Velveteen Mind

Looking Forward with Deliberation: Social Media Strategy

You don’t notice the static until it’s gone. 

As the holidays drew closer, I closed my laptop, logged out of the 3G connection on my phone, and felt a veil lift from before my eyes.  You’ve heard me refer to the relentless pursuit of and by social media as ‘static’ before, yet the image never tires for me.

Facebook, Twitter, Friendfeed, blogs and all of their associated applications that light up and dance when a new update arrives meld together to create a veil of static that distracts us from even that which is right in front of us.

If we let it.

So every now and then, I remove myself from the distraction.  I’m like a toddler.  I can’t seem to learn the lesson, so Mom is better off pointedly removing me from the situation rather than trying to reason with me just yet.

But not this time.  This time I’m ready to learn the lesson.

I’m resolving to approach my social media strategy with deliberation this year. 

Hell, merely having a strategy is a sniper shot forward, in stark contrast to my shotgun approach of the past.  Your first response may be “Strategy?  Blogging is just for fun!  I don’t need no stinking strategy!”  Which is fine.  But strategy doesn’t have to mean taking things too seriously.  For me, it means self-awareness of how I use my time.

While taking a break from Velveteen Mind since Christmas, I haven’t actually been completely offline.  In a concerted effort to begin sharpening my focus, I launched a new microblog.  There was no official announcement, no fanfare, I just started posting content to it.  Although launching another blog might seem counterintuitive to honing focus, it has actually been quite successful for my purposes, so far.  Primary among them being keeping everything in one place.

Why a microblog, too?

I answer this question in depth in my first and hopefully longest post you’ll find at the Content Parlor of Velveteen Mind.  In short:

The Content Parlor of Velveteen Mind is my alternative to microblog platforms such as Posterous and Tumblr, bookmarking sites like Delicious, as well as twitter photo applications such as twitpic…  In other words, this is where I'll share what I'm reading, laughing at, wishing I could buy, and what resources I've found to be useful, as well as twitter photos and stream-of-consciousness bits that are too long for tweets but not meaty enough for a full blog post.

So far so good.  The Content Parlor is proving to be very much like a lifestream, as you can follow where I am via twitpics (occasionally check out that category, even if you don’t care about the link posts), what I’m researching, whose opinion I value, as well as where my mind is headed for new posts at Velveteen Mind.  My creative processes are already beginning to reveal themselves there.

If you are like me, you love to catch glimpses of how other people work.

How I hope to work this year is with deliberation.  That means using my time wisely, focusing priorities, and minding my balance.  A topic I am not alone in scrutinizing a little more carefully, asking ourselves what it is that we truly want and considering if that bears any resemblance to what we need:

When I say that “I own this,” what I mean is that I know the difference between what I want and what I need.  I am tempted by the fairy dust that is popularity and recognition for my hard work.  However, I look beyond my own expectations and question what comes next.  I ask myself “Is that next result what I really want?  What I ever wanted?”

I could write a book about how we struggle with balance as bloggers and mothers.  I’ve  attended conference panels about this struggle but sometimes walk away feeling like the panelists were holding back.  Out of guilt?  Out of fear of looking like bad moms?  Fear of looking unprofessional?  I could never quite put my finger on it, however much I may have enjoyed the panel. 

With that in mind, I’m going to try my hand at the subject (in addition to a second panel plus a workshop) at BlissDom this year.  I’ll be speaking on the Striking a Balance panel with Christine Koh, Deb on the Rocks, Arianne Segermann, and Carmen Stacier.  We’ll see where we get.

I won’t pretend that it isn’t complicated.  Olive will be with me in Nashville, so believe me when I say that I promise to put it squarely on the table when we discuss the challenges we face.

In the meantime, I’m going to keep working on my short term and long term strategy.  That whole “time management” thing my dad has been talking to me about since I was old enough to shuffle the laundry from the washer to the dryer.  While I envy the way some of you handle the mystery that is time management, I also won’t pretend that I don’t let a laundry list (har har) of obstacles trip me up.  My perfectionism being high on that list.

But I’m going to try.

And I’m starting by turning off this computer.  Because it’s the weekend and my mind suddenly feels a whole lot lighter.  Static?  What static?

Related posts linked within:

Gravel Paves the Road to the White House - Velveteen Mind

10 Ways to Get Serious About Social Media - Social Media Today

A 12-Step Strategy to ReFit Your Blog to the Social Web in 2010 - Liz Strauss at Successful Blog

It's You or Them - Daily Della

 The Vicious Cycle of Write - Moosh in Indy

Don't Let the Fairy Dust Gag You: Phenomenon of Blog Closures - Velveteen Mind

I Own This - Velveteen Mind

We Really Need to Talk – Playgroups Are No Place for Children

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This is but a Chapter in Our Story

My husband loves to read autobiographies of entrepreneurs like Richard Branson.  Stories of how today’s successful innovators first found inspiration, what they had to overcome, how they failed and failed and failed before finally finding success.  And often how they proceeded to fail again but knew to keep moving forward. 

From failing, you learn.  From success… not so much. *

Yet, when we stumble and fall, he sometimes becomes more discouraged than expected.  Often, it’s just his way of unloading some grief, but I always take his pain to heart and try to fix it.  I’m a man like that and sometimes don’t know how to just listen and not fix.

When we hit particularly rough patches that begin to wear us down, I tell Maguire that this struggle is just a chapter in the greater autobiography of our lives.  This challenge is the rising action before the climax of our novel.  Without this hurdle, we would never be moved to find the stepping stones that will raise us to the next level.

These hard days of Broke Young Family are a chapter in the book our lives’.  One chapter.  We will make it to the climax.

We remind each other of that when times get tough, when money runs out, when it simply seems like we can’t bear any more burden.  It lets us step back and look at our lives from a broader view.  It gives us hope and helps us keep moving forward.

This Christmas, we are very nearly out of money.  Hospital bills are piled in front of me (love you, Olive-at-archive-reading-age, you were 100% worth it and Mommy is just a little tired in 2009), December’s utility bills have yet to be paid, we’re behind by half a payment on student loans (loans which outweigh our mortgage, thank you), and no Christmas gifts have been purchased, yet.

I sort of want to cry a little.

But I know.  I know that ten five years from now (how hopeful am I willing to be here, huh?) , we’ll look back at these hard days of Broke Young Family and remember them fondly.  We’ll remember them as simpler times and miss the baby fat of our youth and our young.

I know that things will get better.  I have hope and I believe.

I believe in us.

This holiday season, I am returning to a place of what surely seemed like lost hope to me, once upon a time, and I’m paying it forward.  Because I do have hope and I also believe in the power of giving, particularly when you have nothing left to give. 

I am giving my voice and my precious energy to something that I’ve shared with you before: 

Tide Loads of Hope is returning to New Orleans this weekend, no new natural disaster in sight, and delivering free laundry services to families in need.  This time, I’m going with them, getting my hands dirty (or is it clean?) with Deb on the Rocks and Mishelle of Secret Agent Mama, thanks to an insightful sponsorship that I’m proud to acknowledge. 

Together we are asking and answering the question “How do the holidays fill you with loads of hope?” and we’re inviting you to do the same. 

Join the Loads of Hope for the Holidays carnival, hosted by Blog Nosh Magazine (for which I am founder and editor-in-chief) and sponsored by Tide Loads of Hope, and spread your own personal message of hope.  The stories we are receiving so far are stunning in their intimacy, heartening in their humor, and inspiring in their hope.  We would be honored for you to add your voice to this resounding chorus of talent. 

Lend your voices now, then participate live during a two day event in New Orleans, Sunday and Monday, December 13 and 14, (with a special surprise event on Saturday to be announced soon!) as we tweet stories of resilience from laundry recipients and volunteers on the ground. Follow along on twitter via #loadsofhope and be sure to follow @TideLoadsofHope.

More importantly, engage with us and tweet back your own messages of hope, helping us show the residents of the Gulf Coast that their voices are still heard and their stories still remembered. The Loads of Hope truck just completed a stop in Atlanta, GA, and will be on their way to Louisville, KY, so help us spread the word and reach out to families in need of a break.

Help us show them that this time of heart wrenching blows to pride and confidence is a vital chapter in the story of their lives.  But only one chapter.  So much beauty is yet to unfold in the pages ahead.  Our character development has just begun.

From failing, you learn.  From success…  not so much.

~~~

*I found the exact Meet the Robinsons quote at I Don’t Like to Write but I Still Want to Blog, along with video of the scene.  Quote is at minute 9:32.  Thanks, Elle!

~~~

Loads of Hope for the Holidays

When you join the carnival with your messages of hope, be sure to invite your own readers to participate in this online event by linking to the chocolate-covered center of the carnival at Blog Nosh Magazine. You are invited to grab any of the Tide Loads of Hope graphics you see there and here, including the tee shirt badge below (linked to http://tideloadsofhope.com), as all proceeds from sales of Tide Vintage Tees support the truck and keep it on the road, ready to help when disaster strikes nationwide.

Blog carnival hosted by Blog Nosh Magazine, sponsored by Tide Loads of Hope.

How do the holidays fill you with loads of hope?

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Cyber Monday and Online Shopping as Virtual Pledge Drive for Your Favorite Blogs

I’m always terribly tempted during “that time of year again” on my favorite public radio and television stations.  You know that time:  Pledge Drive Season!

Of course I understand the importance of support from “viewers like you,” but I’m generally too lazy to randomly send in my support without a little enticement reminder.  These public stations, boy, do they have my number:

Thank you gifts in the form of a DVD of that amazing program about lost New Orleans restaurants!  A signed copy of a book of Mississippi Gulf Coast photographs!  Heck, logo sweatshirts so I can put all of my non-NPR-supporting friends to shame!  Wait Wait…  Don’t Tell Me isn’t free for our local stations, you know.  (psst…  the show is always funnier when Mo Rocca is on.)

It’s our support that makes these stations run.  It’s our cold hard cash that keeps our favorite shows on the air.  Or at least it’s someone’s cold hard cash.  It’s generally not mine because, as I mentioned, I’m lazy and distracted.

Which reminds me…  ahem…  I’m looking at you.

Blogs are, for the most part, free.  Bloggers occasionally scrounge together enough income to pay for hosting, graphic design help, and various applications and tools, but it is rarely more than enough to just break even.  Which is fine.  We do it for the joy it brings, right?

But, man.  It would be sweet to be able to buy a cup of coffee and a muffin, if you know what I’m getting at:

It’s that time of the year again! 

Online holiday shopping season!

For bloggers, that means Affiliate Link Season, the online equivalent of the public radio and television station Pledge Drive.  Your big chance to support your favorite sites, complete with gifts and yet without spending a penny more than you were already planning to spend for the holidays anyway. 

Ah yes, the lazy man’s pledge drive.  Here is how it works:

When you sit down at your computer to do a little online gift shopping at Amazon.com this year, take a moment to notice if your favorite blog has a banner ad for Amazon.  Banner ads are those square or vertical ads in a blog’s sidebar or horizontal ad in their post footers.  Usually something splashy like:

When you click on the ad, it takes you to Amazon.com (or whichever store is being advertised) and you shop just as you normally would.  That’s it.  The difference is that when you shop at your favorite store through a blog’s ad or text link (for instance: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon is my favorite book and I bet it’s even better when read on a Kindle), that blogger receives a small commission from your purchase, usually approximately 5%.

The blogger won’t know who clicked on what or who purchased what, so no privacy worries.  You can even use them for gift card purchases.

And that, “viewers like you,” is how Cyber Monday and Online Shopping can serve as your own personal Pledge Drive to support your favorite blogs this holiday season.  Sure, you could just type in http://amazon.com or click your bookmark, but why not let the Big Box share a scrap from their holiday table instead?

This holiday Public Service Announcement brought to you by:

“The more you know… 
the better the chances that your favorite bloggers will be able to
stay out of the po’ house and, well, yo’ house.” 

Okay…  I stole that line from some street performers in New Orleans.  I’ll have to remember to give them an extra couple of dollars next time.  Damn.  Plagiarism never pays.

Now then, go shopping!  I happen to know that Amazon has some amazing Cyber Monday deals…   ;)

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