Facebook has brought together so many friends, relatives, ex-colleagues and ex-lovers that’s it’s a veritable forum for matchmaking in one way or another. Sometimes good, not always. One lovely connection for me has been making friends with Martine. We went to school and youth club together but didn’t know each other well, although we shared a large circle of friends. Martine moved to Israel when we were 19, so I never saw or heard anything from her or about her. And there our association would have ended, were it not for social media!
Martine was one of the first people to comment on this blog. Starting out in my early days with no idea what people might be interested in, she offered me positive feedback and motivation – especially with the song lyrics! When I considered dropping them she emailed in indignation that she loved guessing the song each week. So the lyrics stayed.
Martine visited London last week for the first time in ages. I met up with her and Lisa for lunch in the park we frequented during our high school years when we were supposed to be in science lessons. The helter-skelter’s no longer there – although I’m sure we’d have whizzed down if it were – none of us are that sophisticated that we’d have turned down a re-run of our teenage years.
So Martine has followed this blog consistently for three years. During that time I’ve developed various social media training sessions, including – of course – one on blogging. It’s actually content marketing, which covers blogs, emails, web pages and social media posts. I ran this very session on Thursday at Thurrock Council in Essex, meeting some amazing business owners.
Always pleased to connect with other ‘witches,’ The Wire Witch had come along to learn how to present information to showcase her fabulous Viking-inspired jewellery range. Using traditional techniques, she painstakingly weaves chain mail into gorgeous necklaces and bracelets in exactly the same way women would have done a thousand years ago.
The attendees also included a new cheesemaker, dipping his toe into the churn for the first time. (Not literally – that would not be a good cheese!) It gave me a hankering for a nice lump of Cornish brie though.
And speaking of all things Cornish, it was wonderful to catch up with my Cornish niece and nephew on Saturday night. I don’t see them enough. Really, they’re not Cornish – although they’ve lived in the Duchy for 15 years. We manage to keep on top of each other’s lives on Facebook, so it’s rare to miss anything important.
Aside from the social benefits of Facebook, it’s such a popular business tool – which is why I’m delighted to work with a packed room every time I run a social media session. I’m looking forward to reading the various blogs from Thursday’s delegates – Viking jewellery, cheese, physio, interior design, investments, embroidery, the care sector and so many more.
To sign off today, I Googled songs
about cheese. An album popped up called ‘The Ultimate Cheese Party’ – I guess it’s named as such because people at parties eat cheese… Anyway, it’s a brilliant CD full of dance and party tracks – and seeing the cover jogged my memory that I have this CD! I borrowed it from Gill around 15 years ago. Hopefully she won’t read today’s blog so I can keep it for a few decades more…
This song is on the album – Gill, Martine, Lisa – we all danced to this – no prizes for guessing!! ‘Toora loora toora loo rye ay; and we can sing just like our fathers.’ If you stop dancing for long enough and want to find out more about content marketing, you can ask me here: @WeekendWitch.
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