Category: Personal

Twitter Fail Whale

Twitter Detox

Of course, like quitting smoking or other addictions — and let’s be honest, for some of us, Twitter had become an unhealthy addiction — it’s left a gaping hole in my life. Over the years, Twitter had evolved into my main source of current events, engagement with topics of interest, and connections with people I’ve known for years but am unlikely to see in person any time soon. The spoke became a hub, something the marketer in me knew was very wrong.

Photo by Austin Chan on Unsplash

Should I stay or should I go?

Twitter is an irreplaceable platform for me, and I recently learned I’m among its small minority of “heavy users” who drive the platform’s revenue. I’ve invested 14+ years and more than 51,000 tweets in curating an optimal feed that keeps me informed, entertained, visible and connected to the topics I care about most, and more importantly, other people who share those interests. I’m not as active as I used to be, but I’m still way more active than the vast majority of users, even among those I follow.

"This is Fine" dog with a guillotine next to a row of stacked books and sign that says, "I'm not bossy, I just have better ideas."

Five Things: September 29, 2022

Five things for September 29, 2022. That’s it! That’s the excerpt.

Avatar: Me, in front of my bookshelves, wearing a black t-shirt that says, "runner" on it.

Stroke Me, Stroke Me — Nine Months Later

tldr: I’m doing pretty good physically now, but the mental side effects of having an unexplained stroke in the middle of a pandemic really suck. Running helps. “Go with what is. Use what happens.”

Boba Fett

Refuting the Book of George

[This was originally published by About.com in its Poetry section, back in 1999, in response to the release of Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace. It was retrieved via the Wayback Machine as About.com no longer exists, and I’m republishing it here for my own archives, but also in an initial response to Boba Fett’s return, about which I’m feeling a little ambivalent.]

"This is Fine" dog with a guillotine next to a row of stacked books and sign that says, "I'm not bossy, I just have better ideas."

Five Things: December 23, 2021

Five things for December 23, 2021. That’s it! That’s the excerpt.

Passed out on couch

That Time I Had a Literal Stroke

Turning off the faucet after brushing my teeth, I felt a tingling sensation in my right hand that quickly raced up my arm, which was quickly replaced by racing numbness. The first thing I thought of was that “narm” scene from Six Feet Under, a show I’ve never watched but had been memed into my consciousness years ago.

"This is Fine" dog with a guillotine next to a row of stacked books and sign that says, "I'm not bossy, I just have better ideas."

Five Things: May 27, 2021

Five things for May 27, 2021. That’s it! That’s the excerpt.

Photo by Martin Sanchez on Unsplash

The Rise and Fall of Digital Book World | On Platforms

I used my own modest platform to build a following for DBW’s Twitter account and early content. Rather than blow a limited marketing budget on traditional channels and standard registration promotions, I built our email list by producing three free webinars ahead of the first conference, and promoting them via paid emails to used Publishers Weekly’s email list. I also launched a weekly “webcast” called DBW Roundtable where a panel of industry colleagues discussed the topic of the week, not only steadily building our audience and email list, but also serving as a test lab for potential conference programming and speakers. My content strategy wasn’t to make DBW another traditional media outlet, but a trusted platform for informed opinions and industry expertise that offered the kind of actionable insights we promised at the annual conference—on a year-round basis. In doing so, it would not only ensure the continued relevance of the annual conference, it would also become a steady source of new ideas, content, and voices while also developing additional revenue streams.

Photo by Martin Sanchez on Unsplash

How I Built Platforms, and How They Deteriorated Over Time

While I’ve written about building and maintaining platforms myriad times, I’ve never purposefully looked back on the platforms I’ve built and examined how and why they deteriorated over time. Over the next few weeks I’m going to organize my thoughts and write about three of the most important ones—partly to properly document them, and partly to offer any relevant takeaways I might have.

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