Marjorie Clayman’s Writing Portfolio
Professional writing profile of Marjorie Clayman
Apparently, today is Monty Python Day. I’m not sure why. I’m not sure who came up with this concept. However, I most heartily approve. I have had a post idea rolling around in my head, in fact, that incorporated Monty Python, and there seems like no better time than today to let that post free. Therefore, without further delay, allow me to present 15 bits of Social Media advice from Monty Python.
[Read more…] about 15 bits of Social Media Advice from Monty Python
When I went to Lincoln’s house last Friday, there was something odd about the inside tour. There weren’t tour guides, first of all, but rather personnel stationed throughout the house to make sure you didn’t touch anything and to try to answer random questions to the best of their abilities. The second weird thing is that the little signs in each room had a cell phone number you could call for an audio tour. I thought that was kind of “retro.” Why not have a QR code or even something more creative, like a special account you could tweet for information?
After my trip, I looked up different historical sites on Twitter. I found quite a few, but most of them had very few followers, and most of the tweets were nothing more than announcements about upcoming events. In other words, promotion after promotion.
“This is weird,” I thought. “Not one of these organizations is using Twitter in a way that would help them really engage.”
I then thought about it a little more, and I came upon a realization.
The biggest problem in Social Media is not defining ROI. The biggest problem is defining, “Why should I?”
[Read more…] about The thing that might destroy Social Media
As I’m listening to all of this talk about Osama Bin Laden, I’m hearing a certain phrase a lot. “Rules of Engagement.” I decided to look at how this phrase is actually defined, at least according to that treasure trove of data, Wikipedia.
In military or police operations, the rules of engagement (ROE) determine when, where, and how force shall be used.
It occurs to me that Social Media doesn’t really have rules of engagement. Social Media is kind of like the flower child revolution. “We don’t need rules, man.” But we kind of do, don’t we?
It’s all well and good to say that we have “best practices” or guidelines, but as Social Media comes of age, it seems like there are more and more questions arising with fewer and fewer answers. This feeling that we aren’t doing things right, or that we can do something horribly wrong without knowing it – it’s kind of scary, isn’t it? It could even be enough to make someone gun-shy about getting started.
What kinds of rules of engagement could we use? Here are some questions that I think we would all love help answering.
Engaging via email communications can be alternately extremely easy or extremely difficult. It can be easy if you are taking your relationship with someone to a venue that is greater than 140 characters. It can actually seem like an incredible luxury at that point. But if you don’t know the people you are emailing, engagement is only one of many concerns. Will you get black-listed? Will your email go directly into a spam filter? Will your message resonate or be deleted?
There are lots of people who are much smarter than me when it comes to the world of email, so I thought I would gather some resources for you. I hope they help!
[Read more…] about 10 blog posts that will help you engage via email
Well, this brings us to the end of the Women and Social Media series. I hope you have enjoyed reading all of the contributions as much as I have!
Today, the series ends with the wonderful Carol Roth, newly minted best-selling author of The Entrepreneur Equation. Carol’s take is extremely interesting. She argues that the dehumanization that Social Media causes makes it easier for sexism (and other offensive behaviors) to persist online. If nobody is really “real” to you, being crude, rude, or obnoxious is a lot easier to rationalize. Check out her post because it’s a great and thought provoking read!
Here is an overview of the series, and please give a visit to the following posts:
A Glass Ceiling in Social Media? By Daria Giron, aka @mominmanagement
Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Oh My! Baby Boomer Women Transition Careers Through Social Media, by Chanelle Schneider aka @writerchanelle
On Facebook, Women Just Want to Have Fun. by Heidi Cohen, aka @heidicohen
Women and Social Media: Supporting Others by Amber Cleveland, aka @ambercleveland
How the Other Half Tweets by Jill Manty, aka @MantyWebDesigns
The Labels We Choose, by Dawn Westerberg, aka @Dwesterberg
I had a dream the other day that a high quality, no poop, straight-talk, educational conference came to my home state of Ohio. I dreamed that the event was completely reasonable in price. I’m pretty sure I dreamed that Jason Falls, Allen Mireles, Joe Pulizzi, and many others were coming to offer a full day of learning and expertise.
Wait, it wasn’t a dream! This is all really happening!
Jason Falls is bringing his educational series, “Exploring Social Media Business,” to Toledo, Ohio on May 18th! If you register by the end of the day today, the already reasonable price will be even lower – just $199 for Falls, Pulizzi, Mireles, and more. That’s kinda crazy. If you miss the early deadline, the event will still be a very reasonable $249.
Why are you writing about this, Margie?
Well, lots of reasons. First, it is so awesome that Ohio is getting the privilege of hosting this event. I don’t know if you noticed, but Ohio has been going through a kind of rough time. While LeBron may have decided to take his talents to South Beach, Jason Falls has decided to take HIS talents to Toledo. That makes me happy.
Also, I asked Ms. Mireles how I could help her with this event. Now why would I do that? Just cuz she’s a fellow Buckeye? No. The fact is that I found Allen shortly after I joined the online world. She was on a list of the most powerful people online, and so I said to myself, “Hey, I’ll follow her.” I never expected I’d get to interact with her at all. Instead, Allen started offering me support almost immediately, and that has never ceased.
Writing this blog post will hopefully pay some of that awesome support back. This is not an example of affiliate marketing. I get nothing but joy out of the deal.
So with all of that being said, do you want to support this great lady? Do you want to support Jason Falls? Do you want to support Ohio? Maybe you wanna do me a solid for whatever reason. Well, register now, and accomplish all of the above!