Virtual Friends

By Leave a Comment
Jan 27


These days, it can be hard to differentiate your real-life friends from your virtually created connections. I often find myself referring to virtual connections and friends (I call them VCFs) simply as “friends.” This tag (friends) often leads people to believe that I’m discussing someone I know in real-life, or have met face-to-face. However, this is often not the case. Yet I still refer to my VCFs as friends. I actually have a rather large contingent of friends, followers, advisors, and mentors… The majority (by a long-shot) of these people are VCFs that I’ve never met in “real life.”

With this article, I’m going to let you in on my super secret sauce. I’m not bragging when I say, I have more than 22,000 people in my virtual black book (address book). The majority of my connections breakdown as 4,000 in LinkedIn, 3,000 in the Facebook, 12,000 in Twitter, and more than 3,000 in other social media sites.

Many people believe that this virtual community is not worth much (or anything at all). I would argue that this community is every bit as valid as my real-life connections. In some ways, it might be even more important. The main reason I believe this is because on a daily basis I get VCFs who broker additional relationships and help me to build solid foundations with people I never would have had the chance to meet a decade ago.

The caveat is that you must make some extra efforts to communicate (reasonably) and stay in touch with a much larger contingent when you use a virtual community as a resource.

To help with this monstrosity, LinkedIn has really upped the ante by making your contact list much more robust. They have added built-in reminders that tell you when one of your 1st connections has any of the following events:

  • New job
  • Moved
  • Work anniversary
  • Birthday
  • News interview or article

    •  

    All that you need to do is hover over Network on the top menu. Move down the list and click Contact. This will open your contact list with one new very important addition… Now the top three contacts are ones that have one of the above listed life changing events happening to them. After you select one of these people and “congratulate” them, it pops another contact in the top three list. This list continues to update until you’ve patted all of these friends on their virtual backs.

    In addition, there is a new option; which I consider the most awesome (and powerful) contact change at LinkedIn… You can setup reminders to alert you when it’s time to contact a specific person. When you have clicked on a particular contact, look under the relationship tab and find the “Reminder” button and click it. You can now enter a recurring appointment that will alert you to reach out to this particular person. I use this to remind me to stay in touch with friends or colleagues on a regular basis. Let’s face it, in today’s world of having 22,000+ contacts you cannot possibly keep up with 1/10 of them… Using features like LinkedIn’s reminder tool helps greatly!

    Now that we’ve broken the ice and talked about how important social media is, let’s talk about something even MORE important. Keeping up with all of your contacts. *insert sound of fingernails scraping down a chalkboard*

    It is IMPERATIVE that you not only reach out and connect with folks, but also that you make regular (daily… yes, daily) routine messages to touch base and congratulate your VCFs. Don’t over burden them with petty discussions, and avoid barraging them with inundating information. However, when they pop-up on your list of contact events, make sure to at least :like: or say “congrats.” I prefer to add a minor personal message with each contact.

    The tough (and sometimes overwhelming) part of this is that you need to check on your contacts daily. Think about it, if a birthday passes, it is pointless to reach out and wish them a happy birthday. You absolutely MUST login to LinkedIn and/or the Facebook every day and (at the very least) check for birthdays and life changing events. I set aside twenty minutes of each morning to do this daily ritual. Believe me, if you make this effort you will become a genuine friend and valued connection to your VCFs.

    Now that you know to login and check this stuff every day, make sure that you are efficient with your time, and that you don’t waste time on there. You can easily get sucked into tons of time on social media sites reading through posts and statuses. Skip this time waster and be quick. Get in, get it done, and get out!

    Look for another VCF blog article coming soon… We will breakdown making your connections and offer advice on how to hook the more famous and or popular connections that often reject every day average Joes like you and me.

    Please feel free to reach out and connect with me

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    . Here’s a linkable listing of all of my virtual personalities:

    Stalk Me Online

    My Online Blogs and Sites

    Also, a few months back I also wrote a social media post: Social Media is Here to Stay. Please check it out!

    How do you use social media?

    I hope this blog article was beneficial!

    -Vaughn

    Please comment by clicking “Leave a Comment.” And, if you dig, share this article! Also, please type your email address into the “Subscribe” box up top to get updates each time I post a new blog article.

    You can rest assured that we will never SPAM your email account, and it’s only used to send the latest articles.

    Giveaway for Hemophilia Awareness Month

    By Leave a Comment
    Jan 13


    Do you want to win a COo.oOL prize?

    I’m giving away a $67 Amazon Gift Card and a signed copy of my book, Survivor: One Man’s Battle with HIV, Hemophilia, and Hepatitis C at the end of March. March is Hemophilia Awareness Month, and I decided to run a contest/giveaway to support Hemophilia Awareness, give back to my friends, and gain blog followers at the same time!

    It’s easy to enter and I will draw one lucky winner from the contestants on Monday, March 31, 2014. In order to qualify you simply need to subscribe to my blog. Subscribing is easy and I never SPAM my followers. Subscription to my blog will simply get you an email anytime a new blog article appears on the Healthy Wealthy Tribe blog! You will find the subscribe entry at the top or right side of this blog. Type in your email address and hit the “subscribe” button.

    That’s really all there is to it! If you are already a subscriber, then you are already entered!

    Previous Years Winners
    2013 – Liselle Easto
    2014 – TBD

    If you dig, please share this with your friends and followers. Also, please drop by my FB pages and like them:
    My author fan page
    Healthy Wealthy Tribe blog page
    Survivor page

    Thank you for your support, friends!

    Note: You must enter by 11:11 p.m. EST on Saturday, March 29, 2014. Also, see the “fine print” below for contest rules.

    Also, please checkout the following sites for more information about hemophiliacs and Hemophilia Awareness Month:
    National Hemophilia Foundation Website
    Hemophilia Federation of America Website

    Good luck!

    Signed, your easy bleeding friend and compatriot,
    Vaughn Ripley

    CONTEST RULES AND LEGAL DISCLAIMER
    Only one (1) winner will be selected for this contest. Vaughn Ripley reserves sole and final judgment as to all matters concerning contests and interpretation of contest rules.

    By entering this contest, you agree to abide by the following terms:

    How To Enter/Eligibility
    No purchase is necessary to enter this contests.
    Contestants must be 18 years of age or older and a legal resident of the USA, Canada, UK, or Australia. Entries must be sent using the format provided above.

    Contest Deadlines
    All entries must be submitted on or before 11:11 p.m. EST on March 29, 2014.

    Winner Selection and Notification
    The winner will be randomly selected on March 31, 2014. The odds of winning vary due to the number of entrants. The drawing winner will be notified via Tweet, Facebook message, and through announcement on Vaughn’s fan page. The decisions made by the judge (Vaughn Ripley) regarding this contest are final and binding.

    Winner Disqualification
    If a winner cannot be reached after a reasonable amount of effort has been made to notify the winner of the prize, the winner forfeits his/her rights to the winning prize. If a winner does not get in touch with Vaughn Ripley within 21 days of winning, the winner forfeits his/her prize. Vaughn Ripley assumes no responsibility to ensure winner response.

    General Conditions
    No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited by law. All decisions of Vaughn Ripley are final. By entering, participants warrant and represent that they agree to be bound by these contest rules and the final decisions of Vaughn Ripley. All taxes on any prize won are the sole responsibility of each winner, including, without limitation, any federal, state, or local taxes, which may be deemed applicable in such winner’s jurisdiction of residence. The winner shall be solely responsible for the reporting and payment of all taxes incurred by acceptance and use of the prize(s) (or any portion thereof), if applicable.

    All prizes will be mailed to participants free of charge. Delivery method is at the sole discretion of Vaughn Ripley.

    Vaughn Ripley reserves the right to cancel contests at any time for any reason. Vaughn Ripley reserves the right to modify the dates and/or terms of contests at any time without prior notice.

    Prizes are offered “as is” with no written, express, or implied warranty.

    Vaughn Ripley is not responsible for late, lost, illegible, misdirected, mutilated or incomplete entries.

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    . ANY ATTEMPT BY AN ENTRANT TO UNDERMINE THE LEGITIMATE OPERATION OF THE CONTEST MAY BE A VIOLATION OF CRIMINAL AND CIVIL LAWS. VAUGHN RIPLEY RESERVES ALL RIGHTS, INCLUDING THE RIGHT TO SEEK REMEDIES AND DAMAGES (INCLUDING ATTORNEYS’ FEES) FROM ANY ENTRANT ATTEMPTING TO DO SO TO THE FULLEST EXTENT OF THE LAW, INCLUDING REPORTING SUCH ACTIVITIES TO THE APPROPRIATE AUTHORITIES WHICH MAY RESULT IN OR LEAD TO CRIMINAL PROSECUTION.

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    Acceptance of prize constitutes permission to use winners name, city, state, and country for promotional purposes.

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    Whew! Now that the disclaimer is out of the way… Let the games begin!

    Please comment by clicking “Leave a Comment.” And, if you dig, share this article! Also, please type your email address into the “Subscribe” box up top to get updates each time I post a new blog article.

    You can rest assured that we will never SPAM your email account, and it’s only used to send the latest articles.

    Social Media is Here to Stay

    By Leave a Comment
    Oct 11


    I occasionally hear some old school folks put social media down and I’ve even heard some say that it is a passing fad. To that I say, “Bunkum!” Social media is not simply a passing fad. What you may find is that some of the social media SITES are passing fads. They come and go so fast, many don’t even know they existed. Tobri is a good example of that. It was a small social media site that tried to act along the lines of the Facebook and others. Unfortunately, the popularity never was achieved and it slowly faded away.

    Did you know that when the internet first appeared many (including Microsoft executives!) predicted that it wouldn’t be used and would fail.

    Since we grasp the fact that social media is here to stay, we might as well use some of the websites and tools available to help make our online lives easier… Juggling a bunch of social media sites is impractical. Instead, you should seek out powerful dashboard and automation tools.

    Social Oomph is one of those tools. With it, you can automate DM (direct message) replies to anyone who follows you on Twitter. Or, you can preset tweets to happen at a specific date and time. This is a cool tool that can automate many of your social media tasks

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    Tweet Adder is another really cool tool that helps you to easily find folks to follow and to get followers on Twitter.

    I am also getting to the point where managing and staying on top of all of my social media outlets is nearly impossible. So, I joined XeeMe (pronounced See Me); which is not just another social media site to add to your deluge of sites. This one actually helps you to juggle that growing number of social media sites, and keeps all of your sites easily accessible and findable for your followers/stalkers. On top of that, XeeMe provides some pretty handy and useful analytic tools for your online presence.

    I have a tendency to separate my business and personal aspects in social media. In other words, I use Facebook primarily for personal status updates and connections. I use LinkedIn for business connections and updates. I usually use Twitter for both personal and business updates. And, I have two different accounts on Google+ (one for personal and one for business).

    Checkout my entire social media presence and how to stalk me here.

    Let me know how you juggle your social media sites! Also, do you think that social media is simply a passing fad?

    -Vaughn

    Please comment by clicking “Leave a Comment.” And, if you dig, share this article! Also, please type your email address into the “Subscribe” box up top to get updates each time I post a new blog article.

    You can rest assured that we will never SPAM your email account, and it’s only used to send the latest articles.