Sunday, June 30, 2013

When Jesus is the Umpire

Pitcher and Batter


There is always a danger when using metaphors to illustrate concepts within the Bible. The Book itself uses metaphors throughout and the parables used by Jesus help to illuminate proper ways of living such as the Parable of the Two Debtors, as well as future events such as the Parable of the Ten Virgins. However, all too often metaphors are conceived in the minds of men that they may attempt to illuminate a truth when in reality they are misguiding those who may hear.


This is particularly dangerous when attempting Biblical exegeses. The text of the Bible works so well for those who read it and truly proclaim its Gospel. When we try to slide in metaphors to explain it, our earthly flaws often take people down the wrong path.


Despite this understanding, I felt that this particular metaphor made enough sense that I was compelled to bring it to light. It’s best to be cautious with everything one hears or reads that isn’t direct Biblical teaching. Some can be helpful. Most can mislead. I’m hopeful that this will be helpful in understanding where we stand in this world and why it’s so important to be humble, thankful, repentant souls.


In many ways, life is like baseball. We walk up to the plate with our bat in hand. People, circumstances, and events in our life pitch the ball and we have a choice to make while the ball is in the air. Do we swing or not? When we choose to swing, we can either hit the ball or miss. Sometimes, life sends us a pitch and we’re able to make contact, sending the ball out into the field. Sometimes we get a hit, sometimes we are called out. These are out successes and failures.


Sometimes we swing and miss altogether.


If we choose not to swing, it can either be a ball or a strike. If it’s a ball, we made the right choice not to swing, not to act on that particular pitch that life through at us. Other times, it’s a strike and we miss an opportunity for a hit based upon our inaction.


We go through life facing many pitchers. Some pitchers, such as school, are easier to hit for some than others. Those who are successful hitting against those pitchers have an opportunity to move up to face more challenging pitchers in life such as careers. Those who are not successful against the school pitcher still have opportunities. They may go into a different league but their path through life will still bring pitchers that give us opportunities to succeed or fail.


The examples of all the games and pitchers that we face through life can go on forever. Love, money, illness, parental responsibilities – we often are faced with such a wide range of pitchers and pitching styles that we focus on the ones that we hit well and neglect the others that make us swing and miss more often than not.


There’s another pitcher that we all must face. It is sin. When Satan himself takes to the mound, we get to see pitches that we didn’t even know existed. The fastballs are faster, the curveballs break harder, the sliders are nasty. We often take our swings and we can even make contact every now and then, but we’re clearly over-matched. It’s like a major league pitcher against a little league batter. We have no chance in the long run. He has already beaten us.


The only way to get on base when sin is the pitcher is if we have Jesus Christ as the umpire. He knows that we cannot hit Satan’s pitches. He died on the cross so we wouldn’t have to. If we let go and allow Jesus to call the game for us, we don’t even have to swing. We shouldn’t swing at all. Even if Satan pitches it in the center of the strike zone, if we trust in Jesus as our Lord and Savior and life a life of repentance, He will call it a ball every time we don’t swing. Satan’s nasty pitches of sin can only strike us out if don’t put our faith in the umpire. If we start swinging at sin on our own, we will always strike out.


Living the life of a believer is not about being a good person. It’s not about trying to be fruitful or making a difference in this world. It’s not about tolerance of others, acceptance of others’ beliefs, or a modernization of old ideas. It’s about letting go and believing in one universal truth that can be summed up in three acknowledgements.



  • We are sinners.

  • We are incapable of facing sin alone.

  • It’s only through complete belief in Christ and the constant repenting for our sins that we have any chance at all of making it to the next life.


Despite all we hear from many modern day “pastors,” Jesus is not here to help us live a good life. He’s didn’t die on the cross so we could prosper. Letting Him into your life is not something that will guaranty you success in your job, your marriage, or your health. He came to this world and died on the cross for our sins so we may have a path to be with Him in Heaven. It is the only path. To get there, we have to stop swinging at our sins and start begging for mercy because of them.






via Judeo Christian http://judeochristianchurch.com/when-jesus-is-the-umpire/

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Gorgeous #cloudy SoCal sky this evening.



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Wednesday, June 26, 2013

TIL the First Ford Concept was Called a Quadricycle

Quadricycle


It was a slower time. As a result, when Henry Ford tried to push his first concept cars to the limit, it barely reached 20 MPH. At the time, it was a speeding bullet of mechanics, not as fast as a horse but faster than he could run.


Today, cars are obviously going much faster than that, but it’s great to see the history behind today’s innovations. In this infographic by StoneAcre that we found from Holiday, we get a nice glimpse into what made this proud motor company so powerful today. It’s called innovation.


The Road to the Future The History Of Ford – created by the team at Stoneacre.co.uk









via Soshable | Social Media Blog http://soshable.com/til-the-first-ford-concept-was-called-a-quadricycle/

How to Know in 30 Seconds if Your Facebook Presence is Working

Investigating


Over the last couple of weeks, my exploration into the world of effective automotive social media has turned more towards pitches and consultations. We’ve spent 9 months now digging deeper than ever before into what constitutes success and we’ve come to the conclusion that it’s pretty simple – if you aren’t selling cars and driving business to the service drive through social media, you’re not doing it right.


The posting strategies that have proven to be successful are a whole other topic that couldn’t fit into a single blog post, so for now I just want to explore the quick and easy methods that I’ve used to tell if a Facebook page is working or not. It comes down to reach, which means that the answer has absolutely, positively nothing to do with fans. I’ll demonstrate that in a moment.


First, let’s take a look at what you want to see on your page or other pages to determine if they’re posts are actually being seen and having an influence on local people on Facebook.


Low Engagement Ratio


All of the examples above have varying levels of likes, many of which are higher than most dealers. This is used to grade how well a page is doing, but it’s a false positive. The real number to look at rather than likes is the number to the right – “talking about this.” You can determine how many people are actually being reached based upon this number. For example, look at the second example from the top. It has a ton of fans so it must be doing well, right? Wrong. With only 67 people talking about it, that means that the vast majority of the “fans” are not seeing the posts at all in their news feeds.


Keep in mind that it’s a small ration of reach. In other words, the bottom example that has 70 people talking about this is reaching much more than the one above it that has 14 people talking about it. As a rough estimate, you can multiple the number of people talking about it by 20 and that’s approximately the number of people being reached by the page in a given week. In other words, the bottom example is reaching around 1400 people per week and the one above it is reaching around 380 per week.


Here are some examples of what pages should look like after a few months or even weeks of doing the right things on their page:


High Engagement Ratio


As you can see, the engagement ratios (determined by dividing the number talking about this with the total number of likes) are much higher in this batch. Even the page at the bottom with a mere 267 likes is talked about by nearly three times as many people as the page above with over 73K fans. The number of people reached by the dealerships’ messages through use Facebook news feeds is much, much higher for these properly managed pages.


It’s not just about how many people you’re reaching. It’s also about where the people you’re reaching live.


Here’s an example of a page that is reaching a lot of people:


Wrong Area


As you can see, they have 2,769 people talking about the posts. They have a good engagement ratio relative to their fans and they’re growing nicely. They are very popular in New York City and reaching more 18-24 year olds than any other demographic. You can easily tell when they started targeting more people with Facebook ads based upon the graph.


It all looks great, right? Well, considering this is a dealership in California, it’s likely that they’re focused on getting nationwide popularity. This is a very bad idea.


I went through 74 people who had liked, shared, or commented on their posts. I could not find a single person engaging with the dealership that was within 30 miles of the store. You cannot easily sell cars to people when you’re targeting the whole country. Is it possible? Sure. Is it much less likely than if you maintain a strong local following and target the people who can actually drive to the dealership and buy a car or get their transmission serviced.


In thirty seconds and two clicks of the button, you can tell very quickly if your Facebook presence is working even without seeing the Facebook Insights. I’ve shown dealers how to dig deeper into their insights to prove it even further, but these two telltale signs are very clear indicators of a page’s presence and how well it is working.


Facebook should be localized. The number of fans is a much less important indicator than the number of people who are actually seeing your posts. The sooner you understand the way that Facebook marketing truly works, the easier it will be for you to find success and start selling cars as a result.









via Soshable | Social Media Blog http://soshable.com/how-to-know-in-30-seconds-if-your-facebook-presence-is-working/

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Social Media Doesn’t Take Weekends Off

Taking Weekends Off


I was having a casual conversation with a counterpart at a different automotive social media company yesterday when he asked, “Why do you guys monitor on the weekends? The dealer doesn’t care and as long as we reply on Monday, they’ll be fine.”


The discussion that ensued was long and nearly got heated. Thankfully, cooler minds prevailed and I let him go about his business believing that 5-day/week social media was acceptable for his clients.


It’s not.


Despite the fact that you definitely do have more time on social media to reply than on something like chat or even phone, it’s unacceptable to let it linger for too long. The opportunities for sales are missed when days pass. The opportunity to make an upset customer happy can be missed in minutes sometimes. Take a look at this exchange:


Weekends Off


The customer replied to a post on the dealer’s Facebook page at 8:26 on Sunday. The reply came in 5 minutes later, personalized and willing to make things right. The customer replied 5 minutes later. Then, the person who could make things happen, in this case the service manager, was able to call the customer on Monday and turn an unhappy customer into a happy one. This may not have been possible had they waited to make first contact the next morning rather than while the customer was still online.


This is just a single example, and it’s the reason that we’re adamant about monitoring clients’ pages seven days per week. The weekends are when the majority of potential social media interactions occur. To take the weekends off is a poor practice, especially considering the ease in staying connected with smartphones.


Obviously everyone needs a break. We don’t monitor on the seven major US holidays (despite my objections to that, the company I work for has a bigger heart than me), but otherwise it’s important for dealers to stay on top of what people are saying to them every day of the week. Hook up your smartphone and make it happen or find someone who can do it all for you.









via Soshable | Social Media Blog http://soshable.com/social-media-doesnt-take-weekends-off/

Simple pleasures: the epic last bite of an ice cream cone is the #bestest



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Monday, June 24, 2013

Homemade organic vanilla bean custard. Diet postponed another week.



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Sunday, June 23, 2013

Be thankful about real life on social media

Thankful


Businesses are starting to get it. They once saw social media as a channel like many others through which they could broadcast their message. When that didn’t work, they shifted to using it as a branding tool only. When that wasn’t effective, they started communicating with people. Bingo! Now, more need to take it to the next level.


We see it all the time on some social media pages. Businesses are posting things to Facebook like pictures of happy customers. They’re answering questions and highlighting things happening at their business. The next step is to be thankful.


Social media in general and Facebook in particular is a perfect place to humanize the business. One of the best things a business can do to humanize itself is to be thankful. There are many things that businesses today can focus on through social media, to highlight as a positive thing. It’s customers. It’s good things that happen to the business, the local community, and the people in it. It’s testimonials and reviews.


The key is to make it social. Making it social takes a little work. It’s not about sharing a link to a review, for example, on Facebook. It’s about expressing true gratitude for the review and personalizing it in a way that makes it stand out.


Waynesville Review


People are much more appreciative of the effort it takes to highlight a personalized response to a review than they are about a review that was a simple click of a button on a link. More importantly, highlighting reviews in this way is much more visible on news feeds. Many of the review sites have been so blasted out onto Facebook and other social media sites that they’re not even eligible for promotion through Facebook ads.


Social media is about reaching people and allowing people to reach you in return. Being thankful, humble, and appreciative of the good things around you and your business is an effective way of amplifying the reach abilities from both directions – you reaching them and them reaching you. It’s what makes social media so important.






via Techi.com http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techirss/~3/-t6QcuQbjE0/

It's called #gourmet #improvising. Stuffed pasta shells with hotdog bun garlic bread.



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Victory by cereal.



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Wednesday, June 19, 2013

A bug that ate the chickens



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All paths lead to bacon



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Did they switch the doors on their Jeeps or switch the Jeeps on their doors



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Fine, there are two exceptions to the “no cats or dogs” rule on Facebook

No Cats or Dogs


For a few months now, I’ve been discussing the idea that local businesses should never fall into the trap of trying to be funny or interesting through the use of irrelevant pictures and memes. “No cat or dog pictures” has become a mantra of sorts with the concept being that businesses should try to stand out, not fit into the mix on Facebook and other social media sites.


As some have argued, there are definitely exceptions to the rule. One such exception is when the interesting dog or cat picture is relevant to the business or local area. Here’s an example of an acceptable dog picture post on a business Facebook page:


Acceptable Car or Dog Picture


It’s local – this is the mascot for the school in this Honda dealership’s local area. It’s epic – how often do you see a dog that regal? It’s informative – many in the local area may not realize the fact in the description on the post. The results were that this relatively small Facebook page got decent traction on it with 20 likes and a share. It’s not fantastic, but it’s better to have local flair than to be random with funny pictures.


There’s another exception to the idea that local businesses should not post cat and dog pictures that was pointed out to me the other day: veterinarians and pet stores have every right to do it. In the spirit of being thorough, it had to be said.


Social media marketing is not about being popular. It’s not about getting likes. For local businesses, it’s about reaching people in the community with a business message. To do so, it’s important to play the “Facebook algorithm game” to earn the right for posts to be seen. This is one of the reasons that businesses resort to memes and funny pictures, but they don’t have to. They can find plenty of interesting content closer to home that is both relevant and important to their fans.


Stand out. Don’t fit in.






via Techi.com http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techirss/~3/BR6FQCWuNYs/

Never Ask a Question in an Empty (Social Media) Room

Speaking in an Empty Room


I was consulting with a potential client yesterday and started looking at their Facebook and Twitter pages. Once a day, every day, they would post a question that had very little to do with anything at all. “What was the last movie you watched?”


Once a day, every day, they wouldn’t get a response from anyone. It was awkward in a social media way. There was no engagement. The reason was easy to find – their 3000+ Facebook fans had not been engaged with their page for a long time (meaning that nobody was seeing their posts in their news feeds) and their Twitter profile had 40 followers.


“I’ve heard you say that questions drive engagement,” she told me as I started pointing out the challenges. She was correct – I have said that many times before and it’s true. The problem is that questions do not work if nobody is listening and they’re not the right way to get people to listen.


I don’t envy her. She took over a Facebook page that had been getting updated by RSS feeds for over a year and a Twitter account that was autoposted from Facebook. The remaining followers and fans were spam bots. Nobody was listening. It was an empty room.


There’s an old saying that says, “fake it ’til you make it” and that applies in this type of situation. There are still people who will visit the profiles because they show up in search and are linked from the website, so one still has to post quality content during the rebuilding period (stage one in our three stage process), but questions aren’t the answer (pun intended). At this stage, it’s important to show those who do visit the pages that you’re posting quality content, but you don’t want to highlight the fact that nobody is paying attention at that point.


Statements, facts, pictures, videos, and occasional links work best at this point. Through ads and engagement-driving posts, you’ll be able to get your following back up and engaged. Once that happens and you’re on to stage two, it’s time to start asking questions again. Until then, avoid them.









via Soshable | Social Media Blog http://soshable.com/never-ask-a-question-in-an-empty-social-media-room/