Your Goal in Social Media

What is your goal in posting thoughts, links, and photos on Facebook and other social networks?

If you're posting things as an individual, you may seek to connect with old classmates, co-workers, and family members. You want to keep them up to date on your life and thoughts. You want to stay informed about their adventures and ideas. You like to share what you think may interest them (movies, books, music, events).

If you're a business, you hopefully want to share your expertise, give people advice related to your field, provide timely information about your industry, and connect with potential customers in a warm and human manner. People prefer to do business with companies they know, like, and trust.

Some people like to express their political, philosophical, or spiritual ideas and beliefs in social media. If they post material that is confrontational, inflammatory, or provocative, it's often because they hope to persuade, influence, or convince those who have an opposing view.

Big mistake.

You should feel free to express yourself as boldly as you wish. But you should get rid of your hope to convert anyone to your point of view, especially if you are a bit strident, combative, or aggressive.

What commonly happens is you get attacked, mocked, or abused. People may use filthy language against you. They may try to hurt your feelings, make you look bad, or twist your words around, jump to unwarranted conclusions, and make invalid assumptions.

I've seen people act shocked when this happens. They wanted a friendly debate, but there are some topics that are very difficult to discuss and explore without arousing strong reactions, hostility, and infantile outbursts.

You must learn how to express your beliefs and opinions firmly and confidently, without caring about how anybody responds to them. If you get agreement, it must not delight you. If you get disagreement, it must not discourage you. You have to maintain a strong indifference to how others react to you.

Above all, you must renounce the vain, egotistic desire to change anybody. Nobody changes their core values or ideologies due to a Facebook wall post, a political cartoon, or a link to a source that they don't consider credible due to its bias against their ideology.

People change their faith, philosophy, or political orientation very slowly. Often this change is due to reading a lot of books, coming under the influence of a charismatic mentor, being betrayed by a trusted leader, or experiencing a personal tragedy.

Post whatever you want to post. But keep your expectations realistic and humble. Be satisfied with giving good advice, linking to good information, cheering up your friends, staying in touch with family, sharing your photos and ideas, and encouraging others.


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Steven Streight ArtsPartners ad

ArtsPartners "All About the Arts" ad of Steven Streight: "The Arts articulate our spiritual  visions."

I helped with marketing this campaign which is being run during October 2012 in association with the National  Arts and Humanities month and the grand opening of the Peoria Riverfront Museum.

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College student volunteer wanted for PHS media position

We need a college student volunteer, majoring in journalism, advertising, media, public relations, communications, or a related field.

You will manage all media contacts, write press releases, create posters, etc. for events and membership drives for Peoria Historical Society.

Get real world experience to add to your resume. 

Contact us today to get started immediately. 

Thanks.

Speak to Robert Killion, Cody Killion, or Walter Ruppman.

PHONE 309-674-1921

rkillion@peoriahistoricalsociety.org

Web technology discussion with Jack Pearl

Jack Pearl, founder of the Pearl Companies business empire, and Steven Streight, at the Pearl Fall Fest, held at the Autohaus of Peoria, one of several luxury car dealerships owned by Mr. Pearl.

I am pleased that Jack Pearl listened to me describe an innovative web technology idea.

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Robert Killion ad for ArtsPartners of Central Illinois

Here's another photo that I contributed for the ArtsPartners
of Central Illinois "All About the Arts" campaign
in association with the grand opening of the
Peoria Riverfront Museum.

Robert Killion is Curator -
Collections and Technology
at Peoria Historical Society,
at which I am a Trustee and their
blog and social media manager.

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Testimonial from business friend Bill Ordaz

We are exploring options and alternatives to establish a new CILF website.

Steven Streight, a media consultant, is shown here helping us with this project. Steven is demonstrating a talent here that few professionals and consultants truly have ... the skill of LISTENING and seeking to understand the customer's expectations!!!

Image above: Tom Biederbeck, CILF Board Member. — with Steven Edward Streight at Thirty-Thirty Coffee Co.

-- Bill Ordaz, president, CILF - Central Illinois Landmarks Foundation

(May 5, 2012)

 

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How To Avoid Bad Job Training Program Scams

A Facebook friend asked if anyone had an opinion on ICC's truck driver training program. 

It's important to know if a training program is worth spending money on. You don't want to waste your money. You also don't want to receive inferior training that will be tough to unlearn.

My reply: Call some trucking companies around town and ask THEM what they think of it.

That's what matters. If they think ICC trains truck drivers well, they'll praise it. If they have been disappointed with drivers who got trained at ICC, and had to fire them, they may tell you so.

Or ask the firms, "What training programs or schools do your best truck drivers tend to come from?

You can substitute "nursing", "environmental science", "law", "marketing", "plumbing", or whatever field you're interested in. Call the firms that hire people in that field and ask where the best employees tend to come from...and where the worst employees tend to come from.

Asking people paid for a training what they thought of it is not the best way to discover its merits or defects. If they paid for it, they will probably say good things about it, if only to save face. Other times, they will complain because they got ripped off.

But the firms who hire people tend to have strong opinions about various training programs. They've hired people from these programs and when new hires from a particular program are consistently poor or mediocre, they may form a negative opinion of how those new hires were trained.

Before you sign up and pay for a training program, try contacting the various firms who hire people with that training. Ask the human resources or management people what training they'd recommend. They need highly skilled, competent people. They would not send you to a shabby program. 

If a lot of firms are in agreement about a particular training program being excellent, or terrible, then it's probably true.

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Arguing with a Crazy Person Makes You Look Crazy

On social media, it's easy to fall into the trap of responding to statements you disagree with. You feel like expressing yourself. You want to point out something the other person may not know or understand. You assert your point of view. Hopefully, you do this in a civil, polite manner.

An intelligent person, if they are totally opposed  to your viewpoint, will engage in a limited exchange of ideas with you. If you make an assertion, they will attempt to refute it. If they really want to drive home their point, they'll link to a reputable article that presents their idea forcefully or a news report that verifies what they claim.

This kind of online discussion can be enjoyable. You may learn a few things. You may gain a better understanding of different views and may become more adept at defending and advancing your ideas. You may even alter or abandon your opinion. Educated, decent people will appreciate the conversation and will not hate you for sharing your contrary views. They may even thank you for enriching their blog or social media page with your remarks.

Once in a while, however, you'll encounter someone who goes ballistic when you express a view that is opposed to theirs, or when you question their assertions. They may feel you are making them look stupid or uninformed. If so, they may then feel they need to punish you.

They might start calling you names, using filthy language, or warning you that they will not accept "biased remarks". You will probably find this rather bizarre. All you wanted to do was discuss a topic and learn why someone thinks something different from what you think. Perhaps you wished to put forth a fact or an angle they may have not considered.

Instead of welcoming your participation in a discussion, they get upset. Generally, if a person attacks you personally, it's because they can't reply adequately to your remarks. They avoid dealing with your statements and change the subject. Suddenly, the discussion is now focused on what a bad, ignorant, or "crazy" person you are.

A common ploy is to accuse you of things, based on their assumptions. If you question Candidate X, they'll claim you are a typical supporter of Candidate Y and you  listen to and are brainwashed by Blah Blah news channel. They may make more sweeping generalizations and come to unfair, ridiculous conclusions about you.

Childish. Some people regress and revert to infantile modes of behavior when they're not being patted on the head and praised all the time. They seek agreement only. They cannot handle critique of their own remarks. They cannot tolerate dissent regarding anything or anyone they support or identify with. They take it personally and cannot detach themselves to consider an issue objectively.

Some people, if you met them in the real offline world, would repulse you. You would not want to be seen with them. So why do you engage in heated conversations with them online? 

Think seriously about your motivations and what you think you're going to accomplish. Could it be that there are traces of cruelty or aggression in you? Are you lacking confidence and seek to bolster yourself by arguing with a questionable entity? Do you have unsuspected trollish characteristics lurking within you? Do you seek to inflame the person, expose his ignorance, or shame him? 

Or are you so incredibly unrealistic that you think you'll be able to convince the person to adopt your point of view? In most online debates, the best you can possibly hope for is to respectfully agree to disagree. 

Your debate opponent may say, "Thanks for sharing that. I understand why you feel  that way, but I just don't share your point of view. Your point is valid, but not weighty enough to make me change my mind about this." Or perhaps they'll say, "I'll look into this, and check out that link, but I doubt it will be sufficiently convincing."

Unfortunately, most of the time, a person with strong views will not appreciate being contradicted. They may seem intelligent and sane, but the minute you go against their opinion, they flip out. Black smoke starts pouring out of their ears. Their mouth is suddenly spewing forth hateful venom.

Online Debate Manual, Rule #3a, Section IV, paragraph 2 states: "The first debate participant to use swear words, expletives, filthy fulminations, scatological obscenities, vile vulgarities, juvenile profanity, salty language, foul mouth expressions, poopy talk, cussing, four letter words, F bombs, lewd scurrilities, or other unseemly imprecations -- loses the debate."

(NOTE: That paragraph above is great to copy and paste and post as a comment when someone starts uttering using bad language to intimidate you.)

If you wrestle with a pig, the pig loves it, but all you accomplish is getting dirty.

(See "Never Wrestle with a Pig" in relation to the ancient Chinese game called Go).

When you argue with an immature, hateful, or insane person, it makes you look bad. People will wonder why you have lowered yourself to get in the slime and fight with a vulgar person or a bitter troll. This means you may also want to block the person on Facebook, so you won't be tempted to keep responding to his nutty posts.

Online Debate Manual, Rule #1, Section III, paragragh 1 states: "If you argue with a crazy person, you'll look crazy."

Surely, you have better things to do, right? Go do them.

:^)

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