I had long sit down with Paco today, I could use the soothing. I am finding some people to be very...impolite...when it comes to voicing their desires. It seems that many people are so tightly wound these days, angry really, that if they get an invite from a little donkey to join his birthday celebration, rather than ignore it-like I and many do daily on social media when we get a zillion requests-instead a percentage of people feel the need to leave a large print post on his birthday page explaining,
"Don't send me these fundraisers any more, sorry, I can't bare them."
Now if this had been from a stranger, I would have deleted her from my friend's list and walked away-when I create a fundraiser on FB it is public, but I am prompted to invite all my Facebook friends on my list-there is no way to create segmented lists on a fundraiser. And if you don't invite your friend's list, nobody is going to see it. On top of this, I do the usual posting on my own page. I always seek a balance of regular posts with fundraing posts, and you can't please anyone. This is someone I had respected for her art, and vice versa, for over ten years, and we have met in real life. I have always shared my art and book news with her, and she has always sent me promos. I have also been very generous with sharing her work online, and that was mutual. I am much more active online than she is however, and I now run a 501[c][3]. I was shocked that rather than private message me, she put this comment directly on little Paco's birthday fundraiser page where he was been having fun posting poems and photos. At first I thought maybe she was being funny, so I wrote her. I told her the only way to ensure she never see anything again, since she clearly sin't that savvy about how to work with her FB settings, was to let me unfriend her, that was really the only way I knew to ensure she never saw my posts if they were that bothersome to her. She replied that was fine, then said she "loved my posts, but she couldn't bear my constant fundraising efforts."
I was taken a back. And yes, hurt. I analyzed my marketing efforts, reviewed some discussions I'd just had with a marketer at a non profit help group, and even wrote them again and asked their opinion. They said if anything, I could increase my promoting and asking for money.
Oh well, it's her loss, and her desire, she is blocked now so god forbid she get a glimpse of one more poem from a little donkey, or a post about an old goat, or photos of old ladies holding Opie.
If any of you are bothered by my marketing, please let me know-I will delete you from my main data base, Instagram feeds, newsletters and Facebook-I don't have a problem with it. Why this person could not have handled it a bit more lovingly, I don't know, especially since she is a freelancer herself.
But the incident is dead to me now.
And Paco continues, as I speak, to pencil his poems on paper, hand them to Benedetto who sticks them on the fence post for me. n fact, one just blew my way,
"Don't let the poorly chosen worded ones
Stop our funs."
Love, Paco.
