Once Upon A Dollar

It would appear that everyone is severely ticked off about the “New Facebook”. Sure we’ve had changes before, but the change that happened yesterday was a pretty big one and the masses are less than thrilled. I’m not too thrilled myself, but I’ll adapt. I use FB for business mostly but I do enjoy getting chatty with my friends there and keeping in touch with out-of-state family, too!

But with all the changes we’ve had before I’ve never seen anyone delete their account because of them. Granted I’ve only got about 500 people on my friends list instead of the 1000′s that some people have, but 2 of them deleted yesterday because of this last change and 1 of them said she was going to today after she made sure to get in touch with all her friends, and I haven’t looked this morning to see who else is gone. And guess what?! Facebook is making MORE changes today. Supposedly it will “change the world of social media“.  Uh. okay.

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<chanting>Change is good. Change is good. Change is good. Change is good. Change is good… Right?</chanting>

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The majority of the changes I can work around, it’s mostly just adapting to a new user interface (BTW, if you create a ‘list’ and name it ‘everyone’ and then add ALL your friends & pages to you it, you can more or less get your old newsfeed back just by clicking on that list), but what really bugs me is that completely obnoxious “live” news ticker on the right hand side. Supposedly it’s just a “to the minute” ticker of everything that’s happening in our friends worlds as it’s happening. But what I find really annoying, and extremely discouraging (aside from the distracting flickering of it’s constant scrolling), is that I am now getting updates from people that ARE NOT on my friends list. Yesterday I got a conversation belonging to a guy who was a friend of my friend. They’re having a party at work on October 28th if you want to go, you can bring your wife, but not the kids. My friend wasn’t even in the conversation, so it wasn’t my friend’s activity. This guy was chatting with some other guy who was not friends with me or my friend. Why are these people on my mini Facebook in Facebook? Whose mini Facebook am I on now? If I’m having a conversation on my sister’s wall, is her boyfriend’s brother’s boss’s uncle getting our conversation in his newsfeed? Seriously… what the…?

And then you have the people that say “If you don’t like it you can leave, it’s free”. And YES, this is 100% true and correct. No one is forcing us to use Facebook, no one is paying us to use Facebook, and we’re all turning into a bunch of stupid, incompetent-in-the-real-world zombies because of it (I’m not kidding! Have you GONE outside lately? I’m actually afraid to anymore. Y’all scare me and I don’t think it’s just something in the water! <That was a joke, {sorta} you laugh now, haha>)

But it’s an ADDICTION! Just like crack! We’re ADDICTED to this stupid website. We HAVE to log in and see what’s going on! We’re freaking nosy! We gotta know! We gotta share! You HAVE to see what I’m doing!! You HAVE to know where I am! You HAVE to know what game I’m playing. Who I’m friends with. What I’m talking about. When you went to the grocery store. Where Darla had lunch. How Joe Smoe does his laundry. Why he dumped Jane! It’s the curse of human nature. We are social creatures. Hell, even me, Miss Rather Read A Book then hang out with anyone… I get sucked in just like everyone else. WE ARE ADDICTED. Admit it. YOU are.

Here’s the deal, as I see it, Facebook. You have MILLIONS of people using something you made and they have put their trust in you and many have come to depend on you. A very large group of these people run their entire business on your platform and you make boatloads of money from all the advertisements you expose all of us to every time we change or refresh a page. You also make money from all the Facebook users using your built in advertising system. You’re exposure is global. Pratically every website & blog on the internet has a “Like Us On FaceBook” or “Share This To FaceBook” button on almost every page. Hey! There’s one or two on THIS page! You’ve got it pretty darn good.  Just about everyone in the world KNOWS Facebook.

So why do you keep insisting on fixing things that are not broken and ticking everyone off?  Remember MySpace? I mean… if you’re terrified of Google +… angering your current users is not going to help you there. um.. Duh.

I received a newsletter today about some things that you should not do when applying for a J.O.B. and while reading it I started thinking about how some of the tips listed also apply to those seeking (and running) a Work At Home business opportunity. People need to keep in mind that working for yourself or from home does not mean that you can (or should) be any less professional than those working in the “corporate world”. If you’re thinking “blah blah blah, whatever, I can do what I want if I work for myself!”, think again because you’re doing yourself a disservice. Here is a short list of no-no’s that I think are important for maintaining your professionalism online.

1. The Resume. While most “work at home” opportunities do not require an “official” resume, it is always good to have something on hand, just in case. Usually, a work at home opportunity involves being “signed up” as an Independent Distributor, Consultant, Sales Rep, etc… which means you’ll most likely be talking to someone who is already signed up and is trying to build a team to work with. While many people just want to get sign ups and don’t care who they refer, there are at least that many who do care. They might not ask you for a resume, but these individuals want to know who they are going to be working with. These individuals do not want to waste their time on someone who isn’t 100% serious about building their business. Get some type of a resume created, and whether you do it yourself or have someone do it for you, make sure it is professional and relevant to the business you are trying to work with. At the very list get some kind of  an “About Me” bio page set up somewhere where you’re potential new co-workers can learn a little more about who you are. You probably won’t need the resume itself, but better safe than sorry, right?
2. Punctuation, Capitalization, Spelling & Grammar. They don’t teach you this stuff in school just for the fun of it. If you want to use “txt tlk”, “d00d sp3ak”, ” l33t sp34k” or whatever-wacky-name-they-call-it on your mobile phone when chatting with your friends, fine, have at it. But loose it everywhere else. Even on Facebook. It is hard to read and extremely unprofessional. Frankly, it makes you look like an idiot who can’t be bothered to do it right. Most people looking for someone to partner with are not looking for illiterate candidates. They want a professional (at the very least in appearance) person that they can work with without having to break out the decoder ring every time they want to chat. On that same note, if you’re already working from home and looking to build your team… people are not likely to join, or purchase from, someone who talks like they failed grade school English. If they like your company, they’re likely to find another representative to join with.  Now, I’m not saying you need to be an English Major (I’m certainly not!), but put some effort into it! It’s not that hard to capitalize your “I”‘s, either. Give it a try. Oh! Watch out for your, you’re, two, too, to, there, their, they’re, etc… they like to sneak up on us and make us look dumb!
3. Leave the Spam in the can. Congratulations! You are a Work At Home human! Now you need to tell everyone everywhere how awesome your company is and/or products are! Send an email to everyone you know… everywhere! Do it all day every day until someone joins you! Update Facebook & Twitter every 15-30 minutes with your companies’ compensation plan and sales, get tweeting, post it on your friend’s walls! Er… um… Annoying much? A once in a while status update is okay, I do that myself, but constant business updates are no different than sending unsolicited emails to strangers. Create a page and let people opt in (and out)  if you want to post constantly. Don’t force your friends to listen to your “ads”… There’s this little option called “hide posts from news feed” on Facebook and if you annoy your friends enough for them to use it, they’ll never see your status updates… not even the ones about your new puppy, Rex. And do not subscribe your friends to your newsletter or blog. Invite them once, maybe once every few months or so, in a personal message to each friend (not a generic group email), and then let it go. One of my Facebook contacts added me to her email newsletter after talking to her once about what she does from home and I’ve just been “too nice” to tell her how annoyed I am about that. If I want to sign up for something, I’ll do it myself. Have respect for your friends and contacts. People that constantly harass their friends have a bad habit of getting removed from friend’s lists and contact books.
4. Personal vs. Professional. For most people Facebook and other “social networks” are just that, “social” networks. However, most people have contacts from work on their friend’s lists, be it from a “day job” or “work at home”. This is a “dangerous” mix. Especially if you’re one who likes to ‘party and post’. You may think the picture of you in your underwear covered in Cheetos and beer singing karaoke from on top of the bar, or the one where you’re writing profanities on a passed out party-goers forehead or backside  is downright hilarious, and it may be, but it’s highly unprofessional and should be shared only with those you can blackmail to keep from sharing the pics with the wrong person… just kidding… blackmail is wrong, m’kay?… and… well… anyone with access to these pictures can now use them against you (for example when they’re mad at you for outdoing them at work or stealing their girlfriend), so you might want to rethink sharing them on the internet. Your boss, co-workers, mom (or whoever you don’t want to see them) may not be on your friends list, but that doesn’t mean someone who is won’t show them through their account. And besides, funny or not, they just aren’t professional, especially if you’re trying to get anywhere with your home biz through your personal connections & profiles. And while we’re at it, so is foul language. Just don’t do it. We’ve all been guilty of this at one point or another, especially when angry, but we need to stop.
5. Shut it. Yeah, yeah, yeah if you can’t say anything nice… blah, blah, blah. This is actually very important. Do not badmouth previous employers, co-workers, old friends, anyone, not even to your friends, which I must regrettable admit that I’ve done in the past. It makes you look bad. If you need to file a complaint about a company do it professionally. Leave a constructive review in the appropriate forum. It’s one thing to say “I went here and they did this” (like the time we went to a local car dealer who diagnosed our car with a $1000+ problem that my husband fixed himself for under $100) but leave it at that. If you have to say something, stick to facts, avoid feelings and then drop it. Carrying on and on about a bad experience makes you look like a whiny crybaby. Suck it up cupcake!

So that’s my list of just a few things to avoid when trying to maintain a professional appearance online. There are several others that I could discuss, but they are a little more controversial, like personal causes, politics, religion and sex (oh my!) but I’m just not in the mood to “go there’. Mostly because I have mixed feelings on sharing my views on things I support or do not support once in a while. Use the dying art of Common Sense in all you do and you’ll be just fine!

By Deni Cooper, Once Upon A Dollar

So the question today is "when was the last time you were truly surprised?" I have to say that it's been a while (April 16th, 2005),  not much surprises me nowadays, but what REALLY had me going "No way!!" was organized behind my back (or it wouldn't have been a surprise, eh?) by my sister, Kristy, and my husband (then boyfriend), Aaron, and was unbelievably well executed and completely unexpected.

Aaron, had been telling me for several months about a friend of his that was stationed in Iraq. He didn't know when he would be coming home again but was looking forward to introducing me to him. I was looking forward to being introduced.

I had been in Texas for 3 years and had been dating Aaron for almost a year. It had been a little while since I had seen my family and my birthday was coming up. I started getting really bummed. I kept calling my parents but they were just "too busy" to talk for more than a minute and my sister wouldn't answer her phone, and that was just making my homesickness worse .

Finally my birthday came, and Aaron got a phone call. After hanging up he told me that his friend had just flown in from Iraq and needed a ride from the airport. "Well how cool is that?" I thought. I was finally going to meet my boyfriend's best friend! We drove out to the airport "waiting area" and sat in the car for a little while. Aaron and his friend texted back and forth a few times and then he said it was time to go to the pick up spot so off we went.

As we drove around the windy airport roadways I kept wondering what this friend was going to be like. I was actually getting paranoid.. what if he doesn't like me? What if he tries to take Aaron away from me? What if I'm not "good enough' for HIS best friend?

Then I saw "him". I flew out of the car and ran across the sidewalk shrieking "oh my God!"… it wasn't Aaron's friend at all… it was my little sister! She was standing there with her luggage, laughing and filming me with her camera phone as I nearly bowled her over in a tackle hug. "Happy Birthday" she laughed when I was done smothering her.

I talked to my parents a little while later, to tell them that Kristy had arrived safely. My mom said she was sorry for being so short and practically hanging up on me when I had been calling. She felt bad because I was so homesick and they wouldn't talk to me because they were afraid of ruining the surprise that my sister and boyfriend had whipped up for my birthday.

I have the coolest family.

Oh… and I finally DID get to meet "the best friend" and he's a great guy

Last Update: 5/27/2011 @1:50PM CST.

So if you haven’t noticed, IceMyst Designs looks a little different today. I am moving everything from a standard build it yourself hosting space to the wordpress.org engine. Fun stuff. Really.

Anyways, I’m working on it, so stay tuned!! If you’re looking for my chainmaille please visit the links below and I’ll have more stuff added on THIS site soon.

http://www.IceMystDesigns.ArtFire.com

http://www.Facebook.com/ChainmailleJewelry

or get updates via Twitter: http://www.Twitter.com/IceMystDesigns

The OLD site is still available here: http://www.icemystdesigns.com/index.html but if you click on the “HOME” button while on that site, you will come back to this page here on the new site.

Yeah, I know my photo galleries are not showing up for mobile users… I’ll get there soon!