My blog was one month old this past week & it’s time to note the momentum & milestones. I think it’s worth celebrating! And maybe chronicling the significant points on my path will help others that are interested.
People have been asking me how did you arrive here? This past week the feedback from people adding me on Twitter & Facebook has been – I enjoy reading your blog. That is so motivating! I enjoy sharing my resources in the hopes that people will find joy like I’ve found. It’s so awesome to hear of my online friends getting jobs as social media specialists. There’s no question that there’s a lot of momentum in this space!
My Milestones on this journey:
January 2007
- creating www.DigiScrapInfo.com with my sister
- forum, blog & file cabinet
- reading every book I could on blogging & learning SEO – I recommend
- Naked Conversations by Shel Israel & Robert Scoble
- Word of Mouth Marketing by Andy Sernovitz
- The Corporate Blogging Book by Debbie Weil
March & April 2007
- our repetitious typing made us realize that we needed FAQ’s to link people to
- I started looking for solutions to growing our website to better serve our readers
- much blog reading & getting involved in the conversation
- late April I found Jeremiah’s blog & realized Web Strategy was the term for my maximizing efforts & was intrigued by the concept of Community Manager
- we added a wiki to present information in a website style
- started blogging & sharing my Web 2.0 marketing knowledge with our community in terms that was useful for them
May 2007
- at 41 & with an impending empty nest, I decided to pursue this new direction
- end of May I read Seth Godin’s book & realized that I had reinvented myself
- announced to my husband that I wanted to work with Social Media online
August 2007
- I joined Jeremiah’s Web Strategy & Community Manager groups the morning that he created them. Sean O’Driscoll & I had a discussion that evolved into help with a MS app. I met Chris Brogan there, people were befriending me & the rest is history
- Facebook networking has been invaluable on this path
- Encouraged our digital scrapbooking community to explore Facebook groups as a marketing tool (over 40 groups to date)
- Began actively participating @Twitter
- intensely immersed myself in the learning & sharing of information with others about social media (more coming on this)
- End of August
- asked to speak at Facebook Conference in December
- recruited as Community Manager at ACDSee
September 2007
- began blogging here & consistenly branded my online presence
- began working with ACDSee as Community Manager
October 2007 finds me
- sharing web strategies to improve ACDSee’s website next week
- encouraging the staff to join me in this vision of communicating with customers (but they already ‘get it’ as they’ve had a Community Manager position for a year)
- train some of the staff to use LiveWriter & blog at www.blog.acdsee.com
- with over 211 friends in Facebook & 110 on Twitter (there is overlap)
- with an incredible network that is growing day by day
- you’re welcome to add me on Facebook & Twitter – links are on left
- a blog sharing My Conversations
- in a month’s time 38 posts & 75 comments
- people are finding me – Thursday I had 50 readers here
- on that day 3 people googled my name
Are there secrets to accomplishing this? Not really & I’ve put the keys here for you. There are backlinks throughout this entry for more reading. I chalk it up to:
- listening to what’s going on (read blogs, books & educate yourself)
- participating, sharing, & contributing (it’s imperative to learning & networking)
- give back more than you take – Jeremiah O & Chris Brogan are masters at that (emulate that in your own style & it will be appreciated by everyone)
- hard work – I grew up on a dairy farm & it was 24/7. I’ve noticed that the successful people in this space don’t shut down on weekend. I’ve always been a workaholic anyway.
- commit to yourself – Jeremiah has a great post on paying yourself forward. Put things in this order:
- yourself & your family
- follow your passion
- your work
- follow your passion & make sure work is something you enjoy doing! Then you don’t have to go to work for the rest of your life!
- find a balance – but commit to lifelong learning
- yourself & your family
So my advice is that if you’re interested in social media, connect with the resources & learn as much as you can. The rest will happen. I totally believe that we are free to choose our own path. Chris Brogan has an inspiring post today, Make a Project to Jumpstart your Dreams.
Life is about making your dreams come true. I’ve accomplished this one & my next is world travel. Spring will find me traveling abroad for the first time! What are your dreams? Are you living them? I challenge you to establish them, then pursue them!
Dude – can I *please* be one of your “online friends getting jobs as social media specialists”?? I am amazed (and a bit humbled) by all that you’ve accomplished in such a short time! I didn’t realize it’s only been since May. That’s just…wow. Very impressive. Let me know if you need any help with any of your projects. For now, I’ll just bow to your greatness, and put “Check out Facebook” on my to-do list for this week! :)
One thing you humbly move past in this post is all the work and focus and attention and the BEING THERE that it took to get you this far along so fast. Believe me, there are plenty of people (myself included) that want to just sail into an amazing place in this landscape. But you have to get there under your own steam, and it takes a lot of showing up.
You’re truly inspirational in all you’ve accopmlished, Connie. I look forward to meeting you in person. : )
Thanks Angie & Chris (and to everyone who drops by my blog!),
I’m a bit late in replying, but my focus has been on settling in with ACDSee.
Angie, You have been an inspiration! Your commitment to digiscrappers is phenomenal. And your blogs are invaluable to the industry. Keep up the great work!
Chris, You have an amazing talent to talk with people (and a huge number at once on Twitter). Your leadership is so graceful. I’m so glad to see you hooking up with Jeremiah. I wish I could see that amount of energy & talent together! And I look forward to meeting you too!
Connie
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