Let's STORIFY the relationship between Meditation and Business.

As my COMI610 course at Marist is coming to a close it has taught me to ignore my inhibitions about blogging and dive into the possibility of educating others about my passion.  I doubt there is much confusion about what my passion is – meditation.  Revealing the personal and business profits that can be driven from this mental practice has been a pleasure these past six weeks and I must ask you, my audience, should I continue beyond the conclusion of this course?  Be honest. 

The next step is a request upon me to “storify” my blogging experience.  Shall I start with "Once Upon a Time" as all good stories do?  Storify is a new platform allowing me to “pimp out” my content as I did my blog per the recommendations of Scott (2011, p. 244). 

My focus has been to aid my audience in overcoming any inhibitions surrounding meditation and building favoritism for the mental maintenance practice.  Blog topics were chose based on whom I wanted to reach with an incorporation of reliable sources and shocking revelations into the practice of meditation. 

Did I do this?   

Did I engage you with facts you could trust, guidance you could follow, and expose you to details about meditation that may have accumulated a “wow” factor?  

 

I would like to share with you the outline of my digital paper in hopes that you will be eager to provide me with any advice on what to add, subtract, revise, or a “job well done” is always accepted.  Who doesn’t love a high-five for the ego boost once in awhile?!  Alright, here it goes:

Introduction

            I will blab about myself for a brief moment.  Full-time student + mother of two = life of chaos.  Chaos + need for moments of sanity/clearness = meditation.  Due to my personal upbeat outcomes driven from meditation, I began to research its effects on business.  As I came to realize what a powerful impact meditation brought to the 9-to-5 world I was eager to share my passion in a way that allowed my audience to learn, respect, and incorporate the practice to receive the ultimate corporate outcome. 

    

Plans and Policies

            This section focuses on quantifiable and measurable objectives and goals as well as the strategy I developed going forth into my blogging experience.  Essentially the blueprint of expanding my audience and influential reach.

·         Goals

o   Include informative content to relate meditation to business

o   Encourage fellow classmates to begin meditating

·         Objectives

o   Participate in social networks surrounding the topic of meditation

§  @TMmeditation (The Trascendental Meditation Program)

§  @UncleRUSH (Russell Simmons – advocate for meditation)

§  @CMind_ACMHE (Contemplative Mind- non-profit involved in meditation practices throughout professional settings)

o   Promote my posts via Twitter & Pinterest

Activities

            Here is when the fun begins!  I plan to talk a bit about Stipple – the company I used to bring additional content to my images and how I thought they were engaging and a rather awesome addition.  I will share some “pins” and “tweets” and explain my intentions with each.

·          

• Considering the strong following Oprah and Paul McCartney possess - I shared tweets/pins about their devotion to meditation.  I thought this would bring new curiosity to my blog.  These tweets and pins demonstrated that elite members of our society practice meditation – persuasion! 

I think in this section I will separate it into sections based on each blog post I published – thoughts?

Analysis

            For me the biggest setback to blogging is assuming you will be speaking to no one, essentially.  So you push forward, well because your professor tells you to, and you hope for the best… right?!  I am pleasantly pleased with the outcome: (this is just a peak)

• Pageviews for February: 271
• Sum of comments: 69

I will also be including any retweets, repins and analyzing and trends that I saw.  Does it make sense to separate it into sections based on each blog post here as well?     

Conclusion      

 

The conclusion – who does not love the end of one’s workload?  This is my chance to close this chapter on Storify where I will summarize my analysis and draw conclusions on how well I did in managing my social media blog.  Thus far I think I did well with:

·         Pimping out my blog – building engagement

·         Building an audience

·         Revealing interesting information

·         Pushed for an intense conversation between audience members

Considering there is always room for improvement I will be talking about what actions I can take to perk up my blog for the future. 

• A blog post that allows for members to share their concerns/difficulties about meditation.
• A blog post that details how to get meditation into your corporate culture

 

Then I will completely conclude my story with what I have learned through this blogging journey or essentially my "happily ever after."

Resources

Scott, D. M. (2011). Chapter 17. In D. M. Scott, The New Rules of Marketing and PR (p. 244). Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

 

Privacy or no privacy? That is the question.

Source

  Although I tried, and tried, I simply could not figure a way to relate social media security, social media policy and meditating together.  Therefore I apologize for anyone surfing this particular post for meditation info (check my archive).  

 Social Media Security, Social Media Policy ... What?

SOCIAL MEDIA POLICY   

Source

What it is.  Corporations set a policy in place to outline appropriate behavior and guidelines for employees whom participate on the Internet.  Social media policy is a corporate code of conduct that attempts to protect the employer as well as the employees.  Organizations must critique their policy frequently as “technology: it changes so fast... reflects the need for policy to run alongside  as fast as possible” (Mitrano, 2006).  

SOCIAL MEDIA (NETWORK) SECURITY 

 


What it is.  Social media security is essentially employing ways to protect you while interacting and networking with others in a social online environment.  Such examples include passwords, privacy settings, protection software (mal-ware), etc.  Social media (networking) security is acknowledging that privacy is lost once it hits the cyber waves.       




Protecting oneself in this socially connected society is important.   The appropriate action to protect oneself is not difficult.  It takes time, effort and a little smarts.  Check out my mini checklist to get you started in smarter social networking:  

Check list

• Strong Password.  Be encouraged to create a strong password.  Be smart.  Many are guilty of using answers to common information such as pet’s name, mother’s maiden name, or perhaps middle name.  Think first – most of these are included somewhere on your social profile.  Facebook has an app that enables you to list family members – voila – mother’s maiden name.  You’ve uploaded a photo of your adorable four-legged friend to your social profile – viola – most likely you have included his/her cute little name (who doesn’t like to brag about their adorable pet). 



Do you dare? Click here to try.

• How can I create a strong password?  Think numbers, special characters (if allowable) or perhaps create a phrase.  Example “IL2M” means “I Love 2 Meditate” (yay! I included meditation) – maybe throw a random number at the end. 
• Avoid using the same password for every site you visit.  Thieves break one password and they have your entire social world at their finger tips.

• Think before you click.  If the content you are sharing or posting to your social network isn’t something you would prefer your employer, grandmother or future mother-in-law to see… DO NOT POST IT.  Once it has hit the Internet it is nearly impossible to erase its digital footprint.

• Employees leave your ranting for behind closed doors.  According to the National Labor Relations Act employees are allowed to converse with each other about workplace conditions.  The kicker – if you post inappropriate statements without “engaging in dialogue with other employees” you are no longer protected.  If you want to gamble your career just be sure a fellow employee is engaging in dialogue with you (Halpern & Gardner, 2012, para. 2).  Disclaimer:  I will not be held responsible for your pink slip. 

• Protection.  We ask our employers to protect us from sexual harassment, workplace violence, etc.  Social media is another policy employers retain the right to enforce (with limitations, yes).  However if a social media policy is “implemented in response to union activities are particularly scrutinized” (Halpern & Gardner, 2012, para. 9).   

     
For many, social media is a private activity therefore leading one to feel as if an employer’s involvement or governing is unethical.  But this is where you set yourself up for disaster.  Believing that anything you have or do on the Internet is private is blissful thinking.  The Internet brings many advantages to our society but not without disadvantages accompanying it.  Value the protection offered by your employer and the privacy settings presented by networks – but it comes down to you – be smart – the Internet opens your house to many many doors.  

Some closing thoughts...

Source

References

Halpern, S. J., & Gardner, C. H. (2012, December 3). When is Your Company's Social Media Policy an Unfair Labor Practice? Retrieved from National Law Review: http://www.natlawreview.com/article/when-your-company-s-social-media-policy-unfair-labor-practice-recent-nlrb-decisions-

Mitrano, T. (2006, January 1). A Wider World: Youth, Privacy, and Social Networking Technologies. Retrieved from EDUCAUSE: http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/wider-world-youth-privacy-and-social-networking-technologies

  

Don'tcha Wanna Know?

I have received a few comments pertaining to the relationship between mediation and successful people.  Many times those we find to be most at peace in life surrounded by purpose and focus we later learn practice meditation.  I thought it would be interesting to provide some insight on those in the spotlight who practice this mental exercise and see if perhaps the revelations shock you.
(Remember, scroll over my photos for more information.  Thanks Stipple!)

Oprah Winfrey

  Albert Einstein

Jerry Seinfeld 

Phil Jackson & Michael Jordan 

Tiger Woods 

Steve Jobs

Russell Simmons 

 

 Paul McCartney 

A further list can be found here. 
 

I feel honored with all the comments I have received on my blog and I say with sincerity, thank you.  Without your curiosity and openness to hearing what I have to say, this blog would not have a purpose.  I hope you will allow me to continue with you in your discovery of meditation.