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Geeking Out: Is blogging wrecking marriages?

I'm on the East Coast for some Labor Day kicking back and will be staying out here on business. But last week in SF proved to be quite interesting. I sat on a panel with people I admire, including Rick Klau and Siobhan Quinn of Blogger, Blogger Founder and now Twitter Founder Ev Williams and his Twitter Co-Founder Biz Stone, Salon.com Co-Founder and author of Say Everything: How Blogging Began, What It's Becoming, and Why It Matters Scott Rosenberg, SocialVibe CEO (and Blogger partner) Joe Marchese, and geekblogger and often dead-on observationalist Louis Gray. The premise of the panel: A general discussion of the evolution of blogging, with Blogger's 10th anniversary as a time peg.

So what do a bunch of us bloggy/microbloggy types have to talk about? The press on the other end of the room had few, if any, questions. I think they (and Louis) wanted to hear more about the beginnings of Blogger from Williams and Stone. And the rest of us, who had built businesses and blogs around blogging, could provide commentary. I added some facts about how the role of blogging has evolved for women. Initially it seemed more a personal platform tool, or a journaling tool. And I still think that it is. But I've also seen it launch businesses for women, who grew their expertise on their blogs and built consultancies. Some launched book and blog-writing careers from their blogs. I've also seen another side effect, one that I can't confirm with data, but more one I've observed among women I read and who have attended the BlogHer Conference numerous times: personal empowerment.

It's not easy to describe, especially in this way, but I will try. I have met quite a few women and mothers who, after getting into their blogging, are getting divorced. One, a mother of two, told me quite plainly about her former spouse, "He couldn't take it. All that was happening because of my blog. He was no longer the big shot." In another instance with a mother of four, the blog didn't compete with the spouse, but it provided a means of expression, and an entryway to other women on the Web, who helped her to see that there was more to life, and that she could have more in a partner. (I didn't tell these stories on the panel; I cited some data from our Blogging benchmark study and mentioned that I've personally seen transformations that women have had as a result of their blogging, including in some cases divorce.)

"So then blogging is wrecking marriages?" Rick Klau joked I had to clarify, absolutely not. People wreck marriages.

But while we have a whole lot of data behind women's media migration patterns and usage of social media to show increased adoption, there's another effect, one no one has measured yet, that I'd like to explore. I'm sure someone like my sister Julie, a genderist and women's history professor, will one day uncover it (hint, hint). Here's my theory: This blogging thing has made us all more accountable. And if we've been living to half our potential, or are living half-truths, we can now see that unlived part of our lives out there, while sitting at the kitchen tables of the women we read, just talking.

Maybe that's fodder for Blogger's 15th birthday.

 

Geeking Out: The New, New Agency

I never considered myself an ad girl. When it came to publishing I was all about the editorial, the center well baby! Early in my career I took a job at Time Inc's Custom Publishing division, and though I had an editor title, it felt a bit dirty building editorial that fit brands' needs. Today I am grateful for the experience because I learned how to play nice with brands AND create compelling content. I learned that content providers can be verry verry precious people, and that sometimes really good creative that also accentuates, or aligns, with brand messaging ain't a sin.

Today there's migration coming from the other direction--PR and advertising folks are building content in order to achieve that same alignment. They may or may not be going to publishers to achieve kismet, they often seek out the content themselves. Bloggers are a primary source, though agencies are still getting up to speed on how to treat content providers. Do they pay for engagement, or do they request "organic" endorsement (a.k.a. hope for a favor?) 

Geeking Out: An introduction to my social media posts

I reserve a good portion of my blog for personal expression and revelation. But given what I spend the bulk of my time doing--building a social media company--I can't help but have errant thoughts about where things are going in the new, new media space. I find that I am often so busy with the must-do's of running a business that this subject gets relegated to my reflection time. It's not work to me. I suppose it is personal.

But, hearkening back to a panel I was on with such bloggy people as Robert Scoble, who insisted that one must be as focused as possible on one's blog to cultivate strong readerships, I feel a conflict coming on. What am I writing about? Myself, or my industry? In deference to my multiple interests I'm going to break out my "workier" posts so that people who are interested in all things social media and marketing-related can find them. Behold my new section, "Geeking Out." I'll put my past posts that conform to this criteria in this space as well.

If I Were Twitter’s Agent: Assessing the Social Media Tool’s Rise and What Would Make it Flop

Ain't life Twitterific? That's the point of my latest piece. Whether or not we are nearing the apex of Twitter's popularity, it's certainly time to think about what we, the users, are doing to the not-so-poor sm tool, at least before it has to go to rehab.

"Hey Buddy, Wanna Buy a T-shirt?": Notes from Inside P&G's Digital Marketing Hack-a-thon

My take on P&G's very clever experiment to get their marketing leadership in-synch with best practices in social media marketing.

Context and Disclosure: Keys to Success in Compensating Bloggers

This was my response on behalf of BlogHer, which was also cross-posted on BlogHer.com, to the brouhaha over Forrester's recent report in support of "Sponsored Conversations" and compensating bloggers for mentions. We felt like the topic wasn't being addressed with the nuance it deserves.

Ask Not What Women Bloggers Can Do for You … Getting Things Done in the Blogosphere

Rosie the Riveter is the inspiration behind my latest observations of how women are taking their lives into their own hands, or blogs.

Who You Calling MommyBlogger? The Web's Most Influential and Diverse Community Begs You to Stop Generalizing

Understanding a group that's not so sure about their name, or what you assume to be true about them.

What Presidents Both Dead and Alive Tell Me About the Future of Social Media

Wonder where social media is going? Ask our Founding Fathers.

Are We Becoming a Bunch of Twitter Tales?: Looking for a Code of Smart Tweeting

Recently I was speaking with a colleague in the industry who was perturbed by an entry she'd read on Twitter by someone she'd just met with, who consequently mentioned their meeting in his Twitter feed. There weren't many details; how much proprietary info can you fit into 140 characters? Still, she told me, it irked her. The meeting was set to determine suitability for partnering with this person's company. With more than 20 years in media, she wasn't accustomed to publicizing any meetings with potential partners or clients unless they resulted in something signed and on paper.

"Total amateur move," she said. "This guy's showing all of his cards."

Honestly, I wonder then, how many "amateurs" are out there, and whether we need to be worried about showing our hands, so to speak, on a platform that makes mincemeat out of the subtleties of in-person communication. Or whether my colleague needs to get with the program (or platform).

Reading my Twitter feed this week, I found many innocuous updates, many promotional ones, and sprinkled in were a few from professional contacts that were politically partisan in nature--most of which I agreed with--but which made me question the wisdom behind mixing political affiliation with professional networking. And then there were some that struck me as even more dangerous. One contact provided updates on his corporate fundraising. The positive spin he took was likely a construct for the public, and one that seemed unnecessary. I wondered why he would bother mentioning his fundraising at all.

In mentioning this topic I feel a tad hypocritical. I've been coaching companies and small businesses to default to transparency for well-nigh four years! What's the harm in sharing where your company stands? Isn't this practically the duty of any new media leader?

As much as I agree with transparency, I do believe there are limits. And platforms like Twitter that require abbreviated, less formal communication provides a deceptive invitation to share things that are counteractive to the purpose for why people use the tool in the first place. Someone with no business or promotional aspirations may not suffer any consequences for sharing such opinions as "McCain is an idiot," but for me, someone who manages a "clientele" of bloggers with political views ranging from far left to far right, and with corporate clients that observe all degrees of corporate discretion, I've had to think hard about what I divulge. I don't recommend that companies clam up online; I only encourage them to think about their purpose, and the entire range of the people they are broadcasting to, and consider messaging from there.

I was sent a copy of Peggy Post's latest book to review, Excuse Me, But I Was Next. Not my thing to review on my blog, but fascinating nonetheless. I'm impressed with Post (the granddaughter of the famous etiquette expert Emily Post), whose advice still supports what I fear may be a dying art while still taking into account the need to communicate. In reading her section on making small talk in social settings I found myself agreeing with her advice. Divisive issues such as politics are not necessarily hands-off topics, she says, but you must get a handle on the views of the people you are talking to. And even then, consider the alacrity with which you express your views. I say, consider the purpose for being in the setting. For instance, I agreed with the views of a friend who was vociferously against Proposition 8 out here in California, but given that we were at a PR luncheon talking about a research study, where we were sitting with people I'd never met before, I kept my views to facts, not opinion, and certainly not insults when pressed for my take.

"I felt strongly about the issue," I said, "and our community on BlogHer landed in both directions on the issue."

But unless you are only following people with your political/social/sexual affiliation you can't "feel out" your audience on Twitter. Twitter doesn't allow us (yet) to create distinctions for the different types of people following us. We can't send certain messages to, say, go to those who are only Democrats, or polyamorous. We can't possibly know all of the proclivities of the people with whom we network.

Increasingly, my concerns are not just for corporate communicators. Bloggers who want to partner with companies should think about them too. I've spoken with many marketing execs who follow bloggers. There isn't a blogger blacklist, but there are a few that won't be asked to review product anytime soon. To be fair to advertisers, they aren't looking for the "yes" bloggers, whose sole blogging/microblogging purpose is to push product, though frankly that kind of enthusiasm doesn't hurt. But they do question bloggers who mix very loaded political and sexual topics in their posts, who use their platform to criticize and create acidic debate, and who love the F word and to talk about how drunk they were last night. This list is not exhaustive.

Of course, we often love to read Tweets for their candid content, but what's the ultimate purpose of your Twitter feed: to get as many followers as possible, or to attract opportunities? You get the gist.

I would love to create a Code of Smart Tweeting, for bloggers and marketers, and wonder where to start. Where do you draw the line? I'll publish responses in my various outlets, including BlogHer and JackMyers.com.