I got an idea!
My last two posts got such a great response – and enquiries – that I asked Lauren to participate in a small giveaway exclusive to my blog followers. She said: “I’ll give two!”
Hooray!
So — Does any of the following apply to you? Are you:
- New to social media or blogging and are looking for some best practices on how to increase engagement and community growth?
- Looking to increase your website traffic?
- A business owner, author, artist, etc. and want to know how to increase your brand exposure on social media?
- Or have you been on social media for a while and want an objective opinion on how to improve your current strategy?
Then you may wish to enter the draw.
Up for grabs:
A one hour phone/Skype/email consultation with my Social Media Strategist (and daughter), Lauren Reyes-Grange for 2 lucky winners!

How to enter:
1) Comment below (or on my Facebook page if you prefer) letting me know you are interested. OR:
2) Send a private email to: cynthia.reyes@rogers.com. I’ll forward directly to Lauren. In it, tell her why you want to win this consultation, and note your social media sites too.
There is no catch to this, and I’m staying out of the selection process. So don’t try sending me virtual sweets or any other wonderfully creative bribes. (ha, ha – I know you won’t.)
Contest closes on February 10, 2014.
Good luck!
**THANK YOU, LAUREN!**
I don’t need a consult – I don’t really have a social media site that needs advertising ( I blog for family and friends). I do, however, want to express my gratitude for your continued support and encouragement. Your comments mean a lot to me and they come at the best of times! You are wonderful and if your daughter is anything like you – the winner of this contest is surely blessed!
How generous of you to say this, especially since some days I feel like a total wimp! (smile)
I know you’re having a challenging time right now, so your taking the time to write this is extra-special. Keep the faith, and keep writing. I enjoy your blog, not the least because of your strength and your appreciation for those around you.
Being connected to strong people (not wimps!) like you helps keep me grounded and strong. so – back at you!
Thank you.
What a good (and generous) idea. While it would be a waste of talent on my casual blogging, I will forward info to a friend that’s an author (published one book, another manuscript now making the rounds). I’ve been telling her she really needs to utilize social media. Thank you daughter – she will be a big help to someone who will greatly appreciate it.
(And that sunny window looks like a lovely room to daydream in)
I’ll pass on the thanks to Lauren. Nice of you!
p.s. Your author friend has to be a blogger (I’m not fishing for more followers, just making sure it’s people who are in the blogging community).
I’ve got an email into her to see what all she’s managed to get started. Will get back if she’s interested and if she’s jumped into the blogging pool yet. Thanks
Okey dokes!
She can come through your blog for more info. Not sure what all she’s got going, but your daughter sounds terrific. (and I’m bookmarking this one)
This is awesome! I’m definitely interested. My main social media accounts are
Twitter: @faithsimone2011
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Author-Faith-Simone/392241397545150
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7889027.Faith_Simone
Cynthia, I’m absolutely interested. Thank you for letting us enter. And a thank you to Lauren for offering this contest on your blog. I’m hoping to catch the attention of an agent who recently requested to see my manuscript. Every bit of learning helps along the way.
Blessings ~ Wendy ❀
Fabulous, Wendy. I’ll look out for your email and forward it to Lauren.
Thank you, Cynthia. I’ve sent an e-mail. ❀
If I ever get that nature book written I’d love to talk to your daughter about how best to market it without having to go on a book tour, but I’d pay her for that consultation. Thanks to her for offering her skills!
What do you mean, if you ever? I and your followers have been waiting for that book! Have you ever seen a Jamaican-Canadian woman limping all the way from Canada to Keane, New England,brandishing her cane?
I can’t say that I ever have seen that but it does paint a scary picture. I’m not sure that even being beaten with a cane could get me writing any faster though.
I’ve never written a book but there must be a first step to the process. Since I’ve written this one in my mind I’m telling myself that I’ve taken the first and hardest step. Now I just need to find the time to put it all on paper, take the photos, and find someone interested.
It should be a piece of cake!
Yes, you’ve taken the crucial first step. Way to go, Allen!
You love taking photos and writing, so could you use your blog posts to “test” some of the chapters, or parts thereof? And I’d be happy to look at a chapter or two when you’re ready (if you would ever trust a scary Jamaican-Canadian woman with a cane).
See, I’m much better at this kind of positive stuff than brandishing a cane.
I have already snuck (sneaked?) some of my ideas for the book into blog posts but I didn’t tell anyone. They seem to have been well received and that helped the book take on a better form in my mind.
I’d like very much for you to critique a chapter or two. Thanks very much for the offer. I think it’s going to follow a winter, spring, summer and fall theme and right now I’m struggling with how to keep each section short and to the point.
I suspected that! Good going. There’s a mysterious, “hidden worlds” theme underlying all your posts that make your blog intriguing. I hope you maintain that in the book.
Thing @1: I suspected that!
Thing #2: The seasons sound like they could provide a strong structure for the book.
Thing #3: glad to read.
Thing #4: Don’t worry about keeping things short in your first draft. And don’t throw out anything you’ve edited. You may need to put it back in later. Hope this helps.
Okay, I just realized that if I brandished the cane, I would fall flat on my face. So I’ll have to think of some other torture for you if you don’t write your book. Hmm…
A gentle prod now and then might do it!
Okay, a gentle prod it is. But what if you don’t get moving?
Then I guess I’d have to tell you why I’m having such a hard time finding time to write anything down. For now I’ll just say that my grandmother always said that “everything bad happens in threes,” and she was proven correct once again.
I hear you. Take your time and get through this rough patch. The book will be a good thing to get back to when things calm down. Meanwhile, all my best.
HI Cynthia, Funny enough, I’ve just stumbled across your blog via another blog I follow and read your last two posts! I found them both interesting and helpful. I’ve been blogging for a year; I’m on FB but no other media links (similar to your situation before Lauren stepped in). I started my blog to chronicle my wanderlust, overcoming boredom, wondering ‘what’s next.’ My blog has rekindled my love of writing (maybe the answer is right there); My immediate goal is to capture my trials and travels in an interesting story. I’m also working on a short story or two but they are very rough. Would love Lauren’s help in getting the word out about wheremyfeetare. Thanks so much!
Okey dokes! Pls. send me your FB and blog URLs in an email and I’ll forward it to Lauren.
Awesome. I am so poor at Social Media. @realkimgosselin Twitter FB 2 pages (see, don’t even know link) 😦
Send me the info in an email and I’ll forward it, Kim.
Will do, Cynthia. Thank you so very much. 🙂
Good evening Cynthia!! Thank you and thank you Lauren for such a generous offer! I am so very interested. As you know Cynthia, I own my small woodshop artisan studio located in South Carolina. I have a blog and to post on Instagram. I would love to learn techniques that I need to improve on and my options on gaining more exposure to my work. Here are links to my sites;
https://michaelswoodcraft.wordpress.com/
http://instagram.com/michaelswoodcraft/
thank YOU!
Michael
Great, Michael. Thanks for providing your information. It will be passed on to Lauren. Hope your mountain isn’t too cold tonight. We have had a lot of snow here in southern Ontario.
Thank you Cynthia! We are not cold at all today, actually it is only 30 degrees F here right now! I heard that Ontario got a lot of snow. I hope you guys are safe and warm!! 🙂
If we stay indoors, we are! Glad you’re not too cold.
Thank you for leaving me the comment, I think we were both posting comments on each others sites at the exact same time!! 🙂
You two are sweeties. Such a lovely idea. I am not really looking to increase my following but I am sure I could learn something from a consultation. I may be hardpressed to find an hour for a Skype session. But, yes, why not. Please forward my name. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Okey dokes! Can you please send me both the blog URL and the Facebook one too if you wish, in an email?
Thank you.
What a lovely, generous idea. I would love to have a little advise on how evolve my blog to the next step, a bit more professional I mean. And how to incorporate more social media. However, i will not be disappointed when I do not ‘win’ this nice gesture of the two of you. xoxo and have a lovely weekend, Johanna
Hey, it’s a draw, so who knows? You could win! I’ll forward this to Lauren.
What a wonderful idea you have had and how kind your daughter is! I won’t be taking you up on your generous offer though, as I am somewhat hard pressed at present.
I know! Wishing you great stamina. You handle so much, so well.
Elinor has had another anxiety attack this week and is very disappointed with herself. She will cope better this time I know. Thank-you for your kind wishes!
I understand. She will. She’s stronger than she knows.
I do use social media, Cynthia, but I’m not selling anything- well, just myself in the hope that something good might come along. I would be interested, mostly because I feel I’m increasingly falling behind in this world of #s and Instagram.
Thanks for the kind thought 🙂
So, Young Lady Jo: are you entering the draw?
Let me know!
Yes, please 🙂
Just sent an e-mail to join the throng of those entering the contest. Thanks for doing this.
Got it, Karen.