Small Achievable Things – Take Action!

Nextdoor.comSmall Achievable Things

This post ➡️ was my first post on Nextdoor.com – a social media site like Facebook organized by neighborhood. I believe Nextdoor.com is the best tool for local organizing that’s ever existed. I use it to make my neighborhood a better place.  Here’s the first article I wrote about Nextdoor.com. Now, onto the small achievable things – you can probably take some action yourself to implement these right now. Hit me up if you need encouragement or have ideas on how to move these forward quicker – albert@albertkaufman.com

  1. Phasing out Gas-powered leaf blowers. Here’s our website for this effort Quietcleanpdx.org. Here’s a collection of approaches that have worked well in Portland, Oregon.
  2. I turned this one into a blog post on key fob/noise reduction – hereLess beepingThis method sounds like it works on a lot of cars. https://youtu.be/W5Gd72boYNU
    4.27.22 – OMG – Best resource ever! http://www.silencethehorns.org/locking.html
  3. Traffic Calming on Hawthorne and Division – Still working on this 🙂 – but we got to 20mph on residential streets and 25 on some arterials!
    Traffic Calming in Portland
  4. Do you have fruit/nut trees that you’d like to share the bounty from? – 3.28.22 – See the latest developments. https://portlandfruit.org/

    https://portlandfruit.org/

  5. A Request: Please Drive Slower and More Carefully. This one is an ongoing issue. Luckily, we’re at 20mph on residential streets in Portland, now. I think 15 mph would make more sense (4.14.2020).
    Slow the Fuck Down

  6. Neighborhood places: Marino Adriatic Cafe on 41st and Division.
    Marino Adriatic Cafe
  7. Stop Receiving Yellow Pages @ https://www.yellowpagesoptout.com – Sadly, I can’t believe in October of 2018 yellow pages are still a thing, but they are. This is a good thread if you live in my neighborhood of Richmond, Portland, Oregon, USA. It talks about how to get off of various lists – Red Plum; Oregonian Food Day, etc. There is also a FB group for this purpose.
    https://www.facebook.com/groups/196729400366257/

  8. Be Idle Freehttps://albertideation.com/be-idle-free
    Be Idle FreeHere’s more proof from the Washington Post – There is no need to idle in cold weather. 
  9. LED street Light improvements. Here’s how to get a shield on your nearby LED street light. Mention “light trespass” which is what is likely happening – light coming from the LED into your house/porch/eyes.  https://www.portlandoregon.gov/Transportation/article/672942 –
    Here’s a source for outdoor friendly lighting: https://darksky.org/fsa/fsa-products/
    If you’d like to participate in an effort to change these lights with me, please sign up, here.

    Shield Request Process

  10. Where does the dirt go? Dumptrucks on Division – Here’s a dirty idea:
    Where does the dirt go?
  11. Sign up for my newsletter, The Eleven. It comes out on the 11th of the month and is full of great actionable ideas. Thanks for the idea, Noam!
  12. Get Rid of Your Lawn – I’ve been posting about this one a lot, of course, given my love of Farm My Yard 🙂
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/08/04/lawns-are-a-soul-crushing-timesuck-and-most-of-us-would-be-better-off-without-them/?tid=sm_fb

  13. Sign up for my monthly newsletter, The Eleven.
  14. Here’s what we can do to keep large trees standing in our neighborhoods – Reform Portland’s Tree Code To Preserve Large Healthy Trees

    https://audubonportland.org/news/reform-portland2019s-tree-code-to-preserve-large-healthy-trees Reform Portland’s Tree Code To Preserve Large Healthy Trees Now is the time to reform City rules to preserve more large healthy trees in every neighborhood! Thanks to the direct action of neighbors and financial donations from the community, the 150-year-old giant sequoias in SE Portland’s Eastmoreland neighborhood were saved from the developer’s chain saws. However, the rules that permitted their removal and the cutting of large healthy trees in neighborhoods across Portland are still in place. From Powellhurst-Gilbert to St. Johns, from SW Hills to Richmond, Cully, and beyond, Portland’s neighborhoods are experiencing extensive tree cutting driven by a highly lucrative real estate development market. (article cont’d here).

    This led to starting a Facebook group to organize on this topic. Join us, here. And our newsletter, here.

  15. Learning permaculture – a possible way for us to transform our urban landscape:

    https://www.geofflawtononline.com/videos/

  16. TURN OFF YOUR CAR HORN – LESS BEEPING = LESS NOISE – This led to the post below (and one other) and a new post on my website: Feel free to share widely! https://albertideation.com/turn-off-car-horn-less-beeping-less-noise

    Stop using your car fob to lock your car and beep

  17. Solutions to Barking Dogs & Other Noise Nuisances – Answer 🙂
    Get your Dog Trained

  18. How to Throw a Great Voting Party in a vote by mail state:
    Voting Party

  19. A neat article on Communities vs. Networks – to which do you belong?
  20. Want to try out a new game; meet some neighbors; move your body?
    Birthday Game
  21. Building Neighborhood Resiliency (from 12/2016): As the snow is here – in Australia it looks warm and sunny 🙂 I just got this newsletter from an Australian group called Good Hoods.  Here’s what they write: Dear Albert, During the recent Discovery Tour around Australia we met some great people and heard about amazing initiatives working to build community connection and resilience. We now have a network of passionate resilience experts, including yourself, and together we believe we can create a nation that is ready for anything. Following the tour, we have been thinking through how we can continue to help people connect and come together. We know that resilience is a process and something that grows over time. One of the first steps we all can take is to connect with others so we feel a sense of belonging. That’s why we are launching Good ‘Hoods – a new initiative to help create connections and a sense of pride in where you live. We want to connect people who want to work together to create more resilient communities, and share initiatives so the good continues to grow. We have shared some of the great initiatives from the tour that you may want to replicate in your community, see a sneak peek below: Do good in your hood: learn more about the initiatives that we discovered during our tour. If you have an initiative you would like to add let us know about it so we can continue to grow the list. Street BBQ: there’s nothing like a good BBQ to bring people together. We’re encouraging our people to say that first hello to their neighbors this summer, and we want to share the resources with you too. To help get you to get started we’re giving the first 200 to register their own street BBQ a $50 supermarket voucher. These first resources are based on what we heard would be helpful. We would love to hear your feedback and ideas on how we can continue to grow and improve Good ‘Hoods. If you have any feedback please get in contact with IAG’s Shared Value team on 1300 306 493 and info@goodhoods.com.au. Please join us and become part of the Good ‘Hoods community. http://www.goodhoods.com.au/ Sincerely, Jacki Johnson Group Executive People, Performance and Reputation Insurance Australia Group SNEAK PEEK One of the great initiatives we heard about. Learn about this and others on the Good ‘Hoods website. In 2010 and 2012, floods devastated Uranquinty. So a local group, Progress Association, worked with the NSW SES to devise a disaster response plan to minimize damage from future floods.

    This led to a long list of items on building neighborhood resiliency.

Short Bio

Bio for Albert Kaufman

I am a social media and email marketing thought leader. I’ve been a Constant Contact partner since 2008.  I’ve taught small businesses and nonprofits how to get the most out of their time and effort using the tools of the trade such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Alignable, and Constant Contact for email marketing. Via small classes and one-on-one coaching, I’ve worked with healthcare professionals, restaurants, photographers, and many other types of businesses to help their marketing efforts succeed. With 20+ years in high-tech as a software quality assurance engineer, I’m also very good at sharing tips about how to make online life and computer use easier.

For more about me visit my sites:

Podcasts/Speaking Engagements

Main website: https://albertideation.com

Alignable

Facebook http://facebook.com/albertideation

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/albertkaufman11

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/albertkaufman/

Get my free marketing checklist here

Sign up for a 1-month free Constant Contact trial account @ https://www.constantcontact.com/signup.jsp?pn=albertkaufman


Albert Kaufman is a social media and email marketing thought leader. He’s been a Constant Contact teacher, trainer, and partner since 2008. He’s taught small businesses and nonprofits how to get the most out of their time and effort using the tools of the trade such as Facebook, Instagram, Alignable, LinkedIn, and Constant Contact for email marketing. Via small classes and one-on-one coaching, he’s worked with healthcare professionals, restaurants, photographers, and many other types of businesses to help their marketing efforts succeed. With 20+ years in high-tech as a software quality assurance engineer, he’s also very good at sharing tips about how to make online life and computer use easier.

For more about Albert visit:

Main website: https://albertideation.com

Alignable

Facebook http://facebook.com/albertideation

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/albertkaufman11

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/albertkaufman/

Get my free marketing checklist here

Sign up for a 1-month free Constant Contact trial account @ https://www.constantcontact.com/signup.jsp?pn=albertkaufman

 

 

Facebook Friend Culling

https://www.andysinger.com/

Cartoon by the wonderful Andy Singer!

Tending Your Lists

After watching The Social Dilemma I became overwhelmed with a desire to both spend less time on FB and also to lessen the # of friends I have on there. I explained this in my 10.11.2020 The Eleven newsletter thusly:

“Years ago I followed the advice of a fellow marketer regarding social media and accepted the friendships of thousands of people I didn’t know. The idea was that everyone would become an audience for my marketing business (part of which was teaching classes on how to use social media). Over the years my work has shifted away from social media, and after watching the new documentary The Social Dilemma, it occurred to me that it is a great time to reconsider the # of “friends” I have = 4,470.
I recommend doing this next step
A couple of days ago on FB I clicked on “friends”. From that viewpoint, one can see all of the people one is connected to. Then, I started culling. I’m at 2,330. It’s interesting. Beyond saying goodbye to a lot of people I barely know (if at all), I’m also coming across people who I haven’t thought of in a while and am reaching out to say hi and reconnect. I’ve always found FB useful as a networking/staying-in-touch tool.
I thought I’d share this since I’m finding the process interesting. If I’ve culled you and you want back in just send me a friend request :)”
—-

10.22.2020: 741 FB friends.  Some observations and upsides

  1. My FB newsfeed is entirely different now. It’s filled with postings from people I know. It’s also moving a lot more slowly. I still use FB Purity which allows one to customize your FB experience – for instance, I see things in the order they’re posted. Install this app and you will be a happier FB user = no advertising.
  2. Having so many FB friends played into some of my weaknesses. I kept a lot of people on there thinking – ah, potential date when that was really not the case 🙂  Or, staying friends with certain celebrities – what actual good was that doing me?  I detached from a number of people who have close to 5K friends (actually, Michael Lerner who had 5,000 🙂  It’s not that I don’t love these people anymore, I just won’t see them in my newsfeed 🙂  This is true for both the people who I never met and those who I did years and years ago – old HS connections who I have no reason to stay in touch with; people who I burned with or shared a night with on the playa in 2003… All great memories and I still get to keep those, and I know that I can always find people if I want to 🙂
  3. There is definitely an addictive quality to FB like they talk about in the Social Dilemma, and as I unfriended people I could feel the pressure to not do this. FB actually makes it difficult to unfriend people. There’s a way they make the actual move to unfriend someone when you’re looking at your friends from the “friends” page difficult. The pull-down menu jiggles and is hard to actually click on!  They are so clever.  They also stopped me two times when I hit the “700 unfriendings in one day” limit. I got a message that my account had been blocked and I’d have to run through a series of steps to reconnect. It was super eerie, but I suppose not a bad thing, either.
  4. I also partly went through this effort to get to the other side and see what life is like for most people. I often hear from someone – you probably saw my recent important update on FB.  I never did. Never. So, perhaps now I’ll be a little more in touch with the people I’m closer with. We’ll see 🙂  I partly want to really keep moving away from FB and towards more IRL experiences – even with Covid keeping us apart.
  5. FB is very useful for introducing people to one another. With a smaller group of friends, I’ll probably be able to see people I’m closer to stand out more and be able to help them more. I just noticed when I posted this blog post to FB that the people who popped up to respond were a closer set of friends than usual – and I was able to see the power of the people I’ve kept around.
  6. Oooh, this means that I’ll see a lot fewer people whose birthday is today 🙂  I love wishing people happy birthday and having an email that goes to those on my list on their birthday which people love. Now, way fewer people to wade through. Love this.
  7. Yeah, I think having my group of friends on FB be the ones I’m closer with is going to be a good thing. Whew, a little relief there that this wasn’t a huge mistake 🙂
  8. 10.23.2020: I’m noticing a few things I hadn’t noticed before—way fewer notifications. Way fewer friends online to chat to. That part has gone from 3-500 people to 77 right now 11:30 am.
  9. 10.27.2020 – I still post to FB, but I notice that the responses are from people I’m closer to – this has changed the quality of my responses.  Also, I notice my newsfeed has so much less on it, it’s a lot more attractive to check 🙂
  10. 1.30.2021 – I’m segmenting my lists – I’ve written about making FB Friends lists in the past – it’s still a useful thing. Having a smaller list to look through brings me face-to-face with a lot richer collection (to me) of faces.  Reminding me who to reach out to and causing more connection through that. 
  11. 1.2.23 – I’m finding I’m also taking time to send happy New Year’s greetings to those with whom I feel drawn to do that with. That’s a sweet side effect – bringing me closer to those who I do want to stay connected with – and perhaps deepening our connection. 
  12. 1.2.23 – I’m probably repeating myself – but this year I’m noticing quite a few of my friends have passed away. People I really loved a lot. This gives me a moment to send them a lovely NYE note and well wishes. I like doing that. It’s been quite a day.
  13. 10.19.23 – I’ve heard from close friends and relatives over the years “Well, you must have seen my important post about X?” For years, no, there was no way for me to see their important posts. So, recently, I’ve unfollowed just about every one of my FB friends. This took me a while to do, but has led to a feed that is now full of the people’s posts who I’m closest to. It’s probably more of what Facebook intends for people to experience. Since I also use Facebook Purity (highly recommended), I don’t see advertising, and also see the most recent posts first (one of the FB Purity settings that you can set). So, I’m having a much better Facebook experience after all of this cutting and pruning! Feel free to add any thoughts in the comments section below.

I’m sure I’ll add more insights to this article as I have them. I feel like I’ve just landed in a new place and I’m excited to see how it’s different. So far it feels calmer.

Downsides to doing this:

  1. A thought I’ve had over the years is that when I’m older (70+) I’ll probably want to spend more time reconnecting with people who titillated me once upon a time. I just said goodbye to lots of people, so I won’t have the easily accessible group that I had 2 weeks ago to choose from.
  2. My FB live concerts will not reach as many people and have the chance to spread. I’ve noticed as I’ve played some recent FB live shows that I haven’t had the bigger audience I’ve become accustomed to. Oh well 🙂
  3. My business offerings might not have as wide a reach via the newsfeed as they once did. Oh well 🙂  Luckily, I’ve been building my email list like gangbusters over the years 🙂

Thanks for listening. I’d love to know your thoughts. Please leave them in the comments area below.

Happy Facebooking. Happy living. Albert

PS – Next up, same thing for LinkedIn 🙂 – 1.30.2021 – I’ve decided not to do this on LinkedIn, especially now that they’ve put together Lunchclub.

PPS – 10.23.2020 – Ooooh, under settings look what I found! More places to limit the FB monster’s reach into my life 🙂 

12.16.2020 – I was in a video discussion related to this topic with Gary Ware and Apryl Schlueter.

1.2.23 – Happy New Year – I find myself doing another culling today. It really feels very freeing. There are tons of people who aren’t using FB very much. Removing them from my friend’s list feels like a little shedding that is clearing. I recommend doing this once a  year at least. 

How We Can Work Together

If you need a hand – Here’s how I roll

Hi there. Below is an outline of my recent work history and how I like to work with people/organizations in 2019. Here’s how I roll.

rolls

I started this phase of my online marketing guru work life in 2008 by teaching people how to use Facebook in small classes in my living room. That led to teaching email marketing using Constant Contact for the past 11 years. I’ve been holding regular classes and webinars during this time – many are available as training videos here.

I have been keeping up with social media trends, but really my main focus now is getting people’s email lists and email marketing set up and running. There are many ways to market online, but the simplest and most effective form I’ve found (and one where you are the owner of your data) is building an email list and sending out regular news to those interested in what you have to say or sell.

If that sounds useful, take a look at my page called Working Together. There you’ll find a short process where you can get things started. If you need a hand with that process or the steps afterwards, please get in touch via my contact form and we can take it from there. If you want to ask me questions about social media, WordPress, SEO, or the plethora of other ways to market oneself, see my Frequently Asked Questions page.

If you’re interested in an Albert Does it for Me/Us solution, also reach out via my Contact form and give me an idea of your project, scope, and budget.  Thanks!

As always, I’m open to feedback about this post or anything else on this site. Feel free to leave me a comment below!

Here’s to your business and life success!

—Albert Kaufman, Albertideation, Portland, Oregon

Social Media is Many Things to Many People

The many faces of social media

The more I use social media over the years the more convinced I am that it is very hard to say exactly what it is. There are various platforms and these are often hard to explain simply. I’ve been training people on how to use social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and others for about 11 years (in 2019).

I first started out by teaching classes in my living room – mainly – how does one use Facebook – personal pages vs. business pages + netiquette – how to be in those places and look like you have a cleu. As the various platforms have expanded their feature sets and made things a bit more difficult for businesses to reach their fans how people use them has changed.  Here are some of the new uses that I am experiencing and seeing in the field.

1. Some people are just using the systems as a messaging system – an example would be FB messenger. I note that I am having more and more personal “email-like” interactions via FB messenger than in the past. FB messenger seems to be replacing email in terms of personal connections/conversations in my world.

2. People pick their platforms and stick with them. I know a number of people who are mainly on one platform and that’s it. My next-door neighbor runs an Instagram page for his crystal business.  He’s up to 142K followers. I encouraged him to get going with email marketing – and he has, but really, he’s having so much success and fun with Instagram.. that he’s pretty happy with that one platform. Personally, I don’t recommend having all your eggs in one basket (ie, make sure to be list-building – that’s yours…) – but I see this across the board. People who are mainly on Twitter or FB – find a home and stay there.

3. Then, there’s how one spends their time on FB. I used to spend much more time on the newsfeed – and I’m sure many still do. But ever since I discovered Friends’ Lists and how to segment my friends + see all the posts of those who I most want to follow/learn from.. that has changed my FB experience dramatically. I also am using FB much more to network with others and connect around business topics in relevant groups. Active business or interest groups have changed my thinking about how a small, dedicated group of people can come together for a common purpose and really elevate everyone’s experience.

I’ve been looking for more insight into where people delve into how these prominent tools/platforms are being used – in non-obvious ways, but have not really found what I’m looking for. So, I’ll try putting out my own thinking on the topic and see how that goes.

Do you use social media in a way that you think was not intended by the creators?  Please share below!

Have a great Summer – Albert Kaufman, Albertideation, Portland, Oregon, The United States

PS – Please join my email list. I have a few different projects I’m working on and I’d love you along for the ride!

Digital Marketing Training Videos by Albert Kaufman

Videos by Albert Kaufman

I have been offering digital marketing training for the past 16 years. Each training offers a unique collection of insights and a lot of personal commentary! I recommend looking at all of the topics first before picking one to watch. You’ll probably find one that is perfect for your needs right now.

Thanks to Constant Contact for much of the educational content and the opportunity to hone my skills as a public speaker.  As always, I appreciate your feedback – please comment below.

Latest Video – The Constant Contact Partner Program – 10.18.23

Email Marketing 102 – 11.8.2020

Getting Started with Email Marketing

Getting Started with Email Marketing with Albert Kaufman – March 2017 from Albert Kaufman on Vimeo.

Digital Trends for 2017 – February 23, 2017

Digital Marketing Trends in 2017 with Albert Kaufman

Learn Constant Contact’s new 3rd Generation Editor

Power of the Inbox – part Constant Contact’s One in a Million Celebration – Constant Contact has educated over a million small businesses as of January 2016!

Ways to Automate Your Marketing: Save Time, Drive Results, Earn Loyalty 

Social Media Timesavers – July 2015

Getting Started with Email Marketing + Facebook and LinkedIn Tips & Tricks – January 2014 – but still super relevant in 2019!

Everything You Want to Know about Facebook But Are Afraid to Ask – February 2015 (still very relevant in Jan. 2019, and probably beyond!)

Measuring Your Marketing How to use reports and analytics to evaluate your marketing campaigns with Albert Kaufman – September 29th, 2015.

Standout Subject Lines – October 2015

Watch me work – December 2016 – a 40-minute session where I demo some of the tools I use – live!

How to set up a Birthday Autoresponder. You can also sign up for mine, here.

Thanks for watching. If you have any questions about anything I’ve written – feel free to contact me!

Happy marketing, Albert Kaufman

Albert at #OneCon2015 - training videos