So today I ventured out of my home (I work from home) and decided it’d be nice to see the local pulse on social media and the trends that are emerging in my home town. I went to a local Kiwanis club luncheon and met with 30+ local volunteers, employees and do-gooders and the guest speaker was from a prestigious Seattle newspaper.
It was wonderful, their welcome committee was polite and quickly introduced me around the room. I felt right as home as 9 years earlier I was the IHS Key Club President (Key Club is the high school version of community service club). It was great shaking hands and hearing what was up.
It’s ironic that I go there to learn about the social media pulse and there is a big time writer for a prestigious Greater Seattle newspaper. I wish I’d gotten her name but I didn’t have my laptop up because I was enjoying my lunch. She is a political writer and advocate for many causes and most of what she had to say was, I’m sure, spot on.
I did chime up and ask a few questions, Yes, how Dreamosity of me. I asked her how do you feel the role of social media will play into this ‘enthusiasm gap ‘between the younger voters who loved Obama initially and were very active, but not so much for smaller elections. Her response was “Social Media will be huge.” I completely agreed with her.
She commented on the fact that the voters termed ‘cell phone only’ are on the rise. The younger generation, myself included no longer have a land line phones where they can get campaign information out to because they all have cell phones only. She said this number had increased from 7% to 23%. It made perfect sense and I got excited. My head was full of many ideas on how mobile marketing and Dreamosity Mobile will play a huge role for this 23%.
Part of the joy of being a writer is that you will seek negative reviews and columns posted about you if you’ve got an opinion. People like debate. People speak freely. Unfortunately one voice can slow down the communication gap for many of us. Our speaker today was once written poorly about by a blogger and now her opinion is that most bloggers ‘just aren’t professional’ and that many of the blogs out there are ‘garbage’…
Well.
I scribbled a few notes out of concern and and curiosity to follow up with her. I did ask her after the talk if she had any advice for a young blogger like myself could learn more about the political scene, she said work for a local party and dive right into it.
I then asked if she was on Twitter and she replied with “no, but I know I need it.” I offered if she wanted to learn that I’d be happy to show her. She said they’ve got a gal in the office who she’ll be sitting down with once a week for an hour to learn. I’m not sure if that’s enough.
I’m grateful to have heard her and I value her opinions. It’s letting me see how much opportunity there is for me in my own backyard to help bridge the gab between the old media and the new media. If you’re not sure times have changed, please check out this post from earlier this year where we discuss a video on the exponential times we live in.
Let me ask you, how do you know when a blogger is professional? Please, tell me your thoughts in the comments below.