Honestly, it started off as a way to clean out my email inbox.
Being a heavy content consumer, my mom would constantly send me emails with just one link of something to read or watch on YouTube. It was killing my email inbox and I knew there had to be a better way to channel that enthusiasm.
Twitter. The perfect sharing tool.
So I gradually winged mom toward Twitter, helping her create her own Twitter account and eventually went as far as showing her the ropes on Hootsuite, allowing her to schedule tweets and filter out lists of people she followed. She definitely got the hang of that so I decided to take things a step further. Seeing that she was an eager learner, I decided to use mom as a guinea pig. I had never really had too much opportunity to start someone on social media from a completely clean slate before and saw this an opportunity to refine my teaching skills.
One day I shot my mom a DM on Twitter saying "think of something that you're really passionate about - anything - and let me know." After a few weeks she had a topic nailed down. She was very passionate about sharing her faith in God with others. Tapping into that enthusiasm, I helped her set up a blog on Wordpress.
Like a lot of us in the blog world, she had a hard time nailing down a routine. Her blog posts were sporadic and infrequent and not generating a lot of traffic. Eventually, she got into a rhythm, even taking the time to connect with other bloggers and comment on their posts too. Over time, Mom has been able to broaden her reach, even making close connections overseas in Singapore. She's become really passionate about blogging here of late and puts up a new post almost daily now.
I'm proud to say that the student is beginning to surpass the teacher. Though I still yield more Twitter Klout than her, her blog stats are beginning to outnumber mine. I would definitely contribute that to her now steady flow of content.
So where is this blog I speak of? You can find April's Faith Thoughts by clicking here. If you stop by, drop by and say hey. Tell her I sent you.
Related articles
- HootSuite the Best Twitter Client Ever (kokasexton.com)
- In Defense of Klout (newcommbiz.com)
- Which Twitter Client is Right for You? (chris.pirillo.com)
