social media

There are 3 posts tagged social media.

Where I discovered a community of awesome individuals in 2010 and what I will make in 2011 – #Reverb10

In this post, I will reflect Prompt #7 of Reverb10 – if you are curious, check out Reverb10’s website here.

Prompt #7: Community

Where have you discovered community, online or otherwise, in 2010? What community would you like to join, create or more deeply connect with in 2011?

For me, the most powerful community I experienced this year was… Twitter. I joined Twitter few years ago, but I hadn’t used it actively until the end of 2009.

The most significant event that made me want to use Twitter more was to meet up with Gwen Bell (@gwenbell) in person when she visited Tokyo. Yes, that Gwen who co-organizes #Reverb10 (Hi Gwen!).

My Twitter usage became more active since then, and I’m happy to say that Twitter has been a very effective tool to find and to connect with like-minded people.

Let me mention some of the people I got connected with via Twitter this year and introduce their awesomeness to you.

  • Fernando (@HelloNavi) is a photographer extraordinaire, hailing from San Diego, currently based in Japan as an English teacher. He’s a great guy to talk with and I recommend you to take a look at his photos.
  • Rémi (@remino) is a French Canadian, web developing wizard. He has a great voice and I wonder when he will become a voice actor. If you need someone to do an extreme makeover on your website, say hello to him.
  • Sarah (@semisara) is one of the most energetic people I know. She is a journalist&photographer&translator with killer smiles and some kickboxing skills. Check out her website here.
  • Emi (@gyorome) is a fashion photographer&university student and I love the way she is. What fascinates me about her is how she can connect with people and do amazing things. There’s a lot to learn from her style.
  • Alice (@alicetokyo) is “an Italian heroine fighting monsters in Tokyo”. How awesome is that. Seriously, she’s awesome. She lives and studies at university in Tokyo, and writes blog posts for Vogue Japan. Her English website is here.
  • Etsuko (@EtsukoT) is specialized in coaching on international marriage as well as on parenting. We translated Chris Guillebeau’s “A Brief Guide to World Domination” into Japanese together. If you need some coaching on international marriage or parenting, talk to her!

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Now, let me talk about the community I want to create in 2011.

If you’ve been a reader of this blog for a while, you probably know that I want to make the world more romantic. In 2011, I will create a community of people who believe in their potentials and possibilities and seek beautiful moments in life. I’ve started writing a mini manifesto on this subject, and am planning to release it in the beginning of 2011. So, stay tuned if you are one of such people.

Your life is your art. My life is my art. Let’s create something amazing together.

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If you enjoyed reading this post, please share it with your friends. You can subscribe to this blog via RSS or e-mail, too. I’m looking forward to connecting with you!

Photo: wwarby

What fascinates me: Hooping tribe

My encounter with hooping was through my rad friend Kristen. I’ve known her since January and we read Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way together for 12 weeks. Kristen organizes a monthly hoop gathering “4th Sunday Spin” at Yoyogi Park in Tokyo. That’s where I got my first hooping experience as well. I am fascinated by hooping and hoopers, but what I really want to talk about in this post is… or I should say whom I really want to talk about is… Kristen.

Kristen choreographed a dance for this year’s World Hoop Day – October 10. She made tutorial videos and they look totally fabulous. But what’s more fabulous is that hoopers around the world recorded their World Hoop Day dance and uploaded these recordings online. Correct me if I’m wrong, Kristen, but what’s going to happen is that Kristen will edit those videos and put them together. I think that’s really, really cool.

I guess the reason why I’m fascinated by this whole thing is partly due to the fact that I witnessed how Kristen got rid of her creative blocks by working on The Artist’s Way.

And connecting people with hoops and social media! It’s a great example of sharing your passion with others and creating a tribe… creating a culture.

In fact, it’s so cool that I will quit being an irregular hooper and become a regular hooper. It’s a matter of time, ladies and gentlemen.

I recommend you to pick up a hoop as well! It’s a great way of having fun and doing exercises.

photo: nizzzat

Business idea: Argument Clinic (Day 28)

I’ve been learning about entrepreneurship a lot from $100 Business Forum by Chris Guillebeau and Pam Slim, and Question the Rules by Johnny B. Truant and Lee Stranahan in order to build a location independent business and my own empire. But at the same time, I’ve been struggling to find the most important element in this endeavor: products/services.

The problem is that even though I do come up with some business ideas, they don’t really look like what I’m after or there are so many people who do better than me.

Earlier today, Lee Stranahan (@Stranahan) tweeted:

If you had to start a business quickly to bring in a $1000 (one thousand) a month working at home, what would you do?

To which I replied:

Argument clinic. Helping people sharpen their logic&reasoning in what they’ve written. The real Q is: why haven’t I started it?

What I find interesting is that I didn’t have to think hard to come up with my reply to Lee. This argument clinic business isn’t what I’m looking for exactly, but it’s close enough and if it did grew up to be a source of $1000 per month, that would be totally fine.

So, why haven’t I started it yet? It really doesn’t cost me much to launch this business idea. Indeed, it’s hard to think of great reasons against starting this business. So, why not?

I love what Lee said in reply to my tweet:

But you have started it. You started it just now.

Sometimes a little encouragement like this one helps a lot. If you wanted to use such a service, what would want from it?