As Ryan reminded me the other day, this week marks the third anniversary of us quitting the last jobs we held and going into business for ourselves. For those of you who didn’t know us during that phase of our lives, I was a producer with Current TV and Ryan was a product manager for the gaming division of CNet.

I find myself admonishing people not to do a lot of the things we’ve done – get married so young, move to a new city with no jobs and no place to live, get two dogs at the same time – and this is no exception. Quitting our stable, relatively well-paying jobs for no “good” reason, within days of eachother has been one of our bolder, crazier decisions. Yet as with most of these types of decisions we’ve made, it continues to work out in ways I don’t expect, ways that are happily surprising (and not-so-happily surprising, to be fair).  I’m not sure I’d do anything differently. … Well, other than give ourselves a bit of a safety net by staggering our timing by more than a few days.

So what the hell were we thinking?

Ryan had long wanted to go into business for himself and saw consulting as a stepping stone. I think it was when he realized that he was making almost as much from consulting gigs on the side as he was from his day job that he decided to go that route. You’d have to ask him about the specifics.

As for me, I NEVER imagined that self-employment would be a part of my journey. When I started out in TV, I planned to end up producing a talk show – something I still wouldn’t be opposed to – but the path I was on didn’t appear to be leading in that direction. There are a lot of concrete reasons why I ended up giving my office job the axe when I did – many of which have to do with impatience, and not all were wise or rational – but I remember the exact, distinct moment when I made my decision. I had flown out to my parents (who were then on the east coast) for the weekend. I was taking a red eye back on a Monday morning to be back in time for work and it hit me – I was rushing back to a job I didn’t love (had I loved it, I bet things would’ve been different), away from a family I DID love, who I wanted to spend more time with.

Although the road of self-employment has been rocky at times, even disheartening and confusing, I have to say I’ve never lost sight of that epiphany. It’s why I purposely schedule mid-day lunches with friends, why I try to travel as much as I can, why I walk the dogs with Ryan in the afternoon (well, sometimes), why I work in the backyard when it’s sunny, why I spend the day at the beach with my mom.

I’ll be honest: for all the “pros” of the lifestyle I’ve chosen, I’m still not sure I want to do this forever. I have mixed emotions about my work a lot of the time. I enjoy it, but I’m not sure it’s my life’s work, my purpose. Until I find it, though, I’m happy with being able to structure life on my terms, in a way that fits my priorities. When I had my most recent “what to be when I grow up” meltdown, Ryan pointed out that a lot of people spend a lot of their lives trying to get to where I am – the fact that I’ve already gotten there and decided I want more out of life shouldn’t be a bad thing. He’s right I suppose, and echoes the sentiments of one of his business heroes Paul Graham:

Whichever route you take, expect a struggle. Finding work you love is very difficult. Most people fail. Even if you succeed, it’s rare to be free to work on what you want till your thirties or forties. But if you have the destination in sight you’ll be more likely to arrive at it. If you know you can love work, you’re in the home stretch, and if you know what work you love, you’re practically there.

I guess I’m in the home stretch.

But I don’t want balance. Balance is safe. Balance is reliable. Balance is for people who aren’t consumed with the idea of making an impact.

Balance is also different than priorities. I’m not advocating for letting your family fall by the wayside, for taking time away from a spiritual practice, for withdrawing from your community. I’m saying it’s ok to be obsessed with some thing, or a lot of things, or the idea of finding that thing you should be obsessed about.

When I look at the people who I admire, who are accomplishing things and making a difference, they don’t live balanced lives. They don’t obsess about where to draw the line between work and life because there’s no distinction for them. It doesn’t have to mean, though, that this is the only thing they invest their time in or the only thing they consider important.

I look at my dad as a good example of this. In a traditional sense, his life has absolutely NO balance. He jets to and fro, rarely at home base for more than a few days at a time and rarely at home (my parents’ house) for more than a few hours at a time (aside from sleep). Things weren’t this extreme when I was growing up, but they were close. Yet I never, ever once felt he had put his career over me. On the contrary, I think the way he lived (and continues to live) was a great example to me that it is possible to find something you love to do, and when you do, you should work at it with every fiber of your being. I’m not a parent so I can’t speak to that aspect but I know that when/if I ever have a family, I would want them to see the same thing exemplified in me.

Maybe the distinction is that although people in this category have little so-called balance, they don’t draw their self-worth from their passion or obsession; rather it’s an outgrowth and extension of who they are.

So how’s your balancing act? Have you found a way to create a work/life dichotomy or have you chucked it?

By way of a tiny bit of background, Clover has all the things I require in an ideal dairy farm: locally-owned and operated, humane treatment of their animals, hormone-free, and a commitment to their community: both of the bovine and human varieties. That instantly won me over but then I began to engage with their social strategy and it only got better. They’ve taken their mascot, Clo, and given her a voice on their social networking profiles. They’re a family-run company and you get the feeling that you are part of the family and they care about what you have to say. Am I a sucker? Maybe, but they didn’t have to convert me, I came on my own – and here’s where it gets interesting.

Social media isn’t just about reaching new customers. In fact for some companies it may  barely be about that at all.

This is a perfect example of Kevin Kelly’s great postulation: that you only need 100o True Fans. The idea is that you can run a successful business on only 1000 True Fans, as these are the people who will evangelize for you, buy whatever you create, be loyal to your products and stick with you for life.

I would be a True Fan of Clover even without their social strategy, but the fact that it’s in place allows me to connect with them further and – here’s where you want to engage your True Fans – share my love with everyone in my social sphere. For the purpose of cultivating True Fans, social media becomes less about reaching out to new customers (although that is still of course a component) and more about providing a place for your Fans to deepen their commitment and reach out to their networks (which will bring you new customers in the long run, anyway!).

You have to cultivate those initial 1000 True Fans in some way, and there’s no reason you can’t use social media to do it. For some businesses, sites or individuals, that may be the only way to do it! But for others, it’s more of a “if you build it, they will come” situation; meaning that a number of fans already exist, they just need to be drawn out and given a platform to help you evangelize.

Because after all, you don’t want to stop at 1000 True Fans anyway!

Alexis James
Social Strategist * Blogger * Web Producer
10thfloorpr.com

After an early career as a TV news producer, Alexis began her journey to Social Media in 2006.

Since she has orchestrated social strategy for dozens of clients via her company, 10th Floor Media (10thfloorpr.com).

With her help, authors, individuals, and small business owners have:

* Built an established presence online
* Moved into first page search results in a crowded niche
* Become sought-after experts in their field
* Increased book sales by 500%

Alexis provides Social Coaching to equip clients to engage with their demographic personally as well as creating and implementing full-service Social Strategies – always with the goal of using personable, transparent communication to engage with a desired demographic and rise above the noise that can permeate the social web.

Her presentation and discussion will include:

Socializing your book without managing profiles

* Research bloggers: identify your niche(s), start making a list of sites/blogs within this niche

* Actively comment: add value to their community

* Directly contact sites/bloggers

* Don’t forget about Meetup!

A recent interview with Jason Fried of 37 Signals shows that he, too, shares many of my qualms about the in-person office requirement. He talks about how the modern workplace is structured completely incorrectly and is optimized for interruptions, so people end up working longer hours and more days – not necessarily because they have more work to do but because when they’re at work, they don’t actually accomplish much. This goes hand in hand with a statistic I heard that people only get four hours of work done in a typical eight hour office day.

I’ve turned down contracts before because the company wanted me in the office all the time. On the flip side, I’m currently working with a client who likes that I come into the office (on a flex schedule of course) a couple times a week and I don’t really mind it. There are industries where being there in person is imperative – when I worked in TV news I had to be there or literally the show wouldn’t go on! And then there are people I talk with who say they couldn’t work on their own without the imposed discipline of an office. Yet many companies – large and small (including Cisco) – have moved to a virtual work space, so are some of these reservations self-imposed?

What I like about going to the office of my client I mentioned above is that it’s small and intimate (when I’m there, it’s a three-woman show) and my client is incredibly dynamic; feeding off her energy is invigorating and her enthusiasm contagious. I’m in for short bursts where I can be productive, answer questions that have arisen during my virtual work, and, yes, get out of the house.

I think the set schedule becomes crushing. If I feel like I can do what I need to get done and move on, it doesn’t make as big of a difference whether I’m at home or in an office (though I’ll always prefer to work from home!). But I see the predominate style of office life as a far cry from this “get in, get out” mentality. It’s much closer to “punch a clock” where, as long as you’re sitting in that chair, keeping a desk warm, you could probably be doing anything so long as you look busy. It seems like a lose-lose for everyone involved: companies lose productivity and therefore money, and employees lose their quality of life.

So what’s your work situation? What are your preferences and how do you adjust the pros and cons that come with no matter what situation you’re in?

They need to determine more “convoluted” things like when the book review or interview they gave will be published. Or when their guest post will go live on a site. In a perfect world, the blog or publisher would let them know, or they’d get an @mention on Twitter. But I’ve been involved with and observing conundrums like this for several years so I can say with some authority, it just doesn’t work like that (usually). So here’s what I recommend to my clients so they’re sure to catch at least the good majority of their mentions – after all, a missed mention is a missed opportunity for networking and publicity.

1). Google alerts. I know, I know, this is old. school. It seems far too retro to advocate for this as a solution, especially nowadays. But this is an oldie AND a goodie. Sure, it’s basic, but if you set up some alerts related to the things you’ll be looking for, the information is more likely to come to you. Then, you have to have a system in place to monitor these alerts so they don’t end up sequestered in some folder in your inbox.

2). Twitter RSS Feed. You can set up and follow a Twitter search for certain mentions that you want to be clued in on. It’s a good idea to follow not only your name or your brand name, but also subjects related to your sphere of influence so you can engage with people that may be interested in what you have to offer. Head over to search.twitter.com and input a search query, then opt for the feed for that query.

3). Follow your collaborators. If you’ve provided a soundbite to a media outlet or a given a Q&A to a blog or sent your book to a website, follow those people on their social channels of choice. They may not alert you directly (or even tag you in their posts), but in this day and age it’s likely they’ll be socially publicizing the content you’ve been involved in creating. If you’ve got a finger on the pulse of these people, it’ll come through your social filter.

4).Manpower. Ok, I know this isn’t the revolutionary solution we’re all hoping for, but sometimes these types of projects require a little elbow grease. It’s super old-fashioned, but I still keep a spreadsheet for each of my clients with links to every website they’ve been featured on, and direct links to any content they’ve created related to my clients. I check it from time to time to make sure things haven’t slipped through the cracks. If one of the above methods doesn’t catch a blog post or a podcast interview being posted (or any one of a number of other possibilities!), I know that I have a method by which I can track down each piece of content. Back-ups are not always fun or sexy but they do work!

Do you have a strategy you use for making sure you’re catching all your personal or brand mentions? I’d love to hear about it! If you’re looking for someone to help you wade through the waters of your social strategy – personal or otherwise – contact me for publicity coaching!

Subscribe to my RSS to make sure you don’t miss my next post on how to capitalize on your personal mentions!

I’m obsessed with La Boulange (@laboulange) in San Francisco. I’m not going to go into great detail on their amazing yogurt or deathly delicious pastries, because the point of my post here is not to regale with foodie delights but to talk about how they’ve utilized social media and totally impressed me.

Not long ago, I blogged about another local business in my neighborhood who was clearly trying their hand at social media, and it begged the question of whether or not everyone should have a blog or a social presence. Their execution was lack-luster in spite of the fact that they were apparently advertising somewhat heavily their foray into social. Sometimes when I see small, local businesses pimping out a Twitter handle or Facebook page I wonder a few things:

1). WHY are they doing it? Did they hear that it was something “everyone’s doing” so they thought they needed to jump on the bandwagon?

2). WHO is doing it? Do they have someone who actually knows about social media and engagement managing these profiles or are they even maintaining them at all?

3). WHAT is their strategy? Is it just to get their name out on a network or do they have concrete goals?

So back to my go-to bistro, La Boulange. They seem to have all these questions under control, answered, and answered well. They have Facebook tied to their Twitter account to minimize too much cross-updating efforts, but they’re engaged on both platforms. They use these accounts, along with their blog, not only to engage with fans and fanatics like me who are already on these networks (more on that in a minute), but they create value by offering special discounts to their followers, and initiate fun, fanciful games that you can play for prizes and deals. So they’re keeping up with the spirit of social networking too, by keeping it personable and light-hearted – all the while making their followers feel special and in-the-know. Trust me, you feel extra surreptitious-yet-playful when you walk up to the counter, show the barista a picture of your dog, and get a 50% discount on a loaf of bread.

And this works out well for them. Not only are they cultivating a devoted following of people who love to feel like they’re in on a grand little secret, they’re making MONEY. I wouldn’t have gone in on the day I bought the bread if it weren’t for their Twitter promo enticing me in (and the pride in my dogs that makes me want to show their pictures everywhere).

They’ve realized they have a customer base who is already using social media to talk about where they are, what they’re eating, and what restaurants come out on top, and La Boulange has jumped right into the mix. But, as I mentioned above, not without answering some crucial questions first.

La Boulange is a great example of a business that doesn’t necessarily lend itself automatically to social media (it’s local, it’s small, it’s a restaurant), but has realized the value of going where their customers are, and has then taken that realization and executed in an impeccable way. It’s not enough to guess that you might reel in some customers with a haphazard social media campaign. And conversely it’s not enough to guess that your customers would engage with such a campaign even if it was precisely drawn up. A combination of understanding your customer base and well thought-out execution on how to best meet that base is crucial.

(When I went to their blog, I did notice a broken Facebook link so I had to manually search for their fan page link … which did somewhat distract me from shoving my face with their wonderful fruit, yogurt, and granola.)

1. Go to the source: checking the person’s website is a good way to get directly connected to their social profiles. But even nowadays not everyone links to these. Try using the name of the person’s website or company in a Google or social network search to see if they’re active under that name.

2. Cross-reference: usually when I can’t find someone on, say, Twitter, it’s because there are several variations of their name and I’m not sure which one is the person I’m looking for. Check other networks to see if you can put the pieces together. If you can find the person on LinkedIn and determine what city they live in, that can help narrow your Twitter results. If you Google their name and read some of their content, that can help determine what industry they’re in.

3. Image search: ok, it sounds cheesy but if you don’t remember what the person looked like – or if you’re working with a client and therefore have no idea! – it can be helpful to search images and cross-check with various social profiles to see which ones match up.

One last word to the wise – you don’t want to be creating these types of conundrums for people who are looking for you. Make sure you link to your public profiles from your website, LinkedIn, etc. and do what you can to make yourself accessible in search results.

My doctor friend – who is active in social media on behalf of her practice – said she’d be admonished by a colleague to maintain two “personas.” One for her business, one for herself. She’d rejected this idea and decided that she didn’t want to expend the physical energy to maintain two different profile, not to mention the mental energy of keeping everything straight.

I tend to agree with this school of thought. After all, a big part of social media is a cry for transparency and believability and if you’re maintaining two different personas, it’s going to be harder to do that. Sooner or later someone will probably find out and your credibility will suffer. Now that so many of us have bosses, clients, co-workers, colleagues and the like as friends on our social networks, the idea is that if we wouldn’t post something people in our professional sphere should see, should we be posting it at all?

So how have you seen this play out in your business? With your friends and family? How have you dealt with your worlds colliding?

It seems like it’s a win-win for both parties involved. The user gets to watch their video commercial-free and the brand gets feedback from people who are likely to be their target audience. Even if you’re not advertising specifically on Hulu or even in a video capacity, the option of a survey seems like a no-brainer.

Of course then you have to have a system in place to deal with the data you’ll receive which does require a bit of extra work than if you just threw up a traditional ad campaign. But wouldn’t it be worth it to have data about potential customers more readily available?