Getting Engaged and learning from children…..

Change of plan……

I was all set ready to press send on my blog but then I reflected on events at the weekend, yesterday and items that appeared on my LinkedIn profile this morning…. so, I will have to leave wearable technology, communications and other things to another time….

On Sunday, I was at a birthday party for Joey who was one and there was a wide range of adults there, with all together around 20 children ranging from younger than Joey up to about six years except for his cousin who was eight. The amazing thing when you stood back watched these children play, there was something that we all lose as we grow older…..

engage, interact and fear

Taking these in stages….

• engage – none of the children sat or stood around, they were just going up to each other and talking. Asking their name, want to play, what are you doing….all things that come natural….
• interact – all the children were very much about playing together helping one another and even the older ones say around four to six were going up and playing with the under two’s….
• fear – this is was that I was surprised at! There were balloons everywhere and they were playing with them in different ways from football to throwing them in the air then…..BANG! Someone burst a balloon and there was screams of laughter followed by them trying to burst more…..

However, let’s skip forward ten years or more to the adults, they ranged from eighteen through to late forties and if you take the three points above, let’s compare…..

• engage – the adults just mostly stood or sat at the sides hardly talking to anyone unless it was someone they came with or their child…
• interact – the adults only interacted with other’s was when it was time for the food. All the children gathered at the table to sit or went with their parents to get their food. Whilst either in the queue or the table when everyone was together, the adults started to interact. Then food finished and the children started to play, it stopped! Only when the games started, only then did the interaction start again……
• fear – this was the surprise! The children were bursting the balloons and there was shrieks of laughter yet the adults let off screams of shock and panic and then moaned how they didn’t like bangs!

So what went wrong? What happened over those ten years or more? Where did we lose this engagement, interaction and gain this fear?

Thus, I was thinking about writing about this event later this week or next week, but yesterday I saw so much about people posting comments on Twitter and LinkedIn all virtually about the same or similar topics. When you looked at who had liked, favourited, re-tweeted or shared these items, quite often people were the same and had posted new items on virtually the same topic. Yet, none of them commented on the other’s streams! Why not?

What did I speak about above? Engage and Interact…..yet this was lost! Why?

To create a new article without acknowledging the person where the idea came from or commenting on their item, I find strange – why didn’t you engage or interact with them?

The art of engaging and interacting seems to be disappearing more and more with our society and something we need to rebuild. Whilst I have my up’s and down’s (mostly up’s I will say) with LinkedIn and things they are doing, lately they have changed, especially over the last six months. They are truly building a facility were they are encouraging engagement and interaction. Some examples are:-

• LinkedIn Contacts – this App has truly taken me to another level when it comes to engaging with my connections
• LinkedIn Pulse – this news facility that replaced LinkedIn Today, lets you share all the latest news with your connections
• LinkedIn Influencers – By getting some big names to write articles which are informative and educational helping you not only to learn, but take the articles, share them and engage with your connections and starting interacting with them….
• Blogging/Post writing – Following on the success of the above, LinkedIn is now opening up the facility above, to enable you to write your own blogs and articles and thus engage with connections and beyond by writing these articles and creating the opportunity to interact with such a wider audience….

Michael Kinnear wrote an excellent status update  sharing an article entitled “How LinkedIn Quietly Built a Massive Media Empire” written by Dave Kerpen. Michael’s article clearly knows how to engage and interact in a clearly straight forward way. In the opening paragraph about Dave’s article’s, Michael tagged Dave in – clear engagement, interaction and furthermore acknowledgement!

Then, if you read through the article, you will see that Michael continues to interact and engage with the people commenting on his article but taking it a stage further! He actually looked and took notice of this update by taking a stage further by seeing who had commented and then engaging and getting involved with them.

I must admit, I missed this article (so I hadn’t even liked, shared or commented on it) from Michael (even though we are both 1st line connections) but when replying to people, he included myself. Why? Michael was highlighting the fact of engaging and brought me in asking for my opinion. I was both flattered and intrigued but maybe this was because Michael may have been reminded by my strap line on my profile

“Helping you develop and grow by “Engage – Collaborate – Influence” – Your Advisor, Connector, Influencer and Introducer” 

who know’s but Michael, engaged with me by mentioning myself and thus getting me to interact with him, his connections and the people who commented on his article…

So, take a step away, look from the outside in on your Social Media profiles and see how you engage and interact – are you?

Go back to what I said at the beginning – think of the children at the birthday party on Sunday….

ENGAGE

INTERACT

and……

have no

FEAR

Hide your fear and start interacting and engaging with your audience. This will help you not only be more involved with your connections more but also with other people who comment on your articles or ones you commented – these could become future connections, prospects and clients….

To learn more about myself, either contact myself here or complete the form below….

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