Ghostblogging?

I’ve had the opportunity to write for someone else on multiple blogs.  Sometimes my work is published with their name and sometimes it is revised, although still retains much of my writing/ideas, and other times, I am just editing someone else’s work.  Although I don’t get the byline, I feel confident that I would get a positive professional recommendation and I am being monetarily compensated, so I feel good about it. 

I was a bit surprised when I shared one of the published posts with a relative and they apologized to me for it – like it was some sort of injustice that my work but not my name was published.  Since I expected this from the start, I don’t find it disappointing, but was surprised by my relative’s reaction.

I’m curious what others think.  Have you ever written for someone else?  How do you feel about the practice of “ghostblogging” or “ghostwriting”? 

Social Networks – An Entrepreneur’s Best Friend

I love working for a company that is so forward thinking!

Just a quick note

Was reading an article by Joel Comm about social media he mentioned Kred.  I’ve never heard of it and thought I better look into it. 

Sadly, baby #4 has not yet popped out and I’m cranky and uncomfortable, so I’ll be looking into Kred later.  Just making myself a mental note….and complaining about this baby’s unfashionably late sense of timing!

Are there any other widely used social influence measuring tools I don’t know about?  So far I’ve only got Klout and Kred on my list.

When You Fail to Meet Expectations, Lower the Bar

Meeting my expectations may be doomed for failure because I didn’t clearly define any expectations when I began this blog – tough to lower the bar too since it wasn’t set in the first place – but I thought it was a semi-clever title.

Headline or title writing is a constant challenge for me.  I read many articles about how to write good ones, but there is no magic formula that makes it easy.  Grammar is also a tricky thing.  I enjoy writing but always feel like I might be making myself look like a fool by making grammar mistakes. 

Blogging for work is going great!  Although we focus on a very narrow topic, mainly promoting our natural rodent repellent, I am finding ways to keep blogs focused on the company without talking about mice all day every day.  The company’s Twitter account still has a lackluster following but I am persisting.  We do get some favorites, RT’s, and new followers, but we also lose followers and seem stay at an even keel. 

Using Twitter personally helps me find all kinds of helpful articles on all kinds of topics, and provides plenty of humor and distraction too.  I feel like it has taken the place of cable in my life (we got rid of cable at least a year ago, and I am very happy with that decision). 

Anywhoo, I’m about to pop out Baby #4 and then we’re planning to move halfway across the country after the school year ends, so no shortage of happenings in my personal life.  While I still haven’t figured out my niche with this blog, writing begets more writing, so I wanted to write something!

Until next time….

Many months later

I’ve followed social media gurus on Twitter and learned a lot from them. I’ve focused on how to use Twitter for business and blog writing primarily when reading tips and articles since that is what I am getting paid for doing right now. I feel pretty good about my work related blogging, although we still aren’t getting any interaction on the blog. I am working at it and hope that will come with more time, and continuous effort. Our Twitter following is still not super impressive and I am trying to figure out what I can do. Our Facebook fans really took off this year, surpassing 3k! That is exciting, but the Facebook account is not my baby so I can’t take any credit for it.
Personally, I have not found, or I should say I have not made, the time to write for anything not work related. I keep the idea in the back of my mind but it is always beaten back by dishes and cooking and laundry and sibling squabbles. Also, I am expecting our 4th child (a boy due mid March).
So to sum up briefly where I am as far as this blog goes – I’m working on learning but I’m not doing much else. Could be better, but it could be worse!

Aw, shoot!

So I’m still not keeping up with this blog, I am not impressed with myself.

I am still going strong blogging for work, and tweeting for work.  I am using Twitter a bit on a personal level.  At first I was thrilled to find so much great info about how to use social media professionally, but then I started to lose that, or tune it out, in exchange for silly stuff and sweepstakes entries.  Neither of which have been particularly beneficial.  Boo!

So, now I am thinking that I need to be a more productive person.  I had used Constant Content half heartedly for a while and earned a couple bucks a year or two ago.  I think I should do that with a little more gusto.  I like to write – I just lack motivation. 

Here’s to hoping!!!

Who runs this blog anyway?

I haven’t been blogging.  Not really necessary to say that, it is probably quite evident.  I also haven’t been flossing regularly, or working out, or truly pushing my children to actualize their full potential.

Enough about what I haven’t been doing.  What have I been doing?  I’ve started using Twitter.  I’m not sold on the concept yet, but I’ve followed some social media gurus and been reading lots of their material, some of which is useful, a lot of which is repetitive, redundant, and/or overwhelming.  I’ve also found a few other bloggers from Twitter that I read periodically just to see how other people use blogs.  Holy ^&(*^&*%%* I hate when people share every  thing that floats between their ears, goes in or out of their mouth, and I really don’t appreciate knowing about what is going in or out of other places – there is so much garbage on the internet and it is so overwhelming – and alarming if you make any broad assumptions about the general population based on some of the stuff I see daily! 

So in an attempt to not be “that person” I have not been blogging here.  I am actively blogging for work and mostly enjoying it (since it is such a narrow topic, it gets repetitive). 

I am also making an effort to redirect my household’s habits in a healthier way with more well-being.  Working to make our diet more in line with our body’s’ hunter-gatherer design, and engage in more physical and mental stimulation.  This is challenging to me because I am naturally very thin (while I’m not often sick, I realize I am not very healthy as far as physical fitness, etc…) and I’m just super lazy and love chocolate. 

So with no concise conclusion or clear point to this post, I’ll leave it as it is and hope that the next one is nearer in the future and just overall better 🙂

Metrics

One of the most important things for any business is being able to measure and demonstrate the value of any action.  How do we measure the value of a Facebook fan or someone liking a blog post?  I am vaguely familiar with Facebook insights, Klout scores, and just today I viewed a tutorial on HubSpot which tracks all kinds of information regarding who is coming to your website, what pages they are viewing, and how long they are spending on any given page. 

I am going to have to get more in-depth and figure out what exactly the above tools are capable of, and find what other tools are available.  I guess I’ll have to assign myself some homework, I always did enjoy school!  In addition to knowing what tools are available and what they are capable of, I’d better find out what type of cost/commitment is required by each service.  Any other recommended services to investigate or issues to address??

About me

Please allow me to introduce myself.

I’m currently a stay-at-home mom of 3 children; 2 girls ages 7 and 3 and a boy about to  turn 1.  I live in a tiny town in North Dakota, this is where I call “home” although I was raised in various similar places around the Midwest and have also spent a little time in Florida and California.  I have a B.S. in Professional Communications and have been interested in computer-mediated-communication for years.  I was particularily interested in interpersonal relationship formation and would love to earn my PHD and teach and conduct research at a post-secondary institution and perhaps write a book or two – and then, of course, acheive great success as an expert in my field and get to go on book tours and make television appearances, etc…

As a mother however, I’ve had to restructure my goals and have determined that I can still have an interesting and satisfying career in some sort of Public Relations/Social Media sphere…I’m still hammering out the details.  When yielding this “hammer”, I frequently browse job listings looking for my dream job (since I’m not really sure what the title will be, or the responsiblities, or requirements – but I’m pretty sure it’ll pay really well because I’ve got student loans up the wazoo!)  I have found a number of ads requesting familiarity with WordPress so here I am.

I do currently have a job that allows me to dabble in social media marketing, using Twitter, Facebook.  I have also started a Facebook page for a family business to help me figure out what’s what and how-to.

I think I’ll be focusing my posts on how these endeavors are panning out, what I’m learning and what I want to learn more about.  If anyone reads this, please tolerate my to-do lists and PLEASE give me any tips you have learned or refer me to any useful resources.

And with that, I’ll consider us acquainted.

Until next time…

“Onsumed”

Looking for an available name for anything is probably harder than looking a needle in a haystack – not that I have a lot of experience with this.  Lucky for me, I landed one on my 2nd try.  Unfortunately, I can’t thank my creative genius for this, no I must attribute my speedy nomenclature to my wonky keyboard settings.  I was going to try “consumed” because we all feel consumed by things at times, but my keyboard only typed in “onsumed” and whaddya know, it was available!  So here we are…