Posted by Gabe on February 23, 2010 under Kids are Heroes, Social Media, Twitter | 
I should really call this post “How to (and how not to) Get Me to Retweet You” but that would probably break all the URL shorteners out there. I write this post because I often get people asking me to retweet them. These folks might think I’m just rude for not doing it. So be it. Maybe you will think a bit differently once you see why I didn’t retweet you. On that note I will start with “How Not to Get Me to Retweet You.”:
Ask me directly. By direct message or otherwise.
This simply doesn’t work with me, unless we have a long standing relationship. I know what you tweet is important to you, and you think that if I retweet it everything will be solved, but that’s simply not the case. You must understand that I get A LOT of these requests and if I obliged everyone no one would understand what my own platform is.
Retweet me.
Some think that if they retweet me to their 150 followers I should be obliged to retweet them back. I don’t care if you have a million followers, I don’t work that way either. The retweet is not a bartering tool. If you retweet me please do it because you liked what I wrote and not for any other reason. I will do the same for you.
Say “Please RT”.
Now many social media gurus will tell you that this is the best way to get retweeted, to add ‘Please RT’ or something similar to your tweet. I must admit I do use it myself sometimes. And I also admit I will do it if I know the person and I also know that they are genuine. But if you do it all the time I for one will stop reading your tweets. I retweet things that touch me in one way or another. It could be funny, silly or really meaningful and powerful. There is no way to know how a tweet will affect people. I am constantly surprised at which of my tweets get retweeted. Sometimes I think, ” Ok let this one go and watch the fireworks!” and all I hear are cricket sounds. Then I see another tweet has been RTed several times.
Now for “How to Get Me to Retweet You”:
Write something meaningful that touches me in some way. That is the huge secret to getting retweeted by me or by anyone. This morning I happened to see a tweet sent out by of all people the Cookie Monster (who I am not even following). I had to retweet it: “Me got hungry while typing and ate me computer mouse. Taste like chicken.” Now that made me laugh. Sometimes I retweet responses to my tweets if it makes more sense to do so. I retweet @HeiferPortland a lot because he tweets about kids supporting his organization. I stopped retweeting Amber Alerts because I later discovered that some of them were fake.
I also have to be able to see it to retweet it. I follow quite a few people and obviously can’t keep up with everything. So does that mean you should @reply to people so they will see the tweet when you want it retweeted? No – absolutely not. As a matter of fact that may cause an unfollow from me. I am in the same boat here. I see celebrities who have hundreds of thousands of followers and think “Boy, if they tweeted my ID just imagine how many more people would find out about Kids Are Heroes!” They usually aren’t following me so how do I get them to notice me? I can @reply to them. However, if I do that, that is making me look worse than if I did nothing at all. So what do I do? How do I get people to retweet me?
Converse with me. I try and write meaningful tweets and interact with people. Just like anything else, the way you get people to notice your tweets is to converse with them in a genuine manner. You can’t focus on being retweeted or it just won’t happen. Focus on the connections you have and the retweets will come.
Posted by Gabe on February 15, 2010 under Kids are Heroes, Social Media |
During the moment the Kids Are Heroes concept was conceived, it was difficult to imagine where we would be today. Receiving promotion by Sir Richard Branson, partnering with a former NFL star and holding events sponsored by Disney was definitely not on my radar screen at the time. But somewhere along the way, we must have a vision for the future. Well we certainly do have that vision. Due to the acceptance, even embrace of this concept on a grand scale, I fully expect for Kids Are Heroes to be a globally recognized entity in ten years from now if not sooner. Kids Are Heroes back packs will be for sale in Walmart and other stores, kids will wear our T-shirts and millions of children all over the world will learn about philanthropy at an early age. During one of the many discussions I had with Levar Fisher, the aforementioned NFL star who is now out speaking about us, I could sense the excitement in his voice. He was so pumped up that his words were tripping over each other which is totally unlike him as a gifted public speaker. Then he stopped and said, “This can change the world!” At that point I let out a wry smile knowing that he sees exactly what I see.
We plan to have resources available for schools in every language that wants us, we plan to establish clubs in neighborhoods, to offer scholarships to kids that deserve it and much more. We plan to offer a mentoring program, help kids establish their own non-profits, provide web site and social media assistance, and even seed the ideas dreamed up by our heroes. Now all that sounds well and good but how are we going to get there? I mean it’s great to have a dream but we must be able to work toward that direction. And that is just what we are doing. If we had Sir Richard Branson’s pockets we could get there a lot faster. As it turns out we don’t. We need to somehow be able to fund these dreams. I fully admit that fund raising is not one of my best known skills. As a matter of fact, I’m downright terrible at it. But having flaws will never get in our way because our passion for this organization and what it can accomplish will always trump our imperfections. Once we discovered the potential of social media we have been working each and every day to tap into it. It has brought us our PitchTV win, our partnership with Levar, and many of the heroes we feature. I honestly look forward to Mondays as I am eager to see what each new week will bring.
But is social media the only answer? Will it bring us everything? I certainly cannot count on it. I realize that we are so fortunate to have started our organization when we did, because without the proliferation of social media we would be progressing much more like the tortoise as opposed to the hare. In the beginning we actually scoured community newpapers around the country to find heroes for our site. Now mentions of them are a regular occurrence in our Twitter stream. I realize that we will need financial backing and help from others to get to where we want to be. So we are starting to reach out to companies that are a good match for us. And of course we will never ignore our social media efforts. That’s why we continue to reach out — it’s because we know that there are many of you out there who support what we are doing and would love to see us reach our goals. Your acknowledgments are a partial source of food for our passion. So if any of you have any other ideas on how we can get to where we want to be, I’m all ears. And if you would just like to chip in, here’s where you can do it. Thanks always for your help!
Posted by Gabe on February 8, 2010 under Kids are Heroes |
You may know that we recently featured Dylan Mahalingam on the Kids Are Heroes web site. Dylan and his family are involved in so many amazing things, it’s indeed mind-boggling. I had the pleasure of speaking to Dylan’s mom at length recently and among other things she brought up this “Give a Day Get a Day” concept. It turns out that Dylan’s organization, Lil’ MDGs, is one of the organizations that validates the volunteers for this project. What Disney is offering is that if you volunteer a day of service, you are entitled to a free day at one of their parks. We were asked if we would like to host one of these events.
Now at first I thought I would listen, be polite and just say ‘no’ to this request as we have so many things on our plate already. But after hearing more about it I felt it made the utmost sense for Kids Are Heroes to host at least one of these events. After all, despite the “reward” at the end, it still promotes volunteering and giving among family members.
So we mustered up the idea of inviting participants to a large store near us where families could “build” stuffed animals and donate them to sick and/or disadvantaged children. We are calling it a “Boyd’s Bear Drive”, where families come out to Boyd’s Bear Country in Gettysburg, PA, get someone (a family member or friend) to donate a bear to them so they can build it for someone else. We imagined the children methodically choosing just the right animal with just the right clothing to please a sick or needy child somewhere. What’s nice about the Boyd’s Bears facility is that it is HUGE and can accommodate quite a few people at the same time. Besides stuffing bears, the volunteers will write letters and draw pictures to include with the bear so that the recipients will get a better sense of who donated the bears to them. The target locations for these bears are Children’s Medical Center in Washington DC, Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore, and the Nyaka school for orphans in Uganda.
It is of paramount importance to us that this goes smoothly for everyone so we are doing a ‘test run’ as it were on Saturday, March 6th from 12PM-2PM where we will max out at 50 people. Our main event will then be on Saturday, April 10 where we hope to host as many as 400 people! WOW!! That’s a lot of Disney tickets! UPDATE 3/8/10: Read my blog post on the first event.
UPDATE: As of 3/9/10 Disney has indeed reached its quota of 1 million vouchers. There will be no more opportunities for free tickets provided by Disney. If you would like to participate without getting a Disney ticket, please contact us directly.
Posted by Gabe on February 3, 2010 under Kids are Heroes |
Have you ever been involved with something that made you feel like you were the snowball at the top of the hill and someone just gave you a push? That’s how I feel right about now. I was recently approached by someone who asked me if I would consider a partnership. Now I am starting to get these requests all the time. I’m certainly not complaining, but some of the “partners” see our social media numbers and picture nothing but opportunity for them. I was naturally guarded at first. However, it didn’t take long for me to figure out that Mary, this new contact, was genuine and smart, and that this relationship could greatly benefit the both of us. Mary works with Levar Fisher, who after a stellar stint as an all-pro linebacker at NC State (Go Wolfpack!!), enjoyed a career in the NFL as he played for the Arizona Cardinals and the New Orleans Saints. Unfortunately for him, at the age of 27 he had a career ending knee injury. “Unfortunate” is how many would view this situation. Not Levar. He sees this as a godsend. “I was a check writer when I was in the NFL” Levar told me. “If people needed money for charity, I was happy to write them a check. But don’t ask me to appear at your function. I’m not comfortable with that.” Levar laughs when he looks back because now this is his livelihood. And boy is he happy doing it! Levar travels around the country as a motivational speaker. He speaks to all ages, but his true love is when he gets to speak to kids. He speaks of choices that face our youth, and encourages them to make the right ones. In high school he was bullied because as he puts it, he was “fat and slow”. “I’m going to be in the NFL!” he would tell people. “Levar, you’re crazy!! You’re way too fat for the NFL – you can’t even play for our high school football team!” his peers would tell him as they laughed and joked. Rather than let this ridicule beat him down, Levar was actually motivated by those disparaging remarks. In his sophomore year in high school he was the best player on the varsity team. He received a full scholarship to NC State. And you know the rest. “Don’t EVER let anyone tell you you can’t achieve your dream!” Levar tells kids.
In 2002 while just entering the NFL Levar founded a non-profit organization called “Fisher of Men”, which provide resources and opportunities for youth inspiring good decision-making and boosting self confidence. Levar is currently embarking on his brand new ”Believe Again 2010″ tour that will have him traveling the country speaking to kids of all ages. In addition to his usual message he will be telling stories of the kids on the Kids Are Heroes web site and what they have accomplished. This fits right in with his confidence building speech. He will be telling kids all over the country that they too can affect change by emulating the children on our site. I am so excited about this relationship as this is the kind of boost we need. But I wouldn’t enter in an arrangement like this just because someone wanted me to. For me the final test before we sealed this partnership was that Levar had to sincerely believe in what we are doing. During one of our conversations as he was recounting some of the heroes’ stories back to me I could tell he was full of excitement and anticipation. I sat back and listened as all of a sudden paused and said, “This can change the world!” That’s when I knew this partnership would work.
When I first watched a tape of Levar speaking, I immediately sought out our local Toastmasters club as he made me realize how much improvement I need to gain as an accomplished speaker. For forty minutes he was fluid and eloquent, with no need for notes of any kind. And when I heard the speech he gave to a large group of kids I was even more excited. He engaged them and they hung on his every word. They laughed and giggled at his jokes. He is intelligent, funny and very pleasant to listen to. He was able to keep their undying attention for the entire time.
If you are an educator I would highly suggest calling Levar and having him speak at your school or kids’ group. He can be reached through his web site. I look forward to witnessing the fruit that is borne from this relationship, and I just can’t wait to see what happens next!
Posted by Gabe on under Social Media, Twitter |
I was trying to think of a catchy title for this post, but when it really gets right down to it, I am simply laying out my follow strategies for everyone to see. People have asked me what they are, so I am coming clean. These are not necessarily the strategies everyone else should use, but they are mine and I will explain why I use them.
I have mentioned many times that my main goal in my use of social media is the promotion of the Kids Are Heroes concept and its web site. On a daily basis, the more people that discover it, the more people get behind it, the better chance we have of becoming a global organization one day. And I humbly believe this strategy is working, as I hope to be making a major announcement real soon.
Some people are intimidated by big numbers. They won’t follow people once they have crossed a certain threshold. I can understand that sentiment to a point. Many celebrities do not follow back very many people. This isn’t a conversation, so I am not interested. I really love it when someone wants to put on airs that they are a celebrity by using this practice. But if you think that people will no longer connect once they surpass a certain number think again. Each week I meet new people. The occurrences of me speaking to them on the phone are becoming more frequent. Some are “newbies” and some I have been conversing with for a long time. I see and pay attention to every reply I get. I respond to almost all of them. The only replies I do not respond to are ones that do not warrant them or ones that have “worn out their welcome” in terms of the nature of the request.
Follow other people. Simply stated, this is the most effective way to get people to find out about us. Many are sent an email that notifies them of the new follow, and that’s when they check us out. If they like what they see, they follow back. So I bet you are saying, “Great! I’ll just use a follow program to automate this and sit back and watch my followers grow!” I have never used, nor will I ever use an auto-follow program. First off, some of them are nefarious to say the least. Secondly, some of them take over your twitter stream advertising themselves. Once I see this, I instantly unfollow that person as do other people. Even if you gain followers this way, they are empty, non-qualified followers that probably won’t listen to you and will do you more harm than good.
So, what makes me follow one person and not follow another? Here’s my list:
1) Fill out your profile. I can’t stress how important this is. If you do not do this it appears like you don’t care or are hiding something. The more information you put in your profile, the more people can use to break the ice with you. Use a good picture that can be enlarged so we can see the real you. I discourage the use of an animated gif file, or something else that is designed to attract my attention, like putting your picture upside down. I don’t follow people who do this. If you are promoting a business with your Twitter ID that’s okay, but at least use a full name as part of the profile so we know what to call you.
2) Engage with others. If I see an entire page where all you do is either send out a quote or repeat a news story, then I’m going to assume you don’t want to talk to people. I want to see those ‘@’ signs.
3) Don’t spam. This should go without saying, but unfortunately there are many spammers on Twitter. Most people block them. Some people however just don’t know any better. They do believe in their product and want to tell the world about it. Get to know us first, then we will ask you about what you do.
4) Be very careful about asking for retweets. I get asked to retweet stuff all the time. People think that just because my numbers are larger than theirs it will really further their cause if I tweet about it. They don’t understand how many requests I get and how my twitterstream would be nothing more than a compilation of other people’s tweets if I gave in. If in the tweet you say (Pls RT) that’s one thing, but sending me a direct message asking to tweet about something is totally different. Depending on if and how well we have connected it can cause an unfollow, even a block.
5) Be active. My typical rule of thumb is that if a person hasn’t tweeted in more than three days I will not follow them. That may sound drastic, but the more often people are on Twitter the better chance I have of connecting with them.
6) Connect with people any way you can. I often follow people after a retweet or an @reply. Why does this work? Because when people I am not familiar with do one or the other I look them up. They are usually following me. I see their profile and stream, etc. and they look like a good person to connect with. The fact is I simply missed them when they followed me.
7) Comment on my blog. This is similar to #6. Your twitter stream might have indicated to me that you do not connect with people, but you have just proven that you do.
8) Don’t protect your tweets. I used to think that people who protect their tweets had a tendency to be more genuine. I have not found that to be true, (or false for that matter). They have their reasons for doing so, which whatever they are I respect, but I typically won’t follow them because I can’t see what they tweet about and how they interact with people. I usually just move on. And if you think you can connect with others that are not following you by sending them an @reply, think again. I had this question posed to me as a comment on one of my blog posts. I showed how the person you send the tweet to will not see it if they are not following you.
9) Don’t use profanity. No matter how long I have followed you, or how we have connected, I will unfollow anyone who uses profanity. This has always been my stance. I believe it’s not professional and I am also trying to protect my 11-year-old nosy daughter who is always in my office.
10) Don’t be negative. Recently I had a customer service issue with a printing company. I think good customer service is one of the key ingredients to being a respected company and when it goes bad it for some reason sets me off. I couldn’t control myself, I had to tweet about it. However, the tweets were not in vain as the company saw them, sent them to the right person, and the situation was rectified and I will now continue to use them. But I still don’t recommend ranting on Twitter. It’s the same as being at a party. People don’t gravitate toward others who are always spouting negativity.
So how do I find people to follow? I use wefollow.com to find categories (parenting, education, philanthropy, etc.) I am interested in which people have aligned themselves to. (NOTE: Use this service with caution. I just saw a tweet that warned me about a nasty practice that they are using that can be avoided.) I pick out followers I really connect with and see who they follow. If you respect them that means they have done due diligence and are concerned about who they follow, so it’s almost as if they have done the work for you. I use a great tool called TweepSearch to search the profiles of people for keywords. And as I mentioned I follow people who connect with me in some meaningful way.
Now keep in mind that this is hard work. It can sometimes be tedious going through profile after profile and sifting through the bad ones. But the more it pays off the more I do it.
So that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Let us know what strategies you use.
Posted by Gabe on February 1, 2010 under Featured Hero, Kids are Heroes |
Today I had the privilege of interviewing Jasper Lee, a high school student from Manhattan, NY who is an avid fly fisherman. He loves it so much that he shares it with people he thinks would benefit most from its therapeutic value. Jasper teaches this skill to soldiers in hopes that it can help rehabilitate them as they try to reacclimate themselves back into society. This is a great example of turning one of your own passions into something that can really help others.
How did you get started in fly-fishing and at what age?
I started fishing when I was 3 but I didn’t learn to fly-fish until I was 12. Now that I fly-fish I don’t even like spin fishing. Its just one big plop in the water but for me fly-fishing is about being outdoors, its about slowing myself down and just focusing on one thing. When I’m casting, I’m not thinking about the next paper I have to write, its all about the line, the fish, and me. I used to go on fishing trips with my mom and dad. They would fly-fish for most of it and when I could I’d spin fish. Of course I did what any 6 year-old would do on a boat but I also sat and watched. I watched my mom and dad fly-fish and I think because I watched for so long, it helped me to pick up the nuance of fly-fishing faster.
Do you supply the “waders” and boots or can this be done from a boat?
Veteran Anglers of New York, in affiliation with Project Healing Waters does have many waders and boots. On an outing to the Delaware River Club, the owner actually supplied the waders and boots for all of the veterans who went. There are two types of fly-fishing. Salt water and fresh water. If you ask a freshwater guy he’ll tell you that freshwater fishing is harder. If you ask a saltwater guy he’ll tell you that saltwater is harder. I’m a saltwater guy. In freshwater more often than not you’re in waders and boots. Sometimes you can do what’s called a “float trip” where you kind of just float down the river. In saltwater, most of the time you’re on a boat. Sometimes we get out which is what’s known as “wading” (hence waders). But in saltwater, you don’t need waders. You are walking through the ocean, not some cold stream. Since VANY is located in New York, and because logistically wading is easier with a big group, we do a lot of wading with the veterans. However, not all wading has to be done from the actual water. You can stand on the shore and cast. That’s what we did on the last outing with the veterans.
Where are your favorite spots to fly-fish?
Personally, I love the Bahamas. I love to catch bonefish and the Bahamas is one of the greatest places to do it. The scenery is just spectacular and there are some of the biggest bonefish I’ve ever seen. I’ve been to Belize as well and I liked it except for the fact that the bonefish there are considerably smaller.
What does this activity mean to you?
To me, fly-fishing is a way to get in touch with myself. In New York City, everything is fast-paced and hectic but pick up a fly-rod and it all goes away. The stress just melts away with every false-cast. Fly-fishing lets me, be me. Of course there is always the occasional interruption when my dad corrects my form, but other than that, its all about catching fish. I don’t have to think of anything else when I’m fishing. I get to just relax and have fun.
Can you tell us about VANY? How did it get started? How many members does it have?
VANY (Veteran Anglers of NY) is just a group of people who wanted to do more for veterans. That group of people also happens to love fly-fishing. We wanted to help those who have served, those who were disabled because of that. We all saw the effect fly-fishing had on us and we all thought that veterans could greatly benefit from the relaxation and stress-relief that comes with fly-fishing. I really do think that its one of the best ways to get in touch with yourself, and that veterans are greatly helped by it. They have experienced the most stressful environments and conditions on earth, so its our job to give them one of the best ways to relieve stress and anxiety. VANY has 7 board members but our meetings usually have anywhere from 10-15 people at them. We were just at the Somerset fly-fishing show last weekend at the Project Healing Waters booth. A man walked up and said “I really want to give back the veterans, what do I do? And where do I sign up?” it’s people like that who really help VANY and Project Healing Waters. Of course there is a core group but that’s just the beginning, the number of people who come to teach the veterans how to cast, and that come to our meetings fluctuates. For more information you could always check out the website,
http://www.veterananglersny.org/
Why did you choose soldiers to help as opposed to other individuals who this might benefit?
Soldiers experienced the most grueling conditions. They went to sleep and woke up everyday fearing for their lives, I can’t imagine something more stressful. We owe it to them to help relieve their stress. My dad is also a veteran, both of my grandfathers were too. The VA hospitals do great things for the veterans but they really can’t make sure everyone gets everything they need. The system is just flawed. So, its our job, the people who they fought for, to give back in anyway we can. I’m only in high school, but I was given the chance to fly-fish, so now its my turn to give someone else the chance, someone who became disabled because what my country asked them to do.
What kind of results have you personally witnessed? How has this changed the lives of some of the people you have been working with?
At the casting sessions, I see veterans walk in very seriously. Those whom I work with, are tense at first. Shoulders tight, knees locked, standing erect. I have to tell them to relax, I try to get them to let the line take the stress away. And with every cast, I see it more and more, they relax, they smile, they loosen up. I see the stress beginning to fall away. Fly-fishing is an art, and like with every other art, it takes practice. With that practice they can take this new skill and apply it wherever they want. This is a way to relieve stress and I see the veterans leave some of their stress behind after they cast for just an hour or two.
Where will you go from here? Where do you see yourself in 10 years from now?
I think VANY is something that will always stay with me. As I continue on in life, I will certainly continue to fly-fish and I will continue to help Veterans get the same pleasure from it that I do. 10 years from now I’ll be 27, wow that’s a scary thought. And at that time I think I’ll be in residency at medical school. I have wanted to be a doctor for a long time. I want to help people feel better, I want to help people get back to the way they were before they came to see me. VANY allows me to do that and fly-fish its really a win-win situation for me. I can’t think of another way to give back and have fun at the same time.
And Jasper closed the interview by saying: “Thanks again for the honor of this interview. I hope this will entice more people to help veterans. Jasper Lee” It’s so great that so many of the kids on the web site are only looking for more awareness and help with what they are doing.
See
Jasper’s profile on the Kids Are Heroes web site. Give him a shout-out – he certainly deserves it.
