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Pour Some Water on Me

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For any of you that are on Facebook you will know that your feed this past week has been filled with friends and family who are raising awareness for ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease. The focus: ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. It is a great way to use social media for a good cause. However (yes there is a but), my hope is that all the individuals that are doing the ice bucket challenge actually donate money. The awareness campaign is that by having ice + cold water poured over you that you are outing yourself from paying $100. Individuals that get nominated have 24 hours to do the challenge or donate $100.

Awareness is great, supporting ALS financially takes it to an entirely different level. What if we took the time to raise awareness, and put our money and/or our support next?

I love the fun and humor of making a video and putting oneself out there online, I only hope it does good. Think of all the other initiatives and programs that could benefit from such challenges. Of course we’d all be broke, and it would get old, right? How do we keep the freshness on continuing the momentum via social media where we have access to so many people, yet do it in a way that promotes true awareness? For example, the ALS website has been shared in most of the videos that I have seen, and there has been a plethora of high-profile athletes, CEOs, and past presidents that have joined into the mix, but have we really learned more about ALS? Do you know what it stands for? Do you know how your money can help?

Be careful, I might go Laura Bush on you and decide that I do not want to mess up my hair and just donate the $100. However, it is hot here in Oregon, and a little cold does the body good.

What do you think?

Brand “YOU”

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A recent article from Fast Company inspired me to think through my brand: Brand Tami. Not just for 2013, but beyond. The following excerpt from the article is what specifically stood out to me and will give you a bit of context to what I am referring to:

“Be yourself and be courageous. You don’t have to follow the crowd. Take courageous steps to define the brand of you in 2013, reminding yourself of who you are, what makes you tick, and why you get out of bed every day. Don’t feel compelled to follow the crowd. Be courageous and proud of being yourself.”

Have you ever thought about that? Brand You? Reid Huffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, has a great book out called: “The Start-Up of You.” He discusses at length how to plan out your future as though YOU, your life, job, and future were a start-up company. It is definitely a book I would recommend reading if you are thinking about your future and next steps.

Over the holidays I was thinking about Brand Tami and decided the first place to start was to update my: “About” page for random olio. That was my first step. If you have read it before, you will see a bit of my past version, with more specifics this time. Since I have this blog, I can cultivate my Brand on my About page, but also through my writing, photos, and content. I also continue to share my Brand in how I interact and treat others, and what I stand for, and what I will not stand for. I want to continue to think about how I am going to cultivate Brand Tami as the months fly by in 2013 and beyond.

You might find that you create a bit of Brand YOU by what you post on Facebook, or what you share on Twitter. What does your Brand YOU look like? Does it have a smell? Texture? Does it glow? Is there a word that defines you that you can speak to that sheds light to others of what you are about? An image? The fun part about Brand YOU is that it is a constantly evolving Brand and you get to update it, edit it, and brush it off any time you wish.

Are You Relevant?

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I was talking to a friend a few weeks ago. The idea of: “Are you relevant?” came up. I am not that old, but I have started to feel like being relevant is now very crucial to staying fresh and current in the workplace. Things change every single day. Most of these changes have to do with technology. Do you have the latest smartphone? Does it have the newest apps? Do you know how to use your smartphone? Have you had it for a few years and are still learning how to use it?

If you are like me there are constantly new things to learn about your smartphone. There are new things to learn about the apps. New technology and functionality. What about all the different social networking options? Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc. They each are constantly evolving so that your experience is never the same. They constantly update, redesign, reconfigure your viewing experience. Are you able to keep up with all the changes that happen? Do the social media platforms alert you to the changes, or do you just learn to adapt, or you ask your networking community how they have maintained their composure while they navigate the changes?

I often feel I cannot keep up. I want to be in the know. I want to understand how to pace myself and decide which social media platforms meet my needs, but I find that they are all so varied and that I sometimes cannot keep up with technology and all its evolving, fast-paced, time sucking powers. Whether it be Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Pinterest, or another platform, do they really do for us what we think they do? Would we be better served by just having face-to-face conversations?

Would that make us all more relevant?