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Are You a Digital Native, Digital Immigrant, or Digital Refugee?

It wasn't like this when I was growing up

"It wasn't like this when I was growing up."

Times change - instead of a single phone wired to the wall, we each now have cell phones. Instead of walking over to the television to change the channel or adjust the antenna, we use remote controls and cable TV. Our cars can give us directions without us having to figure out how to fold the map back up again or which way is north. Instead of going to a movie theater or drive-in, we queue up movies on Netflix and Hulu to watch on multiple  devices. Instead of handwriting letters, we type out emails or tap out text messages.

The point in our life we get introduced to new technologies greatly impacts our reaction to them and our adoption of them, as does who introduces them to us and how. When is a phone not a phone? When it's a 'smart' phone in the hands of a digital native. When is a smart phone just a phone? In the hands of a digital refugee. It's not the technology, it's our view and use of technology.

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Getting More Email Subscribers

Hey! Sign up!Are you using email to communicate with your audience? You probably should be. One of the most effective ways of communicating with a group of people is with an email list, even in today's Twitter and Facebook culture. In order for your list to be effective, it first needs to exist, and then you'd like for it to grow. Just how do you let people know about it and get more email subscribers?

Typically, you'll have a sign up form somewhere on your website, possibly on your Facebook page and you might get some referrals from current subscribers. In order to get more attention for their email list, there are plenty of folks employing pop-ups and overlays to get people to sign up for their list. You may even already subscribe to this site's email updates, but you get the pop-up, just the same. I'm not sure this method is the best way to do that.

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A Typical Saturday

Missing the targetSaturday is the one day I don't have anything else dictating my schedule: Monday through Friday is dominated with work, Sunday is dedicated to church and family. On Saturdays, I tend to spend a lot of time sifting through all the social media updates for the past week. I don't look at volume, or engagement, or other metrics commonly used. Instead, I look at the posts and how they relate to the stated mission of the account (the bio should reflect this). I also look at what hasn't been posted - what is missing?

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Everyone needs some 'Quiet Time'. When's yours?

I have had several conversations with a friend of mine about the practice of silence (kind of ironic, right?) The practice of silence, as it relates to our digital lives, came more to the forefront as we dug deeper.

As communicators, we often fret over our next post - what will we say next? If you've disciplined yourself, you probably have developed an editorial calendar to keep track of upcoming events, deadlines and who will write the pieces.

We also get trapped into treating our online communication channels as soapboxes and stages to cast our net even farther, which heightens our anxiety over silence. Some have such an anxiety over silence, they begin to talking over other people. Pretty soon, they're the only ones talking. And no one is listening.

Do you incorporate silence into your schedule? Not just an absence of items to be written and posted, but scheduled blocks of time for listening.

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What Was The Question?

This popular US game show turned the tables on the contestants, giving them the answers and they, in turn, needed to provide the questions. When contestants did not respond with a question, they were reminded to "please phrase that in the form of a question".

What is Jeopardy!?

ask - get answers

A major part of your online strategy is being able to ask the right questions before you attempt to answer them. A fair number of Jeopardy! contestants jumped the buzzer and blurted out the question before hearing the complete answer, only to miss an important detail.

Do you know what questions are leading to your website? What are the answers they are seeking? How do you find out?

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