Just Breathe.
November 5, 2009
I woke up today and my shoulder hurt. My back hurt. My ankle hurt. (Did I mention I fell down the kitchen stairs the other day?)
It was far too early.
I’m not a morning person by nature… usually, if I’m seeing the dawn it’s because I stayed up too late, not because I got up too early. Traveling eastward is somewhat nightmarish for me, as it puts me getting up even earlier than usual… whereas westward is soothing since I get an excuse to stay up later and the morning lets me sleep in just a bit.
My darling husband usually takes Buttercup to school in the mornings. This is good – because really, even when I am awake, I’m not sure driving at that hour is my best bet. But with enough coffee, a 5 Hour Energy, and a good reason, I can be “she who braves the cross-town rush hour traffic” and get my daughter safely there.
Of course, GeekDaddy being out of town usually provides the good reason.
This week he has been in New York and Philadelphia on business, so I’ve been on morning, afternoon, and night duty. This explains to those who know me why I fell down the stairs. I’m ten times more accident prone when my husband is out of town. He claims this is because I’m trying to get him to come home. I think perhaps my subconcious agrees with him. Because it seems to throw me down stairs, drop things on my head, sprain things, burn and cut and bruise things, and generally leave me in sorry shape whenever he is gone. He gets back tonight. I’m glad, because that means I’m less likely to end up in the E.R. before the weekend.
Where was I before I started rambling?
Oh yes, I woke up. I hurt. I got up anyways.
I got ready and got the kidlet ready 20 minutes earlier than usual. I say “than usual” because I was following GeekDaddy’s morning routine schedule with her. It usually gets them out of the house just in time to make it to school on time. I’ve discovered however that part of the issue with his routine is that it involves great stretches of a zombielike kidlet sitting on her bathroom rug staring off into space or playing with toys. It turns out that the right motivation gets her moving faster.
So, we managed to get one game of Mario Kart for the Wii* in before leaving for school (*cough* the right motivation) and then we took off with both of us just a little more awake than usual. It seems that crashing cars into each other and off cliffs does something for the adrenaline factor in the morning. Huh. Who knew?
As I drove her the 30+ minute drive to school, the sun was up. I was on my second cup of coffee. We chatted a bit. I ended up on a call with my best friend.
I dropped the kidlet off in her class, chatted with a few parents, headed out and got into my car… but before I started the engine, I looked out the window.
There, off to the West, were the snow-covered caps of the Rocky Mountains that rise up from the plains to eventually meet the Great Divide – where water flows mindlessly toward either the Atlantic or the Pacific oceans. There, off to the East, the sun was well on her way up into the morning sky… still low enough to cause drivers to need their sunglasses and to prove flipped-down visors useless, but turning the sky the most amazing shade of blue. The clouds overhead were not omenous or looming, just puffy little white sheep slowing drifting in their airy pastures.
I stopped.
I took a deep breath and expelled it with a somewhat more satisfied sigh of relief than I had expected from myself at such an early hour.
I thought about the world around me and my place in it. I thought about the changes that are looming by choice and those that were looming whether I desired them or not. I thought about the possibilities that each new day brings and the metaphors for the dawn and what the rising sun reveals. I thought about all the cliches that time has worn familiar: “the dawning of a new day” and “it’s always darkest just before the dawn” and “tomorrow is another day”…
And just for a moment – a mere moment of time – I was a “morning person.” I was optimistic and ready to go and carpe any diem I could find!
Then I laughed at myself for feeling a bit too much like a heroine in a badly written novel (no Jane Austen narrating my existence, thank you.) I started the engine, called my friend back, and drove home to tackle the dozen mundane tasks of work and life that hold no place in a novel of any sort.
But despite that… Here I am, writing about how sometimes, in the midst of the average day? It helps to just stop. And breathe. And think of all the possibilities…
*administrative note: this post was not made in conjunction with any brand or advertiser. No product was supplied or compensation of any sort given to the author. My daughter just happens to be currently hooked on the game MarioKart, so I’m putting it in here. But for the record? I fully endorse it – it’s a good game. I just happen to endorse it of my own free will.
Breaking Up the Band
November 3, 2009
Back in June, I wrote a post sharing my good news with anyone who would listen about my dream job and how it materialized when I least expected it to show up, but was most prepared to find it.
And then I promptly fell off the face of the blogging planet.
I’ve been really busy working a lot since then. I’ve also been really busy learning a lot since then. Mostly, I’ve learned more about the traditional side of marketing. But there were some unexpected lessons as well.
One of the most important lessons I’ve learned I should’ve probably figured out somewhere in my twenties, but seemed to have missed in the quest to acquire such useful skills as casting bronze and living in a tent.* It seems that having two totally diverse visions only works well in collaboration if you are John Lennon & Paul McCartney (and even that didn’t last forever.)
In Plain English
Let me just ditch my tendency toward metaphor for a bit and put things down here as clearly as I can.
Over the past four and a half months, I’ve had the privilege to be the Director of Social Media for Collective Bias. But increasingly it’s been evident to both John Andrews (managing partner) and I that we weren’t heading in the same direction.
John and I have known each other since July of 2008 when he started the Walmart ElevenMoms program and asked me to be a part of it. We worked well together on that program and became friends along the way, so when he asked me to join his newly formed Social Media agency? It seemed like a natural fit for both of us.
But in a startup, the pressures are different than they are in an established company. Leadership really must be on the same page and the vision has to be pretty clear. You don’t have the luxury of spending a lot of time negotiating every little detail – there’s a lot of work to be done if you want to make it past the startup phase. And there are always too few people to do that work even in a well-funded startup. No man hours can afford to be wasted on anything that isn’t going to help the company move forward.
Striking the Wrong Chord
It didn’t take John and me very long to figure out that we weren’t harmonizing well. (Yes, we’re back to the music metaphor. I can’t help myself, it fits!) It’s not that we weren’t both accomplished artists, it’s that we were singing entirely different tunes. It was confusing the rest of the band… it was making things sound horrible to the audience… it was generally just not working for anyone.
When John first suggested to me that we really needed to re-evaluate the nature of my role in the company, I couldn’t hear what he was saying. After all, except in the fast-paced world of the Internet, we had barely started. I heard instead that he didn’t like my tune. So I resisted and kept insisting that we could figure it out if we just tried harder.
I was wrong. Trying harder isn’t always the solution.
It’s kind of like singing louder – it doesn’t make the tune any more pleasant, it just means that you either drown someone else out or you end up shrieking trying to be heard.Neither makes sense.
So a couple of weeks ago, I came to the same conclusion John had already reached. Something had to change. Someone had to back down. And honestly? It had to be me.
I had to realize that just because the band wasn’t going to sing the tunes I have in my head didn’t mean that those tunes weren’t good, and just because they weren’t mine didn’t mean that the ones John was creating weren’t good either. But I’ve been the metaphorical equivalent of a jazz singer trying to fit into a rock band.
Yeah, it took mere months & not years for me to figure out that this band wasn’t the right band for me and for John to figure out that I wasn’t the right singer for his band. So sue us. Maybe we don’t need to have a Yoko Ono to bear the blame. Maybe we’re smart enough to figure it out before we end up only talking through our press agents.
Whether or not anyone else thinks it was enough time to figure it out? We do. So after much conversation, we’ve worked out a transition plan that works best for us.
A Long, Lingering Note
So, at the end of November, I’ll be leaving Collective Bias as their Director of Social Media. We decided to take our time and do it right, so we can get everything transitioned and get the right person/people in place that will help John and his company to move forward with his vision.
If you’ll forgive me for sticking to my band metaphor past the point of prudence? I’ll be finishing a few gigs we already had agreed to while Collective Bias auditions my replacement and s/he learns their songs. I may even sit in from time-to-time down the road if they need me and I’m available (we call that ‘working contractually’ or ‘consulting’ in the non-music world.)
So, was it my dream job? Yes. And No.
But it was definitely worth pursuing to find out – as are all such dreams – and I would do it all over again. I was privileged to work with an amazing team of people and I learned a lot from each of them. I consider myself very fortunate to be given the opportunity.
Are we “breaking up the band” as I said in my title? No, not really. Collective Bias will go on to make their own Social Media music without me.But, after next month? I’ll be able to hang out in the audience enjoying their performances, while I keep working on the songs that are in my own heart.
*Those skills are real, but that’s a post for another day.
Twitter Lists – Hot or Not?
November 1, 2009
This week the rest of the Twitterverse got a look at the long anticipated Lists feature. Despite the polite request by Twitter for the beta testers to keep it mum, rumors had naturally leaked about their existence. The careful systemwide rollout by the Twitter team heightened the anticipation and excitement as more and more users logged in to see that the new feature had been added to their account.
The technorati have been weighing in with mixed reviews. Some folks like Robert Scoble love the feature and others like Chris Brogan find it to be less than desirable.
In the next few days to weeks, there will be dozens of posts on Lists – because it really is a radical change in the functionality of Twitter and will continue to have ramifications the effects on the usage of the platform.
Of course, like any good GeekMommy, I’ve done my own tests, research and analysis. And like any other blogger out there, I’m ready and willing to overshare share my findings with you.
Pros and Cons
For the sake of clarity, I’m resorting to ye olde bulletpointed list. It seems that embedding analysis in long paragraphs tends to get the information skimmed and comments pop up that get stuck on misconceptions.
On the Plus Side
I find it good to look for the positives first. After all, tools are created to be useful, right? And if I’m being candid, this tool can be really useful. Used beneficially, I can see where it’s very appealing.
- Sharing Great Resources – Lists make it easier for you to share good resources with someone who isn’t as familiar with the people you follow. If you’re a political wonk and know that 2 dozen people out of the thousands you follow already are the ones to read when it comes to current politics? Making a list for those who wouldn’t know which ones you’d suggest is an awesome tool
- Filtering Your Own View – granted, most people who want or need viewing filters have already switched to a 3rd party application such as Tweetdeck, Tweetgrid or Seesmic that allows them to create groups. But this is built in Twitter integration. The benefit of which is that all of those 3rd party apps will have to incorporate the ability to view Lists, so you don’t have to rebuild your groups if you move from app to app. The groups will now be lists and only have to be built and maintained in one place.
- Viewing Other Peoples’ Filters – Twitter used to have an awesome feature that you could view someone else’s twitterstream the way they saw it. Many of us used this as a good way to find new people to follow – you’d go to a user’s profile that you liked/respected/found interesting, click on the tab that let you see their stream and see what they saw. When that feature went aways it was a loss, because you could no longer put yourself in someone else’s seat. Now, with the ability to follow someone else’s public List, you can regain part of that functionality. Since Lists are currently limited to 500 members though, if the author of the List follows more than 500 people, at best, you can get a partial view. Still, if the List mirrored someone’s “preferred view” you might see what they look at most of the time in one of those apps like Tweetdeck.
- No Commitment – presently, when you follow someone else’s list, you’re simply giving yourself a link to that view, not following any of the list members. Again, it’s more like clicking over to see someone else’s stream than actually adding people to yours. Sort of a try before you buy. You can always click to view the members of the List and follow or unfollow folks from there.
On the Minus Side
- Noble Intentions Are Not the Norm – the potential for abuse/misuse of Lists is high. Let’s be candid, shall we? There will always be people who use something with the best of intentions and there will always be those who use it with the worst of intentions. If the beneficial uses outweigh the destructive ones? Then it’s a good idea. But relying upon people to not abuse something or use it for harm is naive. Let’s talk about how this feature can be abused, shall we?
- yes, this is a real troll lister
1) Negative Lists – it’s all well and good to find yourself on the “Really Smart People” list, it’s not exactly a joy to see your name on the “Stupid Egotistical Ass” list. Sure, we can say that people “shouldn’t care” or “should grow thicker skins” but ’shoulds’ and ‘ares’ are two different things. The truth is that most people are hurt when people say mean things about them. Especially in public. Worse yet? What if that list comes up on the first page of Google? Sure, it’s not supposed to mean anything really – but what happens when the HR person Googling your name comes up with a bunch of links to lists that are vile? Do you really think that impression won’t linger in the back of her mind?
2) Gaming Lists to Swindle the Unwary – for quite some time now, there has been an element on Twitter that has used high “followers” numbers to indicate to potential clients that they were some sort of “social media expert” and the unwary were not clued in to the number of tools that allowed people to ‘game’ that number using loopholes that allowed them to artificially inflate those numbers. Lists will be even easier to game. That the number of lists one is on is shown on a users profile page is a weakness that will be exploited. “I have over 50k followers and am on over 300 Lists for Social Media Experts” is a phrase that we can expect the unwary to hear as they are pitched by these “experts.” How can you game them? Far more easily than getting 50k followers. Each account is able to create up to 20 lists with up to 500 names on the list. Expect to see services that say “join this service and create 20 lists with names of other users and you will be on thousands of lists yourself shortly!” Yes, this will happen. Yes, the knowledgable will discount the influence of number of lists quickly. But just like people still think that number of followers means something as a metric, so too, they will look at number of lists as one.
- Unintentional Hurt or Offense – Chris Brogan covered this thoroughly in his post so I’ll just outline it simply. I know that we’re all supposed to be emotionally secure adults, unaffected by inclusion or exclusion from being put on someone else’s Lists. I know that more than one person is going to comment about that below. But can we drop the pretense? Even the most secure, well adjusted person feels a little twinge of disappointment when s/he isn’t included by someone s/he respects and thinks values them back. Sure, I don’t care what a stranger on the Internet thinks of me – but I sure as heck do care what someone I respect and value thinks of me. If I don’t make your “really awesome cool people” List? I probably won’t say anything, because I’d rather pretend that it was accidental rather than intentional… because finding out that it wasn’t an oversight? That would hurt.
You know what? I don’t want to hurt or offend or exclude anyone I care for. And I know I would. I know that at some point, someone I care about would feel left out or disappointed. I don’t want to be “that gal” – the one who left a dear friend off of the list and didn’t find out until years later that she was hurt but didn’t want to say anything.
- People Are Subjective, Not Objective – so you set out to make a list of “Thought Leaders” in your area. You’re adding people to your list when you realize that @UserX really should be on the list. S/he is generally considered a thought leader after all. But damn it all, you *hate* @UserX! You think s/he is a fraud. You just can’t bring yourself to endorse @UserX. What do you do? Pay lipservice to @UserX and add them? Or leave them off the list knowing full well that you are being less than honest with your list? Tough call, isn’t it. Emotions can and will play a factor in most peoples’ Lists.
- Changing the Twitter Ecosphere – this one I know won’t make a lot of sense immediately, but it will in a couple of months. Lists will change the way people engage on Twitter – and probably not for the better. The ability to follow someone *else’s* list without actually having to commit to anything will change things in the long run. As a new user, I now no longer have to commit to following someone to see them regularly. I can follow a list they are on and read that list whenever I choose. Do you know I’m interested in what you are saying? No. Do I know you exist? Not necessarily. Currently, if you follow me, I get notified. I go and look at your twitterstream and decide if you’re real, not spamming me, and not offensive. If so? I follow you. Now, you follow a list that follows me. You might @ me, I might @ back – but if I click through to your stream and see you aren’t following me? The likelihood I’ll follow you is slim. Have we engaged? Do we have a relationship? Nope, not really. What will this do in the long run? Not sure exactly, but relatively sure that it’s not going to help me connect with new people. The value of Twitter for me has always been in connecting with people and I suspect that value is just about to be diminished.
Well That’s Most of My Story
So honestly, if you made it through all of that (wordier than I intended again) I think you might understand why I am opting out of the whole “List creation” experience. I certainly don’t think it’s “evil” – but I think the negatives outweigh the positives.
I kind of hate the fact that I’m going to have to monitor the Lists people put me on semi-regularly to see whether or not I have to block some trollish attempt to put me on a derogatory list. Every moment that I have to spend doing that is one that I don’t get to interact with people I want to on Twitter. But I’m also not going to wait until Twitter figures out how to monitor their own nifty feature to see that it’s not abused.
I appreciate if you love the positive aspects of Lists. I just hope you now appreciate that there are negative aspects which I doubt Twitter considered when they implemented the feature.
What did I miss? Something positive or negative that hasn’t come up yet?
Add to my perspective please. But if you’re just going to say “people shouldn’t be offended”? Yeah, don’t waste your time. I already addressed that above under Negative Lists.
Geek Moments In Television
October 31, 2009
As GeekDaddy and I got caught up on DVRed episodes of Stargate Universe, it suddenly occurred to me that whomever pitched this series – and it’s predecessors – to the SciFi Channel* must’ve really been hardcore television science fiction geek… and by that? I mean “a fan of the Star Trek franchise.“**
What made me think this? It was a quick conversational moment between me and my husband. We were speculating whether or not this particular Stargate series would see the cast leaving the ship for a planet or not.
Visions of previous science fiction shows where the ship’s unending voyage flashed through my head: Farscape, Battlestar Galactica (both versions) and then naturally Star Trek.
I looked at my husband and said “huh… do you realize that this kind of mirrors the Star Trek series?”
What did I mean?
Well, there was this one really awesome television show, Star Trek (the original series), and this one really awesome movie, Stargate. They both launched franchises that have pretty much been juggernauts. Oddly, the underlying premise of the order of the series in each franchise matches up nicely.
Star Trek – the Next Generation (TNG) ===> Stargate SG-1 (SG-1)
Both revolve around people leaving their home base (TNG the ship, SG-1 the Earth base) to have episodic run-ins with the evil-or-not-so-evil aliens. Initially, everything was wrapped up during the course of one episode. TNG had the Romulans and SG-1 the Goa’uld. As things progressed, each morphed into multi-episode story arcs and got a bigger, badder, smarter, scarier enemy. TNG got the Borg and SG-1 got the Ori.
Star Trek – Deep Space Nine (DS9) ===> Stargate Atlantis (ATL)
Both take place on remote outposts. Earth isn’t in the picture here really. Sure there’s some contact. Sometimes the outpost is cut off. Both have wormholes to distant galaxies and Either way, there’s some mysterious race that provides the focus for the show – the Founders/Changelings of the Gamma Quadrant for DS9, the Ancients in the Pegasus Galaxy for ATL. The station inhabitants are usually on their own to face their problems – but somehow there’s also a bunch of local friendly aliens who get worked into the core team as trusted members.
Granted, the Founders end up being the complex bad-guys of the Dominion in DS9, while the gothy Wraith in ATL were the accidental foe of the Ancients – but hey, at least they didn’t stick with the lame Cardassians (DS9) or the Genii (ATL) who were essentially just angry, militaristic foes, rather than complex ones.
Star Trek – Voyager (VOY) ===> Stargate Universe (SU)
Granted, it’s only 5 episodes into SU as I write this, but come on now… a bunch of people, on a ship, far far from home – struggling to get back to Earth. STV only put their crew 75 years from home, a mere 70k light years away from home. SU has upped the ante by throwing their crew “billions of light years from home” in another galaxy entirely, not just a far-flung quadrant of the Milky Way. Both series have that “will they or won’t they ever get home?” element that wears thin after awhile. While it took VOY awhile to figure out how to create a method of contact between the ship & Earth, SU starts right off usings a communications device first used in the SG-1 series to have the two worlds touch base occasionally as necessary.
Still not convinced? Well, granted, the timing was a bit off, but both did have a not-as-successful-as-the-rest animated series: for Star Trek, it was Star Trek: The Animated Series in 1973 & 1974 while Stargate Infinity only ran for one season starting in 2002 and barely made a blip on the radar. Still, it’s worth noting that both franchises gave it a go.
Looking into the future & seeing the past
So where does that leave us? Well, if things keep progressing, apparently the next Stargate franchise will take its cue from Star Trek and we’ll have a “Stargate Ancients” series that mirrors Stargate Enterprise in taking us “back to the beginning.” At least, if they haven’t already done it, they ought to look at it. I have to say that I never watched a single episode of the Enterprise series – but it ran for 4 seasons. Hey, why mess with a successful formula?
Are you listening Brad Wright?*** Yeah, we’re on to you. Keep up the good work.
* Now SyFy but I still hate that name change.
** I know, I looked it up near the end of writing this – but I had no idea when the thought first occurred to me.
*** Yes, I looked it up on Wikipedia just for this article. No, I don’t really think it was planned this way, but I think I might be more impressed if I thought it was, rather than it just being an uncanny coincidence. Either way, if they end up doing something similar? I’m sure it had nothing to do with this post . It’s not like anyone couldn’t think of it.
And then there was silence… But now? Not so much!
September 17, 2009
Someone asked me the other day if I was a blogger.
I didn’t really know how to answer that. I mean, the last time I actually updated this blog was back in *cough* June.
It’s not that I didn’t think about writing. I did. I thought about it hard every night as I fell asleep exhausted. It turns out that being a full-time mom and working for a startup is harder than it sounds.
My daughter was home all summer and yet, there were still things that had to be done. So of course, something had to give — unfortunately, in my case it meant writing on my blog.
But my little Buttercup went back to school at the end of last month, so I really have no excuse not to get back into blogging. Except for that part where I’m still presently working for a startup. It’s amazing how “spare time” becomes “not a second to spare” in that case. I kind of forgot. But then, the last startup I worked for was pre-kidlet. Sheesh. A lifetime ago! That would’ve been 2001!! Whoa.
Still, there are some many things I do want to write about and share with y’all. So I’m going to have to just make the time, huh?
Much travel coming up. As usual? I’ll bring my camera and it will live in my suitcase. Good thing I’ve got an iphone now and can embed Whrrl stories in my blog!!
Whrrl ? Oh, you’ll see… they’re my favorite obsession of late. You know how I was talking about Twitter back in 2007 and y’all thought I was crazy? Yeah, well… if you’re not using Whrrl by 2011 I’ll be surprised.
Check it out. Pretty awesome. I think hey deserve a full write up of their own. Aha! Something to write about this weekend!
This Whrrl story was created by me and some of the Whrrl guys and friends out in Detroit at the MARS home office. We were there for a visit. What an awesome day! Wish you could’ve been there with me, but this is the next best thing! 
My New Gig
June 22, 2009
I’ve started this post a dozen times. I’ve thought it ought part-way at least 3 dozen times. I never get past the first paragraph or two before I collapse in either giddiness about the news, or backspace & delete madly because I think I sound to pompous – or artificial – or well, just want to go start doing the happy dance instead of writing.
I figured though, if I could find the headline for it, that would make it much easier to write. Fortunately, two women I admire greatly have already written their own variations on this post in the past couple of months — Shannon Paul when she went to work for Peak6 in April and Steph Agresta when she went to work for Porter Novelli just a couple of weeks ago. How could I do any better than to borrow the title both of these amazing women chose to use? Third time is the charm, right?
And it is a good title, you know.
Gig’s a great word for what we do. Dictionary.com offers up this as one of the 22 definitions it has:
gig (2) “job,” first used by jazz musicians, attested from 1915 but said to have been in use c.1905; of uncertain origin.¹
When I say gig, I think of jazz. I think of music as simple as a snare drum and a piano riff that can become as complicated and syncopated as a city street at full tilt.
Social Media is kind of like that to me — something that’s as natural as one person talking to another; and as complicated as one million people talking amongst themselves. Yeah, gig sounds right for a job that involves Social Media. I think both Stephanie & Shannon got that one bang on the nose.
So if you’ll bear with me? I think I’ll let this unfold a bit more like a piece of impromptu jazz – from the soul, without a plan, but starting with the song in my heart.
The BackBeat
Last year, I was lucky enough to find myself sitting in Las Vegas during BlogWorld Expo at the TechSet² party at Bare, talking to Tony Hsieh. Tony is one of the lowest key guys you’d ever want to meet, but also one of the smartest. There’s a reason his company (Zappos.com) has had such exponential growth under his leadership. His insights are that scary-kind-of-smart that makes you laugh nervously and wonder why you didn’t think of that and then realize that he’s just that sharp.
We were talking about a lot of things and nothing of importance — certainly not talking about the panel he’d graciously agreed to be on for me the next day — when all of a sudden, he looks at me with one of those shrewd looks he gets and says “so tell me… What’s your dream job?”
I was totally caught off guard. So I laughed nervously (like I mentioned above) and told him I’d think about it and get back to him.
That conversation has sat in the back of my mind with every career decision I’ve made since last September. Because I didn’t really even have the least notion of what my dream job was. In fact, I think I’d pretty much stopped believing there was such a thing.
But it did occur to me that a guy like Tony doesn’t ask silly, idle questions about things like that. I mean, his company pays people to quit if they don’t really want to work there after training — because they want people who really want to be there.
The Melody
My dream job… What the heck was that? I guess it meant not working for someone else… because I was tired of having a solution for a problem and not being able to implement it. Tired of seeing an easy fix for something and knowing that meant a lengthy battle to get it applied. Tired pretty much of seeing people & companies hit the wall because it was better to go full-speed ahead into it on the word of “someone very important” than it was to admit that it was a good idea to hit the brakes no matter who pointed out the looming wall — be it the janitor or the receptionist.
I couldn’t imagine the kind of company or bosses that would make working for them a joy rather than an impediment. So I thought I might as well continue to work for myself so that I could fire the client if need be.
You see, I absolutely, positively, no-holds-barred love the field that is currently being called Social Media. Yes, I know – I argued against the term because it originally meant the tools used to have a multi-way conversation. But over the past couple of years it’s come to mean more than that. It has come to mean those who use the tools, what can be done with the tools & the communities, and how it’s being done. Not just marketing, or real estate, or even personal conversations – but all of those – and more.
And I love it. Because it’s this ever-changing, ever-developing, exciting, intriguing field with no ‘this is the way we’ve always done it, so this is the way you have to do it’ ruts.
The Complicated Solo
So I decided to go it alone!
Okay, not quite alone. No one can work in Social Media alone. Whether working for themselves or for a company or an agency — it’s impossible to be the Lone Ranger in this arena. There is no such thing as a community of one.
I just decided that I’d keep working for me and consulting for others and see where it went. It was going pretty well actually. Just starting to get really interesting… and then…
Then? A Whole New Rhythm
You know what happened next? Someone offered me my dream job.
No really. I mean… I had thought it didn’t really exist. But in the back of my head, all these months, I’d been trying to suss out what it would look like if it did exist. So trust me, when it showed up on my doorstep? I knew it. I knew it like you would a lost child that had returned home long after anyone reasonable would’ve given up hope for the doorbell to ring.
The part that I was missing before? It was those great bosses. The visionary ones? The ones who can make things happen if you just say that you’ll work as hard as they do (and they do) and who don’t care who says it if it happens to be right or a good idea — and who know that CEOs can be brilliant, but so can janitors. The ones who make you want to give something your all because you know they are and there’s a joy that comes from the exhaustion of a good job.
Are You Swinging Yet?
Because I am. And as Director of Social Media for Collective Bias — a company that grew out of MARS Advertising — I plan on riding this train through many stations. I’m in the most amazing place in my life — one week into the dream job I had pretty much given up dreaming about. Because honestly? Before I went to work for myself and stopped wondering what a “dream job” looked like, it didn’t exist yet.
And honestly? I already know and love my boss. I’ve worked with John Andrews since last August. Granted, he was working with Walmart when our association first started and I was trying to decide if I wanted to be a part of what has become the Walmart ElevenMoms. But we’ve worked on a lot of projects together over that period of time and I’m really looking forward to working for & with him at Collective Bias. Along with a lot of other amazing folks who I know I’ll wax on about in depth as we go.
Side-slipping to a Minor Chord
But now that I’ve mentioned the ElevenMoms we have to introduce a sad note into this metaphorical jazz jam of mine. You see, there’s a price sometimes when it comes to following your dreams.
For the past 10 months, I have had the immense privilege and pleasure to be a part of the Walmart Elevenmoms. I can’t tell you how much this group of women has come to mean to me. If you had told me last year at this time that I would meet such a diverse, smart, savvy, incredible group of women and not only learn from them, but also make lifelong friends over what started out as “just a small foray into social media by Walmart”? I surely wouldn’t have believed you. But that is the case, I assure you.
I am very proud to be able to say that I have been a part of the Walmart Elevenmoms program. I consider it a huge honor just to say I’ve worked with the women who are, and with the people at Walmart & Rockfish Interactive who made it possible for me as well.
But you’ll have clearly noticed that I’m speaking in past-tense here.
After discussing it with Wanda Young at Walmart (whom I admire greatly), we’ve kind of both come to the conclusion that it’s probably for the best for me to leave the program at this time, as I take on the huge responsibilities and time commitment that go with working full-time at Collective Bias.
I appreciate so much her willingness to work through this with me to try and find the right solution. It’s hard to even contemplate leaving the program — as it feels somehow like I’m walking away right as the group is about to evolve again. And I have no doubt that what is going to happen will be amazing, given the women and people involved.
I count myself very fortunate to be granted this long to be in the company of such amazing folks! But sadly, it is time for me to move on and to make space for those who are to come.
Please make sure though, that you understand that the Walmart Elevenmoms have my continued support and I am 100% behind them in whatever they choose to do and to pursue. This parting is amicable all around and in fact, I will sorely miss being a part of such an incredible endeavor.
Time to Walk it on Home
So then, where are we? Well, I’m living my dream job as Director of Social Media for Collective Bias. I’m leaving my good friends the Walmart ElevenMoms to continue doing what they do so well, with my best wishes and firm support. I’m still blogging and twittering like I’ve always done… but I’ll also be blogging Social Media over at the Collective Bias site when it’s up and running.
What else do you need to know? Nothin’ but man… dig that Jazz!!
¹ Dictionary.com. Online Etymology Dictionary. Douglas Harper, Historian. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/gig (accessed: June 22, 2009)
² That makes 2 things I owe the lovely & talented Ms. Agresta for!
Is the Last Chance the Best One? (contest/giveaway)
June 22, 2009
The lucky and confirmed winner of week #2’s drawing was:
Rita G. (entry #279) from New Jersey!!
I’ve notified entrant #649 (generated from Random.org from all the eligible entries — I had to delete a few of those duplicate) for week #3’s drawing and am waiting to hear back… but there’s still this 1 more opportunity to win!
So that means it’s time to move on to week #4 — the final week of this awesome contest. The last of the 4 posts I’ve going to make this month. I’m really going to miss finding fun, drool-worthy ice cream pictures to post and drawing names that will result in one of you winning FREE Blue Bunny® Ice Cream for a whole year.
The Prize
Each of four winners will receive a shipment of one carton of Blue Bunny® ice cream and one Blue Bunny® novelty pack each month for a calendar year. You’ll receive a menu of Blue Bunny® ice cream and novelties every month, and have the opportunity to choose the carton and novelty that you’d like to receive. Each winner will also get a Welcome Kit complete with spoons, bowls and an ice scream scoop to get them ready! The prize value is $97.80 per winner. Sorry, only one winner per household – we want to spread the joy around!
The Contest Details
You will have the opportunity to enter your name & a valid email address using the form below. If you haven’t won any of the previous weeks, for each previous entry, you will still have an entry (up to 4) for this final drawing!! (Assuming you haven’t already won!) If this is your first week, you can still win. See Week #1’s description of the rules for further information (or feel free to email me if you’re still confused!)
How Winners Are Chosen
Each week’s drawing closes at Sunday 11:59pm ET and the winner that week will be chosen from all valid entries submitted according to the method listed above. The winner for each drawing will be selected at random using a number generated from Random.org based on the total number of valid entries received between the start of the contest on June 1st and the date of the drawing. Winners will be notified via email and will have until the next drawing to reply (in the final week, this means one week from date of close.) In the event that a winner does not reply within the time given, or the email is returned as undeliverable, a replacement winner will be drawn using the same method. Duplicate or multiple entries for the same week will be deleted. Winner must be legal resident of one of the 50 United States or the District of Columbia, and supply an address where s/he can receive an over-nighted package of ice cream/novelty on dry ice – unfortunately, this means no P.O. Boxes will be accepted.
So the dates work out like this:
- 1st drawing — now closed winner drawn & notified Monday June 8th
- 2nd drawing — now closed winner drawn & notified Monday June 15th
- 3rd drawing — now closed winner drawn & notified Monday June 22nd
- This drawing — open Monday June 22nd thru Sunday June 28th – winner drawn Monday June 29th
I can’t believe that we’re at the end of this already. I also can’t believe how much ice cream we’ve bought and consumed in this house during June. But seriously – it would take a stronger woman than I to post these things every week and not give into temptation herself. My favorite?
In the interest of full disclosure? I am being compensated for holding this contest (this is a lot of work dude!) but I don’t get the ice cream – so I really am jealous!! But very happy for the four winners. I just have to lose a little weight from the ice cream I’ve already bought myself! 
So if this is the first week you’re entering, you’ve still got 2 more chances (including this one) to enter and possibly win! Good Luck!! p.s. no need to comment to win – just put your name & email in the form and hit submit!!
Get Your Licks In While the Lickin’ is Good! Week 3 (contest/giveaway)
June 15, 2009
The lucky and confirmed winner of week #1’s drawing was:
Nadine L. (lucky #13) from New Hampshire!!
I’ve notified entrant #279 (generated from Random.org from all the eligible entries) for week #2’s drawing and am waiting to hear back… but there’s still 2 more opportunities to win!
So that means it’s time to move on to week #3 of our yummy contest, doesn’t it? The 3rd of 4 posts I’m going to make this month that will result in one of you winning FREE Blue Bunny® Ice Cream for a whole year.
The Prize
Each of four winners will receive a shipment of one carton of Blue Bunny® ice cream and one Blue Bunny® novelty pack each month for a calendar year. You’ll receive a menu of Blue Bunny® ice cream and novelties every month, and have the opportunity to choose the carton and novelty that you’d like to receive. Each winner will also get a Welcome Kit complete with spoons, bowls and an ice scream scoop to get them ready! The prize value is $97.80 per winner. Sorry, only one winner per household – we want to spread the joy around!
The Contest Details
You will have the opportunity to enter your name & a valid email address using the form below. If you don’t win this week, your name will still be submitted for the remaining drawings. So if you entered last week, but didn’t win? You can have up to 4 entries for the last drawing!! (Assuming you haven’t already won!) If this is your first week, you can still have up to 2. See Week #1’s description of the rules for further information (or feel free to email me if you’re still confused!)
How Winners Are Chosen
Each week’s drawing closes at Sunday 11:59pm ET and the winner that week will be chosen from all valid entries submitted according to the method listed above. The winner for each drawing will be selected at random using a number generated from Random.org based on the total number of valid entries received between the start of the contest on June 1st and the date of the drawing. Winners will be notified via email and will have until the next drawing to reply. In the event that a winner does not reply within the time given, or the email is returned as undeliverable, a replacement winner will be drawn using the same method. Duplicate or multiple entries for the same week will be deleted. Winner must be legal resident of one of the 50 United States or the District of Columbia, and supply an address where s/he can receive an over-nighted package of ice cream/novelty on dry ice – unfortunately, this means no P.O. Boxes will be accepted.
So the dates work out like this:
- 1st drawing — now closed winner drawn & notified Monday June 8th
- 2nd drawing — now closed winner drawn & notified Monday June 15th
- This drawing — open Monday June 15th thru Sunday June 21st – winner drawn Monday June 22nd
- 4th drawing — open Monday June 22nd thru Sunday June 28th – winner drawn Monday June 29th
Oh… and if you happen to be lactose intolerant? Yeah, did I mention that Blue Bunny also makes a bunch of cool treats that are dairy-free? Like Bomb Pops. Which now come in a variety of flavors. But the Red-White-and-Blue ones always remind me of 4th of July and the Ice Cream Truck that used to be the only place you could get those when I was a kid.
In the interest of full disclosure? I am being compensated for holding this contest (this is a lot of work dude!) but I don’t get the ice cream – so I really am jealous!! But very happy for the four winners. I just have to buy my own Bomb Pops.
So if this is the first week you’re entering, you’ve still got 2 more chances (including this one) to enter and possibly win! Good Luck!! p.s. no need to comment to win – just put your name & email in the form and hit submit!!
Week 3 is now closed.
Consistently Inconsistent
June 10, 2009
If today’s Wednesday, this means I’ve posted 3 days in a row.
Are you back up off of the floor yet? Yeah, I know, it knocked me for a loop too.
I’ve been saying for a very long time now (months really) that I was going to get back in the saddle and start posting regularly. But I think it started being sort of a running joke amongst my friends and a bit of a lie that I told myself so that I could pretend that I wasn’t suffering from blogging burn-out.
Why lie to myself? Well, I think it’s kind of like a mid-life crisis — you don’t want to admit that you’re buying the Porsche and shopping at the hipster clothing stores because you caught a glimpse of yourself in the mirror and it seems you’re a little soft around the middle and crow’s-feetish around the eyes.
I expect I’ll see a large number of my friends over the next couple of years going through it themselves. There’s a point in your blogging career where you have to tell yourself that one post a day is actually sufficient (thank heavens Twitter seems to have helped a lot of folks burn off the excess urges!) and a point where you feel like a day isn’t complete unless you’ve blogged. Then there’s the point where you start wondering if you’re running out of interesting things to say. Then the point where you wonder if anyone would notice if you skipped a day.
And then…
The mid-bloggylife crisis comes when you get to a point where you start arguing with yourself that the reason you aren’t posting today is because you were too busy, too tired, too uninspired, too something… But that you’ll totally post tomorrow. Or maybe Monday. Or maybe you’ll take a hiatus and come back fresh and ready to post. Or maybe it’s just that blog – if you closed it and started a new one…
But the truth is that like anything creative? No matter how much you love doing it – it’s possible to burn yourself out and need recharging. And no amount of resolution or self-deception is going to change that.
So here’s what I did — about a year and a half ago, I closed down multiple blogs I’d had for 7 or more years — claimed this one as my primary blog, and spent all of my time on Twitter.
What’s that? Oh, I spent all of my time on Twitter because it was a different type of creative outlet. A new shiny toy. If I had been a musician instead of a word-chick? Blogging would’ve been my guitar and Twitter would’ve been my side-trip being obsessed by sitar. (If you’re not Beatles obsessed or old enough or to remember? I’m invoking George Harrison here.)
Where am I now?
I think I’m over my burnout. I’m hesitant to say that, because let’s be honest, 3 days in a row does not a regular habit make. But it’s a start. So is admitting that I seem to have rediscovered the joy of writing something that doesn’t limit me to 140 characters and lets me have really in-depth conversations with folks in the comments section.
Okay, so I’m a little squidgy around the middle, and I have “laugh lines” so deep that you have to wonder what the heck is so darn funny. But there’s nothing wrong keeping the Porsche and having a mini-van that sits beside it in the driveway, is there?
Before we get too lost in metaphorland, what I’m trying to say is that I believe I’m back to blogging and twittering at the same time. Yeah, I know that doesn’t seem so amazing to some of you, because you’ve been doing that all along. But I promise to be sympathetic and not tell you “I told you so” when you hit your own mid-bloggylife crises.
After all, sometimes a few months of metaphorical sitar lessons are good for the soul…
Why Mom Bloggers Aren’t Flipping for Just a Sample of Your Product
June 9, 2009
We’re back to one of my favorite topics — Bloggers and Compensation.
There’s a few folks out there who will tell you that if you ever pay a blogger for anything, you’re violating some ‘purity code’ – some imaginary Blogger Code of Ethics that we all got to vote and agreed upon (there isn’t one, getting bloggers to agree on anything is like herding cats.)
The thing is? There are different types of commercially related blog posts. There are reviews (where a blogger gives you her opinion on a product, company or service), there are announcements/informational posts (similar to press releases, usually just a heads up – but sometimes links to deals or sales) and there are contests/giveaways (where opinions don’t necessarily enter into it, but prizes are given away on the blog that are supplied by a 3rd party.)
But these are *very* different types of posts from the blogger’s perspective.
Even though it may take someone about the same time to read each of them? It doesn’t take the same amount of time to create or maintain them.
We constantly get emails from PR people that seem to think that all we really ought to post are the announcement type. It seems that they often mistake bloggers for “new reporters” and think all we should do is repackage whatever info they email to us. (Come to think of it? There are some blogs that do seem to do just that… but not most.)
We also often get emails that say “we would like to send you a sample of our product or service for your review if you are interested.”
But lately, increasingly, companies are turning to the contest/giveaway model and approaching bloggers to see if we want to hold promotions to give away either samples, trial-codes, or prizes to our readers in order to promote their company or products.
Some of them get what it is they’re asking for and some don’t.
We don’t have “web guys” who do the work for us. Hosting a contest? Means figuring out the details, creating all of the content, posting the contest, running it fairly, monitoring entries for validity, choosing winners and notifying them, plus either fulfilling it by shipping at our cost, or acting as a go-between for the company and then posting the winners.
But it seems that there’s people out there who think that all that work isn’t really work. That they shouldn’t have to pay bloggers for doing the same work they would have to pay the guys in marketing, PR, and those who do their own websites.
If you, as a business, went to your web guys and said “we need you to run a contest on the site – create the design, the contest rules, the elements and the content, run it, monitor the entries for validity and to make sure no one is cheating, then contact the winner(s) and get back to us with that info – oooooh, yeah, and we can’t pay you your salaries this week, but would you like some free laundry detergent or diapers instead?“ They’d laugh their butts off. Well, before putting in a complaint with the local labor board and putting their resume on Monster.com, that is.
Yet that’s what keeps repeatedly being asked of us. “Will you work for free?” And for many of us, the answer is now becoming “well no – I’ve got this other company over here who is offering to compensate me for the same work and isn’t treating me as if being a blogger and/or a mom somehow made me lose my business skills and common sense.” Because seriously?
Yes, I love helping my readers experience new things and potentially win something… but I’m not going to be the only person working for free in this equation.
And that’s not because I’m some sort of prima donna who thinks I’m important. Yes, you can tell me that there’s “a ton of mommy bloggers who would jump at this opportunity.” But all you’re telling me is that you will take advantage of anyone you can. Whether a blogger is an “A-Lister” or someone who is still building her audience? They still have to do the EXACT same amount of work. Essentially, you’re asking people to work for free for you “for the exposure” or for “a product sample” but you? Yeah you there offering me this wonderful opportunity for my readers? Are *you* getting paid? Or do you just do that PR & marketing gig out of the goodness of your heart because you love it so?
How much is a bottle of laundry detergent or a package of diapers? Somewhere between $15-25 depending on the size? That’s just horrid. It works out to about $2-5 per hour or less if you run a contest right. One that isn’t just a few lines of “hey, company X is giving away a year’s supply of potpourri” or “this author wants me to hold a contest to give away 5 copies of his new book comment here to win.” One with no promotion, no concern about running a fair contest, no checking to make sure you’re doing a good job.
Would YOU work for that?
Sorry – I just needed to get this out there. When bloggers ask to be paid to host your contest on their sites? We’re not being demanding or unethical – we’re getting fed up with being treated like “mommies” or clueless bloggers who don’t know any better. You’re sure as heck getting paid by whatever company you work for or are doing PR for. Are *you* being demanding or unethical expecting someone to value your time and effort?
And yes, I love being a part of the chain that gets awareness about your client, your product, or your business to your potential customers – but while I may write for the love of it? That’s different than working for you for free.
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