After Farming in the Rain

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Boy, this was one of the hardest blog posts I’ve ever written for some reason…

People have been asking, “How was the Mission Trip?” Well… Stunning… On several levels. (Note: I’ve hyperlinked many of the comments to the corresponding pictures in the photo gallery on SmugMug. Click through as you read!)

I wept. I’ll just be right up front about it. We all did actually, at different times and for different reasons.

For me, thinking back on it, I’d best describe it as an incredibly complex mixture of ….

1. Spiritual gratitude, joy, and despondence
2. Emotional happiness and sadness
3. Physical pain and exhaustion, and yet “a good kinda tired”
4. Mental fatigue and mind-bending contrasts
5. And an overwhelming assault on my senses – smells, sounds, sights, touches, and tastes

Serving God in a Third World country is intensely personal. Some of you might say, “Well, the DR isn’t really ‘Third World’.” Well, some of the resorts like Punta Cana are up-scale. But where we were? There was electricity – a little. There was cell phone coverage – for the nationals, not for us. There were mopeds and pick-ups. There were stoves and running water. But the people we were serving generally had no cars, shared mopeds, lived in small little wood and/or cement huts, used communal waste facilities, no garbage pick-up, very little food, very little money, and almost no medical/dental/vision care. So call it what you want, but it’s a pretty unforgiving environment. As an example, if a child gets dysentery there – they die within a week. So the fresh, clean water we connected to the school definitely will save lives over time.

What did we do? The big item was spanning a river with a water line that had been washed away three months before in Hurricane Irene. It had rained 10” in 5 hours and the water level had risen 20’. So the local school and surrounding 10 homes had been without a steady supply of fresh, clean water for three months. In fact, Doug Brown on the team reported seeing a teacher dole out a drink to a student in the lid of the jug of water – that’s right, the LID. That was a simple but relatively hard project.

We also accomplished a few more things:

1. Laid a cement floor in the home of a local family
2. Dug, fenced, and planted two full gardens and part of a third – in a downpour
3. Laid about 400 ft2 of cement outside our main compound
4. Trenched a new water line to a new house
5. Repaired the fresh water spring and natural filtering system
6. Encouraged a local church by singing to them in Spanish
7. Met with several families in their homes to ask for prayer requests

We slept poorly in bunks, took cold showers, got cement burns, ripped up our feet, defended ourselves against bats, shaved very little, lost weight while eating and drinking well, cursed the blasted roosters who had no sense of the actual sunrise, hung on to each other to keep from falling out of the truck on a road that in the States would be considered ‘out’, saw a rat run out of the kitchen, and left all of our clothes, shoes, and money right there. But what we walked away with was a deep sense of satisfaction, something that can only be gained by doing exactly what we did.

Here’s the key verse from the trip. Note the different spiritual, emotional, physical, and mental aspects to it.

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.” Colossians 3:12-14

To my fellow PIMA members: Will you have a similar experience next year if it comes to pass? Possibly. But it bears saying again. Each person has a different response to a trip like this. Each team overcomes new obstacles. Each trip has unique weather conditions. Interpreters and construction staff will vary. So it’s impossible to say. But here’s the thing: Our expert leader, Dave McCarty, was spot on right from the very first email he sent out to the team: “No expectations.” Just ‘come and see’, go and give. And that seemed to be the key to a successful trip. So pray about it, let things happen as they will, without resisting based on expectations, and step out of your comfort zone. You will likely be extremely blessed beyond measure.

Final thoughts:

• Overwhelmed by a feeling of great fortune for having my cup filled to overflowing because of so many things that had happened along the way
• Deeply moved at the feeling of separation from people I had come to love and respect in profound ways, especially my 11 teammates
• Immensely satisfied by what we had accomplished physically in such a short time-span, and the positive, perhaps life-saving and life-giving implications
• Above all, my prayer in the weeks leading up to the trip had been for God to soften my heart and prepare it for the people I would be with

And boy did He.

PS.

A couple funny anecdotes from Doug and Cindy Brown, via email to the team following the trip, with permission. You’ll get some additional insights and smiles.

Having some issues re-acclimating…

The strangest thing happened on Sunday morning.  After arriving home at 1:00 AM we dropped our luggage in the front hallway and went straight to bed, exhausted.  My eyes opened at 7:00 AM Sunday morning.  The first adjustment came when I realized Ed wasn’t sleeping in the bunk above me.  In fact NO ONE was sleeping above me.  I could see all the way to the ceiling!  The next thing I noted was Cindy in bed next to me.  I quickly checked to see if she was still breathing although I had decided, whatever the outcome, I would have to deal with that later.  No purpling!

I laid there for only a moment taking a mental inventory.  Two aching legs.  Check.  Two aching arms. Check.  As I went through the list I determined only my hair didn’t hurt.  I listened for a moment, a strange silence filling the room.  Then it occurred to me, there wasn’t a single rooster crowing anywhere.  I called out, “Hey guys, what happened to the roosters?”  No response.

Confused I made my way to the shower.  This is where things got really strange.  I tapped on the door and asked if anyone was in there.  Hearing nothing I grabbed the door with both hands and nearly pulled it off the hinges.  I then stepped inside fully clothed.  I tried lifting and pulling the door to get it mostly closed but it gave no resistance and instead, slammed shut seated perfectly in the track.  As I took off my clothes I began looking around for nails and any other sharp points where I could hang them so they were partially shielded from the shower head and any fine streams of water coming from the pipes.  Get this, the shower stall was dry!

As I stood there at a 30 degree angle to adjust for the slope of the floor it occurred to me, the floor was nearly flat with only a slight slope toward the middle where there was a small grated hole.  I started to share this new found information with the person in the stall next to me when I realized, I was all alone.  There I stood, no other men or women to share in my discoveries.  In fact the next nearest shower stall was down the hallway.  I felt so alone.

After fumbling around the shower head looking for the valve I noticed on the wall, two, that’s two handles.  Feeling adventuresome I turned them both on full.  After an initial blast of familiar cold water the water temperature began to rise, first warm and then HOT.  I quickly turned off the water, lathered and rinsed, the whole process taking less than 47 seconds including when I accidently opened my mouth and a few drops of water entered.  I spit out every bit of moisture from my bowels forward.  I wasn’t going to die in the shower from some intestinal thing carried in by questionable water!

I grabbed a towel from the corner of the stall and used the driest part.  At first I thought I had the wrong towel because it smelled like dryer sheets, not my 7th grade gym locker.  I put on my damp clothes and flip flops and stepped out of the shower.  That’s when it hit me!  I was inside the house!  I was in a bathroom with a sink, a toilet with a small pile of toilet paper on the floor next to it from sometime in the night, towel bars, and toilet paper actually hanging from the wall.  No tiny stick with a duct tape handle.  I took off my flip-flops and the floor was cold and smooth ceramic tile.  Not a grain of sand anywhere!

Then, like Dorothy it struck me, I’m not in the D.R. anymore… I am in Kansas!

The rest of the day was mostly normal.  Except when I passed a construction site and jumped out to mix concrete by hand.  A policeman stopped me.  “Sir, you can’t do that.”  I told him oh yes I can, I’m “Meester Kansas Guy” and he insisted he was going to have to take me to the station.  I told him that was fine but I would like to ride hanging on to the outside of the vehicle.

It’s good to be back.  Hope your adjustment is going well.  What a great experience serving God, and the people of the D.R. with you.

Doug

I too am adjusting to being back in the good ole USA.  Some reflections on what I learned in the DR.

• Who knew the roosters have immigrated from all different time zones and not adjusted to the time change?
• The bats in the DR have a gender bias, I know I would choose to hang out in a women’s restroom, wouldn’t you?
• Plantains can be cooked many ways, a new method for each day of the week.
• Hot sauce enhances any food, at any meal, just ask Pedro.
• Hot water is highly overrated.  Have you ever seen more excited people to be given the opportunity to shower with cold water?
• Hairdryers and curling irons are not necessary for beauty, just ask Mike Wise.
• Duct tape on the end of a stick saves sticky fingers
• The off-roading experience was included in the deluxe package we all signed up for … as well as, deep pore cleansing, an apricot (well maybe sand) scrub and a daily steam bath.
• Pirates dwell everywhere, especially in the Caribbean.
• Hexagons are harder to create than one might think.
• The simple things make kiddos smile, a buddy to play football, jump rope, bubbles, wash cloth cupcakes, foamie crosses and glo-sticks.
• Hugs and smiles cross all language barriers.

God is alive and well in the DR.  He is on the move, using the 12 most unlikely saints, hand-chosen for a time such as this.

It was a joy to be in your presence, in the presence of the living KING.

In Him,

Queen “Cindy” or Sheba

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Wristband gift from Kelle, DR, June 2011

I’m excited to share Part 2b of the Linkedin series on B2B promotion and the role of employees, especially leaders and stakeholders. But I feel led to go and swim in the deep end of the pool for a minute, spiritually speaking. So if you’re not into spiritual things, more to the point, Christian things, this post is not for you, but thanks for visiting anyway. Understanding I’m speaking to a business audience where the norm is to “never talk about religion and politics”, if you ARE even moderately inquisitive about the spiritual aspects of life, you might find this a good respite.

On Saturday, I’m joining a team of 12 from an industry association I’m involved in, PIMA, the Professional Insurance Marketers Association, on what’s being called the “Give Back Tour”. We are meeting up in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic for a week of service to the Dominican nationals through an organization known as World Servants. Our leader is Dave McCarty from AGIA. Dave and his wife have been doing this for about 10 years now, so they have the whole thing “wired”. I put that in quotes because as you might expect, when you’re walking by faith and serving the creator of the universe, you gotta kinda be open to ‘changes in plan’ if you know what I mean. Right?

Here’s the agenda:

Saturday – Travel to DR and then to San Cristobal. Dinner at camp, Group Time and go to bed.

Sunday – Cross Cultural Orientation from 9 – 3pm, Community Tour 3-5, Worship with the community, Kids Club preparation, Group Time, Small Group.

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday

• 7:30 – Breakfast
• 8:00 – Personal Journal & Devotions
• 8:45 – Group Devotions
• 9:00 – Construction
• Noon – Lunch
• 1:00 – Construction (Mon. and Thurs.), Home Visits, and Kids Club (Tues. and Fri)
• 4:00 – Free Time
• 6:00 – Dinner
• 7:00 – Evening Program
• 8:30 – Small Group
• 10:30 – In Dorm Rooms
• 11:00 – Lights Out

Wednesday – “Day Off”

• Tour school and community in an urban area of Santo Domingo
• Marketplace
• Tourist stuff
• Dinner out
• Home and go to bed

Why am I going? Quite candidly, I see my life as leading a team of 4 horses:

1. Physical
2. Mental
3. Emotional
4. Spiritual

My desire is to keep these horses together and at the same pace. So as I age physically, I want to advance mentally. As I work to develop my mental IQ, I also want to develop my emotional IQ. And as all three of these grow and mature, I seek to develop the spiritual component right along with them. That way my life stays in balance. The interesting thing about the horse analogy is that horses have several speeds, right? Rest, walk, cantor, trot, gallup, etc. So it’s my job to tune into what’s happening around me, be sensitive to the needs of those I touch, etc., all common-sense stuff, and lead my horses appropriately.

As many of you know, I’ve grown a great deal mentally in the last year – not that I’m boasting, that’s just what’s happened as a result of the leap of faith in starting WebWisedom, something I didn’t really see coming, but I’m grateful for. At the same time, I’ve also started a more rigorous workout regimen involving spinning and jogging with my wife. Emotionally? Well, without going into the details, let’s just say with the separation of my son (Army) and the looming separation from my daughter (college graduation and moving on…), as well as a very difficult time of trial for my wife and her job, I’ve grown a lot emotionally.

So that leaves the spiritual side. I know, like most guys, I tend to compartmentalize things. But in reality, I’ve held the spiritual reign loosely, really all these reigns, because I know at this point in my spiritual journey, the spirit is working in and through ALL of these things, right? I’m kind of just along for the ride, trying to be obedient to the leading of the spirit, stumbling and falling to be sure, but persisting and trying to ‘walk worthy’. So when the opportunity presented itself, even though it’s a real stretch financially (and I appreciate the grace of my business partners to whom I owe small amounts of $), I said yes. (And btw, just yesterday, thanks to 6 business partners, I just billed my highest month WebWisedom-to-date. So praise God, I’ll be caught up with my obligations by the end of the month if everyone pays me on schedule…again, not boasting, just being candid and transparent as it relates to this story.)

What are my expectations? Well, I’m leading the music part of the trip. So I’m looking forward to some really good singing time – that always ministers to my soul. I know about half the guys on the team. So I’m looking forward to deepening those relationships, as well as getting to know the others. My daughter, Kelle, has gone to the DR the last five years in a row and has told me many great things. So while I’m going to a different region, I’m looking forward to walking in her footsteps a bit and then sharing with her after. And of course, I’m looking forward to serving the DR folks. But most importantly, I’m anticipating seeing the hand of God at work in a clear and unmistakeable way. (I went to the jungle of the Philippines in ’98 with a church group and saw some amazing and unforgettable things then.) And yes, I’ll have my camera and will make a video, Lord willing and by his grace.

So that’s it for now. Selfishly, I’d greatly appreciate your words of encouragement and any other Comments and thoughts that immediately come to mind. But I’ll be offline from 10/8-16. The scripture passage I’m memorizing: Col 3:12-14. Thanks for reading and good thoughts for the team. Blessings…

First, let me just say that it’s very irritating that Linkedin has a policy on its Company Pages that you can only administer a company page if you use an email address that uses an extension of the company name – so no Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, etc. extensions, like me. Why? Not sure, but it’s pretty stupid considering how companies are starting to pursue different email strategies like corporate Gmail….

Promoting a company, brand or organization on Linkedin has three primary components:

I. Company activities
II. Employee Activities, especially leaders and stakeholders
III. Clients, Partners, and Fan Activities

I. The question becomes, “What are the specific things that can and should be done by the company to promote the company and recruit top talent?” No doubt, specific strategies will vary by company size, industry, business goals, etc.. A strategic assessment that connects the business objective with the Social Technology tool is a prudent next step. Let us therefore limit the discussion to the B2B context (assuming

Almost a perfect shot!

that B2C is more focused on Facebook marketing and not Linkedin), and further refine to mid-market companies. Let’s further say that the actual person running the company Linkedin page is in Marketing and is following a tightly organized Content Calendar, looking to drive sales and business development opportunities.

The Company activities on Linkedin focus around the Company Page. The Company Page has many outbound promotional opportunities, most of which are under-utilized by the vast majority of companies. So if you don’t know about this stuff, don’t feel bad. Circa the Fall of 2011, the following list will likely serve as a checklist of engagement points, the tactical elements, the allowable functions. HOW to use these tools – what to say, when to say it, what to ask, how to respond, etc., etc. – this is where the art of viral marketing, crowdsourcing, rating, and many of the Social Technologies concepts come into play. I’m begging you: DON’T WING IT. Think “driving a high-end Harley with little or no motorcycle training” – good chance you’ll wind up in the hospital – or worse, right?

The Top 10 Elements:

0.   Put up your Logo!

1. Follow us – gaining Followers on Linkedin is the door-opener to connectivity within the Linkedin ecosystem
2. Careers Tab – every time you add a new Job, you get picked up on several Linkedin feeds, most notably your Followers
3. Overview Tab – remember that you are serving multiple audiences here
4. Products and/or Services Tab – outstanding place to focus your efforts. Recommendations here can be a huge opportunity and significant marketing events. See HubSpot’s Linkedin Company Page, click the Products Tab, and note the Recommendations.
5. Share an Update – again, like Job postings, these will appear on Follower newsfeeds
6. In the News – great widget to add richness to the profile to further leverage media mentions
7. Recent Tweets – probably one of the most useful functions on the page, this can lead to follows on Twitter as well, potential retweets, click-throughs to your site, etc. Course you need to know how to leverage Twitter, as well.
8. Recent Blog Posts – Absolutely! HubSpot’s Linkedin Company Page is a good example of both Twitter and Blog integration. Scroll about half-way down. Multi-channel marketing.
9. Like and Comment on Status Updates- encourage employees and fans to engage in the company Updates (#5) so that the Updates have a chance to spread virally to the corresponding networks of Linkedin Connections and beyond.
10. Slideshare and Video – add video to both the Career and Products/Services Tabs

Some more activities the Company can do:

Employee recognition – run an employee of the quarter contest, preferably with as much employee ownership as possible so it’s a big deal, then announce in Status Updates, have the employee list that under employee awards, figure out a way to loop-in the related clients, etc. etc. etc. Always tie recognition to the clients served.

Relay current client Recommendations that are given to employees and the company. Client engagement is the whole point. So if there are major touch points like Recommendations of Products and Services and/or employees, broadcast those very generally, right? And should we return the favor? Absolutely. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.

What do you think? What else have you seen? Please Comment below. Don’t just take – ya gotta give, too.

Next week: II. Employee Activities, especially leaders and stakeholders

Following week: III. Clients, Partners, and Fan Activities

Is this helpful? Need help with a strategy for the What, When, Where, How, Who? Please comment, share, and/or reach out to WebWisedom.

Thanks…

A few questions asked by my network… Appreciate the questions – all good. And a couple recent pictures to add color.

Golfing at The Johnny Cup, Cleveland

1. What are the best techniques to deploy to get your personal/business appearance in search results higher?
2. How to promote your business more on Linkedin.
3. How to use LinkedIn for job postings.
4. What should I be doing to stay engaged with the contacts I have on Linked In when there is no pressing business need to do so?
5. Ideas on how others are using LI to expand their network and more about what’s possible with forming and participating in various discussion groups.
6. What companies do you know of that have set the bar for making really great use of their corporate pages to attract potential employees and promote their business?
7. How often do people take time to update/tweak their profiles?
8. If you have updated your profile, is there something specific you can point to that immediately made a difference in how often your profile was returned in search results or how often you were contacted by recruiters?

Following is my best attempt to shed light and add value. But like with most things, the more POV’s we can get on the subject, the better. So perhaps add your and then ask your network to take a look and add their thoughts as well. There’s a lot too it, so I’ll tackle these questions one at a time.

#1 Appearance in Search Results

Now just to be clear, this question relates to the stats you see on your home page (or on this page http://www.linkedin.com/wvmx/profile). Appearance in search results is different than Views. Views include actual visits to your profile – so someone clicked on your name and hit your profile. “Appearance in search results” relates to how often your profile is returned in a Linkedin search made by someone else. But the real question relates to the all-important word “higher”. So if there’s a list of 421 people that fit the search criteria, how do you get on page one or two, just like Google search results, right?

To understand the question, you really have to understand Linkedin Advanced Search. Take a look at the Advanced Search form, from top to bottom. The Boolean (AND OR etc.) fields are at the top. Second, notice the search “filters” in the middle. Lastly, look at the “Sort by” choices at the bottom.

Finding Dad/Grandpa, Vietnam Memorial Wall, Akron

Now I will say that I searched high and low on the Linkedin site for information on search ranking. As is no surprise, there is NO mention of exactly how the Linkedin Search results page returns results. It seems a closely held piece of information – understandable; kind of the secret sauce.

So how would your profile show up higher in search results? To a certain extent, it seems out of your hands; dependent on the filters and sort-by choices a searcher makes. But to get on the list to begin with, it would seem important to do the following things. Consider this list as table-stakes – things to do to get invited to the dance and show up in someone’s search results:

• Keywords in Headlines and Titles
• Connections with as many people as possible (legit connections, unless they are LION’s)
• Keywords in other areas, especially Interests, Skills, and Groups & Associations
• Keyword matches the Industry selected in the individual job profiles
• Obviously, your profile has to fit the other Boolean criteria as well (location, etc.)
• Numbers of Recommendations
• Group involvement

Now to the question of Search Rank. Again, it depends on the searchers choices in the “Sort by” field. Since the default is “Relevance”, it would seem to make sense to pay particular attention to that concept. So how do they define relevance? Intuitively, one would think it would be based on the following:

1. keyword density across the Profile (relevance)
2. number of Connections (influence/importance)
3. number of Recommendations (positive influence, also to the keywords, though less-so)
4. number of mutual connections (relationship)
5. number and activity within keyword-related Groups (relevance, influence, relationship), especially shared Groups

With this in mind, what are some of the critical must-have’s/must-do’s with your profile relative to appearing in search results?

1. Add keywords everywhere, but especially in the high profile areas listed above.
2. Focus on Recommendations, especially from people you do business with (versus employees and associates)
3. Connect with as many people as you feel comfortable with. My recommendation? If you were to meet someone at a job, industry or social event and they have some relevance to your job, career, or interests, connect with them.
4. Join and be active with Groups that have relevance to your job, career, or interest. How active? Up to you – how fast you think and type, how visible you want to be, how much influence you want to develop. Time is scarce, but do something. Know that, depending on your activity broadcast settings at the time, Comments in Groups also show up in your activity list to your 1st level connections. So Group comments can also keep your profile fresh.
5. All this applies to Linkedin Answers as well, though I freely admit to not getting engaged in that element yet.
6. You might also consider paying the $25/month to become more of a player in the space as well. We’ll get to where the value is in that in future posts – and there IS value, depending of course on what you are are trying to accomplish.

That’s it for now. Please Comment. Thanks in advance.

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Top Sources:

http://www.slideshare.net/vferraro/increase-visibility-on-linked-in-presentation-updated-3-7-2010

http://www.youtube.com/LinkedIn

http://twitter.com/#!/linkedin

http://searchengineland.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-linkedin-today-how-to-optimize-your-presence-on-it

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Next: Company pages, Promotion, and Recruiting

What do YOU want to know? REALLY.

A bit of background: I remember when I first started using Linkedin in 2007. It was shortly before the PIMA meeting in Cancun, Feb. 2008. It sticks in my mind because I spoke to many people about Linkedin at the meeting. I remember that the predominant reaction around the industry and with my network at large was a natural sense of skepticism. Some companies were a little more intentional, blocking Linkedin on their servers as part of a broader approach to Social Technologies. Many people brushed Linkedin off as a waste of time for the gainfully employed, useful only for job seekers and recruiters. In fact, some of these attitudes still persist four years later. I heard this comment just this month at the PIMA conference at the Broadmoor by one of the speakers. “I don’t really use Linkedin – I’m not job-seeking…”

Fast forward to today and the prevailing sentiment seems to be, “I’m on it, get lots of invitations to connect, some from people I don’t really know, most I accept, but I don’t really know what to do with it. I’m in a few Groups but don’t really check-in very often. Should I upgrade to the Premium version???…”

In the meantime since 2008, I have migrated from an e-commerce sales guy to an independent Social Tech consultant, facilitator, and speaker, primarily focused on the insurance vertical, with secondary emphases on coaching sales organization on how to leverage Linkedin and Twitter. I also am building a line of business helping Cleveland-based companies, across industries, with Social Media Marketing strategies and tactics.

All that to say, as a part of my profession, I’m paid to know more about this stuff than the average professional. I also use it continuously for my own marketing and sales efforts.

Thus I thought it might be useful to share some of my learnings and help move our collective use of Linkedin to the next level. How? Let’s “crowdsource” both the questions and answers.

What’s in it for you to participate?

1. First and foremost, learning. The more you engage, think, and write on the topic, the more knowledge transfer happens.
2. Second, you can Share the discussion with your network – and thereby help them as well.

Part One: What do you want to know?

Think about your business objectives. What are you trying to accomplish professionally today? Really.

A suggestion: Before you look at the other questions in the Comments, think of your own top 1-3 questions. Then add your questions to the list, regardless of whether someone else already asked about your issues. That way we’ll get a great list, including redundancies indicating added importance to those topics.

Above all, please don’t LURK – add value.

Oh yeah, it may be tempting, but please perhaps check yourself from answering the questions in this round. I’d like to curate the questions and then open up the flood gates for answers in Part 2 – a little more organized approach from the left-brain side of things.

Thanks in advance for participating. Ask a question in the Comments below (and perhaps subscribe to the blog or the Comments), then copy the link, post it on Linkedin or Twitter, and ask your network to ask a question as well. Let’s crowdsource this. I know you’ll be pleased with the results.

Thanks again.