As a community manager, what we do is about changing how people feel. And we’re not going to go into more details on that now.
What we are going to look at, is me deciding to change how people feel. But specific people. Don’t get me wrong I love my community dearly ( we launched on my birthday!), and we are incredibly closely connected. But these specific people were the ones closest to me in my life. And that’s going to mean the people I’ve added on Facebook. It’s simply the easiest way to get a message out to everyone I need to talk to.
What I did a few years ago was Facebook and tweet the concept #tellsomeoneyoulovethem. A simple enough concept. I told some people I loved them. They told me. A few people spread it on their own.
This time I needed to do more, I needed to make sure I got to everyone, so I did. I found a Facebook app that exports your friend list to a TXT file. (feel free to remove the app once you’ve exported).
I opened up excel and started filtering through. I flagged a few people (6 in fact) that I had no idea who they were. Friends of friends maybe? And a few others that I hadn’t realised were on my list.
And then I started to write. A simple message. The things I admire, adore and love about them. And a final word. I love you. Ensuring I tagged each person into their comment so they would be notified and see it. And the entire status is publicly visible so friends of theirs can see too.
To everyone. In the end it came out to be 173 people. 173 posts about love. And 11,639 words later I’ve finished my task.
It’s extraordinary uplifting to tell other people positive things. To bring something to someone else’s day. A few people cried. A few people told me they loved me too. A few people told me it made their day.
There can be no price, no cost, no amount you could fix on the joy to bring to people by telling them you love them. And sometimes we forget to.
I encourage anyone to share the list and show others, or even more so to make their own. To tell everyone you know not only that you love them, but WHY.
Because the world is a beautiful and magical place, and with just a few simple words, you could make it even more so for someone.
1 idea. 1 Facebook post. 43 hours. 200+ comments. 150+ likes 11, 639 words.
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