With all the stress and uncertainty I've been feeling these last few months, it's been hard for me to get excited about much of anything. I've gotten my hopes up about a handful of things and, unfortunately, most of those same hopes have gotten crushed. That's not to say I haven't done anything that I've enjoyed; in fact, I just spent the weekend in Philadelphia and NJ and enjoyed it immensely. A post about that trip is coming soon; I'm just having a hard time organizing my thoughts, stories, and photos in a way that I'm happy with. But, back to the matter at hand: getting truly excited about something. Something tangible, not just some lofty aspiration.
I realize how nerdy this is going to make me sound but I'm going to write about it anyway. What am I excited (really, truly excited) about? The tumblr account I set up for Toad's Place the other day. I know what you're thinking right now. "Seriously, you're excited about a stupid little blog on tumblr of all places? For the club you work at? What's wrong with you?" I know that would be my reaction if I was reading this on anyone else's blog. But, truth be told, it's something that's been putting a smile on my face despite the feelings of gloom and doom regarding the other aspects of my life.
Since I started working at Toad's, social media has been one of my responsibilities. Initially, it consisted of myspace, then our facebook account (now accounts) and fan page, and then I brought twitter into the mix. With everything else on my plate at work (it's kind of a jack-of-all-trades position), it got a bit tedious to update all of those outlets daily and, to be honest, it was never much fun. Those spaces limited us to a list of upcoming events, a short blurb about the evening's performance or a new show announcement. None of those gave me the option to share as much as I wanted or promote in a way that I believed to be effective. For that reason, I usually pawned the responsibility off on our interns. Over the last year, I had been thinking about starting a blog of some sort for Toad's. A place where we could go beyond 140 characters, and share more than just a blurb. Tumblr is giving us a chance to share information in a variety of formats. Text, photo, video. We can post information not just about a show but about the artists themselves. Sure, sure, you can do that on facebook. But with facebook your thoughts are jumbled up with every comment a customer leaves, every junk photo of a sneaker or a ticket that someone tags you in, every piece of spam someone believes one of your followers might be interested in.
Tumblr gives a nice clear, continuous stream of just Toad's Place. The info that is pertinent to our events. Since I set up our page on Thursday evening, I've only written 10 posts (but, in reality, due to a day off and a weekend, 9 of those were posted in the last 2 days). I'm not only excited because I feel this is a good way to promote our events, the club, and artists as a whole, I am excited because it's making me feel like I have purpose again. I spent almost 6 years in (and out of) college reviewing albums for our radio station. I wrote music reviews for the student paper. I love music and I've always loved writing about it, in whatever form. I think my previous posts on this blog attest to that.
This tumblr is giving me a chance to do that again. I've started off with pretty basic posts, short and sweet, but I'm eager to write posts that delve a little deeper. That tell the story of the performer who's going to be gracing our stage. That review a new album. That review a show that takes place on our stage. I'm excited to take photos of the club, our patrons, and the performances to share with the Internet. To possibly interview some of the acts that come through, to hopefully help some of them in their journey to increase their fan base.
Already, we have a good number of people following us. We have people interacting and asking questions. Every time I get an email notifying me of a new question or a new follower, a grin breaks out across my face. The joy that little page is already bringing has gotten me excited about our other social media pages again. I've spent the last 2 days updating them all (well, not myspace) incessently. As I was sitting on the bus, making my way home from work today, I sat back and thought about all of this. I wish that I had an opportunity to work somewhere where this was my main priority. To write. To promote. To interact with our clientele.
Just for kicks, I searched job sites for positions as a social media manager. And I've decided something. I'm going to ask my brother and my computer savvy friends to teach me what they know about programming, about html and the like, and build on my abilities. Maybe, just maybe, I'll be qualified for a web-based position such as that with a company I am excited about, and can have that smile on my face every single day.
No comments:
Post a Comment