Blog

I admit, I’m a social-media addict. I find myself as I wake up, instead of a traditional self-evaluation of how I am, I think in terms of status updates. Answers to the question on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter – “What are you doing?”

I think in terms of 140 characters or less so I can tweet it, and I update several times per day. Even though my family lives near me, they’ve learned if they really want to know what’s going on with me, don’t call – and e-mail works, but it is just as easy to check to check Twitter.

My father finds this fascinating. “Don’t you think you may not want to….” he pauses, seeking the words, “air your laundry so much online?” And in some cases, I understand what he’s saying. I do air a lot of personal stuff online. In short, 140 character bits, people can see inside what’s happening with me. “It makes me more authentic,” I tell my dad, “as long as it’s within reason, this is how it’s done.” He remains unconvinced. But, on the other hand, when I’m feeling low, he finds out online and calls me. And, he learns other interesting highlights by following my status updates, too, but more on that later.

What’s different about me than most social media mavens is that I am only airing “my laundry” and also plenty of professional observations as well, in short status updates. I have not blogged extensively, even though many of my colleagues and clients have asked me to. Ironically, as an early adopter of social media and its power in our industry and others, I have pushed and prodded my colleagues and clients to start blogging. I have stressed passionately how it would reinforce their expertise, how it could help clients (and prospects), how it could expand their marketplace. And, I have showed how I have used Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter to gain clients and information. I have tweeted or e-mailed articles consistently showing how others in the industry were utilizing social media and blogging to grow their business in a “come on guys, everyone else is doing it!” way.

Now it’s time to do it myself, give the cobbler’s kids some shoes, practice what I preach, proof is in the pudding, insert cliché here. I find time to tweet several times a day, so now, I have resolved, to get my blog rolling. I’ll be using this forum to address a lot of questions I get from many of you when I am out at conferences or via e-mail, to share with you ways to use some of these fascinating tools to grow your business, and some interesting case studies and trends I’m seeing out in the industry. Feel free to drop me a line with any comments, questions, or ideas you have any time!

So do I really make my family find out what’s happening with me by checking Facebook and Twitter? Kind of. When I had my daughter last year, he found out I was in labor by checking Twitter – this is no joke. He read my updates about “not feeling good”, and when he called my house several hours later and received no answer, he went straight to Pen Bay. And, there I was.