Marjorie Clayman’s Writing Portfolio

Professional writing profile of Marjorie Clayman

Margie Clayman

An open letter to the Presidential candidates

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Dear President Obama and Governor Romney,

I’ve cut short my watching of your debate and I probably will not watch the remaining two. While our country is more polarized than perhaps it has been since the Civil War, I find that my disillusionment with both of you is equal.

When you talk about classes in the United States, you talk about those poor people who make $250,000 or under and then people who have done “very well for themselves” like you both have. I do not see that you understand what happens at wage levels below $250,000. There is a world of economic levels under that bar. There is the level at which I once lived, when I had to forego hot dogs for Memorial Day because I couldn’t afford both the hot dogs and the buns. There’s the level I and many people I know inhabit, grateful but not necessarily comfortable. There are people who have nothing at all. To me, $250,000 would be a massive life change for the better. To me, $250,000 is “doing very well.” You are not talking to me.

You both talk about the creation of jobs but you do not acknowledge that the times have changed. Many of the manufacturing jobs will NOT be replaced because automated programming has replaced the need for trained machinists. Customer service jobs have been outsourced or have been replaced by social media. People who have been out of work have tuned into social media gurus who have sold them snake oil sold in a bottle labeled “Fake it till you make it.” I’m not sure either of you have any idea what any of that is all about. You are not talking to me.

You both toss about the term “pre-existing condition” as if it was just words. Do you understand what that means? I could tell you. Many people I know could tell you. Pre-existing condition is a great way for insurance companies to label you as risky. It’s a great way for them to charge you more. It’s a great crutch the healthcare industry uses to get you on more medication and to get you to more appointments because your health is at more risk than the “normal” person. If you are not wealthy, you can end up doing things like cutting pills in half to make them last longer. Do either of you have any experience with that kind of scenario? You are not talking to me.

Gentlemen, I am not yet 35 years old. When you talk about “younger people” needing to approach medicare in new ways, you reference people in their mid-fifties. You assure the American people that current retirees are fine. What about me? What about my generation? You might remember us as the generation who had to leap into jobs six months after graduation because our college loans started coming due. We started our adult lives deep in debt. Your plan extends to kind of cover people who are ten years away (maybe, if they’re lucky) away from retirement. Do you not have any plan for me? Is it just assumed I will have nothing to cushion me in my old age? You are not talking to me.

You equate Donald Trump to a small business. My family owns a small business, sir candidates. I can tell you about the vast chasm that separates our reality from that of Donald Trump. But if something like that needs to be explained, you simply don’t get it. Neither of you. You are not talking to me.

Your words may be pretty, your faces may be splattered with smug smiles, and you might enjoy, Mr. Romney, telling Jim Lehrer all about how you want to cut funding to his PBS employer. But you both lost me and my confidence tonight. Both of you. If I was not a woman, had women before me not fought and been ostracized for the right to vote, I would simply skip the privilege of going into the voting booth. I am left bereft of hope for my future after this debate, gentlemen. Whomever of you wins will take me nearly to my 40th year of life, and you are not talking to me.

A leader must understand, in my opinion, the people he or she is leading. Not just the people who attend the $50,000/plate dinners. All of the people. Even scumbags like me who go to work every day, 7:30-5, who don’t have fancy cars or more than two rooms to my name. I’m one of the people you’re supposed to touch with your ideas. And your touch has done nothing but left me cold.

You should have been talking to me.

You should both be ashamed of yourselves.

Image Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeannerene/4907249541/ via Creative Commons

Social Media: A Positive Tool, Not a Negative Platform

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A couple months ago, I experimented with social media by simply “listening” for a day. I didn’t post anything, but I scrolled through my Facebook feed and my Twitter stream like I regularly do. Listening without the expected next action of responding or liking or sharing takes you out of the equation and lets you view the content you are seeing with a different perspective. What I saw was rather shocking. Overwhelmingly, there was a great negative pall over my online reality.  Most common was the update or tweet that offered up a complaint about something. Politicians were a common target. The government was a common target. The state of the world as seen through an individual’s perspective was of course also present.  In stepping back, I of course realized I’m just as guilty of contributing to that smoggy cloud as anyone. I lament the state of the world. I lament that there are genocides going on that nobody seems to care about. I lament that people are more concerned about the next iPhone than they are about the shaky economic forecasts gathering for 2013.

Humans, as a rule, like to feel better when they don’t feel good. This traces back to our childhood. When you fell down you went to your mommy because you knew she’d make it better. When you are stressed about your job, you go running or eat a tub of ice cream, or both, because you know it will make you feel better. But I discovered another interesting thing as I listened for a day. People who complain on social media platforms don’t seem to want to be comforted. We want to complain. We want our complaints to be validated by likes or retweets. We want to stir up the fire but we don’t want to put the fire out.

After viewing the negativity that surrounds my online presence, I decided to try to make a conscientious effort to turn potential negatives into positives. To me, it seems like we most often identify social media as a voice amplifier. If we have a complaint, we can reach a lot more people with it thanks to social media platforms. But in thinking about it, social media can be a lot more than that. Social Media, if we let it, can be an action amplifier. It can be the spark that lights a fire of positive change instead of a fire of negativity that creates a lot of choke-inducing smoke. If there is something you are unhappy about, social media offers you an unprecedented opportunity to DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.

There are countless examples of people who have started to use social media to create positive change. Mark Horvath’s InvisiblePeople.TV is a fantastic example of this. The power of social media enables Mark to give a voice to the homeless of our country. Scott Stratten used social media in the #tutusforTanner effort a few years ago because he didn’t like that a family was struggling to fulfill their boy’s desperate last wish. He could have just written up a blog post about it or lamented the situation on Facebook. Instead, he did something about it. Dan Perez uses social media to share his videos to raise awareness, his latest effort being a focus on kids struggling with Dravet Syndrome. Razoo uses the power of social media integrated with offline efforts and in doing so, they have helped raise millions of dollars for causes across the country.

The list goes on.

Sadly, the majority of the people who complain the most and the loudest seldom participate in these kinds of efforts. However, if enough people shift the focus from “I can complain” to “I can change this,” I think everyone will eventually be swept into the tide, and those that staunchly refuse will increasingly be seen as people who simply want to be miserable.

We live in tumultuous times. Complaining is easy, especially with social media and technology advancing like they are. Fighting with people we may never have to meet in real life is one way we can choose to spend our time. I don’t know about you, but I would much rather reign in the power of this new means of communication and use it to improve the things that need to improve.

What do you say? Are you in?

Image Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/minimalisation/7942393032/ via Creative Commons

#vetsmatter and we can help one

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As some of you may have seen, I started an initiative a couple of weeks ago called #vetsmatter. The idea is to get the hashtag to trend on Twitter in lots of places *before* Veterans Day and it’s also the hope that that awareness will help raise funds for various organizations that support veterans since our government seems to be backing away from such efforts.

Well, serendipity has struck. We have a chance to make a real difference in a veteran’s life and we can watch the results come in!

A couple of days ago my friend Raúl Colon pointed me to the direction of Mark Horvath’s blog. Mark (known as @hardlynormal on Twitter) works tirelessly on behalf of the homeless, and right now he has one person in mind, his “brother” Lanny. Lanny has been homeless for four years and finally has gotten a place to stay, but he has no furnishings or other essentials that you need for home-living.

That’s where we come in.

Mark is trying to raise just $1,000, but we only have until October 2nd. So here’s my idea.

We write blog posts about veterans – your experiences if you are a vet, your parents, your friends, thoughts in general, whatever you want, and then at the end you link to Mark’s blog and raise awareness for this (measurable) effort. Tweet out your posts with the #vetsmatter hashtag and feel free to CC me when your post goes live.

Does this sound good? I hope so, because we only have a couple of days to make this happen! Let’s do it!

Image Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisgold/5901794855/ via Creative Commons

#vetsmatter and we should tell them so

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Recently in the news, there has been a lot of talk about the Veterans Job Bill that was blocked by the Senate. My desire is NOT to get into a political conversation. What I do want to do, however, is put out some positive vibes for our men and women who have served or who are currently serving. Our treatment of veterans over the last several years has been atrocious, after all. Soldiers and their families are not getting their benefits on time. Soldiers are not getting proper psychological care. The soldiers in Afghanistan it seems have practically been forgotten by our country.

Here in the US, Veterans Day is November 12th this year. Building up to that date, I’d like for three things to happen.

1. I’d like #vetsmatter to trend on Twitter in as many places as we can get it to trend. This hashtag was inspired by Angela Maiers’ You Matter Manifesto. Everything she wants people to remember about themselves applies just as much to our vets as it does to anyone else.

2. I’d love to see your insights about vets in your own blogs – Why do veterans matter to you? Have you or someone you loved served? I don’t want this to be about politics. I am against just about every war you could think up, but that doesn’t mean that the men and women who fight those wars should be abandoned.

3. I’d like to raise money for the Wounded Warrior Project – I have emailed them to see if they can let us know how we are doing, but even if we can’t do that, it would be comforting to know that we are making some kind of difference. You can donate here.

The Wounded Warrior Project has a tagline that reads, “The Greatest Casualty is Being Forgotten.” Our government, our country, acts as if our veterans have been forgotten. Maybe sending out our love for these men, women, and their families will be enough to make people remember why we mark Veterans Day, why we mark Memorial Day, and why our country has always bragged about our armed forces.

As for me, well, veterans matter to me because I have a friend who is serving right now. I have many friends who have served in the past. Many in my family have served. I also can admit, with no small amount of shame, that I’d not be able to withstand what military families go through. Not knowing whether that person you love is safe day-to-day, not knowing where they are or what they’re doing when they are surrounded by danger – it’s more than I’d be able to bear. I think of those families as people who are super-human. I don’t know how, quite literally, how they do what they do.

This is my small effort to let them know that they are on my minds along with the loved ones whom they are missing right now.

So, what do you think? Will you write a blog post about why #vetsmatter to you? Will you consider donating a bit of money to the Wounded Warrior Project? Is there other stuff we can do?

Let’s make a difference for these people this year. Let’s combat the negativity with something powerful and positive. Are you in?

Image Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/usarmyeurope_images/7698317812/ via Creative Commons

I don’t know. I was wrong.

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If there are two phrases that could turn around the online world, it would be those two up there. “I don’t know.” “I was wrong.” How often do you hear those phrases? If you’re like me, hardly ever.

I’ve never been afraid to admit online that I don’t know something. When I first started tweeting I saw the letters RT everywhere. The only thing I could think of was “Richard Thompson,” one of my favorite folk/rock musicians. But I was pretty sure he hadn’t become a Twitter cult celebrity. What was this “RT” all about? I asked. I asked what “MT” stood for, too. I googled “#ff” because I couldn’t even hazard a guess as to what that stood for. Whether it’s been on a blog post, on Facebook, in a Twitter chat, or in a conversation, I don’t have a problem saying, “Um, I don’t know.” Sometimes I’ll even pull a person into the conversation who is more knowledgeable than me.

I’ve also never had a problem admitting I was wrong about things, or at least admitting that I had reconsidered things. I tend to get a lot of blowback in these instances. I wrote a post awhile back saying that I had, after careful deliberation, opted to delete my Pinterest account. About a month or 2 later, I revisited Pinterest and found some fun things that could be done with it. So, my opinion had changed. My opinion about Triberr has changed about once every six months (I really really like it right now). I’ve talked to a lot of people, tried new things, and the platform itself has changed in ways that address things I didn’t like before. So, when I said Triberr wasn’t right for me, I might not have been right. Or things may have changed.

I’m ok with that.

Sadly, admitting to a lack of knowledge, or admitting that maybe you need to reconsider your position – these do not seem to be easy admissions for people in the online world. People have flat out ignored me or made stuff up when I asked them something they clearly didn’t know the answer to. People of course (famously or infamously) are likely to call you a “hater” if you insinuate that what they are saying might not be sound advice.

It should not be difficult to admit that you don’t know something. Nobody really expects you to know everything about everything. It doesn’t matter how many Facebook friends you have, how many blog subscribers you have, or how many followers you may lay claim to on Twitter. None of these things, not even all of them combined, makes you a god. You are still an imperfect being. I’m sorry to lay this cold truth on you this way, but these are just the facts.

You can be wrong sometimes. You can encounter conversations where you may not know the answer. That’s ok. That’s to be expected.  You’re a human, not C3PO. And heck, even HE admitted when he was being pushed beyond his limits.

Talking about stuff as if you know it when you really don’t makes you look worse than simply saying, “I don’t know.” Ignoring a person who has asked you a question makes you look far worse than simply advising that person to ask someone else. Admitting that you were wrong about something (in my opinion) is far preferable to calling anyone who points it out a “hater.” By the same token, making someone feel like crap because their opinion changed (if they provide good reason) is also kind of lame.

So often in the online world you see cries of “Be real! Be human! Be authentic! Be transparent!” Well, few things are more authentic, more human, than saying, “Geeze, I have no idea.”

Let go of the pressure you feel to be perfect. It’s unattainable. Be human. Be you. Be that imperfect, wonderful, unique, transparently awesome, authentically flawed you.

What do you say?

Image Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/statelibraryofnsw/3284118942/ via Creative Commons

What if Social Media is No Longer a Thang?

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A couple of weeks ago, I participated in my first ever G+ hang-out. I know I haven’t been the most ardent supporter of Google Plus – some of the rather sexist articles that came out when Google Plus was in beta soured me on the platform a bit. The busy stream and other facets of G+ world never have gotten me too excited. However, the hang-outs are pretty neat. Much like Skype, the hangouts offer you a chance to talk to people face-to-face. Unlike Skype, it’s possible to talk (with ease) to a lot of different people (up to 9 others). No matter where they are or where you are, hanging out is as easy as a click of a button.

I found myself on kind of an endorphin high after my first hang-out experience. In fact, Brian Vickery and I created a new multi-platform show out of the deal. Talking to people with actual voices and faces and mouths that moved was so wonderful. Going back to the 2-D world of Facebook and Twitter seemed like kind of a let-down after that. Everyone was back to looking the way they always look when I see their avatars. There was no laughter, no tonality to anything that was being said.

Kaarina Dillabough and I will be offering deeper thoughts on this in a couple of weeks, but it seems like people are kind of getting restless with social media. In fact, Marcus Sheridan just wrote a post about how valuable social media conferences are because (ironically) they assist in connecting you to people face-to-face, in “real life.”

This all has to do with the personal nature of our lives and our dealings with other people. But I’m also wondering if perhaps we are moving away from the time when social media was a business in and of itself. I’m wondering if social media is evolving into something that is no longer a “thang.” You know what I mean? It’s no longer newsworthy in and of itself. It’s moving to a place where it’s no longer the whole story, it’s just a footnote. What could that mean for you, for me, and for all those people whose careers have been made by the social media thang?

It never should have been a “thang”

You might recall the “Social Media Revolution” videos that have been floating around YouTube for awhile now. It was hard not to get sucked into that mentality even two years ago. Facebook, Twitter, the potential for new kinds of communication – all of this was still new. But from the beginning, there have been voices cautioning against the “social media thang.” Take, for example, this presentation by Olivier Blanchard from 2010 – “Your business isn’t social media” is a point that is reiterated often in the talk. And that was from two years ago. More recently, Mike McGrail wrote a post suggesting that the age of the social media guru is coming to an end. Just today I read an article from AdWeek asking if social media community managers are really marketers. People are no longer buying into the aura of social media as a revolutionary concept. People want accountability. People want to get back to their real businesses.

What does this mean?

I’ve never been one to play the prediction game before, but in this case, I have a few guesses as to what is going to happen in the next few months to a year as a result of these trends.

The game will get uglier: As the value of a “social media guru” subsides, I think competition is going to drive a lot of the communication online to an increasingly ugly place. There will be increased supply versus decreasing demand. As people work to maintain the status they have built over the last five or so years in the online space, they will become more defensive, more prone to making broad generalizations, and more apt to dismiss people who disagree with them. There will be more “call-out” posts to undermine the competition, too.

Streams will quiet down: As people engross themselves in business versus social media, Facebook streams, blog communities, and Twitter feeds will slow to a crawl. I think a lot of us are already seeing this happen. This blog here is a prime example. I’ve barely blogged here for about two months. I just don’t have the time anymore.

Conversations will mature: Sound bites about ROI having to do with your mother will no longer be acceptable, which is the point Mike makes in his post. As social media changes from a “thang” to a tool, people will want more serious advice about how to use social media, how to measure social media efforts, and how to pivot if something either does not work or works better than expected.

The gurus will disappear: Blogs focusing only on social media best practices will die out, and it will seem sudden to those of us who have been in this space for any amount of time. People will no longer want to focus solely on how to get retweets. They’ll want to know how to use Twitter as part of an integrated marketing plan with a goal of increasing sales by 3%.

“Tradition” will make a come-back: There has been a lot of talk in the online world about how this or that thing is dead. Advertising, email, direct mail, the press release – almost anything NOT social media has been consigned to death at least once, right? As the shine evaporates on social media, people will begin to realize that some of those “traditional” marketing tactics weren’t so bad. In fact, we can now revisit those ideas in new and exciting ways that weren’t possible five years ago. Advertising, PR, and other marketing methods can be enriched and made more interactive with social media. They do not need to be replaced by social media. As we all long for handwritten notes and face-to-face connections, so too will companies begin to long for ways to actually market their products versus simply “engaging” with people.

I have seen many signs pointing to these changes. Some subtle, like gentle whispers on a windy night. Some less subtle. But I think we are most decidedly moving in a direction that will take us away from social media as a “thang.”

What do you think?

Image Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/modeltalk/5019679913/ via Creative Commons