Grace C Walker Video Blog 2013

Initiate Thought, Provoke Discussion, Create Reason and Response and Call it a Blog

Blog writers initiate discussion that elicits thought, reason and response. At its nucleus, effective bloggers  write with artistic creativity. The staging process of a blog begins with the visualization of concept, context and theme.  Similar to the eye of an artist, the scripted ideas and thoughts of a blogger are paintings colored with words and text.

With social media,  the demand for bloggers has generated a powerful and growing industry of creative writer enthusiasts.   Bloggers and the artform of writing are flourishing.  Rather than specialty occupations in journalism, communications, public relations, marketing  and media relations, there is an overwhelming demand for blogger contributions beyond all business and social boundaries.

In observation, the merits of blogging,  and the value contribution to world societies in the artform of blogging is reason for study and researched understanding. With curiosity and fascination, I have been observing the glut of writers in social media engagement.  The profusion of writers about every topic imaginable is now radically viral.

In the industry of bloggers, the hills of writer's dreams and published aspirations are filled with interruptions, such as,  writer block, impasse and restructure in the climb to the top.  Blogger reflection and introspection ensue as I engage in the art of writing.  From early adolescence,  I wanted to be impressive as a writer.  In my uninformed style, I would use words bigger than my own imagination to make a simple statement, exhaustive and compound.  Luckily, my teachers, were quick to correct and admonish me for over excessive usage of "big words".  KISS, keep it simple stupid was my regular dose of writing medicine reality.  I uncover and recover and recreate art thoughts and posit them into words.  I continue to learn and gain perspective in social media examination.

Social media is invitation to craft thoughts, share with others and commune in circles.   Social media technology and all of its peripheral advantages  are driving innovation and creativity throughout the landscape of  written communications.  The art of writing has exploded exponentially.  In a convergence of the science of technology and the need to explain the theories and reasoning  for technologies, the rise of literary encyclopedia is rocketing beyond the unlimited, in social media blogosphere.

Prior to the 1990s, the term Blogger was non existent.  Diaries, journals, individual essays were the common products associated with writing.  As the web spread its spiral outreach to worldwide corners of the globe, the weblog of created articles were the original blogs. With multitudes of creative writer opportunities among the numerous social media platforms,  building and  growing connections, followers and communities are the return on investment (ROI)  for the career bloggers.

In  real time space and proximity of world communities, distance is merely  geographic location.  Instantaneous is as immediate as the blink of an eye.  In the marriage to technology advancement and the common sharing of a blogger, portals of  virtual exchange have been opened,  which have otherwise been non existent.   Transcontinental information travel is occurring with virtual speed of lightning.  The carriers are the many networked  web connections that provide links to indefinite realms of  opportunities.

In the course of becoming an avid and thriving blogger, I am always apprehensive about whether or not my content is authoritative and rich in marketability.  I am fielding and researching the value of adwords, and what text makes any adsense. With intentional humor,  my entry as a new blogger to the bloggersphere world, is filled with uncertainty and awkward deference.

The dilemma a new blogger faces is quite challenging.  Writing content and interaction must appeal to social media engagement audiences.  Whether to  blog about  personal life, social interests, career pursuits , fashion, cooking, photography, one must carve a niche market to win followers.    Followers become  communities.   Activity generated by comments  and  the number of reshares build the capital of  the writer's wealth in outreach.   Without the knowledge of  Search Engine Optimization (SEO) codes  and technology nuances, target audience appeal is limited.  Additionally,  content must also be recognized for word value.  The words that capture the  thread, stream, backlink are recognized in computer linguistics as a series of analytics that help increase content recognition.

 In order to thrive and stay relevant bloggers write without ceasing.    As a blogger contributor, ideas must be constructed and developed at a pace of constant and consistent delivery.    Topic titles are screened and evaluated on  keyword content through SEO and computer backlinks.  With all these requisites and attributes for successful blogging,  most  new bloggers face challenging  uphill odds.

A plethora of sites are crawling all over the internet, to invite writers to blog.  The blogger fantasy is that the topic that they share will automatically attract and generate booming results in readership and income returns.      Among the many blogger invitations to share are the sites promising fortunes for recruiting, enlisting and resharing of blogs.  In its appeal to targeted audiences, blogger entrepreneurship is now the most prolific enticement to generate bounty.

Bloggers are the prey  for the newest pyramid schemes.  The names of celebrity professionals, such as  Wayne Dyer,  Marianne Williamson, Oprah, Maya Angelou,  Louise Hay  are listed in title headings to entice and invite entrepreneur bloggers.   Their quotes are intentionally posted within the first sentences of text, which in turn generates volume readership.  Winning customers through social media baiting is another creative writing artform.

Social media is a frontier of many hills and valleys.  As seen in the Blogger Life Cycle illustration depicted at the top,  from thoughts and ideas, to frustration, to writers block to halo rise at the top, there is emotional commitment and enduring perseverance to "Call it a Blog".   In the halls of academia, where the fears that the soft studies would be trampled by the software and technology driven crusades, Writing Studies departments have been revived.   Technology in all of its most abstract and computer generated analytics have fueled demand for functional writing in communications.

In the midst of the gropes of technology, where every person on the internet is traceable, and information is always public, there is now a burgeoning boom of writing enthusiasts.  The art of blogging is an extension of the brain banks of multitudes of individual thinkers and thought leaders,

In the paintbrush of the artist a canvass reflects the indelible pictures in the portals of the mind.  In social media, the blogger creates a repository of ideas and words that paint and reflect, theme, thought, response and invitation.

For those in pursuit of the blogger mecca, put on your thinking caps.  Initiate Thought, Provoke Discussion, Create Reason and Response,  Write!  Share! Comment! Follow!   and Call it a Blog!

The Circle of Communities and Building Followers are prime Real Estate to Social Media Success

Success, as the social media debutante I am, is like having my naiveté slammed into overdrive, full throttle without a gear shift.   I feel the momentum and accelerate. I am on a projectile to infamy without a guiding compass. Without the insurance of prime real estate value for my social media landing, I may crash and burn.   

In real estate the slogan, location, location, location is an indication of prime value.  In #Social Media circles, follower, follower, follower is guaranteed prime value star * visibility.  The circle of friends, communities and growing followers are prime real estate value to social media success.  

Creating circles of friends, families, communities and having a growing multitude of followers are the magnets for success in social media. The clues to get to that success venue are shared by celebrity media icons and most importantly, by the knowledge shared and generosity of social media thought leaders.  

Here are the prized takeaways for me in the journey towards success as GooglePlus Blogger.

  

• Community builds leaders.  
• Leaders share with followers. 
• Followers share with Community  
• Circles  revolve
• Success 

What does it take to become a Social Media celebrity?

+Richard Branson , #Virgin Records,  #Virgin Atlantic Airways, #Virgin Galactic, and over 400 other Virgin-branded enterprises  is a social media celebrity with over 5 million followers on Google plus. http://www.virgin.com/richard-branson

+Guy Kawasaki , software evangelist, and author speaker and Motorola Google advisor has over 5 million followers on Google Plus

http://www.guykawasaki.com/

They are both multi billionaires and can thrive successfully in their respective brands of expertise, with limited social media visibility.   They are, however, quite the contrary, vigorously and robustly active on social sites, and are very vocal in the Google+ environment.   They post updates daily.  Posts are done either by each of them personally, or by their #social media coordinators.  Their posts invite reaction and conversation. Among their followers, there is the notion of intimacy with nuances of personal connection to a famous person.  There are interactive exchanges of comment, responses and resharing among the followers and communities and the leaders. They have earned their fame as social media community building celebrities.

For me as a new Blogger, I have started a course of engagement on Google Plus.  Initially, in the neophyte mindset, I thought, if I write something many will see my creativity, and they would think, “She is a budding talent”.   I assumed I would naturally attract those who are most inclined to know more or about me or about what I share.

 I migrated from the #Facebook platform to +GooglePlus, because the environment at Facebook, catered to a very quarantined individualistic shared exchange.  I wanted to say more.  Most people will digest the first paragraph or last paragraph of shared information and will ignore most substance in a post.   I write with robust pleasure and enjoyment and like the engagement of participation, and exchange, and shared commentaries. I find #Blogger is a most accessible and accommodating tool for my involvement.  

I had no idea what to + another person and comment and share meant.  But I did selfishly want to introduce my audience to what I shared on my personal blogs.  The idea of my own self importance was quickly diminished as I continued to see my own statistics of followers remaining in the low 50s.  I wanted to learn and improve and become just like the best of circles and communities I saw as successful and flourishing with thousands of followers.

Why were other people surrounded by thousands of followers?

As I continued my attempts at belonging to communities, I made the typical mistakes of the nouveau intern.   I am a wannabe.  I shared my blog links as part of my introductions to the more high profile numbers communities.  I was rudely awakened to protocol and also received some of the best advice, along with suggested reading posts and a list of circles to associate with.  

There are too many names to list here that are the movers and shakers and also are the most generous with their posts and suggestions.  Among the names of some of the top  gurus of my circles are:

+martin shervington .  Martin has developed and continued to provide key roadmaps for becoming a successful googleplus user. 

+Mark Traphagen  who is found in almost all the recommended best of circles for his insider knowledge on the values of googleplus.  

+pio dal cin graciously shared his suggestions for joining communities and the best practices for avoiding common mistakes.

During the course of the engagement online, you find a select few who form kinships, as if you were always  lifetime friends.   

+Tazein Mirza Saad  a super plusser, with more than 10000 in her following shares inspiration. Even while writing, I saw her post: 

Never give up on yourself, believe that you will live to see happiness come in your life, have faith, nothing is impossible, as long as you don't quit!

And I felt the warmth and sincerity of her encouragement.  The timing on the post is perfect. 

+Karin Sebelin  who lives in Friolzheim / Germany and has over 14000 in her circles has been a welcome new follower to my posts and has treated and supported my sharing with kind encouragement.

Successful posters share their successes with others.

  

+Gideon Rosenblatt  over 28000 in his circles has lent sound advice, which is continuously reshared and reposted.  

+Jens Graikowski has over 104000 in his circles and lives the good life.  He states he lives on a tropical island and works to make Google+ a better place.  He routinely shares posts that introduce and enable new users to get through the maze of circling on Google+.  His post like this one:   

How I post at G+ ...

When you've spend some time on #GooglePlus like me you tend to forget that there are new G+ users (goobies) starting on this network every day. The platform can be an intimidating place when you start out and the amount of fantastic features can be overwhelming, so let's start with the basics, shall we?  

is the kind of sound byte teaching  that every newcomer needs and values.  Everyone loves to follow Jens..

The fact is, I have a limited understanding on crowd sourcing.  

+Stephan Hovnanian  closing in on 2000 followers, with his post Google Plus for Crowdsourcing shares a detailed synopsis of best practices, that any newcomer needs, to become informed and more intelligent.

My learning curve is steeped in new and exhaustive reviews of favorite posts that are shared by so many.  I found out how to save favorite posts by another community superstar, 

+Jesse Wojdylo, with over 11000 followers.  His post was very instrumental in helping me to keep abreast of all the highlights of so many talented sharers.

+Valerij Karpinchik  with over 4600 in his circles,  suggested that he will continue to share until he gets the results he desires.  This statement gives others a sense reassurance to the perseverance factor.

With new apps, new product launchings, with multiple site interests sharing posts from the writers at #Time Magazine, #Forbes, #Huffington Posts, there is a wealth of information for library and research.   I follow posts from +Dave Kerpen a Linked In contributor, who provides a stream of articles which are cross posted with regular frequency.   His article #How to Write more Successful Blog Posts is a well crafted roadmap of touch points that all bloggers need to pay close attention to.  

http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130429113637-15077789-how-to-write-more-successful-blog-posts

It is no wonder, that the names of these thought leaders, are included in the best of circles that I am following.  I am gearing my engines up to have propulsion of growth and expansion of my followers base.  With the views on my blogs exceeding 2000 in the last month, I am energized that I am building circles of community, and ultimately, vibrant and participating followers.

What do you recommend as my next step, or what are your suggestions for improvement? 

For the communities and leaders that I follow, I invite you to share your insights and thoughts and comments and suggestions.   I am eager to learn and become prime real estate in circles, and communities building followers.