Digital Marketing, Six Years Later

Six years ago I was a fresh college graduate just getting started in the online marketing world. The average person didn’t know what a blog was, Facebook was restricted to university students in the U.S., and Twitter had yet to be invented. And the web was just starting to be respected and understood by mainstream marketing firms and teams.

Today, bloggers appear in commercials and social media is a key part of the marketing mix for brands both large and small. Finally, some respect! That said, I still see companies struggling with the connectivity, the immediacy, and the transparency of the web, and how it is all integrated into their organization. It’s an interesting problem, and one that I’ll continue to write more about on this blog.

Unrelated and relevant only to fellow Chicagoans – my agency is hosting an event at Social Media Week on social engagement and content creation – RSVP! It will be a great chance to gain some expertise, network with your fellow members of the media, and generally have a fabulous time.

Out of the Echo Chamber

Maybe it is because August is vacation month for most of the world, but staying out of the blogging/new media echo chamber is pretty refreshing at the moment.

I think it is making me smarter more original.

Great Books That You Haven’t Read

This article entitled “Great Unread Books: What Classic Are You Ashamed To Admit You Have Never Read?” makes me laugh.  First of all, it is highly unlikely that even the most dedicated individual could manage to read every so-called great book ever written – that list is as endless and subjective as a list could be.  You might as well try to watch every “great film” or see every UNESCO World Heritage site; sure, you can try, but that at that point you are probably doing little more than checking items off your list.

Anyways, despite having not checked every book in the literary canon off my personal list, there are not any that I am actually ashamed to have not yet read.  I also read a lot, and as a former English major, I certainly had the incentive to read and study more great books than many people.  However, there is one gaping hole in my collection.

Since I am a female writer, people tend to assume that I am a fan of Jane Austen and the Brontë sisters.  Now perhaps I’m a bit of a traitor to my gender, but I have never actually finished any of their books, and I don’t intend to do so any time soon.  I’ve never even made it all the way through the movie versions, although there is something charming about the Bollywood adaptation.

Are there any books you can’t get through, or have consciously chosen to leave off your personal list?  On the other hand, are there any classics you’re planning to read soon?

Hi Freelance Switchers!

Hi FreelanceSwitch readers! 

For those of you who came here from another source, check out my post on FreelanceSwitch: Freelancers: It’s Not About You.

A Bit of a Hiatus

It seems that when you’ve got more work (and more options for gigs) than you can possibly take on, new and former clients seem to come out out of the woodwork.  Don’t get me wrong – being busy and have tons of options for what to work on is fantastic – but something about the summer heat and such is making turning on the computer when I’m not working the very last thing I want to do. 

Of course, this the best time of the year to be living in Chicago, with all the summer events and festivals and gorgeous patios and terraces (and my building’s awesome rooftop deck with views of the city and Lake Michigan from twenty stories up).  And I have a new place (twice the size of my old one!) to decorate – I promise to post pictures when I get all my furniture set up and everything arranged the way I want it.  Last but not least, I’m working on something new and exciting that has to do with travel and cultural immersion and other good things that I can’t quite talk about yet, but it is going to be awesome.

A Story in 140 Characters

Check out the winners of Copyblogger’s Twitter Writing Contest – their short (really short – Twitter messages have to be 140 characters or less) stories proved that sometimes creativity flourishes with tight constraints.

 

Simply Amazing: “Four Foolproof Ways To Create Unimaginable Wealth In This World”

Stop what you are doing and go read this poem by Robert Bruce (and check out the rest of his site – KnifeGunPen – while you are at it, his work is fantastic). 

If you are an artist or writer with a blog or website (or thinking about creating one), check out his guest post on Problogger: 27 Thoughts On Blogging For The Artist.  My favorite one is “If you’re thinking about SEO while writing your digital novel, you’re already screwed. Quit now.”

Hat tip to Chris Guillebeau for introducing to his work with this interview.

The Very Best Time To Hit Publish

Read Write Web has a breakdown of the best times (of the day and of the week) to publish new posts.

If you’re a blogger, you might find this very useful:

Want That Post to Go Popular? Here’s the Best and Worst Times to Post It.

This actually does corroborate with my own experiences as a blogger – on both of my blogs (and on other sites I’ve written for/worked on and had access to traffic stats), Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday afternoons are the busiest times in terms of traffic, and Saturday is always the slowest day. It makes sense – people are away from their computers on weekends; and during the week they probably read blogs as a quick break from their actual work or during lunch.

If you have a blog, do these stats match up with yours?