Social Media – Jetset Julie

This past Friday I had the opportunity to attend the New York Times travel show and boy am I glad I did! Not only is the family business a travel agency, but here I am trying to figure out the life I want to live while traveling and not working for the man. I got a lot of information on destinations & networking for the travel agency, but the most important part was sitting in on some travel media sessions–learning what’s going on in the fragmented world of travel journalism and how important social media is in reaching consumers (no one killed any brain cells coming up with that conclusion, myself included).

For the most part, the presenters were entertaining, a couple of them a little high-falootin’ with a lot of statistics and professor-speak about the trade, but then there were three–three muses, three wishes, three bears, three whatever-you-like–that gave me some perspective, and would inspire me with a go-out-and-get-‘er-done attitude (for at least the next 48 hours).

The first was a girl, one woman, who stood out above them all, a person from whom I’d stolen a moniker (totally by accident), and who fits the personality of said nickname just as much as I think I do – A Broad Abroad.

You see, for some reason I was missing the agenda and speaker bio for the event, so I just went along it since I knew that’s where I needed to be, anyway. She couldn’t show her presentation, but she had me at “I’m a Mac girl” (me too, me too!). She then had us (me, at least) forever with the challenge for each of us to become OUR OWN Influencer. She spoke with the audience as if she was conversing with a group of old friends. When she revealed her name, A Broad Abroad (and it’s a tumblr account- just like my A Broad Abroad is/was!), the heavens opened up over the Javitz Center and put a spotlight on her!

She spoke for maybe 20 minutes or so at one of the topics in travel media and then sat on the panel for some Q&A. She even talked about an excellent engagement program where Yahoo! Travel (and she’s the one in charge, people!) will be seeking out contributing content creators for the site. I was happy to listen at her and made a beeline to her spot when the session closed, propelled even faster by the 16 oz of green tea in my body, gave her my card, and showed her a nifty little screenshot from my e-mail that showed that my own account, A Broad Abroad, on tumblr, had celebrated its own 4-year anniversary a few months ago! The words just kind of poured out from there, and though she might not see me as bestie status just yet, I gained a lot from her about travel but more importantly, how to captivate an audience AND keep your voice. To paraphrase some of her closing comments, there is nothing worse than boring content with no point of view; it needs to have a title or topic that sucks you right in, and content should make you feel something: laugh, cry, get angry, but feel something.

The second, was when I spotted Mark Murphy chatting with some suits during the catered lunch. Now, I’d never met him before in person, but my mother (the travel agent) refers to him like they are BFF’s, so whenever I talk about my own travel project she always tells me, “YOU’VE GOT TO TALK TO MY FRIEND, MARK MURPHY!” I added him on LinkedIn a little while ago, and since I have one of his books, Travel Unscripted, I thought I should read that as some background before reaching out to him.

I have to say, I was a little hesitant to go up to him since he is one of few people in this industry who’ve “made it” and in any industry that profile might make them dismissive…? but I managed to insert myself into a conversation and meet another 3 or 4 people in the process of doing so! As for Mark, I was blown away by how down to Earth he really is, nice but straightforward. He indulged me with at least a good 20 minutes of his time, extremely generous for me being a virtual stranger! I didn’t get just a nugget of good advice, I got a gold mine–on branding, publication, the works. I really can’t say thanks enough.

The third good omen actually preceded the other two chronologically, and that belongs to Mr. Sree Srinivasan, linking to his Twitter account and rightfully so since he was the Tweet-Master that day. Very useful tactical advice for how to develop and deliver content. Really likable guy, only reinforcing the main message that I got from it: to be great in social media, you need to be great in real life. I gotta work on both!

So now you might be wondering, what the heck was she talking about with that “Live, Laugh, Love” trap?!

It may be partially that I’m a noob, but I find that in producing content I often struggle with two issues:

Wanting to seem proper and politically correct
Wanting to be likable by writing with an unchanging positive tone and wrapping up my stories with “happily ever after” endings

I call it the “Live, Laugh, Love” trap for obvious reasons. The common message between my three saints on that day is to “be yourself” and “be authentic“–in and of itself that could be a little cliche, but the results–stories, photos, etc., won’t just take on a human quality, they will be actually, really, vividly, human.

You don’t always need to have a picture perfect day where everything goes right and everything is on time and structured (that business is otherwise called PR…) I think that our lives are messier and more complicated, and infinitely more interesting because of it.

The same conflict going on in our personal lives and experiences is the exact some conflict that is a key ingredient in storytelling–no conflict, no story. That’s not to say that once in a while you really are dancing on a cloud with unadulterated enthusiasm! But, there’s only so many rainbows, cotton candy, unicorns and daisies that one can take before they start to tune out. Be relatable. And don’t be the boring friend (yes, we all have one).

I don’t have the heart to kill my darlings (first posts) just yet, but I expect that they will be tailored shortly and that from here on out, I am doing myself a favor and simply being Jetset Julie, with no apologies or excuses. Cue sassy photo once more for reinforcement.

Ping! The familiar notification from Facebook Messenger alerted me to a new message, a simple “Happy New Year!” from a friend in Mauritius, whom I’d met incidentally on a trip to Japan more than two years ago.

We haven’t seen each other since we met, and yet we’ve managed somehow to stay in touch and stay current with each other’s life events. And then it hit me all at once, what I should really resolve to do this year that would be meaningful to me and different from the last years’ half-hearted declarations. I even made a (rather witty, in my opinion) Facebook post about it! And I certainly don’t think I need any bad karma or credibility issues from the all-knowing, all-seeing internet Gods, so here it is: what if, instead of just beefing up my personal network and brand via social media, I took all of my “friends”, “followers”, and “contacts”, and actually built a real, personal, relationship with each of them, or at the very least attempted to?

In other words: Hi, I’m Julie and I like warm hugs!

I realize I’m the one who’s going to have to seduce my friends to, you know, talk to me… And while it’s a small gesture, I think it’s a pretty decent goal. A S.M.A.R.T goal if you will (that’s Smart, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely – said every modern business book ever). So here’s the fine print.

Who’s involved? For now, I am targeting my Facebook buddies, LinkedIn contacts AND OF COURSE, EVERYONE WHO CORRESPONDS WITH ME HERE ON MY BLOG! since these networks involve direct relationships and identities, as opposed to Twitter and Instagram, which focus mostly on producing content and material.
What am I talking about? Transform social media friends into social ~~media~~ friends. And since we don’t live in a world of rainbows and lollipops (although that sounds delicious), it may ultimately lead to–nay, it SHOULD lead to–cutting out some dead weight in my life. You know the types. And believe me so do I–should make for interesting fodder for later…
Where? On the Internetz. Or should a live opportunity present itself, I wouldn’t say no to seeing an old friend.
When? 364 days remaining, or a churn of 3.7 people per day. If this little experiment works out, maybe it’s something that I could carry over on a rolling basis.
How? Let the message fit the medium–a quick, personalized note if ever and whenever possible, informing the recipient of my project and with some fun questions to get the conversation rolling. “Fun” is rather subjective, but I think I will omit such goodies like what is your favorite sexual position… for now.
Why? Because this.

Also, I’m sick of creeping on your profile in private! Let me in, or let me out. I’m sure there’s much more to you than 142.3 GB worth of media of your children spitting up/hitting each other/pissing off the family dog. I bet you’re a far better person than all of your shared pop quizzes and personality assessments would otherwise indicate. You are more than the sum of your buzzfeed parts.

And, like the protagonist of this video, I think my life would be better with better friendships. It’s important to remember that it’s not about quantity, it’s about quality. In keeping this resolution, I will consider myself successful it it produces even one stronger friendship than before, or removes (or heals!) even one toxic connection from my past.

Any advice for me?