Orange is not a colour, it's a state of mind

Updating our social media strategy and a couple of thoughts gelled for me. I’m growing tired of people with Twitter accounts or Facebook pages thinking that is the same as running these channels for a brand. It’s a little more complicated than that! And while the internet is full of best practices and people acting like they have a right to tell you what they think of what you’re doing, at the end of the day you need to build up a reputation and brand personality on these channels in a way that your customers and prospects and your own company will trust you. These are social. networks. People are not on social media to be constantly sold to.

I’ve been working this field with the same job for just over 5 years now. I can tell you that being on social media is not just about claiming an account on every conceivable channel to share news with keen fans or followers. Channels need editorial direction, management and investment and the skill required to run this environment should not be underestimated. These days social media channels are widely accepted as the first point of contact for your brand and you need the right people to manage these online relationships. You shouldn’t treat social media as channels for blatant customer acquisition – engagement is the benchmark in 2015 – the point of sale and ongoing retention is about a relationship. We need to converse with people on these channels, provide useful and helpful content, and empower them to make the right decision.

The challenge when your company grows is maintaining consistency – your channels have increased in followers and engagement over the years, you’ve built up rapport with frequent posters and recognize avatars from years gone by, so how do you introduce new people to do something more than pump out stuff the marketing or PR team gives them or not be over-the-top smarmy when helping with support questions or completely missing the tone or not having the skill to read between the lines when you’re dealing with all manner of questions and comments fired at you in 140 characters or less? This is where a mission statement for your social media efforts overall, and per channel comes in, where a content calendar can guide the right tone and messaging to help maintain consistency. Just because setting up and using a social media account is available to anyone, doesn’t mean that’s the right experience to run a brand channel on it’s own. It’s actually not easy – you’re becoming an unedited spokesperson for your brand, the voice of the company and with this comes great responsibility – new folks to your social media team should be trained and guided. This is where I struggle a bit – I am where I am today by basically feeling my way through it and find it quite hard to teach that, and even harder to push back and explain why social media accounts should continue to be tightly managed.

Saw this on Twitter. If someone asked you to do this, could you?

My friends, what are your 3 amazing things … about yourself?

We can easily find amazing things about other people we know and love but not so easy when it comes to ourselves. I couldn’t do it!

Useful things to think about if you’re using social media in your business. Some great ones and things I stick by.

A lot of people just see social media as a place to waste time and talk to friends and people virtually.
The 36 Rules of Social Media

It’s pretty tough to be on the end of vicious commentary and so often I’m unsure if these people even realize there’s a real human being at the other end. Would they speak to my face like that? (Note this is what I deal with sometimes at work, not personally, thankfully!)

“Many have asked whether the cozy veil of online anonymity mostly encourages well-intentioned truth telling or mostly emboldens people to act like assholes.”

How To Cope With The Shit Trolls Say Behind That Cozy Veil Of Online Anonymity

An interesting take on resolutions! I like the idea of finding stuff to just stop worrying about!! Half the time it’s all stuff that makes you fit into society – but as long as you’re not hurting anybody, you should live life how you want to.

First time I’ve been interviewed for being me. It’s on the site: Meet the Gravy along with a bunch of other Xeroes and interesting people. I’ve reproduced it here below.

So who are you anyway, and what do you do?

I’m Orange Girl. Or OG, no, not Original Gangster … I’m Xero’s Community Manager and look after all our company social media accounts and keep watch over many forums and our own Xero Business Community site. It’s one of those jobs that no-one understands and everyone wants … I mean, all I do is fluff about on Twitter and Facebook all day … right? A teenage dream?! Some think it’s really easy, others think it’s really hard, and many think they know how to do it better. I’m a digital message air-traffic controller.

What was your last job before getting into this?

I’ve been Xero’s Community Manager for almost 4 years and the 3 years before that I wrote and developed Xero’s Help Center. And before Xero I was working in a bank in NZ on a short contract as a business analyst, I was buried somewhere deep in the wholesale lending department trying to change some long-winded process involving several systems into one. Most of my working life I’ve done project management, business analysis and product documentation.

And why did you decide to do what you do now?

I like startups, those early days where you can see that what you do is useful. I’ve worked in startups with Rod (Xero CEO) before so when he and my husband Craig (Xero CTO) started talking about this idea (Xero) being the next big thing I was caught up from the start. And as the financial controller in our family the decision to take out 2 loans to invest in Xero had to run through me! I joined pretty quickly in the first few months because Rod promised there’d be orange in the brand. There is 🙂

What is it about the 60/70/80/90 that you miss most?

Knight Rider.

What is the biggest challenge facing SMEs today?

Probably the same big challenges we all face – dealing with information overload, so many choices and options and noise out there, how do you know what’s the best thing, that you’ve made the right decision and how do you know you’ve got all the information to make those decisions? How to keep up in this fast paced world where things are changing so rapidly?

Can cloud software solve that challenge, and if so how?

I’m not sure whether it helps or hinders actually! So many options and review sites and choice. However the standard cloud stuff makes it easier – no massive investment in IT and consultants, if you make the wrong software choice, move on. And of course the time savings and ability to get help – if you’re deep inside trying to make your business successful and stick out in a crowd, cloud software gives you the chance to use it where and when you need to even if that’s out of regular business hours and give others access if you need help.

If you could retire now, what would you do? Or not do?

Find something to write about about and post often on a blog or write a book.

If you could give your younger self some advice, what would it be?

Make friends with your sister. Don’t worry so much about what other people think. Speak up.

If you could buy anyone a drink in a bar and chat to them about anything, who would it be, what drink and what would you talk about?

Wow, if only I had time. Lots of people. I don’t like bars or the social pressure to drink. It’d be a coffee shop and I’d have a flat white (or equivalent). Anyway … someone who’s fascinated me over the last couple years is the person behind the San Francisco Bay Bridge Twitter account. Before moving to New York I lived in an apartment looking over the bridge and felt we became quite good friends. (This is embarrassing but I’d often get home from work, go directly to the window and say out loud “hello bridge.”) I’d love to talk to the guy about how he got into it, where he gets his intel from, and how he maintains his secret life.

If you could walk up to anyone, kick them in the shins and shout something at them, who would it be and what would you shout? Go on, get it off your chest.

I know you mean figuratively but I just don’t feel that angry towards anyone. Plus I don’t like confrontation and would be petrified they’d shout back at me. I do feel rather annoyed and let down by the people who design lingerie though – I would love the opportunity to “yell’ at Fantasie or other makers of lingerie at the ‘fuller’ end and ask why no orange? It’s not fair that those of us who can’t fit into skimpy strappy things are restricted to beige and black. Or I’d give people who shout in my direction from the safety of their keyboards a good talking to – there is a real person at the end of your tweet or forum post and I’m really truly honestly just trying to help.

If you could walk up to anyone and hug them, would would it be and why?

My best friend Leeann who I met in my second week at university. She’s the closest friend I’ve ever had and it’s just coming up on 10 years since she died. Since her passing I’ve not had another deep friendship like the one I had with her and I’ve lived my life since then with a terrible undercurrent that everyone around me is going to be taken away.

What’s your favorite meat and gravy meal?

Precooked sausages (like those you get in NZ), not gravy – Watties tomato sauce, mashed potatoes and Veuve Cliquot.

What is your greatest achievement?

My Masters of Library and Information Studies. That degree was really hard and pure determination (plus what it cost me without a student loan) saw me through to the end less about 10kgs. I wasn’t a librarian when I started out and was way out of my depth until the elective courses later in the program where I found my niche with the ‘Intro to the World Wide Web’ course (as the web was back in 1996). I was the first at my university to submit my research project as a website and I wouldn’t be where I am today if I hadn’t discovered the wonderful logical uniformity of HTML and ended up with a job out of university hand-coding and project managing websites for various NZ government organizations. Plus I have had a dream for 10 years to live in New York, I’ve worked hard to make it happen, and I’ve just arrived. That’s pretty unbelievable.

What do you want to achieve that you haven’t as yet?

Confidence. I spend too much time worrying that I’m not doing a good job and that I’m not being useful. And perhaps some me time. I’d also like to wave those orange glow-sticks and guide a 747 into the gate.

What’s next for you?

More Xero! And becoming a New Yorker.

Tsk tsk KEA NZ … I’m all for supporting my home country of New Zealand in finding out where those of us living overseas are and what we’re doing with our lives after our great start in New Zealand so will happily fill out an online census-type survey like the one from KEA (Kiwi Expats Abroad) that landed in my inbox a couple days ago. But I think there’s a very relevant check box missing on this form …

… I don’t really consider myself young any more, however the only ‘older couple’ check box assumes you have kids. I know I don’t like being put in society’s boxes but I’m so proud of us being a country that supports gay marriage, how about being one that supports ‘older couple no kids’. It’s not a taboo subject – there’s not always something wrong that we can’t discuss – sometimes it’s a choice.

My blog has basically been on hiatus for 4 months. Obvious. I had a major catch-up on work over the quiet Christmas/New Year holiday period which meant that my head cleared a little and my mind wandered to think about things I normally push aside, usually when I’m ass-up scrubbing out the bath and can’t write it down, but never-the-less, I’m thinking! During that time I thought about this blog. What it’s for, what did I want it to be for, what it could be for, or is it time to let it go? There are millions of blogs out there, something for everyone, so if I’m not getting what I want out of mine then maybe there needs to be some changes. I’m not sure I like it how it is so stopped writing until I figured a few things out. Some points in no particular order.

• I’ve been blogging for almost 9 years.
• I already had orangethings.com as a site dedicated to photos of orange things, I wanted to write about orange things to go with the photos. In fact my first 2 posts were about something orange I saw.
• Twitter didn’t exist back then so for my own amusement it was a place to put little things that popped into my head … like the time I saw potatoes in the gutter on the way to work, or invented a new phrase ‘scone horrors’ after getting that post-scone dry mouth feeling on Sunday after Sunday after Sunday at Nikau or received good or bad service somewhere.
• I never wanted anyone to see my blog when I first started it. I definitely started it for ME. A place to keep an almost-journal, nothing particularly private but somewhere to write anything I wanted that I wouldn’t be judged for. I was really nervous when it first went live and I got The Mister to hide it. It stayed that way, undiscovered by search engines and no comments allowed for 3 years.
• I had a terrible time at work around the time I started blogging – hard to describe but in the simplest terms it was a period of being bullied by someone in authority – to the point I was sick to my stomach, a nervous wreck, paranoid about everything, not eating much … the doctor gave me pills and a ticket to see a shrink and it’s one of the few times I’ve let my guard down and let my parents see in. I couldn’t blog about that although I so desperately needed an outlet. I wrote it somewhere else and that’s since been destroyed, perhaps out of embarrassment or perhaps some ridiculous need to protect the people involved. Looking back I wish I’d kept it, published it, if others are in the same situation they need to see they’re not a freak and don’t need to feel trapped.
• When we lived in New York briefly a couple years back I started writing coffee reviews – as an anchor for exploring the city I was on a mission to find coffee like the great stuff we had in Wellington. Armed with a list of independent roasters and cafes we explored many and I really enjoyed writing about them. Then I got a buzz out of people recommending me as someone who knew about coffee in New York, then other places, and I often get tweets from people I don’t know asking where to get good coffee.
• I still want my blog for me. But I’m conflicted. I want to write whatever I observe or feel like ranting about, and often fantasize about my observations being commented on or tweeted. But too many people I know read my blog. I’m worried about being judged, being naiive, or sharing too much personal information. How can I be noticed and private at the same time?
• I realized (again) that I don’t really have any interests or hobbies. I never know whether I’m sad about this or don’t care. People ask me what I do for fun, or outside of work. Hmmm, nothing worth writing about. But wait, I do. Coffee, knitting, travel. I can hear in my head voices telling me it’s not good to just be about work. That I should make more friends and get a hobby.
• I never have time to blog, I have a very VERY full -time job. I think I’m a good writer when I put my mind to it but lately it’s slipped into a perfunctory travel diary to keep the family updated. I don’t want it to be a diary (although I do like reading back, to remember what we were doing at certain points in time).
• My job is very public and the connection between my public profile and my personal profile has been made. Not on the levels of those with fame but certainly blogging as an outlet for work purposes is off the table and even airing personal stuff is probably inappropriate.
• Thinking about the blogs I like to read, they’re real accounts of people’s lives and what they’re doing in their jobs but often a glimpse of a life that’s fairytale-ish – perhaps they’re really successful or leading in something and have the kind of life that I think I’d love to have.
• I went to a blogging workshop in Portland recently which was a nice escape and a chance to hear from 3 women who’ve been blogging for a while and meet a whole lot of others who blog. There was nothing earth-shattering that I didn’t already know. It was interesting to get comments about my blog from the professionals – that it’s not very personal, it’s factual and accurate (SO interesting, seems I am hiding who I am from strangers because I feel like it is all about me!). The message is to write as an outlet, think about what you want your blog to be, what you want it to be about and write.

There’s something somewhere I read about there being millions of voices and millions of blogs out there, lots of them about the same thing, but that your own blog is the only one in your own voice. So maybe that’s it, doesn’t matter what you write about whether light-hearted, personal, factual, recipes, reviews, rants or dreams, stop worrying about it being unique or offending readers, just write from you.

While searching for coffee shops for an upcoming trip to London I came across this great statement on the website of Taylor Street Baristas.

The first time you have a really good coffee can be a bit of a curse. With one sip, your expectations are radically transformed. All other coffee is ruined for you. Coffee shops that used to prop up every corner of every city block soon reveal themselves to be mere pretenders: the blind serving the blind.  Purveyors of limp and burnt and watery coffee.

With one sip, your coffee options dwindle to a precious few: a mere handful of skilled baristas capable of meeting your newly enlightened needs.

Yours is a wretched plight, indeed. For those who inhabit this lonely world, we welcome you to our humble little corner of the web: a place where real coffee lovers can gather around and share and console and learn from each other.

So true.

Everyone knows I’m a jeans and t-shirt kind of girl. Why? Because they’re practical. Sure, I don’t have kids or pets or a crazy physical job, spend a lot of time outdoors or rush anywhere. But I have a life, albeit ordinary, that doesn’t have room for accommodating clothes that get in the way. In my t-shirt I can go about my life and do normal things like unpack the dishwasher, make coffee, load and unload the washer, swiffer the floor, clean my teeth, lug a shoulder bag with a laptop in it, button my jacket, carry shopping, fossick around in the storage box under my desk looking for batteries for my wireless mouse without worrying about buttons catching or coming undone, billowy sleeves catching on door handles, necklaces, frills, folds, drapes, ties or flounces getting dripped on or dragged across an unfriendly surface, catching on zippers or blowing into my face, or one hand being unavailable because it’s busy holding something shut or down or out of the road, or drycleaning!

Do fashion designers think about women’s lives when they’re designing clothes? I know it’s an art form and I don’t know enough about fashion to truly appreciate the skill or reason something looks or falls or drapes or the message it sends and some non-t-shirt things do look awfully pretty but not many of us stand still like the ladies in magazines or walk sedately down an indoor catwalk. Whoever designs and makes this stuff needs to try the clothes on and do a few normal girl things in them.

Take this new shirt, not a t-shirt that I got recently. Pretty huh?

But I don’t stand there like that, pouting. And it seems that is was what was intended for this shirt. The damn buttons pop open the minute you try to do anything with your arms! This shirt, worn by a woman on an ordinary day, one with a fairly sedate life should be able to stand up to her moving her arms to open a door, do something with her hair, bend up and down to deal with a bag or go to the loo or put on a jacket without the buttons popping open! Seriously! Even my generous chest is not putting the buttons under any undue strain so that’s not it. And it’s not that the shirt is unfit for the purpose intended. I didn’t buy it at a store called ‘Catwalk Dreams’ or ‘For Standing In Only’, I bought it at Banana Republic, surely an everyday woman’s store if ever there was one? This shirt was obviously designed to be worn by a board that stands there! Good grief – let’s actually TRY out our products people!

Don’t get me started on shoes.