Secret To Getting Kids To Respect Your WAHM Office Time

Disciplining yourself when working from home is difficult enough without the added responsibility of caring for young children.  Add into the equation distraction from neighbors, routine household chores and extra-sensory stimulation (read, just your day-to-day usual household excessive decibel level noise) and you get the picture.  The most challenging of the above is how to deal with getting your progeny to respect your office time.  Here’s a few secrets:

1. Establish a Work Schedule. Often it helps to establish a schedule that works well for you and your family.  Before you begin your workday, first spend quality time with the kids.  They’ll be more willing to entertain themselves for awhile after they feel they were listened to and their immediate needs were met.

2.  Choose Your Work Location Carefully. If you have the option, exercise care in where you choose to set up your office space.  Choose an area you can close the door if your children will need to be under supervision.  If that’s not a workable option, use a screen to set up a designated work area to signify that the area is your “private space.”

3.  Establish Boundaries. Hold a family conference to let them know that this is your job and that is how Mom or Grandmom makes money.  Explain that it isn’t a hobby, and that they need to understand that this is how you make money for their clothing, food, toys, gifts and keeping the utilities on.  Your spouse or significant other must also be understanding in order to offer support in keeping the kiddos occupied when they’re home and you’re working.

4.  Dress for Success. Maintaining a professional demeanor and attitude while you’re working is important and your children will notice the difference.  They’ll be able to recognize the “working mommy” versus the “at-home mommy” mode.  Be consistent and eliminate confusion by avoiding chatting on the telephone in a conversational tone that they’ll recognize as your “at-home” mommy voice when you’ve told them you’re working.  Oftentimes it helps to dress up in casual office attire when planning your work-at-home schedule.

5. Create A Signal System. If a responsible sitter or adult is home to watch the kids, it always helps to develop a signal system to let others know you’re working.  One possibility is to hang a cute sign clock with movable hands on your closed door or screened-in area set to the time when you’ll be available again.  Have the kids make one for you!

6.  Eliminate Distractions. Background noise such as workers or animals can frequently become a distraction or source of procrastination and can easily be remedied by using a noise-canceling headset.  Using this will also signal to the kids to respect your privacy and need for quiet time.

7.  Keep The Kids Occupied. As a Grandmom I know full well that children have short attention spans so in order to let them know you have to work, head the kids off at the pass.  Set up a project for them to do so you can be busy together.  They can work independently while you work at home on your blog post, virtual assistant project or ecommerce site.  Keeping the kids occupied will allow you to catch up on writing more articles for e-How.

Undoubtedly it’s sometimes hard to get any work accomplished at home with the kids under foot, but it can be done.  Remember, pay attention to them first while explaining to them in their own language that everyone has a “job” and theirs is to let you do your “job.”

Photo Credit: Mom & Kids StockXpert

Related Reading:

5 Ways to Manage Your Time While Working at Home Online

Learn How To Recognize Your Procrastination Triggers When Working At Home

Copyright 2010 Moomette’s Magnificents – All Rights Reserved

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Tuesday Toot – Moomettesgram’s Musings Wins Wahmmy Work At Home Award

Today is Tuesday Toot Day!

What does that mean? Well, it means every Tuesday, you get to post an accomplishment that you have done. As moms sometimes, we are quick in praising our kids and others about their accomplishments but we are “shy” when it comes to our achievements so … here is our chance.

This week I was awarded the honor of receiving the WAHMMY Award from from WahmZone.

• This means your site is considered to be a valuable Women’s Resource or Women’s Business site.

• The Wahmmy Award is given to those sites that we feel provide excellent service and resources to work at home moms.

The WahmZone is a growing Work at Home Mom’s web site with extensive online promotion and resources , and their traffic is increasing everyday!

Once again, I am humbled and honored to have Moomettesgram’s Musings bestowed with yet another WAHM Award.

Please visit the WahmZone and see how it can help your online business or blog advance in 2009.

Be sure to stop by MommyCommunity for more Tuesday Toots and Memes!

Copyright 2010 Moomette’s Magnificents – All Rights Reserved

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BlissDom ~ Bonanzle and Plumdrop ~ Oh My!

I must apologize that I haven’t posted recently, as I’ve been under the weather with a nasty version of a sinus thing that’s going around.  The Rx is finally kicking in.

Blissfully Domestic

Many of you know that I recently became the Editor of the Timeless Bliss channel, for mature and Baby Boomer women at Blissfully Domestic.  BD, a premier online magazine,  is hosting the BlissDom09 conference this weekend in Nashville, Tennessee.

BlissDom is YOUR conference. It was developed for bloggers by bloggers.

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to factor the conference into the budget this year, but I’m hoping to find a sponsor for the BlissDom10 conference.

Whether you’re a wannabe or newbie blogger, or perhaps a seasoned veteran, you can still follow all the history and blogging tips that were being tweeted by attendees on Twitter, just use the hashtag #Blissdom09 or #Maven

To pick up a copy of the transcripts and audio, go to BlissDom09 Conference.

Bonanzle

Playing catch-up here, as an update to my recent flight from eBay to Bonanzle ~ the first week that I launched my booth I saw some pretty good traffic.

I decided to give the Premier level membership a test-run.  For an additional monthly fee, Premier members get a *star* added to their profile, and receive additional benefits, such as having their booth items Featured.  The jury is still out whether I will continue with this level of membership, as so far, I haven’t experienced any significant increase in sales.  You can read more about the Plus level and Premier level memberships on Bonanzle HERE.

PlumDrop

Through other Bonanzle members and blogs, I came across a site called Plumdrop, which is a site where Sellers meet.  At Plumdrop, you can set up your own profile page to promote your selling venues and deals.  There are Etsy and Bonanzle sellers, as well as sellers with their own independent boutique stores, such as my Olde Towne Shoppes site.

All in all, I’ve networked and made some new Twitter friends, added some new blogs to my Google Reader and gained some new insight and WAHM tips.

I also found out tonight that there might be an early retirement package in the offering in my future, so I’ll be reviewing the BlissDom notes very carfully for blogging and WAHM tips!  Stay tuned!

Copyright 2010 Moomette’s Magnificents – All Rights Reserved

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What is Facebook All About and Why a WAHM Should Have an Account

Awhile back when I first started I opened a Facebook account for public relation purposes to promote my eBay store, blogs, virtual assistant business as well as Shoppes.  I’d heard that it was advantageous to use for PR and social networking purposes.

It took me quite some time to put together a page, understand the mechanics of how it worked; join groups and make friends.  However, I didn’t visit it very often.  When I did log on one day I found my account was disabled.  At that point I was so exasperated, I decided not to bother with it any longer.  Apparently what happens is if one doesn’t log into their Facebook account often enough, it will become disabled.

However, the more I networked online, dropped Entrecards and saw that many of my Twitter friends were on Facebook, I decided to create another account.

Become a Fan of Moomettesgram on Facebook!

Commentary now shows that President-Elect Obama ran a successful campaign by using Facbook.

We hear about people creating Facebook pages and that someone found someone else on Facebook. But what exactly is Facebook all about and does it have any benefits for us?

Read on to find out about Facebook and if it indeed does something more than enhance your social life.

Facebook is one of the top ten Web 2.0 applications and social networking sites in the world. Started as a social experiment, Facebook was originally designed as a way for friends to keep in touch and create interesting profiles and pages for others to look at.

Many kids and college students latched on to Facebook. My two daughters are constantly on FB, keeping up with their friends from high school and college.  Members can upload pictures, leave messages on the profiles of others, and search for friends who have profiles. The problem with Facebook was the type of information people were uploading. College students uploading inappropriate videos at wild parties and such have caught on virally. This spoke to the poor judgment of the students as those videos would still be around when they grew out of the drinking phase and realized that it was no longer the “cool” thing to do.

Facebook is not just for the young teenagers and college students however. It is also a networking tool for business owners. It’s a great way to connect with other business owners and targeted potential customers. A plus for new businesses is that becoming a Facebook member is free. Every registered member gets a home page where they can then create a profile and add applications to their page for friends and other trusted users they designate to use.

If you work at home or are a WAHM or entrepreneur, you can use your Facebook profile to tell others all about yourself. Many times, businesses never really have a chance for potential clients to learn more about the person or people who run the business. More focus is put on advertising, growing the business and promoting its products or services. With a social networking page on social sites like Facebook, customers and other business associates get a chance to find out about the person behind the business.

Anyone can join or create a group on Facebook. These groups bring together like minded people according to business, personal, or other social factors. Groups talk to one another; share business tips and create a useful connection in many different ways.

Businesses use Facebook pages to showcase products or give customers a place to ask questions and record comments about the products they have used. They can talk to each other and compare notes. Big businesses with famous brand names use Facebook to gain insights into consumer trends.  As an example, the RSS feed from my blogs postings, Twitter account and eBay store is uploaded right to my Facebook page.

Facebook can be useful for communities trying to create a closer knit group of families. Homeschooling parents can create a network of support for each other and their kids. Facebook has a variety of uses both for business and personal reasons. So, now that you know more concerning Facebook, what will your page be about?

If you have an existing page, or will be creating a new page, don’t forget to friend request me here!

Copyright 2010 Moomette’s Magnificents – All Rights Reserved

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Twitter Is Not For the Faint of Heart: Is Twitter Useful for Business?

Twitter is not for the faint of heart. That being said, can Twitter be useful for business? It depends.

One of the newest social networking sites is Twitter. It sounds like a movement birds make. In fact it is a quick way to send messages to your favorite people via the Internet. Due to its popularity with people all over the world, many entrepreneurs wonder if Twitter can actually help them grow their business.

In order to answer that question we first need to find out what exactly Twitter is? It is a social networking site which allows people to keep in touch with friends, family, and others. Through a series of short posts, important information is sent to a person’s followers. Those short posts are called “tweets.”

Twitter has been used by people to send messages to their friends. The posts can be 140 characters long at most, which allows for quick, precise exchanges of information. If you wanted to let your family know that the reunion this year is in New England, and they needed to volunteer to do something, it would be easy to send them all a tweet at one time. When someone logs into their Twitter account or views your Twitter profile page, they would then see the message. They can then respond to you by posting a tweet of their own.

Twitter is real time communication for people who need to contact others right away. Some wondered if Twitter was just a fancy way of texting someone on the computer. Send a tweet to your husband to say dinner is moved to 7:30. Tell a friend you’ve just bought that blouse you saw last week. If you only want to allow certain people to see the messages you are sending, you can easily mark your profile and updates as private.

Although many use Twitter as a more personal way to communicate, even more treat it as a virtual water cooler to connect with all types of people the world over. It seems as if tweeting would get boring after a while. Not so. With talkative friends you could be tweeted to death in a matter of days. Many actually find themselves losing precious time in their day chit-chatting with those with similar interests.

For the skeptical folks who want to know if tweeting will eventually tank, businesses have found a use for the social network that can increase their utilization and visibility on the Internet. First, let’s say that you have an office of fifty employees. Sending a memo every time there is a big announcement creates a lot of paper to file or leave for the trash man.

Businesses can now use protected Twitter messages to keep employees updated on departmental changes as well as company wide agendas. Employees can subscribe to the company feed set up on Twitter. Whenever there is something important posted, they will be notified.

The same goes for small one-owner and Internet businesses and their customers. Customers can subscribe to the company feed to learn about new products and other useful information. I use it frequently to announce new listings for my eBay store. New businesses can create interesting tweets that produce interest and can be re-posted by others to help get the business or owner noticed.

However, keep in mind that while the majority of Tweeters are pleasant, some can be downright snarky and catty. Having an unmanageable amount of followers takes away from building relationships. Therefore some unfollowing is necessary. Many followers take offense at being unfollowed and will then Tweet not-so-nice comments. Other Tweeters will try to undermine your Tweets and links by saying your link contains a Trojan. Rather than comment on your blog post and leave their name, some will blatantly Tweet a nasty remark. At times it takes all the joy out of Twitter.

Twitter fills a niche in the social networking sector and is here to stay. Businesses have found a way to make Twitter work to their advantage, whether they are work at home moms longing for adult interaction or reaching out to a broader audience to increase profit.

Is it for you? It’s up to you to decide.

Copyright 2010 Moomette’s Magnificents – All Rights Reserved

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What is Social Networking and Why It Is Important If You Work From Home

Wow ~ it’s been one full year since I started this blog!  I still intend to get a Blogoversary post up, but had some WordPress technical issues the night before the actual date ~ of all things!

In that year’s time, I’ve learned so much about promoting my eBay business from the Community Boards, Forums and all the various social networking sites I’ve joined and participated in.  I was formerly a Moderator on eBay Coach Free Forum.  If you check my archives, you’ll find that some I’ve dropped out of for various reasons, and also that I’ve joined new ones.  The new ones are very different than the ones I’ve first joined, and for that reason ~ I’ve become very active in them.

Social Media Networking is no longer a buzz word, but an Internet phenomenon. It represents a way for people to interact without traveling half way around the globe or even leaving their home’s comfort. Read on to find out exactly what social networking is and its potential to enhance your life.

Think of it like this. We all have at least one friend. To keep in touch with that friend we call, write, and meet face to face. Through our jobs we meet other friends. The more interactions we have with people, the more chances we have of meeting more folks.

Social networking sites provide the platform for getting to know more “friends.” It is like our job or school or church. They supply the venue and we mingle to find people who have similar interests. Someone had the bright idea to package this not unfamiliar social concept into a cyberspace platform. Now, people can meet others they already know but have lost contact with and new people.

Social networking took off among the younger generation first. They found a way to talk to their friends when they weren’t within sight of each other. For guys, it meant meeting girls in a non-threatening social situation. For girls, the feeling was mutual.

My daughters graduated high school in 2001 and 2005, but while they were both in high school they were on AIM Instant Messenger night and day.  We only had one computer at the time, and it was impossible for me to coerce them to give up AIM so I could go online.

But, social networking is not just for the tweens or teens. Adults enjoy social networking as well. The first social networking sites we all heard about were Facebook and MySpace. This was mostly due to controversy surrounding what some Generation X kids were posting, but it made parents aware of the social networking craze.

Adults use social networking for a number of reasons. First, it is personal. We reconnect with busy friends and family. If you can’t reach Aunt Pookey because she’s always off around the world on one adventure or another, post new pictures of the kids on your MySpace page. Auntie can view them when she comes down from Mount Kilimanjaro.

Social networking gurus discovered that while finding old friends, business owners could form valuable alliances through their associations on social networking websites. Now, social networking has become valuable to anyone wanting to develop a website presence for their business. Social networking for business is akin to going door to door and telling people about your product. Create a compelling business profile and draw in the people you know by joining social groups with similar interests.

Social networking has a place in the life of both young and old alike. Use it to meet new people, make business contacts, stay in touch with family, or just to beef up your Internet presence. The wave of the future is social networking. Makes you want to join, doesn’t it?

Keep in mind though, that if you join too many, it can become overwhelming and time consuming.  The key is to focus on those forums you can actively participate in and develop a camaraderie with like-minded individuals.

Yes, this Baby Boomer is a social net-worker now.  You can find me at Mom Bloggers Club and Twittermoms as well as many others listed on my sidebar.

Copyright 2010 Moomette’s Magnificents – All Rights Reserved

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You’ve Decided to Tweet ~ Be a Model Twitizen: A Twitter How-To

By now you’ve either decided to sign up for Twitter, or you may still be on the fence.  I would say ~ Go For It!  I actually came across this valuable information by being referred from a Tweet, and thought, I must share.  It’s the most succinct set of guidelines that I have seen yet.  Don’t forget to Follow Me on Twitter ~ Moomettesgram ~

Be a Model Twitizen: A Twitter How-To

by LaSara Firefox, MPNLP, www.lasarafirefox.com
(Follow me: http://www.twitter.com/Yoga_Mama)

I was skeptical at first, but now Twitter is my golden city. As a busy mom and entrepreneur, I can take a few minutes and digest a handful of posts from my favorite Twitter friends, or post a bite-sized delight about my own day – all condensed to 140 characters or less. Who doesn’t have time for that?

Yes, often those posts will contain a link that may lead to an off-site exploratory mission, but so far it’s the most organic and dynamic way I’ve found to keep to my finger on the quick-beating pulse of the magical and diverse interwebs, and at the same time keep a constant stream of interest in what I have to offer.

If you’re new to Twitter, or have yet to join the chorus, here are a few ground rules that will help you to make your tweets harmonious.

1. Follow me, and I’ll follow you…and vice-versa:
If I follow you, please do the community-oriented thing and follow me, too. That way it becomes a conversation, a collaboration, a community. For us dedicated tweeters, Twitter is about building relationships. Build one with me!

Most of us don’t tweet to hear the sound of our own voice. No one wants to be shouting into a well. Consider my follow an invitation into my world, as well as a tip of the hat to your skill in presenting a doorway into yours.

2. Write a good bio:
In the beginning, this tiny bio is all we know about each other. 160 characters of character. The bio is often an under-utilized aspect of Twitter. I’m encouraging a bio revival! Make me want to know you. (It’s great practice for your elevator pitch, too, right?)

I encourage you to include something about your openness to new followers, or the reason you’re on Twitter. I put “Follow me, I’ll follow you,” in my bio. If you only want people you already know to follow you, you can protect your updates. In addition, you could say “I only follow people I know.” This little step will save both of us time, energy, and pride.

In addition to the bio, there’s a spot for a url. Add a link to a place where I can find out more about you; your blog, your website, an article you’ve written, your facebook profile.

3. Building your “Twitterverse”:
The way to build your network is to follow people. Yet, you ideally want a good balance between following and followers. So there’s a rhythm to building your twitterverse. Here’s how mine goes:
a. Find prospective Twitter friends (see step 4 on some tips on that), and follow them.
b. Allow a few days for the prospective community member to follow me in return.
c. If they follow me back, I make personal contact through a direct message (aka, “dm”, see section 6 for more info) and all is good. If they don’t, I evaluate whether they’re worthwhile to follow without the benefit of a two-way conversation. If they are, I keep them on. If not, I unfollow them.

4. Finding your twitter-posse:
You want to follow people you find interesting. You want to be followed by people who will find you interesting. Whether this is for work, fun, community building, or all of the above, your skill in creating your personal Twitterverse predicts how rewarding your Twitter experience will be.

There are worlds of possibility in every moment, but even more so in Twitter. Bloggers, and moms, and marketers, oh my! Really, you can find followers and followees from all walks of life, and with interests that run the gamut. These people are going to be getting into your head, and introducing you to new worlds day by day. Choose accordingly!

First off, click on the Find People tab on your home page (upper right, see it? good!) you might want to follow your irl (in real life) friends. You can search them by name or e-mail address. You can also invite them to join twitter, if you think they’d enjoy the experience.

Next, you’ll want to choose a few terms that indicate shared interests. For me, those terms were mom, mommy, mama, momma, and the dad variations, too. Then yoga. You can either search by terms at http://search.twitter.com/, or you can use the Find People tab again.

When you search your terms, the search will bring up profiles that list terms in the Twitter user name, in a tweeter’s bio, or even sometimes in a tweeter’s tweets. I found pages and pages of members listed on most of the terms I searched.

I chose selectively from the tweeters listed. Some of the parameters I used to decide whether I should follow someone or not were;
* The date they last tweeted – if someone hasn’t been on in months, what are the chances they’ll respond to a follow alert from a stranger?
* What their most recent tweet said; for example, if the tweet said “Why the hell are all these strangers following me? Creepy!?!”, that member is not a likely candidate for community building!
* Their bio, and whether it sounded like we’d be a good match.

Most often I would choose not to follow people with protected updates, but in rare cases I’d risk it and request permission to follow. I recommend that you judge that one on a case-by-case basis.

Another way to find like-minded tweeters is to go to a like-minded tweeters page, and follow the tweeters they follow, and those who follow them. You can see bios by placing your cursor over a tweeter’s name.

I would follow as many tweeters as I felt inspired to in one fell swoop (I think my “following” list got up to around 2000 once), and see who followed back. After a few days, I’d go back check out which tweeters had responded, and go through the evaluation of whether I would keep following tweeters who had followed back, or not.

Through this strategy, I built my list of followers up to over 700 in a matter of days.

5. Ethics for business (and personal) networking:
Some disagree with me on this, but I believe that even – or perhaps especially – if “you” are a business, you should follow in return. Yes, Twitter is free advertising, and it’s SMART advertising – JetBlue, Zappos, Vans and thousands of entrepreneurs can’t be wrong!

But, as always, there needs to be some buy-in. In this case, imnsho (in my not so humble opinion), the buy-in is this; I’ll pay attention to your posts, but I expect you to pay attention to mine, too. It’s a give and take, baby!

Besides, think of the marketing information you’ll be able to gather. Two-way communication with your demographic is just plain smart business sense.

Also, it’s not good manners to follow me, and then turn around and unfollow me when you think I’m not looking. I will come back and check from time to time, to see if those I follow are following me. (I do the same for those who are following me, too. I go and check my followers and make sure I’ve returned the follow.)

Not only that, there are tons of third party systems coming into being that are created to augment the Twitter experience. One of these even helps twitterers keep track of their follower activity. And, there are sure to be more of them as time goes by, and Twitter’s popularity continues to soar to new heights.

There are a few exceptions to the rule, but I generally don’t follow those who aren’t willing to follow me in return. I cast a line out, and if you grab hold I’ll hang on too. However, if there’s no resultant tug on the rope, I’ll reel it back in and cast in another direction.

If you have something amazing to say, and I just can’t live without your voice, I’ll stick around. But I tell you, it’s so much more fun when we can all sing out together!

6. A few easy commands that will be useful to know:
@username: this creates an automatic link to a tweeter’s profile, and alerts the user that you have sent a public post that cites them. If you’re replying to a tweet, including @username (like @yoga_mama) is great. It both promotes the tweeter, and creates a connection between you and the tweeter in question.

#tag: (like #gratitude, #palin, #debate, etc.) makes it easy to search an item, and get all the tweets that are relevant. It’s also is an easy way to see relationships between tweets by multiple tweeters.

rt, or retweet: when you repost someone’s tweet, it’s proper to add “rt @username” and then the retweet. Basically, it’s a way to give credit where credit is due. And again, it promotes tweeters who are tweeting things you appreciate or agree with.

d username: direct messages are the way to send a private note to another tweeter. Remember, it’s “d(space)username(space)message”. You’re only able to “dm” tweeters who are following you.

In closing:
Twitter is a community. In some way more profoundly than any other networking site I’ve ever been part of, the tweeters I follow have worked their way into my heart.

Maybe it’s the often unguarded, haiku-like quality of the “microblogging” experience. Maybe it’s the frequency with which I see the words of a given tweeter. Maybe it’s the fact that the Twitter experience has the contour and context of a conversation drifting in through the kitchen window.

And this in a country (the USA) where we often don’t have a sister or best friend living next door, or a neighbor we could easily ask for advice on a moment’s notice. Much less, hundreds of neighbors, many of whom might send well wishes when you need them, and heartfelt advice when you ask for it. (Or, just like any family, sometimes even when you don’t!)

Twitter has brought us into one another’s living rooms. It’s allowed us to share our vacations, our kid’s Big Game, our successes and heartbreaks.

It’s opened a window into a community that never goes to sleep – tweeters live all over the world, as one tweeter tweets her last missive of the night, another wakes up to a brilliant new day. A community that is always willing to give a shout out, send a smile, talk about politics, and lift one another up in a challenging moment.

Remember this as you build your personal Twitterverse. You are creating a new world, from nothing. Build it, grow it, nurture it with intention and care. And you know, everything will be just right.

About the author:
LaSara FireFox, MPNLP, is a coach, trainer, and published author. LaSara helps clients find balance in their lives, and alignment with their personal and family-held values. She teaches and coaches internationally. She’s wife to an outstanding man, and mom to two brilliant girls.

You can find out more about LaSara at www.lasarafirefox.com. While you’re there, be sure to check out LaSara’s weekly conscious parenting podcast; Yoga Mama Satsangha.

(Please feel free share this article, in its entirety. Repost, send to your list, share with your friends. Please include all links, and LaSara’s bio. Quoting is always welcome, and should be executed in accordance with basic MLA quoting guidelines.)

Related:

So You’re a New Blogger: What Makes Twitter so Hot?

How-To Tips for Incorporating Twitter into Your Daily Business Routine

Copyright 2010 Moomette’s Magnificents – All Rights Reserved

Follow Me on Twitter
@Moomettes

Web 2.0 ~ Off Roading From Social Networking Forums That Are Stuck in a Time Warp

I’m going to make a few interesting observations on Social Networking Forums and Web 2.0 here.

While I don’t purport to be an expert, I have seen a change in direction from when I first started blogging.

Recently I’ve received several e-mails from some of the forums I belong to asking me to stop back & show my face.  Since I’ve been online, I’ve joined countless WAHM and Business forums.  While I still belong to all of the original ones I’ve joined, (outside of the ones I’ve gotten kicked out of, including Facebook ~ read about it here too) I only actually keep up with just a few.

Here’s where I’m going with this.

The newer forums I’ve joined, such as Mom Bloggers Club, Posh Momma, Hip Mama’s Place, MomDot, Moms United in Business, Cafe Mom and others, have all the bells & whistles where you can add your own “About Me” pages; put up your banner logos; website information; links to your blogs; article bases, Wow!  You can comment on other peoples pages ~ join groups, start discussions and more! There is just sooo much social interaction, it’s mind boggling!  There’s Twitter Groups; Entrecard groups; Digg Groups; Regional Groups; and on and on.

Some of the original forums ~ the ones that are sending emails saying “Please come back ~ visit us again ~ we’ve added new Contests to get you to come back ~ they just.don’t.get.it.

The format is older ~ just a list of topics, and you get to add a verrrrry limited siggy.  That’s it.  It’s so hard to keep in contact.   One particular forum, the bloggers mentioned they don’t use Entrecard (now, if you have a Blog, Entrecard is really a “Must-Have” for traffic.)  See my previous post HERE.

Also, hardly anyone knows about, much less uses Twitter.  I can’t even begin to tell you how much traffic I’m now receiving since I started “Twittering.” For those of you who don’t Twitter ~ it’s considered a form of micro-blogging, and there is definiately an audience for it that you need to capture.

Now what’s ironic about my observations, is all this is coming from me, a Baby Boomer Gram.  I’ve made light of the fact in the past how as a Boomer I’m struggling (well, not really, I’m a Geek at heart) to keep up with technology, and always have to stay one step ahead of the curve & my kiddos.  (Read THIS POST.) Now I’m not fresh out of High School, College or anywhere even close.

The difference between the new Web 2.0 forums and older forums is like night and day; analog and digital; VHS & DVD; Tape Decks and CDs.

Forum Administrators have to keep ahead of technology if you’re going to retain your membership.  Members are going to flock to where there are bells, whistles & graphics nowadays.

We are all spread so thin today and only have a limited amount of time to spend online, and obviously want to maximize that time to our fullest potential.

Why does it take Gram here to point this out?  What do you think?

Do you find yourself drawn to the newer forums?  Are you still frequenting the older ones?  Hmmm?

Copyright 2010 Moomette’s Magnificents – All Rights Reserved

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@Moomettes

Facebook Disabled My Account ~ Look For Me On Linked in

Just as I was getting comfortable using Facebook for social networking and promoting my ecommerce businesses, my account was disabled.

I have no clue why, at all.

It took a tremendous amount of time to build my Home Page the way I wanted it.  I joined groups of interest, had a business networking card, and had many friends.

The other night I went to add a fellow blogger to my list of friends ~ and poof, was told my account was gone.

No reason was given.  I’ve sent many, many emails to Facebook asking ‘why?’  Nobody bothered to reply.  Their FAQ page is worthless didn’t answer my questions.

What is particularly ironic, is that I had been reading so many articles about how FB was expanding their demographics beyond the teen set and that the business crowd was using it for social networking purposes.

So I ‘Googled’ to try to find an answer, and found that this randomly happens to people.  I didn’t abuse any privileges, nor was I spamming anyone.

So be it.  There’s only so many hours in the day anyway, and it’s impossible to be up on every Web 2.0 social networking site there is.

Instead, I think I’ll give  Linked in a try.

If you’re on Linked In, let me know what you think of it as opposed to FB.

Copyright 2010 Moomette’s Magnificents – All Rights Reserved

Follow Me on Twitter
@Moomettes