What’s The Buzz; Tell Me What’s A Happening. Look Mum, I’ve become a bee!!!!

It was just a mere eight months ago that I received an invitation from one of beBEE’s employees asking if I would consider posting on a new social media platform out of Madrid.

Up until that, time I was a frequent ‘blogger” on Linked in but, if truth be told I was becoming a little disillusioned with that monolith as the numbers reading my posts on ‘Pulse’ were falling faster than the Dow in a bear market.

Curious, I browsed the beBEE site, read a few posts and without much hesitation pressed the orange ‘sign up’ button, entered my profile and, within seconds I was suddenly a ‘bee.’ (Felt a little weird really, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.)

The first post published was a piece entitled,  https://www.bebee.com/@ flying low cost airlines? it really does pay to read the small print. As a travel writer, once the ‘cease and desist ‘ clause most magazines impose on contributors publishing on other sites or publications, expires, I immediately post on the likes of Linked in, FB and my website etc. only this time I put my toe into the water and posted it on beBEE.

The results were staggering!

Not only did over three thousand ‘bees’ read the post in a little over 48 hours, but I received an e – mail from the marketing department of Air Asia (the airline I had a dig at in the article) asking if all was well and would I consider writing for their in -flight magazine, 360. !

Over the past eight months I have become, what I suppose you would call a serial poster and I derive an enormous amount of pleasure in reading and replying to comments on several of the posts I have published. Many of those comments are akin to being ribbed by old and dear friends who feel they have the right to do so. 

 I love it!

Also,when I joined FB and Linked in, I don’t recall getting a note from Mr Zuckerberg or the head of Linked in for that matter, welcoming me aboard. Yet Javier Camara took time out from his obviously insanely busy schedule to extend a warm welcome to the site even though he already had millions of bees in his ‘hive. ’

So, nearly a year on what have I gained from being on beBEE?

I have certainly made a lot of friends and, even though they are ‘virtual,’ I feel that when the day comes when I have the opportunity to meet face to face with a few of them, the warmth extended online will be abundant in spades.

They say that writers these days outnumber readers and that is possibly true (a bitch if you are a novelist) however, I can while away hours reading gritty posts from the likes of jesse kaellis whose tales of his intrepid life journey keep me enthralled. Our China correspondent, Dean Owen  has the unique ability to transport one on magical journeys throughout China and SE Asia.

Then there are the likes of Dean Owen, Phil Friedman,  Don Kerr, Gert Scholtz, Phil Friedman John White, MBA  Randy Keho Jim Murray and Gert Scholtz to name but a few whose sardonic wit, wisdom and humour can leave the reader with more than a lot to think about.

And then of course there are the women who populate the hives and what and incredible bunch (swarm?) of women they are. Pamela L. Williams  John White, MBA , Aurorasa Sima and Kevin Pashuk and many , many more whose writings always seem to be so poignant.

So, this unashamedly positive endorsement for, beBEE is I feel warranted as I have been waiting for a long time for a platform such as this one to come along. I love the ‘friendliness’ of the site, I like the way bees interact with each other, and I adore the fact that people are so willing to share their experiences and stories.

Sure, as the site grows, as it is currently doing, the quality of the content may decline and trolls will undoubtedly appear, but that is the nature of life in general and we certainly don’t have to read BS if one does'nt want to. In addition, the sheer quantity of material will grow exponentially meaning that the volume will ultimately swamp potential readers. However the ‘clever’ use of hives means that it is easy to pop into a hive that suits the reader’s needs to find the content that he or she wants to read.

I now live in country of 300 million people who have, in the last ten years  embraced social media with unbridled passion and gusto, so much so that a billion tweets whizz out from their phones each and every day! Methinks when they discover beBEE it will be a vehicle where, unlike FB they can and will be able to express their views and opinions to a world that knows very little of Indonesia.

These days (by choice) I have left the business world behind but occasionally read many of the motivational pieces posted by those in the business environment. Me? I prefer writing  in the more flippant, tongue in cheek style that would have gotten me fired a few years ago.

So beBEE, so far so good as it would seem that you will go from strength to strength and I will merely hang on for what I suspect will be an enjoyable  ride.

Oh, and a note to new bees. Please, no pictures of your cute kittens hiding in a bucket or images of what you had for breakfast. Restrict those sort of posts to Mr Zuckerberg’s little site; their audience is so much more amenable to that sort of content.

Paul v Walters is a best selling novelist who, when not cocooned in sloth and procrastination scribbles for several in – flight and vox pop journals. His latest offering, Scimitar was released in September 2016.