Janet Lee Johnson | The Art of Marketing

At this time of year, I always take time to reflect. Not on specifics, necessarily, but on themes. Certain themes follow me through the months, years and decades of my life. Some themes are just beginning, some are chronic. I suspect my “terminal” themes will continue to dog me as long as I reflect on them, as opposed to work on them.

And at this time of year, I always pick a few things to work on. Most I never share. (Is that for protection? In case I’m not successful?)

A couple I will admit to:

• I’d like to write more. Back here. Which shouldn’t be too hard. The bar in 2009 is pretty low.I have to admit, I have enjoyed Twitter - the fast break, no guilt posting option that keeps me lightly engaged in the social web - no matter my time and attention options in the moment. But I miss writing what’s going on in my mind. Really exploring and sharing thoughts as I used to.
• I’d like to find and foster my unique talent. Everyone has one. I used to think my unique talent was painting/drawing/illustrating. I’m not convinced that drawing’s the unique talent I’m willing to foster at this point in my life. My few and feeble attempts over the past few years have been lackluster. Perhaps it’s because I’ve not spent the time exploring my drawings… explorations are critically important when it comes to creativity - in writing and drawing.
• I’d like to continue teaching, speaking, and helping educate. I’ve only given a few presentations since I took my full-time gig in education; but they continue to energize me. I’ll be interested in exploring new educational themes for 2010 - especially since my previous area of expertise, that of social media, seems to be (finally) not mysterious any more.

And, as always, sharing these thoughts publicly - narcissistic? perhaps - can be effective in giving me insight. Perhaps a theme that dogs me is exploration. It’s delightfully woven through my chronic and burgeoning themes, whether I consciously work them or not.

Upon public reflection then, I look forward to a Year of Explorations in 2010.  I’m willing to share that with anyone and everyone.

What is driving the themes of your future? Are you willing to share?

I have a new job. A full-time, back-into-the-corporate-world new job. And I’m very excited about it.

When I was young, and I imagined my life’s trajectory, I always saw myself teaching once I hit my 50’s. Which surprised me… since I had no plans to become an educator. But today I’m getting closer to that imaginary scenario than I ever thought possible.

I’ve been working at KC Distance Learning for five months, full time. And I’m going “back in” to run marketing for the organization. My long-term stint there is why I’ve gone “dark” here and in many other social media venues since June, causing some to forget me, and some to wonder whether I’ve forgotten them… (I can assure you, I haven’t!)

I’ve been focused. On a new market, education, which is ripe for change.

When I started there, I was shocked to learn that 30% of high school kids across the country drop out. Last spring, congress heard testimony that nationwide:

• 7,000 students drop out every day
• 2,000 US high schools produce more than half of all dropouts
• In the 50 largest cities, only 53 percent of students graduate on time

Why? I’m sure there are 7,000 unique reasons kids drop out every day. But something has to be done.

What’s KCDL doing about it? We are helping school districts deliver middle school and high school classes online through our iQ Academy and Aventa Learning brands. We power a private, online middle and high school experience for kids in the US and in scores of countries around the world with Keystone National School.

Technology is a natural tool to help revolutionize education. Kids in rural areas can take world-class courses in Mandarin, and Flash programming, for example, using an online delivery platform and subject-and state-certified teachers. Adjudicated kids can continue their courseware while serving their terms.

But technology isn’t enough. People from many different disciplines are taking the opportunity to change the way kids learn, as private organizations attack this very public problem.

So, dear readers, I plan to continue to post and tweet. And know that my new focus on education is highly likely to be reflected here.

And maybe we’ll all learn something new.

This post isn’t exactly ‘publish or perish,’ but it is definitely born of a push to publish. It’s been weeks since my last confession here. I’m hoping an explanatory post will help those who’ve:

• Been awaiting a response to an overdue email from me
• Gotten used to a certain rhythm of tweets
• Been wondering why I’m almost impossible to schedule these days

…to understand why. But mostly, this post is to help me feel better about finally being back here, blogging.

Full-time Focus

It seems I’m a contrarian once again: millions are leaving corporate work. I’ve just taken a five-month, full-time assignment within a corporation.

Just as social media has heated to the point where I have been invited to speak almost every week on the subject; my focus has shifted (for the past few weeks anyway) to traditional marketing strategy and best-practices in communications.

And I must say, I love the pace, the practice, and the product. (And, apparently, alliterations.)

I’m reticent to say exactly whom I’m working for yet - especially in such a public forum. But I shall “let the cat out of the bag” as soon as possible. I’m just awaiting permission. I hold client trust and confidentiality dear. I’m not one to speak about any client without express permission. Patience, please…

Missing Social Media

As a result, I’ve lived almost completely off the social media grid for weeks. It’s been an interesting hiatus. As time has gone by, I’ve gotten increasingly twitchy about my social interactions.

Not so much on Facebook or Twitter, but here. On my blog. Which has surprised me.

I’ve spent more time on Twitter recently, and have really appreciated the discipline and creativity of 140 characters. And (as a business tool) I’ve been a huge proponent of clients exploring the possibilities of the micro-blogging platform. So those who’ve listened to me for years might be surprised at the fact that I’m really

Missing my Blog…

My blog! I actually have been:

• Visualizing the date listings down the side of the page here, each day wondering when July 2009 will show up in the Archives… list.
• Trying to imagine what I’d write about next that would make George Dearing want to syndicate another post over on his Content Management Connection blog. (He’s got fabulous taste, and is selective, so this one won’t show up over there…)
• Ruminating mostly, though, about my readers; two of whom encouraged me to just get back to writing. (Thanks again, Jeremy and Georell!)

Turns out my blog is a real relationship… Between me and my thoughts. Between me and my readers. It’s sometimes a conversation, and sometimes a voice in the wilderness. But it’s a relationship I’ve nurtured for almost five years now.

So tonight I feel better. Not for the Archives… list being updated. Nor for the content (or lack thereof) of this particular post. I feel better for my reconnection to this relationship. This is a purely selfish post.

Sometimes, simply doing the thing you really miss is enough.

Have a look at what the Obama team has done from a media perspective to amplify Obama’s speech (thanks Huffington Post!):

“Eager to spread the president’s message as widely as possible, the tech-savvy White House orchestrated a live Webcast of the speech on the White House site; remarks translated into 13 languages; a special State Department site where users could sign up for speech highlights; and distribution of excerpts to social networking giants MySpace, Twitter and Facebook.”

None of us have the pull of the White House, but each of us have the power to amplify our messages through new channels.

The key is to have a strategy, great content, and relationships established online in these channels before you need them. Go!

There’s a kerfuffle brewing about censorship at eMusic over on TechDirt, which covered a very stupid move by eMusic - editing people’s comments on their blog post.

“We just wrote about the PR nightmare facing eMusic for announcing both a price increase and its first major record label signing at the same time — leading many to assume that the price increase was due to the Sony Music deal. Some in our comments pointed out that eMusic subscribers were protesting in a variety of places — including on Twitter, where they were using the hashtag (used to designate a unique cause or event): #emusicfail. And, as usually happens in such situations, many of the hundreds of commenters on eMusic’s own blog post on the deal mentioned the Twitter hashtag, and encouraged others to start using it as well, while making their protests public. So, how did eMusic address these angry customers?

It apparently made them disappear.”

Now I’m the first to tell any business their blog is their living room, and they can control who comes there and comments. But to actually edit the comments themselves? Epic #Fail. Epic #emusicfail.

You either publish a comment or not. It’s your choice. But don’t edit a comment. And you sure as heck better not edit it after the fact! And when commenters are customers? For fun, have a look at the comments on the TechDirt post. It’ll give you an idea of what people think about the act.

And for even more fun, check out the original post over on the eMusic blog - there have been (so far) 867 comments, many with salty language that hasn’t been removed, so they’re extremely selective about their editing.