DIY Days
angela
On Saturday, Ashley, Jolene, Felix and I attended DIY Days, a roving conference for creative folks brought to you by the Workbook Project.
My favorite workshop was “The Real You: Personal Branding, Social Media & Storytelling.” It was by run by Michael Margolis, the founder of Get Storied—a publishing, education, and consulting company. His talk was pretty inspiring. Other workshops provided more concrete tools through successful case studies but in the end, you have to be in the right mindset to embrace all of the various opportunities out there.
Margolis was able to get at the heart of most people’s concerns with diving into the social media world. Everyone who uses Facebook, Twitter, Flickr or any of the myriad of social networking platforms, has a moment where they question whether the overuse of these platforms makes them appear like a (for back of a better word) jerk. A jerk is anyone who incredibly annoys you by over sharing or being generally irritating. Who is actually a jerk is obviously relative but this notion keeps many people from engaging in these platforms to their fullest, especially when they care about and are passionate about the work that they do. They don’t want to offend.
Margolis said that the art of social media is getting comfortable enough with yourself to talk the same way you do with your best friend with the rest of the world. By doing this, you invite a stranger to become familiar and that is what community building is all about. There is no need to create an artificial boundary between storytelling and marketing. It is a mindset thing. Social media should be used as a way to map your world.
For all who missed it, check out the DIY Days site for transcripts and links to speakers.
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| Posted on April 3, 2010
Comments
Thanks for sharing your response to DIY Days Angela : ) It rings true to me, and I was just thinking about what resonates with me in the social media space.
I was just reading some blogs about effectiveness and social networking and I found one blog I really enjoyed. http://blog.monicaobrien.com/
The reason I liked it so much is that her voice is her own, and I felt like I was listening to a real person with relevant/important things to say (who’s not afraid to say things like “virtual circle jerk” ) rather than some marketer, self-promoter, unauthentic annoying person.
Cheers,
Loretta Rae
Posted on 2010 04 05 by Loretta Rae