Last week my friend and fellow expat Anastasia Ashman and I were invited to speak on a panel for international professional women in Istanbul about how we use social media professionally. As we prepared for the event, we talked a lot about how it is especially suited to expats and especially suited to women. I also think it is especially suited to creative entrepreneurs for a lot of the same reasons - it allows for flexibility and freedom of expression. Something we require in creative pursuits.
Because I think a lot of the work we did for the panel would be useful here, I'd like to link out to those posts -
Anastasia's post Social Media as Self-Actualization generated some very interesting commentary. It specifically discusses how women - and expat women - are benefitting from using social media in their mobile, location-independent lives and how it gives them visibility.
In my pre-event post, How I Use Social Media to Build My Businesses, I list 10 tenets that I follow to do this. It ended up being a short list of do's and don'ts that I adhere to with some useful comments from readers. As a sequel, I wrote How I Use Facebook Pages and Twitter with My Blogs where I explain in some detail how I use these in conjunction with one another.
One thing that has been very valuable to me with social media has been how it has guided me to define myself (aka know myself) and how it has given me the space to evolve. I noticed that other people mentioned this too - both in comments on my blog and Anastasia's.
Every time you have to put yourself in a category, write a bio, upload a photo, or choose a color scheme you are painting a picture of who you are - this process involves introspection and results in something that represents you and the face you present to the interweb (webiverse?). How much more evolutionary can you get? If you're anything like me you've changed your bio countless times, fiddled with various avatars, and toyed with a sundry of different taglines. All to express who you feel you are.
Isn't art and design similar? Doesn't every artist have her own medium, aesthetic and color palette? If you look at the artwork of a painter over time, doesn't it evolve as he goes through life? What about the seasonal collections of a fashion designer who changes sillhouetes, patterns and fabrics?
What do you think? How does social media serve you in your creative business? I'd love to know.
If you answer that question I'll let you look at this list of links that Anastasia and I (but mostly Anastasia) put together for the panel. I thought they'd be useful for you too.
Because I think a lot of the work we did for the panel would be useful here, I'd like to link out to those posts -
Anastasia's post Social Media as Self-Actualization generated some very interesting commentary. It specifically discusses how women - and expat women - are benefitting from using social media in their mobile, location-independent lives and how it gives them visibility.
In my pre-event post, How I Use Social Media to Build My Businesses, I list 10 tenets that I follow to do this. It ended up being a short list of do's and don'ts that I adhere to with some useful comments from readers. As a sequel, I wrote How I Use Facebook Pages and Twitter with My Blogs where I explain in some detail how I use these in conjunction with one another.
One thing that has been very valuable to me with social media has been how it has guided me to define myself (aka know myself) and how it has given me the space to evolve. I noticed that other people mentioned this too - both in comments on my blog and Anastasia's.
Every time you have to put yourself in a category, write a bio, upload a photo, or choose a color scheme you are painting a picture of who you are - this process involves introspection and results in something that represents you and the face you present to the interweb (webiverse?). How much more evolutionary can you get? If you're anything like me you've changed your bio countless times, fiddled with various avatars, and toyed with a sundry of different taglines. All to express who you feel you are.
Isn't art and design similar? Doesn't every artist have her own medium, aesthetic and color palette? If you look at the artwork of a painter over time, doesn't it evolve as he goes through life? What about the seasonal collections of a fashion designer who changes sillhouetes, patterns and fabrics?
What do you think? How does social media serve you in your creative business? I'd love to know.
If you answer that question I'll let you look at this list of links that Anastasia and I (but mostly Anastasia) put together for the panel. I thought they'd be useful for you too.
Hi! Great article, first of all. If I should try to leave a comment with any kind of sense here :), I guess what comes to mind is the importance your engagement here, has. You shed light on many subjects. You define the usefulness of social media in productive, very thoughtful ways. You share professional experiences, ideas and you give so useful, inspiring advice, to many. Especially expat people can benefit greatly from these medias, as you write, and I certainly think you and your co-workers at your different projects are fantastic examples to follow. A huge Thank You for the excellent work you share!
Posted by: Kari Moe | November 19, 2009 at 06:33 PM
Kari - thank you so much for your encouragement. It really means a lot to me, especially knowing that you're following some of our other projects as well. You can see how we're using social media as a strategy to build up each of the businesses. Clearly, another way that social media serves this creative business is that it enables us to connect with like-minded people and gauge how well we're doing. So thank you for that.
Posted by: Tara | November 19, 2009 at 08:48 PM