Real Words

One of the things that I’ve thought about doing off and on is hiring a social media person. This would be someone who would have the job of doing the social media promotion for all of my work as well as for all of the posts that I do for my clients. It’s a tempting thing to consider doing but in the end I’ve decided that the cons outweigh the pros so I’m not going to do it.

Benefits of Hiring a Social Media Person

There are a lot of good reasons for me to hire a social media person. Doing so could benefit my own blogs as well as increase the traffic that I’m getting for my clients. The core benefits of having someone else do this instead of myself would be:

• That individual would be sole focused on social media promotion. Social media promotion is only one of the tasks that I perform as a blogger. Things I do as a blogger include defining the content, writing the content, adding images and videos to the posts, scheduling the posts, doing internal and external linking and then promoting the posts through various methods. When time gets tight, it’s hard to focus completely on social media. Hiring someone to do that would guarantee that the time and focus was on that regularly.
• It would mean I wouldn’t have to do social media stuff. The truth is that I don’t like doing a lot of social media promotion. There are things that I like using Facebook and Twitter for. I am starting to get into LinkedIn for various uses. However I don’t particularly enjoy the promotion of my own posts on these sites. Hiring someone to do it would mean I wouldn’t have to.
• I’d get an outside opinion on my social media strategy. Working alone means that I end up doing everything on my own and can get really stuck in my own way of doing things. This isn’t as bad with my clients’ blogs because I get their feedback on the social media strategy that I plan out for them. However it can be bad for my own blogs. It would be nice to have that second person giving me suggestions and feedback on how I approach my blog promotion.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to attend an SBA class on the topic of blogging for businesses. The class was geared towards people who own a small business (or who want to) and who were seeking information on how to use a blog to benefit that business. I attended the class as someone who blogs for businesses professionally.

You may be wondering (as a couple of other people there did) why I was bothering to take a basic business blogging class when I do this for a living. The answer is a simple one – I want to learn who my clients are. I work with people who own a business but who don’t necessarily know how to launch, promote and utilize a blog. I interact with them online but that interaction is limited. Most of them just give their blog to me and then let me run with it. I thought it would be great to meet some people who are in the same position as my clients in order to get a better viewpoint on what they might need from someone like me.

Here’s what I learned from this class:

• The primary thing that blog clients need is information. I forget that not everyone knows how to set up a blog or what a Twitter account is. I think that my clients could benefit from learning what the different options are for blogging / social media. I have been thinking for awhile about adding blog consulting to the list of services that I provide – essentially teaching business owners the basics of blogging and guiding them through content creation. I think that this would be a big benefit to certain clients.
• I know more about blogging than I sometimes think that I know. I often feel inferior to major bloggers who blog daily about blogging and social media. (I’m thinking of people like Darren Rowse.) I blog about a variety of different topics and don’t focus specifically on what’s going on with web writing and social media. What I learned from my participation in the class is that I actually do know a lot compared to the average person and that I can benefit others by sharing what I know.
• I don’t know as much as I need to know about blogging and social media. I was pleasantly surprised to learn about some new sites and tools that I’m not using yet. I learned why it might be better to use bit.ly for URL shortening than the programs I’ve been using (primarily because it offers web analytics information that I didn’t know about before). I also learned about xeesm.com where I can create a contact and links sheet to share with others through a single URL. More importantly, this class reminded me that there are a lot of aspects of blogging that I’m familiar with but that I’m not implementing on my personal blogs (despite that I do them for clients). I want to get back on track with developing and promoting my own blogs. To do that, I need to create a small business plan for my blogs. This goes along with what I recently mentioned which is that my number one writing goal right now is to get organized.

The class was informative and helpful for me as a blogger. I got to meet some great people and had some ideas spurred that I think are going to be really inspirational this week for my own blogging goals. Great stuff. And kudos to the teacher of the class – Carlos R. Hernandez. Check out his blog / site on social media and Web 2.0 topics.

Question for other bloggers and web writers – do you attend classes and networking events around blogging? What has been your experience with that so far?

I use Twitter regularly although not nearly as actively as many of my fellow online writers. I post all of my blog updates and HubPages articles to Twitter so that my friends there can see what I’ve been writing lately. I try to follow what the people I’m friends with on the site are posting. And I ReTweet a few things here and there to pass on what I think is really interesting information. I’m not a prolific user of the site but I’m active enough.

That alone isn’t enough reason for you to want to follow me, I’m sure. But you should know that others think I’m worth following. The oDesk blog recently listed 25 writers to follow on Twitter and named me on the list. I’m there with some really great company so check out the post to see who else you should be following. I’m also included on a second great list of 39 Writers to Follow on Twitter that was posted by Get Paid To Write Online.

I can be followed at http://twitter.com/kathrynvercillo.

There’s an interesting article online right now that poses the question “is Twitter killing blogging?” The deeper question is whether people are now blogging less than before because they are Twittering more. The answer seems so far to be that Twitter is not having any adverse affect on blogging and I’ve seen comments about the article around the web that Twitter is actually increasing blogging because bloggers are encouraged to post new items so that they can Twitter the link.

Twitter and blogging seem to go hand in hand. It’s certainly a tool that is used to promote blogs. We’ve seen other articles that suggest that Twitter even may make people better bloggers or writers. But it’s also true that there is only so much time in the day so is it possible that people Twitter when they could be writing better blog posts?

What I think might be happening is that people who are already only kind of half-involved in blogging might find Twitter to be a better platform for what they have to say. People who primarily do their blogging on existing social networking sites (through MySpace blogs or Facebook notes) may find that Twitter sufficiently meets their needs for getting their thoughts on there without developing a full-on blog.

However, full-time bloggers and bloggers who are really serious about their blogs will likely find that Twitter can only supplement what they’re doing and not replace the blog. The blog format allows for much more opportunity to express yourself, share ongoing thoughts and dialogue with others in a more organized fashion. As a blogger, I don’t commit a lot of time to Twitter but I do try to use it to support the time I’m putting in to my blogging.

Perhaps those efforts are paying off because I was recently honored by being included on a list of 39 Writers You Should Follow on Twitter. You can follow me here.

I have mixed feelings about using social bookmarking sites to promote my own writing around the web. Sometimes these sites feel great because they allow me to really connect with people who are interested in the things that I’m writing about. Other times it feels like an extra chore to try to keep up with social bookmarking on top of writing, social networking and other online activities.

The solution to this dilemma for me seems to be to only use highly-focused social bookmarking submissions and networking. I prefer to use niche social bookmarking sites rather than big general sites because I feel like these allow me to make true connections with other people around the topics that actually interest me. For example, I write a lot about personal finance so I use Tip’d which is a small niche social bookmarking site for the topic of money.

What I’m disappointed about, though, is that there doesn’t seem to be any niche social bookmarking site out there just for the topics of writing and blogging. A few of the general sites, such as Mixx, have good group followings surrounding this particular topic but there isn’t a site that is specifically for the submission of such articles. The closest thing that I’ve been able to find is a site called Wordsy which was for book lovers but the site was suspended a few months ago due to lack of interest in it. Nothing similar seems to have popped up in its place.

Why is that? Doesn’t it seem like such a site would do well since there are so many of us out here writing about the topic of writing? I can see categories including blogging, social networking, creative writing, contests … And yet, this type of social bookmarking site doesn’t seem to exist. What do you think that the reason for this is? Would you use one to network with other writers if such a thing did exist?

I have heard a lot of complaints from people in recent years about how today’s technology makes people dumber. The big one is that misspelling and LOL-style language used in text messaging and IM dumbs people’s writing skills. I have always dismissed this. I think that, in general, technology has made us smarter. And I think that writing is improved by many things including creativity and access to information which are both possible through text and IM as they are anywhere else.

Still, would I go so far as to say that a tool like Twitter can actually improve our writing? It’s an idea that I started thinking more about after reading this great article on Copyblogger about how Twitter improves writing by forcing you to be more concise, more creative with your vocabulary and more capable of editing your own words. I hadn’t thought of it that way and found the possibilities to be intriguing.

After thinking about this, I started doing some research into what others online have to say about the topic. There are a lot of people online who have said that Twitter is dumbing us down but there’s some compelling evidence to suggest that it may be true that Twitter improves our writing. It certainly improves our ability to market our writing. But it also looks like it may have the potential to improve the writing of students and may even help to better legal writing.

Ultimately I think that Twitter, like all technology, is a tool that will be used differently by different people. Creative folks will learn to better themselves through its use and the rest of the users will simply enjoy it for its entertainment value. It is neither bad nor good but what we make of it.

I mentioned earlier this week in my article on finding support for your freelance career that one of the best places to get support is through your online social networks. I’ve been thinking about that a lot this week because I’ve had the opportunity to really develop some great connections with other writers and bloggers online.

More so this week than any other time in the past, I’ve had people contacting me via Facebook and Twitter and trying to connect. These aren’t people who are just adding me and then forgetting about me or adding m solely to ping me with news about their work online. These are people who actually ask me questions about my writing and seem interested in the answers.

Because they’ve been reaching out to me in this way, I find myself feeling really excited about online social networking and the sharing of writing that takes place there. I feel like I’m really learning how to connect with the online world in a new way. Sure, I’ve always been on these sites but there’s something different about the true and honest communication with strangers that I’ve been experiencing recently.

Does anyone have any similar stories to share about how their online social networks have transformed from just web chatter to real communication? I’d love to hear those tales!

As a freelancer, I really enjoy writing for sites that allow you to create your own content and then earn money from the revenue that you generate from the site that you’re writing for. My favorite of these sites has always been HubPages where I have contributed articles regularly for two years.

Through that site I am able to earn ongoing passive income in the form of Google Adsense earnings as well as Kontera Publishers earnings, both of which add a nice little chunk of change to my standard freelance income. I’m happy with HubPages and don’t plan to stop working there anytime soon.

However, I do think it’s worth it to branch out and try new sites that operate in the same manner. Some of the ones that I’ve tried in the past turned out not to generate very much income and mostly seemed to be a waste of time (other than assisting in boosting my portfolio). But a few (eHow is one example) have panned out over time.

The one that I’ve just started trying now is Bukisa. Like other sites of its kind, you write the content that interests you and upload it to your profile on the site. You then promote those articles to gain traffic and increase your revenue. The difference with this site as compared to other sites seems to be in the social networking aspect of the site. The goal here is to add people to your Bukisa network so that the articles that they write can also generate money for you. There’s no cost to join so it seems like an interesting way for web writers and bloggers to support each other’s work. It’s a cool idea and one I’m interested in trying out.

If you’re also interested in trying to combine the power of social networking with the poewr of content writing then maybe you’ll try it out as well. Of course, I’d love it if you’d join my Bukisa network, but even if you don’t I’d be curious to hear what your experience with the site is. And you might be interested in my first article there anyway – it’s about the tips that I know of for getting freelance tax deductions.

Leave your thoughts in the comments – I really want to know what other people are thinking of the Bukisa site!

I recently filled out one of those “25 random things about me” notes that keep popping up all over Facebook lately. At first I was going to ignore the requests but then I saw how interesting it was to read what everyone else I know was writing about themselves so I decided to go ahead and participate in order to keep it going. Doing so reminded me of when I used to be really involved in penpalling back in high school.

Most people don’t know this about me but there was a point in time when I had over 100 pen pals that I corresponded with on a regular or semi-regular basis. All through handwritten letters sent via the USPS. I probably spent more of my class time in high school writing letters to people I didn’t know than getting to know the people I was in school with. I certainly spent more time writing letters than writing class assignments.

This obsession started out innocently enough. I got my first few pen pals through one of those ads they used to have in magazines that linked you to others through the mail. Then those people sent me the addresses of their pen pals. And my links to people across the nation started to grow.

Soon, one of these pen pals introduced me to friendship books. These were little paper booklets – you’d decorate a page with some information about yourself, include your address and sent it on to the next pen pal. It was a way to meet other people who wanted to share thoughts and friendships through letters.

At some point in my exchange of friendship books, someone sent me a “slam” which was more or less a booklet of questions that you answered about yourself. It is these slams that the Facebook note thing reminds me of – learning curious facts about people you do and don’t know in a somewhat communal manner. In addition to friendship books and slams, I started doing swaps with my pals (of everything including books, stickers, fabrics, movies, mix tapes …) and I started getting into zines.

But what was really treasured, of course, was the letter that came with the package. Through writing letters to others, I was able to start more clearly defining who I was. Through receiving letters from around the world, I was able to learn about things and places that I may have taken a long time to discover on my own. I still have many of the letters that were sent to me back then and I treasure those old friendships though I’m not in touch with too many of my old pals.

People probably still write letters by hand to their pen pals but those days are gone for me. After a few years, the urge to write letters gave way to the urge to write other things. I was introduced to email and instant messaging and then to MySpace and started doing some correspondence there – and eventually I moved on to Facebook and LinkedIn and blogging. I’ve participated in a few mail swaps and I do paperback book exchanges but for the most part my mailbox is pretty empty these days.

I would say this is neither good nor bad – or perhaps both. Getting stuff in the mail is fun and I miss that sometimes. But I like the instant gratification that comes with online communication and I find it a much easier way to stay in touch with people. Online social networking has many of the same great things about it that drew me to penpalling in the first place and I’m glad that it’s an outlet I have today when I’m not nearly as inclined to write long letters.

I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before there are tons of variations on this “25 random things” that become merely annoying to deal with but for now it’s kind of neat to see these little things popping up online that remind me of my pen pal days. 

Incidentally, you can feel free to add me on Facebook. I like new friends there. However, you should tell me something about who you are and why you want to add me. I’m not averse to adding strangers but I’d like to know why you want to know me!

Green Writing is a Tuesday column here on Real Words that emphasizes the importance of being eco-friendly as a web writer. Additional green writing posts including tips on being green can be found here.

One of the big things that web writers do (or should do) is social bookmarking. This allows writers to promote their own posts and support the posts of others they enjoy reading on the web. The web writer who wants to be greener in his or her actions should make an effort to include green social bookmarking as part of his or her daily work.

Green social bookmarking means promoting posts about green issues. This is particularly true if you write and / or read posts about green writing, green blogging and green creativity. But it applies to supporting any green web content that you find useful to being more eco-friendly. By doing this, you encourage others to read about green topics and potentially be greener in their daily lives. And a bonus is that you can promote your own green writing (including articles that only mention green issues) in the process.

Here are some of the best sites for doing green social bookmarking:

• Hugg. This is a social bookmarking site operated by green news site Treehugger; it is specific to green topics. That means that any green writing you do can be submitted here. It also means that you’ll easily be able to identify green topics to read about it since everything here is green. There’s a lot of great info and you’ll be able to network with a lot of people who are also interested in green writing.
• Mixx. Mixx is one of my favorite social networking sites. One of the reasons for that is that it lets you join groups to which people post topics about specific things. There’s a “Green News” group that tends to be active which means that you regularly see new links to green news items and blog posts. And of course you can add your own green voice to the Mixx.
• StumbleUpon. The best way to get to green information on this site is to “stumble” using the keyword “green”. I did it just now to double check and the first three sites that came up for me was a Treehugger post on diesel fuel, a site called GreenUpgrader, and info about an eco-competition on Life Goggles which is a green news site. All great stuff!
• Greensense. This site is a new site, in beta, that appears as though it’s going to have a green social networking section in addition to lots of other green Web 2.0 stuff. No details on the “about” page yet though so this is just one to keep an eye on.

People who are interested in green social networking (in addition to green bookmarking) should check out the recommendations offered by Treehugger.

Question of the Day: What other social bookmarking sites have strong green writing communities?

[Tags] green writing, green, environment, eco-friendly, creativity, writing, freelance, social bookmarking, social networking [/Tags]