What comes first, the blog or the book? An interview with Alisa Bowman.
I need to start by telling you that this post is seething with information. Really. Truly. I wouldn’t lie. It’s a bit long…but so worth it.
Do you know Alisa Bowman? (pronounced aleesa) If you do, you’re lucky. If you don’t, you’re about to get lucky – pun fairly intended.
Alisa is a writer extraordinaire. Her story and topic are bold (marriage and sex) – but her honesty and undeniable sweetness and realness make it all work. When I read her words, I feel like it’s just her and me doing some serious girl talk, pool side, with good drinks in hand. Besides the fact that she’s ghostwritten 6 bestsellers, Alisa is hardcore working her own gig right now – Project Happily Ever After - the blog and the book that several publishers are vying for at this very moment – she’s got it going on. But don’t listen to me…let’s listen to her.
Julie Roads: What came first, the idea for the book or the blog?
Alisa Bowman: They sort of evolved at the same time. As I was working on my marriage, I was sending very long and somewhat humorous emails to a friend, the very friend who convinced me to work on my marriage. One of these emails, for instance, was about my first bikini wax ever. The wax was called The Martini, and I got it because I am a Type A perfectionist who was about to have sex with her husband again after a 6 month long dry spell. I planned our second first time down to the very last detail–including the shape and size of my pubic region.
I sent her emails about all sorts of things: how we’d tried this thing called the “relaxed hug” and how it hadn’t exactly worked for us. I gave her all of the details about the Second First Time, even down to the fact that I finally figured out how to give my husband a good blow job. Seriously. I left nothing out. It was the first time in my life that I’d ever been so candid with anyone, but I felt so open with her. She was one of the only people who knew about my marital problems, and she was right there with me through every step of our marital improvement project. But she lives in Va. and I live in Pa., so we mostly communicated by email.
Anyway, she kept emailing back telling me that she laughed until she cried. She encouraged me to send my emails–as is–to Slate and Salon. I didn’t have the courage to do that just yet, so I started taking classes online. I first took a fiction class and dropped out about half way through when I realized I was basically writing erotica and I didn’t need the teacher’s help (not to mention the fact that she honestly did not know what to do with me). Then I took an essay writing class. The teacher was so encouraging that it gave me the courage to dream big.
So one day I was walking my dog and I started thinking about how I had my husband’s funeral completely planned out. I knew what brand of beer I would serve the mourners. I knew that waiters would be walking around with lamb on a stick. I wondered, “Do other people do this? Am I a freak?” And just like that, this line came to me, “I knew something was wrong with my marriage when I planned my husband’s funeral.” You never saw a woman walk back to her house so fast. I just sat at my computer and started typing. That turned out to be the first line of my book, and before I stood back up, I had an entire first chapter.
Then I entered this manic state where I knew it was good. I don’t know how to explain that. But I knew I had something, something that could help others. I knew I had a strong voice. I knew I had a story to tell. At the same time, as much as I knew it, I completely doubted myself. “You’re just a ghost writer. You can’t write a memoir. Your life is so completely boring. It is no Glass Castle.” Seriously. That was the sort of thing I told myself.
But I was having this rebirth where I was continually inspired to write all sorts of things, some of it related to my marriage and some of it not. I didn’t know what to do with it all. I finally got the courage to send the first chapter to my agent. I also sent him a bunch of other crap that I’d been writing (I kept the erotica to myself, but I did mention that I had it if he knew of a market for it). He read it all while on vacation. I still have the email he sent to me, from his vacation. One line was, “I really, really like P:HEA [Project Happily Ever After]. Great title, great concept. By far the most commercial of what you sent.” And so, I just kept writing.
Other writers had been telling me to start a blog for a while, but I’d resisted because I didn’t know what I would blog about. Most freelancers write about writing, and I didn’t want to do that. I also didn’t think I could write about ghost writing without ending my career. Then one day I had one of those “Duh you silly person” moments and realized my blog should be about marriage. And then I realized that the blog and the book could work together. And then I realized that I needed a platform, etc etc etc. That’s when things got serious.
Julie: How has the blog impacted the book…and vice versa?
Alisa: I don’t think the actual content of the blog influenced the book all that much. They are really separate entities. The book is the story of my marriage: falling in love, falling out of love, falling back in love. It spans 2004-2008. The blog is based on that backstory, but it’s a lot more advice oriented than the blog and all of the real life stories take place 2008 and beyond. That said, I blog 5 days a week, and blogging has allowed me to strengthen my voice and become a much better writer. I’m much more in touch with my audience now that I blog. So the act of blogging has allowed me to craft a better book. I started writing the book in late 2007 but I didn’t finish it until early 2009. (Well, I’m still tinkering and will probably do so until someone forces me to stop). So blogging allowed me to go back and edit the book and make it A LOT better. I would have never developed my voice this quickly if it were not for blogging.
As for a timeline, I started writing the book toward the end of my official marriage project, so around Sept 2007. I had a pretty solid first draft by summer 2008. I’ve been editing and tinkering with it ever since. I started the blog Oct 2008.
Julie: My readers and I are brilliant, so we understand the importance of ‘giving it away for free’ as a way to create buzz and gather an audience. What has been your approach in that respect?
Alisa: I agree that you are brilliant! And I’m one of your readers, so that means I must be brilliant, too!!
Anyway…
Before I started blogging, I didn’t understand why any writer would give her words away for free when she could get paid for them. It went against everything I’d ever been taught about valuing ones work, not to mention copyright. But, honestly, there are not many paying markets for what I do. I have a very strong voice, and while my readers love that about me, magazines don’t.
And the blogging makes me happy. I seriously don’t care whether or not I get paid for it at this point. The process is what matters.
From a business sense, though, I’ve completely changed my views about the value of blogging. Free or not, it offers many, many values including and not limited to:
* It’s how I prove myself as a writer. After I started my blog, another website discovered me through my blog and offered me a regular job as a relationships editor for $1000 a month. It only lasted 4 months because the website lost its funding, but it was fun while it lasted. I also was able to place a first person piece in American Baby, mostly because the editor liked what she saw on my blog. Your blog is your virtual resume. Almost no one looks at the paper version anymore.
* I can monetize it eventually. I now have 75,000+ monthly visitors, so I’m definitely looking into ways to monetize. I’m looking into launching a store on the site that sells branded items. We’ll see.
* As I said, it makes me a better writer. I’m also a better marketer, which helps me land more ghosting work because my authors all know that my knowledge of social media and digital marketing is valuable.
* It’s one of the only ways a non-connected not-remotely-rich person can gain a fan base. If you were not born rich or are not an actress or a model, then a blog is your best shot at building a following. A following is what you need to make ANY business successful. Your blog is free advertising. You could pay to put up billboards all over the country or you could blog for free. Blogging is a lot more fun and a lot more effective.
Julie: You’re currently in negotiations to have the book published, I think we can safely assume that the blog has helped make your case with the publishers – can you tell us how exactly?
Alisa: This is one of those things that confuses a lot of people. They think they can just start a blog and get a book deal, but it’s more complex than that. You don’t just need a blog to get a book deal. You need a successful one, one with a big following. Zen Habits had 1 million unique visitors before he got a book deal. Same with dooce.com. I believe Hungry Girl had 250,000.
You can get a deal with fewer visitors (I am about to), but you need to: 1) have an amazing product (book) that showcases a story with a complete arc and strong voice 2) show that you are gaining momentum quickly. Essentially you need to know that you are gaining site visitors, that you are a hot commodity. You need to prove that you are about to hit your virtual tipping point.
And the content on your blog really needs to be different than the content you want to put in your book. Otherwise editors will continually ask you, “Why would someone pay $24.99 for this when they can get it for free on your blog?” That’s a valid question. You need to be able to answer it with, “Well they can’t get it for free on my blog because my book is completely new and different.”
The blog definitely helped me, though, especially because my traffic numbers are moving in the right direction. That helps to prove a number of variables: people like my voice, people like what I have to say, my writing can attract a following, etc. That I can tell 75,000 or more people about the book just by writing a post about it also doesn’t hurt.
But what’s more important are my relationships. I’m a former newspaper reporter and former magazine editor. Between my previous jobs and blogging, I’ve gotten to know many different writers, from reporters at the Pittsburgh Post Gazette to bloggers at MSNBC and tlc.com (not to mention YOU) to one of the anchors at the FOX news network. I’m connected to hundreds of freelancers through Twitter, Facebook and a couple professional organizations.
As a result, I know what stories various freelancers are working on at any given time, and I know when they are desperately trying to find that rare person who is willing to talk about her sex life and allow her complete name to appear in the story. I really am a rare woman in that regard. Most people are not comfortable talking about the things I am willing to tell the world. So between my connections and my openness, I’ve had a fairly easy time lining up media for myself. Just in the past year, I’ve been quoted in Redbook, First, and Pregnancy magazines, as well as iparenting.com and cnn.com. I’ve been a guest on several blog talk radio shows and my essays and articles have appeared in a number of different consumer magazines.
Blogging has also taught me a lot about social media and digital marketing. My following on Twitter and established presence on Facebook certainly helped me gain interest from publishers.
Publishers like authors who can market and sell their own books. Their budgets are shrinking, and their publicity teams are continually forced to work on more books with fewer people. So an author who can serve as her own publicist–by launching a blog tour, doing guest posting, smoozing with freelancers, doing public speaking, etc–is very attractive.
I might not be Suzanne Somers, but I can get my message out. My relationships with other bloggers and journalists really helped to make me attractive to publishers.
Julie: Has the blog hurt the publishing process at all?
Alisa: I don’t think it hurt. Publishers really are not as out of touch as many people think. They are pretty on top of the trends in all things digital. But they are still operating in two formats: paper and digital. That’s pretty tough and it takes a near genius to find ways to straddle both formats well.
I did have one publisher ask about my ebook, which I’m giving away for free, but the content in the ebook is different than the content in the paper book that I’m shopping around. If I was repurposing, then the blog would probably hurt. It would also hurt if I had no site visitors. But that’s not the case.
Julie: You write about your life, your relationship, sex – all very personal. How do you approach the issue of transparency?
Alisa: Many years ago, I used to be a very secretive person. I was also very, very depressed. I’ve since learned that I’m much happier when I keep no secrets. I have nothing to be ashamed of and nothing to be embarrassed about. I’d rather people know the real me. If they know everything about me and still like me? Then I know they are true friends. If I hide parts of myself from people, how will I ever truly know what they think of me?
Blogging has really helped me become more comfortable with sharing the intimate details of my life, though. I continually get comments and emails from people who thank me for helping them. Those comments mean the world to me and they make any moment of bashfulness so worth it.
I used to worry about the effects my blogging and writing in general would have on my daughter. She’s only 4 now, so I’m not sure what the future holds. But I do think I’m a better parent that I can talk and write about these issues openly. I’m sure she’ll hate that I write about my sex life when she’s 13. But if she didn’t have that, she’d find something else to hate about me during that stage of her life.
My general rule about the transparency is that it has to have a point. I don’t write about my sex life just to be graphic. I always make sure I have a point or that I’m trying to be helpful. That’s my rule and that’s what allows me to sleep at night!
Where to find Alisa…
Project Happily Ever After Website
Project Happily Ever After Blog
Free Ebook: Relationship Rules
Filed under Blogging, How To, Myth or Reality, News, Writing | Tags: alisa bowman, best seller, blog, Blogging, getting published, ghostwriting, Julie Roads, marriage, marriage advice, project happily ever after, sex, Writing, Writing Roads | Comments (7)Adam Lambert and the deception of search trends
Matt Dickman of Techno/Marketer wrote a great post about the fact that’s confusing many people about the 2009 American Idol finale. It seems that even though Adam Lambert ruled the numbers for search, since January, he lost the contest. Interestingly, these search stats had made clear and correct predictions in the past.
Sadly, in this case, I think a prominent reason that Adam had the search lead but not the final votes was hatred and intolerance.
Despite the fact that many of the musical greats of our time (and actors, artists, etc. – Elton John, anyone?) are gay – during this time when the right wing conservatives are fighting so hardily against the gay community – I think what we’re seeing are people searching to find out about his gayness and to talk about it and rail against it. There’s curiosity…and there’s power in numbers when it comes to both love and hate.
While Adam may not have been everyone’s cup of tea, there is no denying that his voice, musical mastery, stage presence, moves and ability to transform songs in ways we never could have imagined surpassed every other contestant. Kris Allen, himself, was even shocked and responded on live TV, “But Adam deserves this…” after he heard the news.
I know that certain groups sent out mass emails with pictures of Adam in make-up and drag, as well as images of him kissing another man asking, “Do we want this to be our American Idol?.” My 13 year-old neighbor told me that the middle school was abuzz with comments like, “I don’t want to listen to someone gay on the radio.”
Interesting that we, as a country, were able to elect a black President, but not a sexually ambiguous entertainer. Or maybe it isn’t interesting – cue Prop 8.
Even if the skewed search results weren’t completely due to the gay factor, we can’t forget the voyeur factor. He is wild, new, controversial and fascinating. The green pointy thing in a sea of cuddly pink. Whether you like him or not (and I really, really do), it’s hard not to watch, listen – and search Adam Lambert.
Image from WENN – Heart from Perez Hilton
Update: Fantastic and like-minded post on the HuffPo: American Idol controversy: Adam Lambert Loses, Homophobia Wins
Filed under News, Politics | Tags: adam lambert, American Idol, kris allen, search trends | Comments (9)Irony. It’s so twisted.
As my good friend, Sarah, likes to say, “You can’t make this stuff up.”
Irony, according to my favorite dictionary (courtesy of Apple) is ‘a state of affairs or an event that seems deliberately contrary to what one expects and is often amusing as a result.’
Miss California, by way of irony, has recently given us quite a bang for our buck. While preaching against gay marriage in the name of the holy church and bible, it’s been uncovered that:
- Her bible and religion don’t scoff at young women taking off their clothes and posing for nude photographs, but do oppose loving people making a lifelong, serious commitment to one another and raising families.
- She lied when she said the first set of nude photos that were released on the internet were the only ones.
- The breasts God gave her simply weren’t good enough and she had to get new ones.
- She violated her Miss California contract by not revealing her nude pictures to the pageant committee.
- Her declaration against gay marriage (the rights for which somewhere around half the population of her state support) does not toe the line of representing fully the state she has been honored to represent.
And then…Donald Trump lets Carrie Prejean keep her crown. My head is spinning.
Personally, I’m not into this plot at all. It has politics and loud ick factor…but no substance. You’re right, Sarah, we would never make this up – it’s just too…banal.
Writers, we can do so much better than this…can’t we?
UPDATE: Like Manna from Heaven – me and Keith Olbermann are one. I just found this and nearly fell off my chair. Thank you, Mr. Olbermann, for speaking up so eloquently:
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Image courtesy of Wasabicube
Filed under Critical Copywriting, How To, Marketing, News, Politics, Social Media | Tags: carrie prejean, copywriting, creative writing, donald trump, irony, Julie Roads, marketing writing, miss california, miss usa, Writing, Writing Roads, writing with irony | Comments (4)Free eBook – Finding Your Voice in a Crowded World: Personal Branding, Social Media and You
So excited about my new ebook that I wrote with Ron Miller for our Soc Media 101 site (tips & how-to’s for beginners). Actually, the idea for the book came first and the blog formed around it…
Finding Your Voice in a Crowded World: Personal Branding, Social Media and You takes a look at how you can make yourself stand out when everyone’s hopping on the social media train. And you get two perspectives: my marketing/creative writing perspective and Ron’s technology/journalism perspective.
Read it, Enjoy it, Pass it on…(and thanks for being such wonderful blog readers and commenters!)
Click the book, get your free download!
Remarks By the President
These words arrived in my inbox overnight, and I was moved immediately to share them here. As a writer talking to other writers, I’m posting them because the words are exquisite. As a human, I’m posting them because this isn’t about the Holocaust or Jews or this group or that group. Every act of violence is unspeakable. Violence is violence. Hate is Hate. And only we can do something about it.
This isn’t political, this is about how we all choose to spend our days when hate is still all around.
It’s a bit long…but you’ve got all weekend. I hope you’ll read it, I hope you’ll share it. I hope it will inspire you. I know you will be kind.
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
_________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release April 23, 2009
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
AT THE HOLOCAUST DAYS OF REMEMBRANCE CEREMONY
United States Capitol
Washington, D.C.
12:04 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Please be seated. Thank you very much. To Sara Bloomfield, for the wonderful introduction and the outstanding work she’s doing; to Fred Zeidman; Joel Geiderman; Mr. Wiesel — thank you for your wisdom and your witness; Speaker Nancy Pelosi; Senator Dick Durbin; members of Congress; our good friend the Ambassador of Israel; members of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council; and most importantly, the survivors and rescuers and their families who are here today. It is a great honor for me to be here, and I’m grateful that I have the opportunity to address you briefly.
We gather today to mourn the loss of so many lives, and celebrate those who saved them; honor those who survived, and contemplate the obligations of the living.
It is the grimmest of ironies that one of the most savage, barbaric acts of evil in history began in one of the most modernized societies of its time, where so many markers of human progress became tools of human depravity: science that can heal used to kill; education that can enlighten used to rationalize away basic moral impulses; the bureaucracy that sustains modern life used as the machinery of mass death — a ruthless, chillingly efficient system where many were responsible for the killing, but few got actual blood on their hands.
While the uniqueness of the Holocaust in scope and in method is truly astounding, the Holocaust was driven by many of the same forces that have fueled atrocities throughout history: the scapegoating that leads to hatred and blinds us to our common humanity; the justifications that replace conscience and allow cruelty to spread; the willingness of those who are neither perpetrators nor victims to accept the assigned role of bystander, believing the lie that good people are ever powerless or alone, the fiction that we do not have a choice.
But while we are here today to bear witness to the human capacity to destroy, we are also here to pay tribute to the human impulse to save. In the moral accounting of the Holocaust, as we reckon with numbers like 6 million, as we recall the horror of numbers etched into arms, we also factor in numbers like these: 7,200 — the number of Danish Jews ferried to safety, many of whom later returned home to find the neighbors who rescued them had also faithfully tended their homes and businesses and belongings while they were gone.
We remember the number five — the five righteous men and women who join us today from Poland. We are awed by your acts of courage and conscience. And your presence today compels each of us to ask ourselves whether we would have done what you did. We can only hope that the answer is yes.
We also remember the number 5,000 — the number of Jews rescued by the villagers of Le Chambon, France — one life saved for each of its 5,000 residents. Not a single Jew who came there was turned away, or turned in. But it was not until decades later that the villagers spoke of what they had done — and even then, only reluctantly. The author of a book on the rescue found that those he interviewed were baffled by his interest. “How could you call us ‘good’?” they said. “We were doing what had to be done.”
That is the question of the righteous — those who would do extraordinary good at extraordinary risk not for affirmation or acclaim or to advance their own interests, but because it is what must be done. They remind us that no one is born a savior or a murderer — these are choices we each have the power to make. They teach us that no one can make us into bystanders without our consent, and that we are never truly alone — that if we have the courage to heed that “still, small voice” within us, we can form a minyan for righteousness that can span a village, even a nation.
Their legacy is our inheritance. And the question is, how do we honor and preserve it? How do we ensure that “never again” isn’t an empty slogan, or merely an aspiration, but also a call to action?
I believe we start by doing what we are doing today — by bearing witness, by fighting the silence that is evil’s greatest co-conspirator.
In the face of horrors that defy comprehension, the impulse to silence is understandable. My own great uncle returned from his service in World War II in a state of shock, saying little, alone with painful memories that would not leave his head. He went up into the attic, according to the stories that I’ve heard, and wouldn’t come down for six months. He was one of the liberators — someone who at a very tender age had seen the unimaginable. And so some of the liberators who are here today honor us with their presence — all of whom we honor for their extraordinary service. My great uncle was part of the 89th Infantry Division — the first Americans to reach a Nazi concentration camp. And they liberated Ohrdruf, part of Buchenwald, where tens of thousands had perished.
The story goes that when the Americans marched in, they discovered the starving survivors and the piles of dead bodies. And General Eisenhower made a decision. He ordered Germans from the nearby town to tour the camp, so they could see what had been done in their name. And he ordered American troops to tour the camp, so they could see the evil they were fighting against. Then he invited congressmen and journalists to bear witness. And he ordered that photographs and films be made. Some of us have seen those same images, whether in the Holocaust Museum or when I visited Yad Vashem, and they never leave you. Eisenhower said that he wanted “to be in a position to give firsthand evidence of these things, if ever, in the future, there develops a tendency to charge these allegations merely to propaganda.”
Eisenhower understood the danger of silence. He understood that if no one knew what had happened, that would be yet another atrocity — and it would be the perpetrators’ ultimate triumph.
What Eisenhower did to record these crimes for history is what we are doing here today. That’s what Elie Wiesel and the survivors we honor here do by fighting to make their memories part of our collective memory. That’s what the Holocaust Museum does every day on our National Mall, the place where we display for the world our triumphs and failures and the lessons we’ve learned from our history. It’s the very opposite of silence.
But we must also remember that bearing witness is not the end of our obligation — it’s just the beginning. We know that evil has yet to run its course on Earth. We’ve seen it in this century in the mass graves and the ashes of villages burned to the ground, and children used as soldiers and rape used as a weapon of war. To this day, there are those who insist the Holocaust never happened; who perpetrate every form of intolerance — racism and anti-Semitism, homophobia, xenophobia, sexism, and more — hatred that degrades its victim and diminishes us all.
Today, and every day, we have an opportunity, as well as an obligation, to confront these scourges — to fight the impulse to turn the channel when we see images that disturb us, or wrap ourselves in the false comfort that others’ sufferings are not our own. Instead we have the opportunity to make a habit of empathy; to recognize ourselves in each other; to commit ourselves to resisting injustice and intolerance and indifference in whatever forms they may take — whether confronting those who tell lies about history, or doing everything we can to prevent and end atrocities like those that took place in Rwanda, those taking place in Darfur. That is my commitment as President. I hope that is yours, as well.
It will not be easy. At times, fulfilling these obligations require self-reflection. But in the final analysis, I believe history gives us cause for hope rather than despair — the hope of a chosen people who have overcome oppression since the days of Exodus; of the nation of Israel rising from the destruction of the Holocaust; of the strong and enduring bonds between our nations.
It is the hope, too, of those who not only survived, but chose to live, teaching us the meaning of courage and resilience and dignity. I’m thinking today of a study conducted after the war that found that Holocaust survivors living in America actually had a higher birthrate than American Jews. What a stunning act of faith — to bring a child in a world that has shown you so much cruelty; to believe that no matter what you have endured, or how much you have lost, in the end, you have a duty to life.
We find cause for hope as well in Protestant and Catholic children attending school together in Northern Ireland; in Hutus and Tutsis living side by side, forgiving neighbors who have done the unforgivable; in a movement to save Darfur that has thousands of high school and college chapters in 25 countries, and brought 70,000 people to the Washington Mall — people of every age and faith and background and race united in common cause with suffering brothers and sisters halfway around the world.
Those numbers can be our future — our fellow citizens of the world showing us how to make the journey from oppression to survival, from witness to resistance, and ultimately to reconciliation. That is what we mean when we say “never again.”
So today, during this season when we celebrate liberation, resurrection, and the possibility of redemption, may each of us renew our resolve to do what must be done. And may we strive each day, both individually and as a nation, to be among the righteous.
Thank you, God bless you, and God bless the United States of America. (Applause.)
END 12:18 P.M. EDT
Filed under How To, News, Politics | Tags: good writing, holocaust, human responsibility, president obama, speech | Comments (3)Miles of Human Kindness
Just when I really needed it, I walked into a bastion of human kindness. A place where the human spirit prevails.
I’m talking about the Boston Marathon – which I’ve been lucky enough to witness eight times in my life. This one being the most special because my baby sister-in-law was running.
The kindness starts with over 500,000 people that line the course from Hopkinton to Boston. Family, friends, supporters, fans – of the runners, of the race and of Boston and its community. People set up stands with orange slices and band-aids and water. And we cheer until we can’t talk anymore – calling out names that are taped or written on runner’s shirts. Clapping, whooping, kissing, singing…
The runners themselves symbolize bravery, perseverance, steadfastness. They train, they sacrifice, they feel pain. They’ve made a decision and they follow through to the best of their abilities. No matter how they make it to the finish line – sprinting, jogging, injured, walking, carried. Moving forward because they’re telling themselves to. Because they want it.
- Like three-time cancer survivor Julie Wescott, 33, of San Diego.
- Like Stan Vancelette competing in his 33rd consecutive Boston Marathon at the age of 72.
- Like 48 year-old Paul Gaunt, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease.
- Like father and daughter duos. School running Teams. Co-workers. Old friends.
- Like my Megan who ran in honor of her grandmother and decided simply, “I’m going to do this.”
Every year a good number of race participants run for a cause, raising money for disease research or another cause. And the 113th running of the Boston Marathon was no different…but there were some that stood out.
- I saw a man run by with a good sized wooden pole rising out from a belt around his waist. Waving a few feet above his head, an American flag – and over that a handmade flag that called out the ongoing tragedy in the Sudan.
- I saw a Dick Hoyt pushing his son, Rick, in his wheelchair – a father son duo that trek the 26.2 miles every year. The cheers from the sidewalks lifting in a loud wave of recognition. And love.
- I saw a woman running blindfolded, her arm linked to her friend’s and then her husband’s. Her shirt said, ‘Running for Sawyer. Perkins School for the Blind.’ Her name is Leslie Nordin and she raised $30,000 on behalf of her son and his school.
Human Kindness. Self-sacrifice. Doing something, no matter how uncomfortable to help someone else. Reaching a goal. Accomplishment.
Good reminders, eh? I’m a humbled witness.
Props to the Boston Athletic Association for being so tech savvy that you could track runners online and even have updates texted to friends and family.
Filed under News | Tags: boston marathon, inspiration | Comments (5)Ashton Kutcher is NOT Change
You know – this whole Twitter scam (in which Ashton Kutcher, aka @aplusk, was on a race to a million followers with CNN) grossed me out from the beginning.
Ashton created a video during his run for one million where he said:
This is “about a statement that one man can have a voice that’s as loud as an entire media company. And you can have that voice as well. And we can all have that voice together. And, and, and we can change media forever.”
But he’s not just a man. He’s a celebrity. And for some reason people (yes, me included) glom on celebrities like flies to shit. Curiousity, proximity to fame, the chance of being noticed, all of the above? Regardless, I can name millions of guys who are ‘one man’ on Twitter who are getting followers the real way – by contributing to the conversation.
Excuse me, ‘Mr.’ Kutcher – we have been changing media for some time now. You just got here.
It’s been revealed that Ashton Kutcher, in fact, has punk’d Twitter – and been paid with promotion and possible dollars, certainly with press, to create this entire scenario that spanned not only the week’s news cycle – but Oprah as well. I mean, after all, Oprah is late to the game – so her entrance to Twitter simply had to be part of this coup.
Even more disgusting is the fact that Twitter has made it impossible for anyone to unfollow Ashton. A few have tried to offer a way around the mandatory Ashton Kutcher follow, but Twitter seems to have fixed that – because it no longer works. We’re stuck with him.
Oh, and all this from a guy with over one million followers who is following exactly 79 people back as of this post. You seem to have missed the point of Twitter, Ashton.
I remember a few months ago when Twitter was so sweet, pure, beneficial. The celebs were few and far between – or they were simply behaving; Tina Fey, Anderson Cooper and MC Hammer, to name a few. It was before the apps that help mindless tweeters gather 20,000 followers in one week when all they post is muckety muck about nothing in particular.
When he finally did win his self-created contest, Ashton remarked again, ‘this is changing media forever!’ I’m sorry? Not the 6 million people on Twitter that came before him? Not the 200 million on Facebook? Not Barack Obama’s use of social media to win an election? Not the sum total of amazing bloggers that speak their minds and create actual change every day?
Be ashamed of yourself, Ashton Kutcher. Because you absolutely must be kidding.
Will we, the Tweeple that tweet responsibily, be able to maintain some of that ‘old Twitter’? If we remain pure and giving in our tweets, can we overcome this mainstream, race for numbers madness? Can we continue to share information, learn, help each other, grow businesses, provide support and change the world – as real people?
I’m holding out hope. I’m grateful for Ashton’s malaria nets. I’m disgusted by his ego and manipulation. But I’m holding out hope.
Filed under News, Social Media | Tags: aplusk, ashton kutcher, cnn, social media, social networking, Twitter | Comments (48)Social Media Tips and How-To’s for Beginners
Social Media Quadrupled My Business Last Year
When people talk smack about social media – calling it a waste of time or a fake world – I just smile. “Go ahead with your bad self and your bad attitude,” I say. “Social media helped me quadruple my business last year.”
The relationships are real. Most of the people are genuine and kind. Because the social media world is growing so fast, there’s room for us all to learn, thrive, fall down, get back up…and everything in between.
Social media has increased my exposure * given me opportunities to write in some awesome venues * provided new jobs * helped me grow as a networker, writer & business woman * offered new speaking opportunities…and introduced me to Ron Miller.
Click and Clack
Do you have anyone in your life that you share a brain with? I met one of those people on Twitter. Ron and I can’t remember our first tweets or how we connected so instantly – but we did. Complementing each other perfectly with all of our opposites:
- He’s a guy/I’m a girl
- He’s a tech geek/I just like that things work when I plug them in
- He’s a journalist/I’m a marketing writer
- He’s old/I’m not
And, before long, we became trusted colleagues, attached at the Skype-hip, editors & thesauruses for each other, confidants, sentence finishers, virtual office mates…and now partners. I’ve lost count of the number of times that we’ve IM’d each other the exact same thought at the exact same time.
Why Am I Telling You All Of This?
The ’social media is good’ part is because some people still haven’t engaged. Why? Because they’re scared and intimidated by the LinkBooks and the FaceINs, not to mention the Tweetering. And I think that’s a crying shame. It’s all doable if someone helps you do it.
The ‘Ron Miller’ part because our first partner venture is the creation and launch of Soc Media 101: a blog about social media for the beginner. Full of how-to’s and tips from Ron & I and an exciting gang of guest posters.
So…check it out:
- Digestible info if you’re a newbie.
- Great place to point the unfamiliar, the scared and the unconvinced
- Guest possibilities for the well-traveled.
And stay tuned for everything else we’ve got cookin’!
Image by our fantastic designer, Shauna Callghan.
Filed under Blogging, News, Social Media | Tags: blog, Blogging, copywriter, Facebook, Julie Roads, LinkedIn, marketing writer, Ron Miller, soc media 101, social media, social networking, socmedia101.com, Twitter, Writing Roads | Comments (7)Funny. Life is Still the Same. Ish.
Last night was Passover – when Jews from all over the world and their friends remember our history as slaves and celebrate our freedom.
Now – of course I understand that my life is mountains better than my bondaged ancestors. I’m not that deluded.
But, at our Seder last night, we were asked to role play (something I truly abhor) and my character was that of a Jewish slave woman in Egypt. The description looked something like this:
You work 12 hour days working with all different kinds of people that you don’t know, doing hard labor that is sometimes demeaning around people that can make you feel uncomfortable. Then, you go home & have to perform wifely duties such as cooking, cleaning, mending, caring for family & ’stuff’ to please your spouse….
At first I was annoyed. Dare I say, bratty. How could I know how this woman feels? cough, cough. Let’s break this down, shall we?
- You work 12 hour days (Yes. Yes, I do.)
- …working with all different kinds of people that you don’t know (Today we call that ‘working virtually’)
- …doing hard labor that is sometimes demeaning (As in writing about the benefits of mobile dry cleaning or cheap land in the Bahamas? Yes, but hey, I’m supporting my family here!)
- …around people that can make you feel uncomfortable (Uh huh – spammers on Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn and in my email box and in my blog comments – talking about how size does matter and helps you get the girl)
- …Then, you go home & have to perform wifely duties such as cooking, cleaning, mending, caring for family & ’stuff’ to please your spouse….(Okay, the ’stuff’ isn’t so bad, but the rest of it bites)
Holy shit! I AM a Jewish slave woman!
Besides the fact that I have chosen every beautiful moment in my life…and love it. Still…I love a good Kvetch. Don’t you?
Image courtesy of Irargerich
Filed under News, The Business | Tags: copywriter, copywriting, freelance writer, Julie Roads, passover, small business owner, work life balance, Writing Roads | Comments (7)Twitter via Biz and Colbert
In case you missed it…here’s Twitter co-founder, Biz Stone, talking all about the Twitter phenomenon on the Colbert Report. I don’t know what’s more interesting:
- Hearing about Twitter from the horse’s mouth
- Trying to watch Biz not crack up
- Stephen Colbert being, well, Stephen Colbert
For your viewing pleasure…
Filed under News, Social Media | Tags: 140 characters, biz stone, social media, stephen colbert, Twitter | Comments (4)
