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Growing up my father used to tell me that every day was “the first day of the rest of my life”.He would mostly use the expression when I was starting something fresh like the first day of a new school year.The expression always seemed funny but never really had any meaning for me, until today.
As you may know, Friday was my last day at my job in a position that I occupied for the last 3 and a half years.I had a great title and I grew tremendously while I was there but at a certain point, the growth stopped and I felt like I was stuck in some sort of routine instead of being excited about each new project that came along.I had gotten all that I could have from the job and it was time to move on.
This morning, I didn’t have to get out of bed, but without an alarm clock, for the first time in a while, I got up on my own, earlier than usual, jumped out of bed and had more energy than I’ve had since I wrestled in college.I didn’t have to hit the snooze button, rush to the train or sit for an hour and a half on my commute.Instead, I took my son to school, made a real breakfast and helped my wife pack for our big move next Sunday.
All day I was full of excitement for what the future holds because for the first time in years, I felt that I was in charge of my destiny and I am taking control.I broke free of the hold that the corporate world held on me.I feel like the genie in Aladin when he was liberated and was now free to discover the world.
For the next 2 weeks I will be packing, moving, unpacking and settling into my new home in Montreal, Canada.After that I am opening up the virtual doors of Flid Media, a social media consulting company aimed at helping small businesses and non profit organizations use new technology and media to the fullest extent to improve the way they function.Since I will be making my own hours, I will have time to have breakfast with my family take my son to school and not have to rush off to the office hoping that I won’t be late.I will also be working on this blog along with a few other side projects that I’ve been playing around with.I haven’t had much time over the last month to spend on this blog but once I am settled, I plan of giving it the attention that it needs.
Back to the title of this post, I actually felt that today was the first day of the rest of my life because my future is an open book waiting to be written and for the first time in my life, I have the pen and I know how to use it.Everyone can write their own future, it just takes some luck.
I just had a conversation with a friend of mine who has five twitter accounts, one is personal and then four of them are each a stream for different topics.I don’t know what all of them are but the ones that I do know are great ideas.One of them is a pipeline of jobs for a specific niche.It’s great and it is something that the niche needs.He is doing a great service for the people looking for those positions as well as the organizations that he is publicizing.
My take on this was that the beauty of twitter is that it is authentic and completely transparent.It is a live human who is doing all the tweeting and there is no editing.The tweeter writes about his life, his ideas, his passions and people follow him because they are interested in what he has to say, they crave social interaction and they like to be part of other people’s lives.Social media opens up conversations between consumers and actual people in companies rather than just the corporate image that traditional media projected.
@comcastcares is a great example of a real person tweeting about real things in his life and also representing a company by offering instant customer service.More people are changing their view of Comcast each day just because this guy exists.He is a human face for the corporation.
I told my friend that he should use one account for all of his pipelines and people will follow him because of his authenticity.I told him to at least announce that it is him behind each of the accounts to be transparent and people will be able to follow the feeds that they want.Instead, he is using the different accounts to collect feeds and spit them out in one location.It’s a good idea but in the web 2.0 world, is this what we really want or need?
I consider myself somewhat entrepreneurial and I have tons of ideas all the time.I have thought about creating different twitter accounts for different ideas but at the end of the day, I decided that whatever I do on twitter, I want to be completely authentic.If I start a business and want to tweet about that, I’ll do it on my account.If the business grows, I’ll let other people in the company have their own accounts where they can tweet about different aspects of the company and let their personalities shine through.
I’d love to hear what you think about this.Am I right?Am I completely off my rocker?Let me know in the comments and then follow me up @flid2.
As many of you may know, a few weeks ago, Google launched Chrome, their new internet browser.Since this site is all about “getting lucky”, I decided to wait a little while before posting about this major step for Google so that I can apply a lesson to Chrome instead of just announcing the browser and what it can do for you.If you’ve been following this blog, you know that I am big fan of Google and what they are doing for the internet and the end user.
Do We Need Another Browser?
Everyone has been wondering and talking about why Google would come out with a browser especially since they aren’t making any money off of it.Some people say that Google is trying to take over the word, dominate the net and have as much control over what surfers do as possible.Although there is probably some truth to that, I believe that Google is just trying to give the end users what they want.They want to simplify everything and give their users as many free (or advertise based) tools as possible.Current browsers were built based on the internet of the 1990’s where the average website was a document online.Now with web 2.0, sites are going interactive and cannot be viewed through the same lens as we’ve been using all along.The entire browser is open source so anyone can use it to build or improve their own browsers and applications.
What do People Think About Google Chrome?
I happen to love Chrome and have made it my default browser on all of my computers but I have been getting mixed reviews from others in the blogosphere.There are some plug-ins and features that Chrome is missing right now that Firefox has but I’m pretty sure that Google will catch on quickly and surpass the capabilities of the other browsers.The majority of the negative opinions on Chrome that I have heard are from the web designer’s side.Now designers and webmasters have one more browser to optimize their sites for.From the consumer side, it’s pretty much all positive except for a few sites that have not yet been optimized for Chrome and look a little messed up.
The Bottom Line
The Bottom line is that Google is making things easier for the end user and in this world that is all that really counts.The lesson we can take from Google is to do as much as we can make the end user happy even if it inconveniences us a little (or a lot) in the process.Companies are no longer in the position to tell their consumers to “take it” or “leave it”.If we don’t give the consumers what they want, they’ll leave and let the whole world know about it.
Problogger posted a while back about a conversation he had with Seth Godin about Twitter.Seth mentioned that he doesn’t use twitter and barely even uses Facebook.He feels that if he does something, he wants to do it really well (which is a whole other post) and it’s better not to do it at all than do a mediocre job.
If Seth Godin Doesn’t Use Twitter, Who is Using His Name on Twitter?
Whoever it is has thousands of followers who think they are following him.That person isn’t really trashing Seth Godin’s name or reputation, but he could if he wanted to.There is so much possible damage that can be done by someone taking your name, so why let them?
Take Ownership of Your Name
Buy the domain name of your name, preferably .com if it’s available.You may even want to buy the .net, .info, .name and any others that are available.At $7/year, you can’t really lose.You should also secure your name on twitter, blogspot and any other Social Media tools that can be hijacked.
The web is growing exponentially and the amount of time we spend online is increasing as well and will continue to increase.Even if you just get your name now to secure it for the future, it is a good investment.Who knows what you will need it for in 10 years.You should even consider buying your kid’s names, I know one person who already does.
Five years ago, it was almost unheard of to buy your name’s domain.Now it’s almost common practice as people are using their domain for their blog, business, resume, or just a place to show things off online.
If you want to get lucky in 10 years when having your online identity is crucial, get it now.After all, Luck is all about being prepared for what lies ahead.
