Marjorie Clayman’s Writing Portfolio
Professional writing profile of Marjorie Clayman
It’s been awhile since I took some time out to highlight what some of the fantastic people in my community are up to. In fact, so many of them are doing amazing things that I thought I would go ahead and create a category, because I foresee a lot of these posts in the coming months and years 🙂
Here are some stories I am proud to say come from my community.
The nice thing about having a blog, when you first start, is that you have an uninterrupted stage for babbling about whatever you want. If you are lucky enough to gain a readership who finds your babbles to be like a bubbling brook, this self-indulgent aspect of blogging takes a back seat to something much more fun – babbling about other great people.
That is what I intend to do right here.
#30Gratitude
For some reason, my calendar and Mother Nature are telling me it’s November. I am pretty sure it’s actually July, but that’s beside the point. If it really is November, then that means that here in the US, we’re getting close to Thanksgiving, and people around the world are getting ready for the joy of the holidays (whatever those holidays might be for you). Now, I have warned you before that I become a rather mushy pile of mush around this time of year, so when I saw a post from David McGraw that was all about expressing thanks every day of November, you had better believe it spoke directly to me.
Factually, David is trying to draw attention to quite a few important things. First, a lot of us have a lot to be thankful for. Second, a lot of us probably don’t verbalize that thankfulness very often. Third, if we do, it tends to be when our mouths are being stuffed with holiday nuggets of goodness.
David is driving a movement called 30 days of Gratitude, and the idea is pretty darned simple. Every day in November, via Twitter or your Blog or Facebook or smoke signals or whatever your preferred communication method, say thank you for someone or something. Just 1 thing. If you do decide to do this on Twitter, tag it #30Gratitude. Just thinking about thinking about what you’re grateful for is an enlightening experience. You come to realize that picking just 1 thing every day is a challenge. There’s that person and that amazing thing and…well, you get the idea. Also, make sure you say hi to David. He’s @DavidMcGraw on Twitter.
#UsGuys
The last few days of last week, I was out of town for a business meeting. I tried to keep up with Twitter the best that I could, but if you’ve ever tried to do so using a Blackberry, you know that it can be a bit challenging. At one point, while I was managing to Twitter on my centimeter x centimeter key pad, I saw a few mentions of my name and then a tag: #usguys. I recognized the guys that were in #usguys, but I wasn’t really sure what the deal was. I was also kind of worried that somehow I had misled them about my gender along the way.
In fact, some fabulous friends of mine have put together a 24/7 chat that epitomizes what you can experience when you use Social Media to socialize, network, and connect. Although I’ve lost track of everyone who’s in the group, some of the original members were Chase Adams (@realchaseadams), Tom Moradpour (@tommoradpour), Cristian Gonzales (@galactic), and Patrick Prothe (@pprothe).
You can find the story about this hash tag over at Chase Adams’ blog, where he details how #usguys started. Chase has now started a Facebook page, and people are gravitating towards it (yes, it’s open to both genders, as I confirmed). Why are people gravitating towards this group of guys and dolls? Because the kindness of the people is tangible. The intelligence of the people is palpable. The talk is not just about a single topic, but rather it’s about perpetual sharing, learning, teaching, and then a few jokes here and there.
I’m very proud that I was invited in to join this group, and I welcome you, my dear reader, to join the fun on Twitter, on Facebook, or in both places. You can’t have too much of #usguys.
These are just a few of the great people I am currently proud to call friends in the world of Social Media. Who is doing fabulous things in your neck of the woods? Do they know that you think they are fabulous? Only one way to be sure 🙂
Image by sanja gjenero. http://www.sxc.hu/profile/lusi
It seems like a lot of people are still struggling with the collision of “influence” and Social Media. What does influence mean? How do you measure it?
I’ve been rolling around this question in my head aplenty.
Meanwhile, I’ve watched some amazing charitable works happen on Facebook, on Twitter, and via Blogs. Today, driving home, it hit me. The best kind of influence exists independently of Social Media, but now we can use Social Media to grow it. The best kind of influence is that you gain by doing something that improves a person’s life. Maybe it’s a person you’ll never meet. Maybe it’s someone you see every day and don’t know. Your influence is based on not needing or wanting anything in return. It’s about sending something out into the ether so that someone can catch a break, in a big way or in a small way.
To this end, I have begun a project called The Real Influence Project. I’ve started a page on Facebook and I’ll also be using the Twitter hashtag #RealInfluence. The idea is pretty simple. Post about what you are trying to do to make the world a better place. The community of other real-life influencers will support you, will help spread the word, will assist you when or if you need it, and as we go, we’ll see all of the good that we can accomplish as a truly influential community. And that’s it.
Social Media propagating the best kind of influence there is.
As for me, my first project will be to try to make 100 hats that I’ll have ready to donate to a local women’s homeless shelter in time for the holidays.
Are you in?
This may not be the most business-related, on topic post ever for me, but I think it’s important.
There’s been a lot of buzz about Fast Company’s Influence Project. I’d like to try a slightly different experiment. I’d like to see how much influence, for good, Twitter can have on the world.
Here is the idea, which I’m calling Dollar for the World (#$4theworld on Twitter).
At the beginning of the month, I announce a charity and post a link to their donation page. The charity has to be legit, non-religious affiliations preferred, but the recommendations can come from you. As many people as possible send a single dollar via PayPal (or another means). When you do so, tweet that you did with the hashtag.
At the end of the month, I’ll tally how many posts we have in the hash tag, equate that to dollars donated, and announce an estimate of how much that charity received.
It’s all based on the honor system. For a dollar, not that much harm can be done (I think).
If this were to work, my August charity would be Tutus for Tanner just because Scott Stratten (aka UnMarketing) has been promoting it for so long already, and it’s a story that makes you want to do something.
The best kind of influence is a positive one. Can kindness be a trending topic? Can you save the world for $12 a year? Do you want to find out? Meet me over on Twitter at #$4theworld and we’ll see what happens.
Back in 2001, I, like everyone, felt hopeless and helpless in the wake of 9/11. Watching people tell the stories of their loved ones for 3-4 days, all of the stories that turned out not to be true, all of the amazing stories of heroism…I was a grad student at the time, in a small town. I knew that I would never be able to understand the experiences I was watching. What could I do?
I had always been a crafter, and the idea came to me to try to find somebody that was looking for homemade items to sell, which would in turn raise money for the victims. Children newly orphaned were of special concern. During this time, I found an organization called Afghans for Afghans.
Of course, this organization caught my attention for 2 reasons. First, it was a charity crafting organization. Second, it was for Afghanistan, a country that was bearing the brunt of the blame for the 9/11 attacks. I decided that I would make some items and send them. The fulfillment I received from doing so got me hooked on making things for charities, a hobby that still occupies a lot of my time.
Afghans for Afghans is on my mind today because I just got an email update that makes it seem like the collection they are doing now might be the last for the whole year. A few years ago, there were many different collections — someone would be collecting socks for kids, another would be collecting blankets for maternity wards. But those days are gone, thanks to the increased in power of the Taliban, a lack of funds, and general deterioration of the situation.
I hope that this is not the case. Afghans for Afghans didn’t just give me something to do after 9/11. It gave me hope that even after all of that, there could still be people who would view the world as bigger than themselves. To give charity to a country when your country just declared war on it takes guts.
Afghans for Afghans is collecting items for kids ages 7-14 until May 14th. Since these items might have to last for the entire year, I’m hoping to be able to send a lot of items in addition to the socks I made (pictured). If you are interested in helping either through crafting or monetarily, take a gander at their website: http://afghansforafghans.org/
Just a reminder that I am hoping to make 200 items for charity this year. If I do, would you donate $25 to either the American Cancer Society or the American Diabetes Association? I’d surely appreciate it!!
I posted 3 more items, which takes me to ten. These mittens went to Afghans for Afghans, one of my favorite causes. They are really having a hard time getting items over there for obvious reasons, so when they make a call for items, i try to answer it!
The top 3 pairs are mine. A friend crocheted the beautiful pair on the bottom.
