, been in my comfort zone since I started the business, and the more I learn, the more I find new avenues filled with even more information that needs to be learned. I’m cool with that, I’ve not been bored once since I opened Anocial. I have enough knowledge to help small companies that don’t have any social media footprint get that footprint, and help them expand their business. So, for now, I am focusing on them. Besides, in my opinion, they are the ones who can benefit the most from these platforms.

As you read my blogs you are getting a kind of stream of learning. Each post reflects what I am learning about, and thinking about at that point in my personal strive to grow my own business. The more I learn the better I can help you and your business.

So here it is, all on the line, so to speak. I have good ideas. I have a base of 2.0 knowledge. I am learning more about social media and marketing every day. Let’s learn together and get my business, and yours, past that three year milestone.