I think everyone should write at least 1 book in their lifetime. For the last six months, I’ve really been thinking about getting my first book started.
My current focus on this has come from the slew of grad and law school essays that I’ve looked over for friends recently. I have known some of these people for 3, 4, 5 years and learned more about them from those 2-3 pgs than from any conversation that we had since we met. You could say that says something about the breadth and depth of our conversations, but I think it says something about society and how few of us really share our stories.
It may sound crazy, but I love people- meeting new people, engaging in conversation, people watching, trying to figure out what makes us do what we do, learning people’s stories and sharing my own. Being in PR in DC, I regularly go to a lot of media and tech networking events or meetups. Often when I meet people and we have not been formally introduced, I say: “What’s your story?”
Not everyone knows how to take this question. I blame my English 11 professor, who introduced me to my now favorite genre- biographies, for this gift/curse of a fascination. Aside from the typical DC “what’s your name, where do you work, what do you do,” I’m trying to learn your story, what makes you YOU?
At this point in my life, a lot of what makes me ME involves being a Gen-Yer, my transition into the real world, my thoughts about how things will work out, so I am not surprised that I came up with this video when Twenty Something Bloggers asked me this:
“Film yourself answering the following questions:
1. If you wrote an autobiography of your life in your 20s so far, what would the first chapter be called? What would the last chapter be called?”
Last week was a pretty busy one for me between work and all the post-6pm events competing with sleep time. All in all, it was great!
I wrote and pitched a social media plan for a new, education-focused non-profit, visited the new leaders of InfluencePR, went to a Nats game at the new stadium and met the man himself, Rohit Bhargava.
When I first came across it, I had the same reaction that I normally have when I see a new Marketing or PR book: “Hmm….that’s interesting. Cool idea. Maybe I’ll add that to the list.” It was Rohit’s awesome blogger book promotion strategy and his updates on Facebook that really pushed me to pre-order the book and really get pumped to meet him. I finally got the opportunity last week during the PNI book signing at the Barnes & Noble in Clarendon, and after a great conversation with him and the other attendees, I’ve decided to move his book to the top of the queue.
I HIGHLY recommend it to anyone even remotely interested PR, Branding, Marketing and/or Business. If you’ve read it already or are working on in it, let me know. It would be great to get your take and bounce ideas back and forth.
Coming out of PodcampDC, I think that the most creative AND useful presentation award goes to Jennifer Berk with her presentation on Content Cross-Promotion. Right in the middle of her presentation, I had the “that’s it!” moment. It’s a little different for everyone. For some, it’s the basic light bulb going off; for me, it’s the ringing bell and music cue when someone wins on the Price is Right! (Minor Disclosure: I love that show and intend to one day play Plinko!)
Ok, so my “that’s it!” moment happened when Jennifer shared her categories of Link Structures with an astronomical theme. They included:
- Nebula: Lots of pieces, not linked together
- Asteroids: Related items but not fully linked
- Solar System: All sites linked to one central place
- Black Hole: Bits of everything featured in one location (blogs,podcast,video,etc.)
- Constellation: Specific links available guiding you along a path
I hope that by now you too are having a “that’s it” moment. I think many of us go about interacting online and creating identities without giving any real thought to how we can strategically link/cross-promote our online content. Out of the five systems mentioned, I think I’m most partial to the Solar System and the Black Hole. Both provide the opportunity for the site visitor to get a snapshot of you and all that you do online.
In everything we do, we should all be thinking about how we can make the stars align.
Posted by jaywalk1
Posted by jaywalk1
Posted by jaywalk1
