All posts by Amanda Connor

When The Tweets Hit The Fan – A Survival Guide

By Amanda Smyth Connor

Everyone needs a survival kit. I'm not judging you on yours...
Everyone needs a survival kit. I'm not judging you on yours...

Are we in the midst of an insane Hurricane right this instant as I write this blog post? Yes!

Is my mother near-hysterical in her makeshift post-apocalyptic bunker in New Jersey (..inland..not anywhere near the beach, or any water for that matter…) where she is heavily stocked with can goods, wine coolers and Janet Evanovich reading material? You bet your buns!

And here in Boston, am I not glued to social media and 24-hour news sources watching this Frankenstorm develop? ABSOLUTELY!

But I warn you, storm lover, weather fanatics and wine cooler bunker survivors – do not believe every photo and every Tweet that comes through in the waves of media covering this storm. We need to put hysteria and drama aside and remember to keep our hard-nosed wits about us.

1. Do NOT spend 12 uninterrupted hours watching the 24-hour news channels – this includes The Weather Channel. Believe me, there is only so much accurate reporting that can happen over the course of covering one story for many, many hours. At some point, your favorite and most trusted journalists will turn to Twitter for second-by-second updates, which you should know by now are not fact-checked.

2. Which brings me to my next point. Don’t trust everything you read on Twitter/Facebook. How many photos of flooding have you looked at in the last 3 hours? Like, a million. (Did you see the photo of the shark swimming through a backyard in NJ?) How many of those were photoshopped? We have no way of knowing. Please take these news sources with a grain of salt and don’t lose your heads. Remain calm.

3. Be part of the solution. Don’t hit that RT or SHARE button if you suspect that what you have just read seems too crazy to be true. Be a scout for trust-worthy news updates in the midst of a big story. Don’t continue the stream of hype without using sound judgement.

Light hearted blog posts aside, my heart goes out to any who have been seriously affected by the storm. If you are without power, please be safe and be careful.

Amanda Smyth Connor is a social media manager for a major publishing company and has managed online communities and content development for many start-up and Fortune 500 companies.  She has been a professional editor for more years than she can remember.

Finding Inspiration in Weird Places

By Amanda Smyth Connor

I am what they (I) call a mockingbird writer, meaning I tend to write in the style that I have most recently been exposed to.

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Case in Point #1: Last week, I re-read “Bossypants” by Tina Fey…for the third time.  I think it gets funnier every time I read it.

After brief episodes of reading, I would go back to my writing assignments to find that I was writing in shorter, more staccato sentences and more often than not I would make some lame attempt at a Liz Lemon-style self-deprecating joke.

Case in Point #2: I finished Bossypants and moved on to a Stephen King classic, “It.” Things took a decidedly darker turn in my writing projects, to which my editor simply wrote back to me:  “WTF?”

I find writing inspiration in odd places, but most notably from the style of book I’m reading at any given time. It’s a gift and a curse. [My editor assures me that it’s a curse. ]

Have you experienced this mockingbird style of writing? Where do you find your best writing inspiration?

Amanda Smyth Connor is a social media manager for a major publishing company and has managed online communities and content development for many start-up and Fortune 500 companies.  She has been a professional editor for more years than she can remember.

Recycling Your Own Content

By Mandy Smyth ConnorImagine Book

Jonah Lehrer, hugely popular author of “Imagine; How Creativity Works,” admitted last month to falsifying quotes from Bob Dylan. After further research, it was uncovered that his facts were flimsy at best, totally incorrect at worst. Finally, it was revealed that he had re-purposed and recycled a large amount of his previously published work, essentially receiving payment for work that he stole….from himself.

This raised a huge amount of controversy regarding Lehrer and other journalists in the field, and the lynch mob formed outside his door. Yet as the story developed, something remarkable happened – many supporters, and fellow journalists, demanded sympathy on Lehrer’s behalf. Supporters called upon others to show compassion for a young journalist who painted himself into a corner where he felt pressured to write another successful book with a turnaround time that would come hot on the heels of his previous successes in the publishing world (“hot on the heels” by publishing standards.)

In light of this controversy, I initially took up a torch and sided with the lynch mob. How could he possibly misquote Dylan?! DYLAN IS STILL ALIVE! Anyone could simply call up Dylan’s people to verify the quotes! And his falsified “scientific reasoning” based on neuroscience could obviously have been (and was) dis-proven by authorities in the field. Anyone with access to Google can search for his work and find duplications. So how then could he have been so brazen as to think that he would not be caught?

But over the past few weeks, I’ve found myself feeling more compassion as I realized that I too have used my own previous work as inspiration for blog posts, articles and speeches. Now, I am no a professional author, nor am I backed by a hugely successful publicist and publishing house. It’s easy enough for me to validate having used my own work in a recycled fashion because there is such limited exposure to what I write. But at what point have I committed a crime? Does a writer owe it to his readers to publish work that is original in thought and execution at all times? Or have you, like Lehrer, ever found yourself using previous work as inspiration for future work? And no, I’m not talking about cutting and pasting exact text, but I am talking about repurposing writing and thoughts.

I’m not asking you to show compassion for such blatant laziness in reporting. I am asking you to look back on your own writing, when it was midnight, you were under deadline, behind schedule and totally devoid of inspiration. Have you been guilty of this crime, if only to a lesser extent?

Share your opinion on this. We’d love to hear from you.

The Informational Interview: The Foot in the Door

By Amanda Smyth ConnorHIRE

Whether you’re a recent grad or a long-time freelancer, the informational interview is a GREAT option for getting your foot in the door of a company that may otherwise not be an option.

It’s no secret that the economy sucks and the job market is doom and gloom. Regardless of the industry you are in, getting a foot in the door for an interview is the hardest part of getting a job. Once you get that interview, you’ve got skills and charm and a winning smile that will seal the deal, but getting through the door can be near impossible these days.

Until…THE INFORMATIONAL INTERVIEW!

Step 1: Do your homework and locate the best individual to speak with regarding an informational interview. Do NOT call the front desk to ask for “whoever is in charge of editing.” In order to effectively find the right person, get on LinkedIn and don’t be shy about sending a LinkedIn message to said individual.

Step 2: Tell them that you understand that they are not hiring at this time, but that you have a deep interest in their company and skill set and that you would love to set up a time to speak with them for just 30 minutes in order to learn more about the industry, company, and specific roles.

Step 3: Most individuals are kind enough to agree to such a request. It’s very non-committal for potential employers. They aren’t in the hot seat to interview you or to evaluate your skill set, and the fact that you are interested in THEM inflates their ego a bit, puts them at ease and sets you up for a relaxed interview.

Step 4: Prepare a list of exceptional questions about specific roles in the division, about the individual’s career track and history, etc., and make certain that you segue way into questions regarding possible job opportunities in the future. Of course you’ve already sent over your resume so that they know more about you, so now you’ve essentially accomplished getting your resume in front of an important person thus setting yourself apart from other applicants in the future and you’ve had the chance to gain some inside knowledge about the company.

You are a superstar.

And while this may not get you a job immediately, this interview is an investment of your time. Now you can link with this person on LinkedIn and you can feel more comfortable in the future when you do eventually get that formal interview, because heck, you already did this once.

Amanda Smyth Connor is a social media manager for a major publishing company and has managed online communities and content development for many start-up and Fortune 500 companies.  She has been a professional editor for more years than she can remember.

A Freelance Rant

By Amanda Smyth Connor soapbox_large_

Pardon me as I climb up on this soapbox for just a moment, but I’ve got a bone to pick.

My frustration comes when I read Facebook/Twitter updates from friends and aquaintances that read like this:

“Dear All, I’ve decided to start freelancing! So, send me anything you’ve got! I’m ready to write!”

Oh how simple you make it sound! If only it were so easy as to simply blast out an email or to Tweet your availability and to have a series of jobs and assignments lined up at your feet.

“My GOD,” you would think to yourself. “It’s just so wonderful and EASY being a freelance writer! Why doesn’t everyone do this?!”

Because it isn’t easy, you ninny! If it was easy, we would all be millionaires and we would be writing blog posts from our estates on the beach, and monkey butlers would proofread our work all day.

Do you ever find yourself defending what you do to others? This happens to me rarely, but I find that my defenses go up the moment a stranger suggests that freelancing is a dream job filled with all-day pajamas and working from the beach. I mean, sure, occasionally I have been found wearing night pants around 3pm, but that’s usually when I am in a blind panic about a deadline and showering was forced to become a lower priority.

Do you ever face critics regarding your career? How do you handle this situation? And what advice do you share with others who believe that jumping into freelancing is quick and easy?

Amanda Smyth Connor is a social media manager for a major publishing company and has managed online communities and content development for many start-up and Fortune 500 companies.  She has been a professional editor for more years than she can remember.

Using Social Media to Increase Your Value

By Amanda Smyth Connorwinecomputer

Are you offering your clients a full suite of services, or are you waiting for them to hand you the assignment?

Don’t miss an opportunity for an upsell!

For every assignment that you undertake, whether it be writing copy, or creating blog strategies, or working on an SEO and linking plan, you should always be thinking of ways to upsell yourself and your services, and the number one upsell to consider is “how can I tie this project into social media?”

A well thought out social media strategy is money in the bank, kids. And it is the first thing you should address with your client:

“What is your social media presence and how can we use it as leverage to make this project more successful?”

For any blogs you write, you should be cross-promoting them on your client’s Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn pages.

For any SEO strategy you undertake, it can only help to cross-link through social media channels in order to direct eyeballs to your projects.

For any content development, you should be engaging readers on social media to entice them to WANT to learn more about your client’s project.

If content is king, social media is its free-wheelin’ cousin who can always be counted on to bring a respectable bottle of wine to any family holiday.*

Translation: Content is the most important thing, but social media supports your goals.

And don’t be afraid to charge for these social media services. You will spend the time crafting professional status updates, engaging influencers on Twitter and monitoring conversation across all channels. This takes time and skill, and these skills equate to billable hours.

Never miss an opportunity to offer another layer of value to your suite of services.

*Social media should not be counted on to bring wine to any family event.

**I would strongly recommend that you not use social media after drinking any amount of wine.

***The author of this post is not actually drunk right now, despite her poor sentence structure.

Do you have questions about social media or how to set social media pricing? I’m always happy to answer questions (via the comments field.)

Amanda Smyth Connor is a social media manager for a major publishing company and has managed online communities and content development for many start-up and Fortune 500 companies.  She has been a professional editor for more years than she can remember.