I’ve been writing this blog for years. I’ve been writing other people’s blogs, press releases, articles and features for years as well. I’ve even been writing the column in the Euro Weekly for four years. I know, that’s a long time, hmm? Over the past decade of blogging I have had my ups and downs, but I have loved creating my stories and publishing them online, I love the sense of freedom. But it’s also been good for business, bringing new clients to businesses through improving their Google rankings, but you see this is where I get a bit shy and worry that my nerdy love of these things is boring to everyone else. Not so as I have finally found out.
They say that in order to get something you have never had you have to do something you have never done. It is also a really good idea to do something new once in a while in my opinion; it’s healthy to keep developing. So, earlier this year I decided to take the skills I had learnt over the past years and turn them into a course for local business people in Mallorca. I know there are a lot of people out there who need to know how to use digital media and social networking sites but they get daunted by the scale of the job (it is infinite, you could literally go on for ever) and they worry about the time it may take them. Having a steady hand on the tiller as they set sail on the sea of Blogs is helpful to navigate around the time wasting and dead ends.
So I’ve been doing something that I have never done before, I have been teaching a course at the Kip McGrath centre in Palma in Blogging and Social Media for Business. Every week for the last month I have been teaching seven people the fundamentals of how to set up and use their own blog, how to hook up their different social media sites and crucially how to decide what they want to say and how to say it.
Now it hasn’t exactly been the Dead Poets Society, no one has stood on a chair and exclaimed “Captain my Captain”, but there have been several light bulb moments from the group as they have realised how to put together their own strategy for their own small business or project. I am very proud to say that the course has been a success. We have seven blogs up and running and ranging in subjects from creative writing to green living to interior design to the comings and goings at a local hotel. I’ve even inspired myself, so next I am going to try out leading a one day crash course in PR for business, and then another blog course in May.
The really fantastic part about doing something that you haven’t done before, and really putting yourself out there on the line, is the enormous sense of achievement you can feel from having set out on a new path. You feel that you are in control and that in turn makes you feel positive, which in turn rubs off on other people. So all of us: myself and my students have been busy creating and inventing and developing ideas. Technology is amazing you know? And it’s so simple to use when you know how. I feel as if I am finally embracing my inner nerd as I have been revealing my passion and knowledge to people who actually wanted to know! After many years it’s okay to admit it.
Go on, say it loud, I’m a geek and I’m proud!
You can contact me please send me an email to: hello (at sign, you’re not an evil spam robot so you should be able to figure that out) phoenixmediamallorca.com Or download this Blogging and Social Media for Business, Beginners. and you can see the details of the blog course if you are interested to participate in the next one, scheduled to start in May.