Supporting Ourselves & Others in 2017: A #Bufferchat Recap

Jan 5, 2017 4 min readBufferchat

We kicked off 2017 with a #bufferchat all about how supporting ourselves and others this year. The community shared how they want to grow, ideas for how to support themselves in achieving their goals, and intentions for how they can pay it forward and help others. Then, everyone shared the skills for which they are seeking mentorship, as well as skills they could mentor others on, and then people started reaching out and offering to help each other. It was a beautiful thing!

Read on to discover all of the awesome reflections and insights that were shared during the chat!

Catch our weekly Twitter chat, #bufferchat, at TWO times every Wednesday for valuable industry insights and to meet hundreds of other smart marketers and social media enthusiasts. Same topic, same place, just at different times – feel free to join in to whichever chat time works best for you!

For our community in Asia and Australia (or anyone else!): 4 pm AEDT (Sydney time)

For our community in North/South America, Europe and Africa (or others!): 9 am PT (San Francisco time)

Bufferchat on January 4, 2017. The topic was: Supporting Ourselves & Others in 2017

This week’s stats:
1st Bufferchat: 38 participants; 247 tweets; reach of 909,137
2nd Bufferchat: 202 participants; 1,684 tweets; reach of 1,651,335

Q1: How would you like to grow — personally or professionally — this upcoming year?

From the community:

  • “Both personally & professionally, I’d like to work on mindfulness! To be present & act with intention!” @CardozaGab
  • “I’m embracing the idea of only worrying about the things I can control – both professionally and personally. No extra stress.” @LScarpa22
  • “Professionally I plan to set goals far enough outside of my comfort zone that it causes me to stretch.” @devindcoleman
  • “I plan to take more risks this year, need to balance out research vs implementation.” @ideabloke
  • “To focus more on puzzle solving- professionally and personally. I love the feeling of progress and mental floss!” @mattagarr

See all the great answers to question 1 here!

Q2: What might be a great way for you to support yourself in that growth?

From the community:

  • “Seek out educational opportunities & training. Develop a clear strategy. Get to work! I also want to find a mentor in 2017.” @KymWrites
  • “Keep a learning mentality with absolutely everything :)” @tylerjkoenig
  • “Acknowledge my abilities. Own more of their success. Accept the fear of the unknown. Do more without self judgement.” @matageli
  • “Reflect and positive thinking. Setting attainable goals that will lead to bigger goals. Accountability.” @hellobrittnee
  • “Take time for myself and PUT IT IN MY CALENDAR (bc if not, I won’t do it) and surround myself with supportive relationships!” @HeyOrca

See all the great answers to question 2 here!

Q3: How would you like to help others and pay it forward this year? Set that intention now!

From the community:

  • “By enabling more #womenintech + educating the disadvantaged + enabling those breaking through paradigms.” @PlanetBrandee
  • “It might sound small, but LISTENING to people is a great way to pay it forward. Sometimes you just want to be heard.” @mobiusnewmedia
  • “Stand back and empower them to lead. Growth takes opportunity and risk. I can give the first and encourage the second.” @rmacklinrecruit
  • “Collaborate with people. Share ideas. Someone else’s success is not your failure. Help people succeed.” @EricSachs_SEO
  • “I’m doing the same as the previous year; For my national speaking gigs, I invite newcomers to co-present or share the stage.” @ShereesePubHlth

See all the great answers to question 3 here!

Q4: How will you keep yourself on track with your goals and mindsets? Any tips or strategies?

From the community:

  • “I find written goals when displayed work to remind, iterate, incentivize & hold accountable. Post-its!” @Chris_Santiago_
  • “This is the toughest thing to do. I struggle but I will rise to the occasion. Monthly reflection strategy on wins & learning.” @kumarmanish9
  • “I look at the mind map and visual board I created daily. I will reflect on progress weekly through writing.” @absolut_zer0
  • “Making goals public to your fans or your friends. Give them permission to call you on your stuff.” @rouxroamer
  • “Build on smaller habits first to stay consistent, which can eventually influence long-term plans.” @RiaEvko

See all the great answers to question 4 here!

Q5: What’s a skill you’d like to seek mentorship or guidance for this year — and why?

From the community:

  • “Help deepening my meditation practice; & maybe an accountability partner to help keep my goal of writing (something) daily.” @ApostateChick
  • “I’d definitely like to learn how to code! It’s a skill I’ve wanted to learn for a long time.” @matteocarvajal
  • “Creating systems. My way of doing it is very internal & not always the most efficient for group settings. Need help there.” @KristeenWrites
  • “I’m looking for a mentor who is also a single mom & working in tech. I’d like to learn ways to manage work & home better.” @MWestMillennial
  • “How to promote the good work I do – I give credit to my team all the time, but struggle with “yes, I did this & it rocks” :)” @JillLiles1

See all of the skills that our community members are looking to learn!

Q6: What’s a skill you’re experienced with that you’d be open to mentoring or helping someone with?

Check out all of the awesome skills our community members are experts at!

Q7: Now, if you’re up for it, look at the answers for Q5 and find someone who you can support in some way and offer to help!

This is where the magic happened — people started connecting and scheduling time to get together to support each other!


Thank you so much to everyone who participated and supported each other in this chat!

Do you have any comments or answers to these questions? Leave your thoughts in the comments! We’d love to hear from you!

Image sources: UnSplash

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