Returning to the Blog

    If you had told me two years ago that my masters degree, family, and career would take up all of my energy to write, I would probably have blown you off. In retrospect, I had no idea what I was in for when I began my degree.

It was a rigorous journey, but now that I am on the other side I want to share my knowledge and experience.

A few takeaways from my education are:

• Put your heart into learning, you never know when the information will be valuable.
• Time management and sticking to a strict routine for learning is crucial to success.
• Technology is ever evolving away from the intentions of the inventors and its impact is both positive and negative on our society, use it with thought and balance.
• When creating a message there are truly only four purposes: "Informing, Inspiring, Persuading, or Entertaining" (Nelson, 2004, p 57-58). What is the motive behind your writing?
• "If you are not learning-your competition is". New information is paramount to your success (Gitomer, 2007).
• Be a "resistance fighter" : Know the logistics behind your research, Know efficiency is not the goal of human relations, do not confuse information with understanding, and know the difference between sacred and profane. (Postman, 1993, p. 184)
• "There is a primal need to connect" (Schafer, 2014) People view social media as the "town square"-it just is to a larger audience than a few neighbors. (Schafer, 2014)
• "In the age of high-speed micro-processors, blazing databases, and seamless networks, human foolishness finds new venues" (Schultze, 2002).
• "Your relationship with the Lord shapes your relationships with the people in your family and beyond" (Bozeman et al., 2014). 
• "Four areas of influence upon adult's self-esteem seem to be important: relationships, autonomy, success, and control" (Bozeman et al., 2014).

I plan to write in depth about these topics and more and share my journey with Social media and communicating best practices.

I look forward to connecting with my readers and sharing best practices together.

References

   Bozeman, J. C., & Smith, A. A. (2004). Interpersonal relationship skills for ministers. Gretna, LA: Pelican Pub.

   Gitomer's, Jeffrey. Jeffrey Gitomer's : 5V. V1 Little Red Book of Selling. V2 Little Red Book of Sales Answers. V3 Little Black Book of Connections. V4 Little Gold Book of Yes Attitude. V5 Little Green Book of Getting Your Way. New Jersey: Pearson Education, 2007. Print.

Nelson, A. E. (2004). Creating messages that connect: 10 secrets of effective communicators. Loveland, CO: Group Pub.

Postman, N. (1993). Technopoly: The surrender of culture to technology. New York: Vintage Books.

Schaefer, Mark W. Social Media Explained: Untangling the World's Most Misunderstood Business Trend. United States: Schaefer Marketing Solutions, 2014. Print.

Schultze, Q. J. (2004). Habits of the high-tech heart: Living virtuously in the information age. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic.