The Power of "Thank You"

The other day I came home and found a card on my wife’s desk. Before you think that I was snooping, the corner of her desk is normally where she puts the family mail. When I looked to see who the card was from, I found that it was a thank you note from our new dentist. The office staff had all signed a card thanking my wife for recommending me to the clinic.

A little odd you might think. Isn’t it natural that when one person in a family finds a good service, the rest of the family uses that same service provider? Isn’t it...obvious?

No. It’s not obvious. I have the ability to choose for myself who to go do, and this dentist’s office understands that fact. If my wife and I end up in the same place, our kids will likely go there. If we are happy with the service, we’ll stay, talk about it, even recommend more people.

Our local dentist’s office understands the power of ‘thank you’, of moving away from an assumption of satisfaction, from an email or voice message. They took the time to sign a card and say it personally. They invested a little bit of themselves into the relationship.

Over the last three weeks, I’ve received a few hand-written cards of thanks. I keep each one and display time in my office like Christmas cards. To me, the senders of these cards understand the need to get back to the basics of human relationships. For that, I celebrate their actions and their tokens.

How do you like to be thanked? How important is this human touch in your world? Let me know in the comments. 

Sharing stories & expanding communities

Back in August, I started to engage in a few conversations about guest blogging.

Having a relatively short blogging history IMHO (under 40 blogs to date), the idea of contributing to another person's blog was exciting. I could think about the messages that I wanted to share in other places, the tone that I wanted to convey and work on different topics.

At the time that I wrote this post, I had been to Shakespeare by the Sea here in Halifax, Nova Scotia. They do a fantastic job putting on outdoor theatre and working with the audience that I was inspired to draw some links between live theatre and customer service (not a huge stretch, I know).

After I wrote and submitted it, I started to think about what it meant to share content on other blogs - taking my material to the home field of other people. It struck me that this type of sharing and engaging was exactly why I jumped into social media. To share my stories with others while I worked through them myself. To interact and engage with both like-minded and other-minded people. And to expand my community in the process. My new community now includes Daniel Sharkov, a 17 year old blogger that's expanded my education about blogging, sharing and the development of an online network.

Without a doubt, I'll be taking up more guest blogging opportunities. It was great fun. I guess I can also continue to be comfortable with my blog title "The Education of a Prof". I'm still learning.

Purpose determines platform

I am a self-confessed 'active' user of social media.

I’m linked in on LinkedIn. My face is booked on Facebook. I was even able to get an early ‘plus’ during the Google+ beta launch last month. According to my analytics from TweetStats.com, I could possibly have a tweet-diction.

As a result, I find that I’m also having a lot of conversations about social media.

People seem curious about what I’m tweeting and why I’m tweeting so much. For me, it has mostly been about building relationships, having conversations and engaging with some very cool people. My enthusiasm about social media tends to seep through just a wee bit as I talk about what I call my ‘successes’: my conversations with top authors in the social media field, the recent invitations to guest blog on other sites, and especially about the day a wicked poster was hand delivered to my office simply because of a quick conversation (thanks @pirie and @kulapartners!).

From these conversations, some people have said that they would like to give social media a whirl. Lately, I’ve been trying to ask them one small question:

‘Why?’

What is it that you want to accomplish through social media? Before you jump into any particular social media platform, take a few minutes to figure out why you want to be there, what you plan to accomplish, and how you plan on contributing. Your reasons, and the outcomes that flow from those reasons, will determine which platform would best suit your purposes.

Let’s take a look at a few scenarios:

• If you are interested in connecting with people of similar interests, having conversations and perhaps building a community, Twitter is a great platform. I, for one, use Twitter a great deal and plan on having my students use it to engage with their industry community this fall.
• Perhaps you would like to share video content – in this case, a YouTube account might be your platform of choice.
• Are you interested in a more secure environment in which you can share longer posts, photos, links and other content behind some controlled filters? Facebook and Google+ are great platforms for this type of activity.
• What about longer opinions pieces, thoughts or essays that others can read and response to? A blogging platform such as Wordpress or Blogger would be fantastic.

You see, ‘social media’ is a catch-all term; there are dozens of platforms at your fingertips that enable you to engage in various ways. Are you interested in collaborating, conversing, or capturing business? It’s in your best interest to explore as many of these platforms as you can, if only to increase your awareness of the available options. Before you commit to run down the social media highway, take a moment to figure out why you’re running.

Because, at the end of the day, your purpose will determine your platform.

Don’t forget the ‘social’ in social media

Back in my early days at university, I knew a guy on a quest. He would go out every weekend to the clubs. He was brutally honest about his end game – he wanted to ‘pick up’. (One day my kids might read this; I’d rather explain the concept of ‘pick up’ over some of the other terms.) His technique was always the same: walk up to his first potential target, make introductions, ask if she was interested in his ‘sale’, duck, control the damage, move on to the next girl. 



When asked why he used such an incredibly aggressive approach, he would always reply that if he asked enough people, he would generally find one person who would say yes. To him - this meant success.



"Let's try listening!"



However, the metrics of his actions were always lost on him. Horrible success rate! Terrible conversion! Too much talking and absolutely no listening.

But much more important: How many people did he leave insulted and offended in his wake? And how many of these people talked to others about him? His reputation as a weasel (sometimes ridiculously classified as a ‘player’) was solidified quickly and lasted an incredibly long time.

In the social environment, he was less interested in engagement and more interested in closing the deal…a deal…ANY deal!

This story jumped into my head today as I was scanning my twitter feeds. I noticed a bunch of tweets directed right to me from people I have not yet spoken to or engaged with. Many of them wanted me to go to their Facebook page, their webpage, read their business model, or look at their Amazon book.

I’ve just met them in a social media universe, and there is nothing social happening. Twitter and other such online tools are social in nature. Whether you’re communicating, collaborating or putting out multimedia, it’s all primarily social. You share with me, I share with you. We get to know each other over time. Within our first 50 tweets, the odds that I’ll look at your twitpic of a rain puddle or a cute puppy are exponentially higher than the chances I’ll like anything on your FB page.

I’m relatively new to the twitterverse (@williamcmurray), having been there about 5 months. I have 300+ followers, made 1700 total tweets with an average of 11 a day, and I’m following nearly 500 people. However, following some early advice from Scott Stratten (@unmarketing), I’m maintaining a reply / retweet percentage of over 70%. Seven out of every 10 tweets I make are either engaging in a conversation with someone or sharing content that I think is cool. My community is slowly growing at a manageable pace, equal to the amount of time I spend engaging.

To my friends in social media, both today and tomorrow, let’s make a pact. We’ll keep listening, continue to engage, commit to interacting with each other, and agree to stay real. And no, you won’t need to sign up for my newsletter to do that.

6 Things To Do When Exams Are Done

For university students, nearing the end of your exam period in April evokes the same feelings as an eight year old on Christmas Eve. Visions of sugar plums and a semester full of course notes dance through the air.

Euphoria that this day has once again finally, magically arrived!
Go celebrate! Enjoy yourself - you've earned it.You are justified to let loose after your exams, embracing the feeling that all of your work has finally come to an end. For many, this means four months without textbooks, assignments or classes.

Yet, this time is a perfect period for preparation. Yup. It’s a wise idea to tie up a few loose ends before you leave your school for the summer and lay the ground for success next year.

Think about it – at this moment, you are keenly focused on your educational path, immersed in both the details of your program of study and the processes of your school. This is the ideal moment to put some plans into place for the coming semester so that you do not come back in the fall cold and ill-prepared.
To help, here’s a quick to-do list, tasks that you should consider before you being your summer adventures:

• Check your academic progress

It will likely be a few weeks before you receive your final grades from the winter semester; however, you should have a fair idea of how you’ve performed based on feedback throughout the semester. Are you reaching your goals from a GPA perspective? Are your overall study skills improving? Review the last year both from a numbers (grades) and process (learning outcomes and habits) perspective. List out your key successes and areas to improve next year.

• Review your degree course check list

Most degree programs have a very specific list of required courses to be completed in order to earn the degree. Some of these courses are offered quite regularly while others are available only on an irregular basis, requiring some deft planning skills. Completing an undergraduate degree with a single major is fairly straight forward, but many students miss out on the opportunity to double major or earn both a major and a minor because they start planning too late in the process. Whatever your goal, why not get the greatest value out of your time at school?

• Pick your courses now

Ninety nine percent of all schools have released their course schedule for the 2011/12 academic year. Many have already opened up course registration! Take this time to pick out at least some of your courses for the upcoming year and either sign up now or, if your school has yet to open registration, make a clear note of the first possible dates to register. It’s always better to be the first person signed up for the courses you want than to be scrambling in August to get into courses you have little interest in.

• Seek the assistance of an advisor

The best part of this time of year is that everyone is still on campus and easily accessible. Faculty are marking exams and submitting grades; the registrar's office is bustling and financial services has few line ups. It is an excellent opportunity to take in a couple of meetings, get questions answered, and sort out issues.

• Review available bursaries and scholarships for the coming year

If you have a reasonably strong academic record, you must (repeat – MUST) take a moment to review all of the available bursaries and scholarships at your school. There is all sorts of money available in a variety of forms to all sorts of people. Are you an athlete? There’s money for that. Have you volunteered a significant amount of time? There’s a bursary to celebrate your work. Perhaps you or your parents have belonged to the Eastern Sisterhood of the Pine Tree Quilters? I bet there’s a scholarship of $500 just waiting for you to apply for. The critical issue here is that many scholarships and bursaries go unused every year simply because no one applies; if you think you are somewhat qualified, get your application in.

• Make decisions on living arrangements for the fall

Arrange for residence or sign that lease before you leave for the summer break. Line up people that you are interested in living with. Nothing starts the fall semester off better than meeting up with your chosen roommates in an apartment/house of your preference. Leave the desperate, last minute room hunting for those that didn’t prepare.
Congratulations on making it to the end of another term!

5 Simple Tips to Help Prepare for Exams

April is always an interesting time of year.

As I look out my window, the sun has climbed over the horizon to brighten another beautiful spring day. Birds are singing as they gather around the feeders for their first meal of the day. The first tiny buds are developing on the trees; signs of life are everywhere.

Unfortunately, many students won’t have the pleasure of enjoying this sight today. Heads are still on pillows after long nights of studying. It is, after all, exam season.

As a student myself for 14 years of post-secondary education, having taken far more than my fair share of exams, I’ve learned a few tricks and tips. Mostly, planning is key!

1. Understand the exam you will be writing. Will it be multiple choice or short answers? Calculations or essay questions? This will fundamentally change how you will need to prepare for you test. Some question styles allow you to be familiar with concepts while others require that you have clear, concise definitions and examples ready.
2. Review the course outline and notes from your first class. During the first class, your instructor discussed the goals and desired outcomes of the course. Most exams are written to test against desired skill sets and outcomes; you can easily forget the ‘purpose’ of the course after 13 busy weeks of course work. Start at the beginning.
3. Understand your course and instructor. Subject matter is important, of course. However, the person crafting the exam will have certain styles and preferences that you can pick up on. Note that if it’s a large, common exam for many instructors teaching the same course, you should to try to gather this information ahead of time.
4. Take care of your body and mind. Granted that during exam periods, a lot of studying will take place. It is during this time that you must pay special attention to your diet and sleep habits. Caffeine-fuelled all-nighters might seem like a bright idea, but you can hardly do this for a whole exam period. Sleep and nutrition keep you calmer and help you focus. Plus, you’ll avoid the energy spikes and crashes that inevitably come with CWC (cramming with coffee).
5. Schedule everything. Yes, everything in your exam period should be scheduled, including study time, eating, and sleeping. A schedule will boost your confidence that you have sufficient space to prepare for your exams. This is not the time to take on those extra work shifts or catch up on visits with family and friends; they can all wait until you are finished your exams. Stay focused.

Finally, relax a bit. Exams are meant to test your knowledge on subject material and allow you to demonstrate new skills. Faculty (for the most part) write exams as a way to examine your knowledge, not to trick you.

Remember that everyone is invested in your success!