I had the opportunity to go to South by Southwest Interactive this year, and turned it down. I’ve worked in online media for two years now, and have lusted after this conference even longer, but things came up that needed my attention, and so I am left to say, “Next year in Austin!”
I fell into this industry by default. The majority of my time was spent online, learning about social media platforms, and how to use them as an individual. I changed, and have grown with my digital footprint. My original use of Facebook, for example, was not productive. It was a space for my strategic, adolescent passive aggression more than anything else. But as I aged, and entered the professional cyber social landscape, my profiles became more public, and people began to seek me out beyond my inner circle, and so my content strategy became tighter, and in turn, more mature. I now navigate the digital world in search of how these tools can be sustainable for brands to tell their stories and to bridge the gap between a given brand and its audience.
There is no such thing as content perfection, though. There is no clear rhythm to my tweets, status updates, or blog posts – and that’s how I like it. I’ve also felt that it’s better to be genuine than predictable (although sometimes those things can go hand-in-hand). My social experience has transformed into a hybrid of personal and professional, social and reality.
I try to censor myself, to truly think before I tweet or push out an update. The lines between my real life, and my digital life have been blurred, and I look forward to continuing to sync them together.