American Idol & Honorary Thanks

It was an exciting Saturday Dec. 7th. My friend Lynn, whom I met through Facebook, came to visit me with her husband. I met Lynn through Social Media. She had commented on a post by Robert Caruso, and from there friendship connections were made. We had a lovely walk in the snowy hills of my home town, The Dalles, OR. A wonderful visit, some hot cocoa and then parting hugs until next time.
Once she left, and things quieted down I hopped on my laptop while my husband watched a football game. He and I chatted as I clicked away at my keys. And then this.

I told David that American Idol started following me on twitter. Then a tweet followed….

and then an email. The email was an invitation of a random selection of “social media professionals and bloggers, “ being invited, to “something new”…and so on. All-expense paid and surprises along the way. What?!
My first thoughts will come in another blog. However my first blog post around this event is in honor of a man who invested time with me. I tweeted him a 911 tweet about 18 months ago. I had only 45 followers on Twitter and nobody would follow or tweet me. In real time I don’t really have that problem so this proved to be quite humiliating and I was frustrated and about to call it quits. It turns out this man only lived 40 minutes from me. We met face to face and from that day forward a wonderful friendship was formed.

Robert Caruso is the founder of BundlePost which is a “content curation tool which helps to efficiently  manage Social Media.”  It is worth looking into if your deep into Social Media. Running a busy company, he carved out an hour a week to meet with me face to face. After our second meeting he told me I needed the first word on my Twitter bio to be “chatty”. At first I refused to put it up there, because I thought it was not professional. He rolled his eyes, and said, something like, “you talk a lot”. Thus I humored him and said I would put it up for one day. Eighteen months later and it is still there.

I was not an easy student. I tend to ask the same question five times in five different ways. I have frustrated many of my teachers over the years, because my brain has to process 5 different ways. Robert stayed the course with me. There were times when I was a heap of tears trying to learn how to use Social Media in a meaningful and engaging way. Then one day, after learning how to use the tools and how to navigate Robert said something like this, “Just be who you are in real time, online.” For some reason I was only tweeting as an ad slick, and believe me it was not slick at all. Nor was it me, nor did that come natural. But being me, well that comes natural. Naturally I am a little chatty. Middle of five kids, you kind of have to be if you’re going to have a voice. Today “chatty” sits as the first word of my bio on most of my platforms.

Random selection by American Idol, I think not. I think “chatty” might have something to do with. Robert Caruso, you believed in me and invested your time in me. You taught me the etiquette of Social Media. You taught me how to take the heart of who I am and communicate that into Social Media. You taught me to always be mindful of what I tweet and share. You taught me to always honor and embrace those around me in Social Media as I do in real time. You taught me how to use tools that allow me to do my job better. I cannot start this week of exciting American Idol fun without going back to how it really started.

As I sit in my home office, looking out over the snowy vineyards, I can’t think that this was actually random. There is strategic planning in gathering a small group of women across the nation. Then I think, God new of “this” 18 months ago, when he brought this man into my life to take me through a process of learning and growing. Thank you Robert. During this Christmas season may your family see much blessing and favor. May your business grow in leaps and bounds. I know that my voice speaks for the 1, 000’s you have helped. Cheers….now que the American Idol theme song.