this woman’s work

You may not know this but Columbus is a major blogging city. It’s true — according to Scarborough Research, we’re number eight on the list (a list topped by not-surprising entrants like Austin, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle) sharing with those cities a tech-friendly environment and lots of internet access. Likely we skew higher, too, because OSU is the largest university in the country, which means we have lots of young adults with the blogging and the twittering and the myspace-ing around here.

The local marketing world has been paying attention (as have I, note: Open Book Strategies) and the other night the good folks at Experience Columbus invited the central Ohio blogosphere to check out their new ad campaign.

Now just like you probably didn’t know that Columbus is so bloggy, there’s probably a whole lot of other stuff you don’t know about us like we’re artsy as hell and incredibly gay-friendly (I’ve been told we’re the San Fransisco of the midwest) and pretty darn diverse. We’re a nice city (minus the humidity) — affordable, great housing, low traffic — and lately lots of different powerful folks have been wrestling around trying to figure out how to make sure you all know that. I’ve been in on a number of different talks about it lately and everyone has their own take. It’ll be very interesting to see where we are in ten years.

(Mind you, I’ve lived here for 25 years (moved here when I was eight, five years in Portland, OR — a city that really knows how to work their brand) and I’ve heard this noise before. I think sometimes the newcomers with the unbridled enthusiasm about our fair city don’t know the fatigue of living through the AmeriFlora debacle or being the subject of a critical documentary on gentrification. Sometimes the recently relocated aren’t so patient with us but they gotta appreciate our caution.)

There is much to love here but sometimes it seems like the powers that be are the last to know it. No wonder Columbus Ohio ends up being an insider joke on Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. (One of the writers hailing from Columbus brings his folks in for a tour. When they meet D. L. Hughley the mother stumbles, “We love Sidney Poitier.” Because we don’t have black people in Columbus. Right.)

So the Experience Columbus planners have their work cut out for them. How to get past our mundane, farm-centric, cowpoke reputation? Especially when what’s unique about us somehow doesn’t seem bold enough to grab attention? (We do have some great attention-grabbing stuff though, most notably the Short North, one of our few attractions that isn’t beholden to a big corporation. And we’re also well known in the gay community as a terrific city having been touted in gay magazines since at least the early eighties.)

Their answer was to start a campaign about what we don’t have. Like we don’t have the Eiffel Tower or mermaids or mountains. There’s a really terrible youtube channel — the vidoes will evoke snickers in those of us who live in Columbus and get the joke but aren’t funny enough to forward (and also don’t tell us what is here, which is the flip side the campaign needs to emphasize). And a myspace, which weirdly is run by an imaginary 22-year old male although the target audience of this campaign is ostensibly conference planners. Ok, maybe it’s a real 22-year old intern. Happily the campaign does boast some pretty awesome t-shirts.

So I’m not crazy about the campaign although I think it could grow legs with a little tweaking (I do love the t-shirts — full disclosure, they gave us coupons to get one free) only I’m confused about why they brought the bloggers along.

It makes sense for them to get us to blog the campaign because it’ll likely be controversial to the folks who love Columbus and are already pretty dang defensive what with the Aaron Sorkin types who dismiss us. Maybe those people won’t get the joke so good thing to bring on the bloggers, ply us with the goodness that is Jeni’s ice cream (seriously, that salty caramel? If you haven’t had it, you haven’t lived) and then set us loose in a sugar-infused haze to blog it.

But then what? The campaign doesn’t have a lot of social media around it. They haven’t really come up with many ways to let people grab it and run. Jennifer Laycock has given ‘em a ton of free ideas that could help things along a lot but there we all were, sitting with our twitter accounts and blogs and they didn’t really figure out a good way to use us.

We’re talking about the campaign but we’re not really a part of it. If they grab Jennifer Laycock’s list, they could bring us on board a little more. There’s a lot of central Ohio pride among Columbus bloggers and some of us walk around with our cameras around our necks all the time (Kristen!) and our iPods ready to twitter (umm, me) and a bunch of us have tons of readers NOT in Columbus. You know, that target market of people not here who maybe want to come here. People like Kristen (just check out her gorgeous ComFest pictures), who genuinely love and celebrate Columbus can do a lot to change people’s mindset about it. Rather than invite her to a campaign about NOT in Columbus, I’d invite her to one to give her insider view about what IS Columbus. And then ask her to share.

In short (ha!) lots of bloggers already are changing people’s point of view about what’s here — use us for good instead of snark.

I wanted to use the new/old header graphic. And I wanted to play with wordpress themes. That’s the real reason we started Open Book Strategies — so I could play with wordpress themes! Speaking of which, I need to get to work!

I’m taking advantage of Brett’s muscle to get things moved around — tv down to the playroom, upstairs living room rearranged, etc. Since I’ll be working without childcare for at least the first few weeks of Brett’s job, I want to get it set up so the kids can be down here where I am and happily out of my hair.

I guess I hadn’t explained very well that Brett going to work doesn’t mean I’m gonna stop working — no way, no how! Because, for one, I make about as much money as he does and neither of us alone is making quite enough to keep up our lifestyle and add to savings so we’re both going to put nose to the grindstone for awhile. As my business grows we’ll reasses (it may be having less childcare will slow me down but I don’t think so because I’m going to have to spend less time marketing — Open Book Strategies is already easier to sell to folks, which is proof I’m on the right rack, I think). I will definitely need childcare but I’m going to try to get to fall when it’ll be easier to find and I think that’s doable (fall is just around the corner after all). I don’t anticipate having the same problems I had before because Madison is older now and more amenable to someone coming over to play with her while I sit at my desk. I’m figuring if I can get someone to give me some mornings, I can work and Noah can do school and then the afternoons will be fairly free barring rush jobs and overflow work (there are always evenings and weekends for that, too).

Anyway! I need to go do some heavy directing of Brett’s heavy lifting. Those boxes of books aren’t going to move themselves!!

I updated this site to 2.6 along with the Open Book Strategies site (and blog) and then three more blogs. All looks pretty darn good! But it didn’t fix this problem where I have to save a post before I can click “allow comments” and only THEN can I hit publish. Frustrating.

In other family tech news: Cable is officially gone and I’m mourning the loss of Mad Men. It’s really the only show I’ll miss. And I now have a cell phone, which I’m afraid of using. I did spend way too much time creating my own ringtone (because I didn’t like the ones it came with and I sure wasn’t paying for a new one) because even if I’m afraid of technology, I’m all about customizing it.

In other family non-tech news: The neighbors across the way were tossing a perfectly fine and super-comfortable couch so it’s now in our basement. We need to get tested for radon so that we can move the television down here. (I’m already working here — sure hope that radon test turns out ok. Our last house had no radon issues so there’s hope.) I hate having a television in the main living area and I think getting it out of the family room would go a long, long way to making me feel like this house is home. I’ve lived here for going on three years and still feel like we’re waiting to move someplace else.

In other family not-to-share news: We’re looking at some big structural changes around here in our continued effort to become if not independently wealthy at least independently solvent. I’m trying to wrap my head around them but am having trouble doing so ‘cuz I’m operating with a sleep deficit brought on by worrying insomnia.

This is what I’ve been working on for the past couple of weeks: Open Book Strategies

You can see I’m changing out my links to Smart Cookie Communications because we’re really going to focus on marketing this other business instead. Here’s how it came about:

• There are a lot of marketing communication professionals here in Central Ohio and I’ve been having a hard time figuring out how to market myself so I’d stand out.
• Even though I was reluctant to see this, what differentiates me from my marketing communications competition is my web 2.0 experience: I’ve managed email lists, enormous forums, and of course all the blogging I do. I understand virtual relationships and I know that web 2.0 content isn’t just regular old content with hyperlinks thrown in; I know it’s about relationships. So that’s what I ended up talking about with folks.
• Every time I said the word “blog” ears pricked up and that’s where people had questions. I did a lot of consulting on the side but kept brushing off requests to do more of it thinking I needed to focus on the writing.
• And yet the blog jobs kept coming.
• Finally one of my mentors said, “Take the leap!” She advised me to come up with blog service packages to make it easier for people to understand my services.
• So here we are.

My ideal client is a small to medium local business owner who’s a little nervous about web 2.0 and blogs. I like to work closely with people and I don’t mind doing a lot of hand holding. I’m pretty darn patient with people who have a lot of questions. (Ask Kristen!) And I understand narrative so I can help people find their most compelling bloggable stories. (This was my favorite part about this project — listening to them talk, asking lots of questions, and identifying blog entries in what they shared.)

Anyway! That’s what we’re doing and now the writing is on the side instead of the blog consulting.