» Tekkie stuff

Mon 15 June – Bedford Wellness Circle Evening

Lynn Serafinn — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 10:38:16 +0000

Title: Bedford Wellness Circle Evening
Location: Park Road West Methodist Church Hall
Link out: Click here for address, directions and full programme
Description: Theme for the evening “Stayin’ Alive!” Four dynamic holistic speakers, social networking and great community vibes. Open to public. £4 at the door, free to Global Wellness Circle members. More info at link above.
Start Time: 19:00
Date: 2009-06-15
End Time: 21:30

Social NetWORKing or Social NetPLAYing?

Lynn Serafinn — Tue, 26 May 2009 19:49:40 +0000

Social Networking or Social Netplaying? Is our workaholic society finally learning how to play while we work online?

Note to Twitter Virgins: the “@” sign in front of name indicates a Twitter ID. I have inserted links below to these people on Twitter. Generally, to find a person online, go to http://www.twitter.com/ and then put in the name of the person without the “@”. If you don’t know their Twitter ID, go to the site and do a search by real name.

Recently someone on the coaching networks asked for recommended resources for someone who has just started their coaching practice and wants to learn about social networking.

My Twitter friend @TiaSparkles commented that it is pretty much a matter of “learning by immersion”. Yup. That’s pretty much the way I learned too. I have, however, a computer full of eBooks, audio, etc., I have downloaded from various sites over the years. Not all of it is about social networking. A lot of it is about SEO, online marketing, press releases, article marketing, virtual book tours… you name it. if I really sat down and put them altogether onto a single file, I think I would find a veritable encyclopedia of information I have gathered of the past couple of years. The world of Web 2.0 is simply amazing.

Two online gurus I follow are Mari Smith (@MariSmith) and Biana Babinsky (@BianaBabinsky). Although Mari is known for her Facebook tips, I actually didn’t meet her until I got onto Twitter. A few years ago, when I was first starting out in the online scene, I took several of Biana’s teleclasses or how to run telecourses, do article marketing, etc. These days, I follow both Mari and Biana, plus a whole range of other social networking gurus on Twitter. Whenever I see one of their posts, I try to ReTweet it to help spread the word. The great thing about social networking is that just about everyone is happy to help.

While most people say that Facebook is a great place to start with social networking, I actually took a little longer to get into it than I did with other networks. Ironically, it was by getting more into Twitter that I learned more about Facebook, because Mari and so many others gave such great tips. I have come to like Facebook, but I actually enjoy Twitter, LinkedIn, and Ning even more. Each has its own appeal, and each achieves different results. For information, LinkedIn is a fabulous resource if you use the Q&A and groups properly. On Ning, you can join (and create) many different special interest groups and broadcast to all of them in one go. And on Twitter, it is absolutely astonishing at how quickly people will connect with you and how fast and fun it can be. In amongst the business promotion, people will Tweet jokes, music, random comments and have conversations about their personal lives. One of my favourite Tweets is @deepwaterscoach who runs a cheesy disco using “Blip” on Friday nights. Twitter is pretty fascinating.

But again, what is so remarkable is how quickly people will connect with you and offer to help you… and not just by giving you advice. Last week, I was doing a key word search for “mind body spirit” (MBS) and I met a few folks who were exhibiting at the MBS Fair in London. Without even knowing me or being asked, @RobertCurrey graciously offered me a free ticket to the event, which saved me £9 (about $16). I met him and his wife at the Fair and had a great time, making many good contacts at the event. Last week, a brand new Tweet @SouthsideBroadc who didn’t know me at all invited me to do a radio interview in Scotland to talk about my book! Then, I visited the blog of another new Tweet @inspiredwriter and read her articles about flower metaphors as a means to personal reflection. We exchanged a few Tweets and she is now going to run a big article series (again linked to my book) on her blog These three connections took place over about 2-3 Tweets to each person. Others have just said hello to me and then gone off to Amazon to buy my book! How amazing is all that?

Of course, Twitter can be daunting to those who are new to it. There are lots of Twitter Etiquette (Twitterquette) and tricks to learn to make it work for you. The best thing to do is follow some of the gurus (or ME, @LynnSerafinn, lol!) and watch out for their instructional links. But the other thing to do is to engage and play with your Twitter friends. Then, when you see they are promoting something, help them out by “ReTweeting” (sending their info to all your contacts). That’s part of the “Twitterquette” I was talking about. And then there are other things like “followfriday”, hashtags, Twibes… ok, I’ll stop because I don’t want to overwhelm the novice.

The one thing I would recommend is to use an interface like TweetDeck (free download at www.tweetdeck.com) instead of the main Twitter page, as it permits for more interaction and easier organisation of your Tweets. TweetDeck changed my whole Twitter experience.

One other nifty thing you can do with Twitter (if you have a WordPress blog like this one) is to use the plugin “BirdFeeder” which automatically announces your new blog posts to Twitter (which you can, in turn, have wired up so it forwards it to Facebook too). Presto! You are announcing your blog to all your contacts.

One thing I do, which is also a form of social networking, is my own BlogTalkRadio show at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Lynn-Serafinn. I absolutely love it and I have to say, it has had more hits in the past 4 months than my coaching website has had in the past 3 years. Why is it a form of social networking? Because through it I am meeting an enormous amount of people who support my work and vice versa. I receive books from authors who want to be on my show. I help promote them, and they in turn become a permanent part of my network. Listeners and other hosts extend it even more. Doing an online radio show is the MOST fun thing I have taken up in years. I would do it just for enjoyment even if I did not need it for netWORKing.

Lastly, I just want to say that last month, my new book The Garden of the Soul made the Amazon bestseller lists in mind-body-spirit, spirituality and self-help during the week of its launch. That success was ENTIRELY due to a very coordinated joint venture strategy via the social networks (all of them). My Twitter supporters on that project are just TOO numerous to count here.

I think social networking (or netPLAYing) is an ingenious creation by our wonderful human race that is in reaction to our dangerously disconnected and isolated society. It helps bring us together in novel and fun ways AND helps to promote our businesses while we’re at it. If you are feeling daunted about the idea of social networking, then try a different perspective: learn to see it as a new hobby that you are justified in spending a certain amount of time a day doing. Don’t get carried away with it, but just learn to enjoy it and play with it. Your attitude will be contagious, and your business will flourish.

There are just so many things I’d like to share about the fun side of social networking. I’m thinking to run a telecourse “Social NetPLAYing: Practical Skills for Coaches and Writers” sometime in the summer. I know there are so many others running such courses, but I have a specific slant, and I will share some of my personal strategies. If you are even remotely interested, OR if you think it’s a good idea, I would welcome your feedback at lynn@create-a-life-co.uk. I’m not looking for a “commitment.” Just trying to find out if there is a market for my particular style out there. If I feel there is a hunger for it, I’ll plan to run the course (perhaps in July).

I have put my own social network links below. I invite ANY readers of this blog to follow me (please identify yourself as a Garden of the Soul Fan so I accept your invitation and/or follow you back).

Enjoy social networking… and don’t forget to PLAY!

Warm wishes,
Lynn Serafinn, MAED, CPCC
Personal Transformation Coach at Create-a-Life
http://www.create-a-life.co.uk
Author of Amazon bestseller,
The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self
http://www.give-receive-become-be.com

–> TUNE IN to my weekly radio show “Lynn Serafinn’s Garden of the Soul”, exploring life purpose, personal empowerment, balance of mind, body and spirit, and how to tap into the inner hero that lies within every human being:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Lynn-Serafinn

–> JOIN my social network “Lynn Serafinn’s Garden of the Soul”, a vibrant place for cultural and spiritual
creatives:
http://gardenofthesoul.ning.com

–> FOLLOW me on Twitter:
http://www.twitter.com/LynnSerafinn

–> FIND ME on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=689956204

–> CONNECT with me on LinkedIn:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/lynnserafinn

Virtual Blog Tour for Garden of the Soul: Gail Sussman Miller

Lynn Serafinn — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 00:06:20 +0000

Title: Virtual Blog Tour for Garden of the Soul: Gail Sussman Miller
Location: Gail Sussman Miller’s Blog
Link out: Click here
Description: Stop number 15 on the Virtual Book Blog Tour for Lynn Serafinn’s new book The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self. Check out Gail’s Inspired Choice blog and find out what she has to say about the book.
Date: 2009-03-25

Virtual Blog Tour for Garden of the Soul: Kristina Berglund

Lynn Serafinn — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 00:02:50 +0000

Title: Virtual Blog Tour for Garden of the Soul: Kristina Berglund
Location: Kristina Berglund’s Vedic Art Blog
Link out: Click here
Description: Stop number 14 on the Virtual Book Blog Tour for Lynn Serafinn’s new book The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self. Check out Kristina’s Vedic Art blog and find out what she has to say about the book. Kristina is also the artist of the fabulous mandala artwork on the cover of the book!
Date: 2009-03-24

Virtual Blog Tour for Garden of the Soul: Callie Carling stop 2!

Lynn Serafinn — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 00:17:03 +0000

Title: Virtual Blog Tour for Garden of the Soul: Callie Carling stop 2!
Location: Callie Carling’s Holistic Feathers Blog
Link out: Click here
Description: Stop number 13 on the Virtual Book Blog Tour for Lynn Serafinn’s new book The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self. Check out Callie’s holistic feather blog and find out what she has to say about the book.
Date: 2009-03-23

Virtual Blog Tour for Garden of the Soul: Gina Marks

Lynn Serafinn — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 00:53:10 +0000

Title: Virtual Blog Tour for Garden of the Soul: Gina Marks
Location: Gina Marks’s Blog
Link out: Click here
Description: Stop number 12 on the Virtual Book Blog Tour for Lynn Serafinn’s new book The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self. Gina interviews Lynn on the topic of personal transformatin, and the mind-body-soul connection. Lynn shares her views on the link between emotional repression and chronic illness, and shares her own journey of recovery from a crippling case of fibromyalgia and other ailments, and how this led her to understand the four spiritual principles of “give, receive, become and be” that appear in her book The Garden of the Soul.
Date posted: 2009-03-21

Virtual Blog Tour for Garden of the Soul: Duncan Brodie

Lynn Serafinn — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 00:49:08 +0000

Title: Virtual Blog Tour for Garden of the Soul: Duncan Brodie
Location: Duncan Brodies’ Blog
Link out: Click here
Description: Stop number 11 on the Virtual Book Blog Tour for Lynn Serafinn’s new book The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self. Check out Duncan’s blog and find out what he has to say about the book.
Date: 2009-03-20

Virtual Blog Tour for Garden of the Soul: Lola Fayemi

Lynn Serafinn — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 00:45:16 +0000

Title: Virtual Blog Tour for Garden of the Soul: Lola Fayemi
Location: Lola Fayemi’s blog
Link out: Click here
Description: Stop number 10 on the Virtual Book Blog Tour for Lynn Serafinn’s new book The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self. Check out Lola’s blog and find out what she has to say about the book.
Date: 2009-03-19

Virtual Blog Tour for Garden of the Soul: Judy Davids

Lynn Serafinn — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 00:40:50 +0000

Title: Virtual Blog Tour for Garden of the Soul: Judy Davids
Location: Judy Davids’s
Link out: Click here
Description: Stop number 9 on the Virtual Book Blog Tour for Lynn Serafinn’s new book The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self. Check out Judy’s blog and find out what she has to say about the book.
Date: 2009-03-18

Virtual Blog Tour for Garden of the Soul: Heidi Richards

Lynn Serafinn — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 00:37:39 +0000

Title: Virtual Blog Tour for Garden of the Soul: Heidi Richards
Location: Heidi Richards’s Blog
Link out: Click HERE
Description: Stop number 8 on the Virtual Book Blog Tour for Lynn Serafinn’s new book The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self. Check out Heidi’s blog and find out what she has to say about the book.
Date: 2009-03-17

Virtual Blog Tour for Garden of the Soul: Claudia Merydech

Lynn Serafinn — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 00:22:37 +0000

Title: Virtual Blog Tour for Garden of the Soul: Claudia Merydech
Location: Claudia Merydech’s Blog
Link out: Click here
Description: Stop 7 on the Virtual Book Blog Tour for Lynn Serafinn’s new book The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self. Check out Claudia’s book review blog and find out what she has to say about the book.
Date: 2009-03-16

Virtual Blog Tour for Garden of the Soul: Stephanie Bell

Lynn Serafinn — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 00:00:10 +0000

Title: Virtual Blog Tour for Garden of the Soul: Stephanie Bell
Location: Stephanie Bell’s Blog
Link out: Click here
Description: Stop 6 on the Virtual Book Blog Tour for Lynn Serafinn’s new book The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self. Check out Stephanie’s blog and what she has to say about the book.
Date: 2009-03-15

Lynn’s interview on “The Passion Project”

Lynn Serafinn — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 22:49:27 +0000

Title: Lynn’s interview on “The Passion Project”
Location: BlogTalkRadio
Link out: Click here
Description: “The Passion Project” with Katherine Reschke presents Lynn Serafinn, on finding what Lynn calls “the path of least resistance to the Self”. She will also share principles and excerpts from her book The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self. She will also share with us her approach to being an authentic entrepreneur and how she helps her clients in this area.
Start Time: 16:00 UK, 12 PM Eastern
Date: 2009-03-13
End Time: 17:00 UK, 1 PM Eastern

Virtual Blog Tour: Callie Carling

Lynn Serafinn — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 15:42:25 +0000

Title: Virtual Blog Tour: Callie Carling
Location: Callie Carling’s Blog
Link out: Click here
Description: Stop number 5 on the Virtual Book Blog Tour for “The Garden of the Soul”. Callie Carling hosts.
Date: 2009-03-14

My Private Cyber-Geekdom

Lynn Serafinn — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 13:29:26 +0000

Ok, so there I was uploading a blog post on my site tonight. I was happily bopping along listening to my favourite online radio station. Suddenly the song I was listening to stopped and my blog post disappeared. My email wouldn’t download and the Internet was completely gone.

I rebooted my PC, but no luck. My modem went all wonky, with the little green light at the end flashing madly. I called up my Internet provider (who will remain nameless) and went through my usual angst whenever I speak to them. I tell you, if I could have a transcript for every dumb conversation I had with tech support with them I could publish a book and market it in the humour genre. Anyway, after a frustrating 20 minutes with them, they told me they’d send a repairman out on Tuesday (TUESDAY!!) even though I knew damn well there was nothing wrong with my modem and that someone at their end probably had let their cats chew on some of the wires or something.

I got nowhere with them, and hung up. So I just sat around Internet-less for a while. And then I suddenly realised just HOW dependent I am upon the Internet for just about everything I do in life these days. I need it to send my materials to the book printer. I need it to communicate with friends. I need it to do my radio show. I need it to do my promotions. I need it to send materials to people taking my course this week. HECK my book launch STARTS this week. How the blazes are you supposed to do an Amazon launch campaign without the Internet? Even my Promotion Manager communicates with me either here, via Twitter or email.

I sat around thinking, “What the heck am I going to do if I can’t get x, y, z done by Monday?” No internet for me means no money, no book, no work, no socialising AND not much play either! Wow. It’s hard to believe how dependent I am on the Internet for just about everything these days. Gosh, I 15 years ago I hadn’t even yet gotten my first PC (although I did own an electronic music studio). Now it’s like the technology is hardwired into my cells.

Then, after about 1 hour, just as I was making my “back up plan” the connection just sort of magically reappeared. Guess the Cyber-gods were playing with me tonight to invite me to assess my lifestyle….

Well… maybe later.

Lynn

P.S.: Listen to CHILL radio at www.helpmechill.com

Amazing art on my new Social Network

Lynn Serafinn — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 03:04:43 +0000

News Update: Lynn Serafinn’s Garden of the Soul on Ning
Become a member at: http://gardenofthesoul.ning.com

Today I launched my new social network on Ning called “Lynn Serafinn’s Garden of the Soul” in preparation for the launch of my book (exactly 2 months away now!). I describe it as “A vibrant place for cultural and spiritual creatives.” I sent out the invitations this evening (Saturday evening…. not the best time to invite people to join a network?) and within 10 minutes I had several new members. Immediately they started bringing real vibrance to the site with music, pictures and just plain old personality. I found this to be amazing! All I did was set up the page and then click “send” and suddenly there is a virtual event going on all by itself.

While every one of the member pages has a quality and a character to it, I really wanted to showcase a priceless gem from one of my members, artist and poet Bruce Morse. He put on a slide show of his paintings, and frankly I could not believe that a single human being could paint so many paintings, what to speak of so many fabulous ones. I am posting his slideshow here (via YouTube) because I think it is top quality content and he deserves to be shouted about. So here’s to my Ning friend, the amazing artist Bruce Morse:

Visit Bruce’s profile on my new Ning site at http://gardenofthesoul.ning.com/profile/BruceMorse

And while you’re there, leave a comment for Bruce.
AND vote for our site as the on of the top spiritual networks.

Diary of a Virgin Blogger – How I came of age

Lynn Serafinn — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 02:59:35 +0000

OK, so here’s the irony. I have an MA in Adult Education and Distance Learning. That means that just to get my Masters I had to design and create websites from scratch (albeit with very basic html) and deliver online programmes. To this day I design all my own sales landing pages (not all the asp stuff) for my Create-a-Life website and I made the entire Global Wellness Circlefrom scratch in Dreamweaver. I was also an electronic musician since MIDI first came out in the 1980s, ran my own electronic recording studio and taught music technology for many years. AND on top of all that, I was Microsoft’s UK Innovative Teacher of the Year in 2005 (Mac users, please down bring out your voodoo dolls!). Social networking is something I do as almost an addiction (my sleep patterns have been SERIOUSLY altered). I think at last count, I realised I was on something like 15 different online social networks. I can set up auto-responders and send ezine broadcasts practically in my sleep.

Basically, computers in some form or another have been in my blood for the past 20 years. “Computer Love” by Kraftwerk could have been written for me. But my love affair is not with all technologies. I haven’t owned or watched TV for a year now, and I haven’t owned a car for a decade. I live green and I either walk or take public transport everywhere. My mobile phone? A love-hate relationship. But take away my PC and I would feel like a member of Oceanic flight 815 (ok, I watch DVDs sometimes).

So why am I telling you all that? No, not to brag. In fact, just the opposite. In spite of ALL of that background, the ONE thing I had never bothered to learn was… (drumroll please)…

BLOGGING!

Honestly, I have put off blogging for the past year now saying “some day”. But every time I looked at the WordPress site I could feel my gut wrenching up and my head spinning with the SEA of stuff on there that I couldn’t understand. So, I looked as some of the other freebie blogging options. You know the ones. But they didn’t thrill me and I never really “bonded” with them. Furthermore, they wouldn’t install to my domain name (this one).

Then I bought the book Does this Blogsite Make my Wallet Look Fatby Sandra De Frietas, having seen a trusted colleague recommend it on the Co-Active Coaching network. I have to say when I first received it I was a little put off by the small size, but I found quickly that you cannot judge a bookby its cover. Knowing that NOW was the time I had to get this blog up and running if I was to launch my bookcampaign, I put aside all fears and went through the book one chapter at a time.

Fortunately I was able to understand the “Geek” talk, and I already had a lot of things in place already like Filezilla, my domain name, etc. So while the legendary “5 minute WordPress install” did indeed take a LOT longer than 5 minutes (as I hadn’t realised my web host did it automatically!), the process did go really smoothly and easily.

Once installed, I had the long, arduous task of locating a suitable theme. Fortunately Sandra gave lots of sites that offer themes aside from the official WordPress site, and after a whole evening of searching and trying things on for size, I found the one I am currently using, which I think (in some strange Aquarian way) exresses my personality quite nicely for now.

So what is so amazing about this adventure is that witin 48 hours I went from being a stuck, fearful blog-o-phobic WordPress virgin to someone who is licking her lips over my super cool plugins, marvelling at my wonderful widgets and getting nearly semi-orgasmic over the pleasures of Search Engine Optimisation…

But more of that tomorrow. Let me hear a bit from your own blog diaries.

Lynn

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