Comments on: What comes first? The social networking or the egg?

By: Julie Roads

Julie Roads — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 15:45:25 +0000

Thank you, Rob, for your insightful and thoughtful comment – and for sharing your path with us!

By: Rob Gokee

Rob Gokee — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 15:43:21 +0000

I’ve always put my personal website first and my blog second, for the obvious reason that, as a composer, my site was the best place to showcase past projects and music samples. However, I recently combined the 2 into one site, because I realize they work with and not against each other. I’ve also refocused my social networking to include Ping.FM, which will allow me to post status updates on almost 30 sites at once (Twitter the one exception, I like to be “live” there). My hope is that this will allow me spend my social networking time in one place, and in turn allow me to spend more time on the content. Thanks for the insightful post, Julie.

By: Ria

Ria — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 00:37:45 +0000

“There’s more than one way to skin a cat” will always make me think of Sr. Therese, my 10th grade Geometry teacher! But that’s a tangent! Ha! Get it?

Anyway, I guess I’m an “accidental writer” in that I’ve discovered a love for it BECAUSE of blogging. That being said, I agree with Julie’s assertion that it’s important to have a body of work out there so that people have a sense of who you are. If I stumble on someone’s Twitter page with no website or if I visit a site that’s slim on content, that doesn’t really entice me to engage.

I know a lot of people who want to jump on the “social media” bandwagon and are NOT comfortable with writing. So what then? Vlogging, podcasting… there’s more than one way to skin this cat. As Sr. Therese liked to say, “You can start with the ears… or the tail….” :)

By: Julie Roads

Julie Roads — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 13:56:25 +0000

Lisa – thank you so much for being part of this conversation. I love what you have to say about offering choices – educating and informing…guiding. I always tell my clients that I am not their mother – I’m going to present the facts, show them case studies, let them explore and get their hands dirty…and then support whatever decision/direction they choose. But, I will not bully them or dictate what they have to do. A blog or Twitter participation that feels like homework will sound that way too – and have very little return.

By: Julie Roads

Julie Roads — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 13:54:10 +0000

Ari – thanks so much for chiming in. The most important thing that I want to say is that I’m by no means belittling the importance of using social networks – at all. The point of this post is to refute the notion that a social media consultant or expert that advises a client to do a blog first is a ‘carpetbagger.’ By way of discussing that, I’m explaining how important it was for me to have my blog before entering the online social ‘melee’.

And, I appreciate that you found me and my blog (and subsequently subscribed and comment – thank you very much) because of Twitter and our brief meeting; however – the highest referrer to my blog? MSN’s Live Search. So people are finding me (quite frequently) via organic search – not through social media or a referral (though we all understand that happens quite a bit too).

By: Lauren

Lauren — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 12:46:00 +0000

Hi Julie,
Another fantastic post. I am so glad to have discovered you! In answer to your question I stared my blog first and then skeptically entered the social networking scene.
As you say, it is all now merging and coming together. As a young designer in the early stages of my career my blog has been an invaluable tool – personally and professionally.

By: Lisa Hoffmann

Lisa Hoffmann — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 01:26:13 +0000

Ari, I see your point. However, many people aren’t comfortable pointing people to a blog with only a few posts. And we all know plenty of blogs are started with enthusiasm only to be abandoned a few weeks later. If we help our clients understand how social media (as we currently know it) works they can decide what they’re most comfortable with.

Social media is much more likely to succeed if we offer choices rather than dictate rules. Educate and inform, then step back and let them do their thing, monitoring and guiding along the way.

By: Ari Herzog

Ari Herzog — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 23:45:46 +0000

Before we met at a social media breakfast, I’d known of you through Twitter (you reached to me originally, I think) and may have seen your blog but I didn’t have that personal connection. I now subscribe to your blog, and like now, post comments.

I enjoy adding comments.

But if you we hadn’t interacted in some other medium, or if nobody suggested you, or if your blog hadn’t come to me on some Google Alert or via another blog link, I’d never find you.

In that vein, imagine you’re a company. Unless people want to know more about you and your passions, why would they search for you?

By: Lisa Hoffmann

Lisa Hoffmann — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 22:27:33 +0000

As my grandma used to say, there’s more than one way to skin a cat (I always hated that metaphor). Making and following rules is not the essential ingredient in all this. Testing and evaluating what works is the only way we’ll really understand social media. And that means experimenting with different approaches.

I think blogging first can work, and I’m skeptical about ghost blogging. But it doesn’t matter what I think. If you’re “doing it wrong” you won’t find success for yourself or your clients. And you can’t figure that out unless you try various tactics.

Either way, different isn’t necessarily wrong.

By: Lindsay Price

Lindsay Price — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 21:52:21 +0000

Yeah, I don’t understand the ‘blog as misstep.’ As a writer, I find my blog an essential and extra outlet. It allows me to speak about my craft in a way that just isn’t possible in my day to day life. The blog came first because the social media scene wasn’t there.

‘What feels right to me’ is the only way to go as a writer. When we start peeking over the fence at the processes of other writers, our own process stagnates.