There’s a trend going around and it’s one that I’ve had the fortune and misfortune of being on both sides of the table. It’s the one that’s illustrated above and if you aren’t like those bunnies that did it intentionally, it can be embarrassing or infuriating when someone calls you out on it.

I’m talking about mistakes. Not the ones that you make quietly and no one but your inner critic notices, but BIG and little mistakes that everyone notices and brags loudly in a public forum.

And what really sucks about the state of the Internet is when we see things as small as a misspelled word or as large as an inappropriately timed tweet, we’re are so ready to jump out and publicly declare it to be a fail.

Mistake #1: Grammatical Errors

There are two sides to this story – the first is a grammatical mistake. Those are simple errors that anyone can make and can be solved with a simple, private email that points out the error in the same way as a good public servant would.

Editors are the biggest participants in calling out this kind of mistake. If they could live off of the errors they find in marketing collateral, they would.

An editor is motivated by one thing and that is saving and protecting the English language. Grammatical mistakes and misspellings are black and white. Those things have rules that should be kept and rules that should be broken. And if you see one happen, be a decent person and send an email or a private message to the person who made the error instead of calling them out publicly.

Mistake #2: Social Media Fails

But then there are the larger missteps that are usually labeled as “social media fails.” These are the tweets, Facebook posts, and blog posts written by people who apparently don’t “get it” and the mistakes they make are at the expense of the brand they represent. The innocent fails like Red Cross getting slizzard or Discovery Channel’s long commute are usually powered by an overworked, multitasking social media manager who forgot which profile they were logged-in as.

Then there are the epic fails that are usually the result of a team executing a strategy that is restricted by corporate policies that came before the brand started playing in social media. And as a result, the repercussions from those kinds of fails can be detrimental to the brand.

Why do we like to point out other people’s mistakes?

Mistakes in social media happen very publicly, painfully, and usually before anyone can get the resources they need to handle it “correctly” before the crisis spreads like wildfire. I’d say that social media fails spread faster than social media successes.

I understand why editors have the desire and need to point out grammatical errors, but what about the rest of the population who are quick to call something a fail and label it as a mistake? What motivates them?

So I ask, why are people so quick to point out when someone is wrong?

Photo Credit: Shoebox (comic)

There comes a time in every bloggers life when then come out from behind the computer and take the stage and become a speaker. That time came for me last weekend when I presented at WordCamp Seattle. I’ve been on panels before, but this was the first time that I actually took the stage and shared my own ideas solo.

WordCamp is a locally organized conference that covers everything related to WordPress with sessions ranging from basic WordPress tips to very advanced development tricks. This was my first time attending and speaking at WordCamp, so I had no idea what to expect. But what I discovered was 300 people who were all very passionate about using the WordPress publishing platform to get their ideas out there, which makes for a very friendly community.

Slides: How to Promote Your Blog Without Losing Your Soul

My talk was in the afternoon and in one of the smallest rooms. But even so, I counted somewhere between 60 and 70 people while I cleared my throat and anxiously waited for when I was supposed to start.

My talk was called, “How to Promote Your Blog Without Losing Your Soul.” It offered an overview of why you should build a community for your blog before you need to promote your blog and a checklist for how to get the word out about a post after you publish.

I came up with the idea for this topic after knowing a bunch of bloggers who write really amazing posts but are horrible at marketing themselves. Usually it’s because people who have a blog are writers, not marketers. And while marketing is a skill, a lot of it is a process that you repeat and iterate on as you go. Plus a lot of this methodology comes from what I’ve learned running and promoting my own blog and that of my employers (current and former).

Here are the slides from my talk – I will post the video as soon as it’s available from the folks at WordPress.tv.

(more…)

After responding to all of the sweet, awesome, and thoughtful messages my friends left for me on Facebook last year, I had this wild idea – what if you woke up on your birthday, logged onto Facebook, and no one left any birthday messages for you?

That would be the worst birthday ever, right?

As I learned from my parents when I was younger, if you have a bad dream, tell someone about it so that it won’t come true.

Thank you to my amazing husband, John Kimball, who drew this comic and helped me bring this concept to life.

P. S. Today is my birthday.

Sunday Serial is a semi-regularly weekly installment of the best articles written and read around the Internet during the past week or so. I try to introduce each article so you know what you’re getting in to before you click, though sometimes my synthesis goes a little bit deep. You can read previous Sunday Serials here.

20 phrases you can replace with one word by Laura Hale Brockway on PR Daily

Read this because: I’m a fan of brevity, and you should be too. As George Orwell said, never use a ten-dollar word when a five-dollar one will do. Whether that’s in every day speech or in your writing.

What I Learned From Quitting My Job…Twice. by Amber Nashlund on Brass Tack Thinking

Read this because: You’re on a path few have traveled. You are ready to shake things up, you’re ready to say “I quit,” but uncertainty is holding you back. Here are some great lessons to move you away from “un” and closer to “certain.”

I hereby (fictionally) resign by Reginald Braithwaite on raganwald’s posterous

Read this because: Last month, recruiters and hiring managers starting asking candidates for their passwords to their personal Facebook accounts. Why? So they could do a more thorough background check on the candidate’s personal life.

Then Facebook came out and publicly stated that asking candidates to give out their passwords is an invasion of the candidate’s privacy and that of their friends. And last week, the state of Maryland became the first state to ban employers from asking for Facebook passwords.

Don’t HR managers know to keep their hands off of our personal Facebook pages?

If you’re reading this, mouth agape, wondering “WTF?” read the above post. While a fictionalized account, it’s a good story about “what if.”

Bonus: Here’s what you should do (in the real world) if your employer or hiring manager does ask for your password.

Publishing is no longer a job or an industry — it’s a button by Mathew Ingram on GigaOm

Read this because: It’s no secret that I come from the book publishing world, so the advent of blogs, eBooks, online publishing, etc., anyone can be “published” and the assets that the old book publishing world used to bring to the table are no longer valuable. Digitization has killed this industry and turned it into a button. And I’m left wondering, would it have been better to be outsourced to China or replaced by a machine than a button?

But there’s hope – yes, the industry is dead. The mystery, allure, and “secret sauce” of what makes a best seller still exist, but the tools for production and sales channels are accessible to all. It’s not so much that publishing needs to disappear, but pivot. Instead of being the “process of distribution,” become the services that authors need – editorial, marketing, access to readers, and design.

Texts from Hillary on Tumblr

Read this because: It’s not every week that a meme is started and the subject of the meme, memes herself. As the final post says, “It turns out that memes really do come true,”

• The Submission from Hillary Clinton

• Story about the real text from Hillary

• My favorite: Ryan Gosling texts Hillary Clinton

What did you read this week?

Photo Credit: f_where

There was some pretty stellar content floating around the Internet last week, but perhaps the best thing I stumbled upon was CrossFit Ryan Gosling (full set on Facebook and on the co-creator’s blog).

Ryan Gosling, the Meme

“Hey Girl,” the meme, was originally started by Fuck Yeah! Ryan Gosling on tumblr, and made famous by Danielle Henderson’s Feminist Ryan Gosling. The blog was started as a joke to keep track of the theorists she is studying as she works towards her graduate degree in gender studies. The content has no affiliation to Ryan Gosling, the actor, and as with most things we encounter online, it doesn’t really matter because Henderson’s content is so damn entertaining.

Like all good memes, spin offs happen, and last week I ran into the most amazing rendition of the “Hey Girl” meme and that is CrossFit Ryan Gosling.

CrossFit Ryan Gosling was created (I believe) by Gabe Billings and Robin Runyan out of Eugene, Oregon and shared like mild wildfire on Facebook last week. You can view all 21 photos (so far) here.

Why CrossFit Ryan Gosling works: A Lesson in Marketing

The reason why Feminist Ryan Gosling worked so well and is (arguably) more famous than the original is because of a few reasons:

1) Know Your Audience

People who are “subject matter experts” of the target audience created Feminist Ryan Gosling and CrossFit Ryan Gosling who these pictures were created for. The person behind Feminist Ryan Gosling is studying gender issues; the people behind CrossFit Ryan Gosling is a CrossFitter. They wrote captions for people who are like them and about things that matter.

The fact that Ryan Gosling is featured is for entertainment only.

Takeaway: Know your audience intimately.

2) Find Your Niche and Stick to it

According to Know Your Meme, “Hey Girl” was created in December 2008 but made famous by Feminist Ryan Gosling when it came to the scene in the fall of 2011 and was featured on Ms. Magazine blog, The Huffington Post, GQ, Newsweek, Bust, and about a dozen more.

Why did Feminist Ryan Gosling do better than the original “Hey Girl” in such a short amount of time? Because Feminist Ryan Gosling had a very specific purpose: feminist flash cards.

Granted, I haven’t spent much time on the original site, but the name is telling – “Fuck Yeah!” doesn’t really tell me what your site and your content is about, whereas Feminist and CrossFit does.

Takeaway: When given the opportunity, specialize and become an expert over being a generalist.

3) Do it Because You Want to

The best part about Fuck Yeah! Ryan Gosling, Feminist Ryan Gosling, and CrossFit Ryan Gosling are that they are all fans – of the topics they parody at least. If you want to create some great content that will have some “stickiness” to it, you have to enjoy what you’re doing and come from a place of curiosity or heart.

CrossFit Ryan Gosling was created because someone at the creator’s gym came up with the idea and the set is what they all came up with. The creators are CrossFitter themselves. They’re not getting paid and they probably did it because they wanted to. And that’s what it’s all about.

Takeaway: You will create something noteworthy if you love the topic you’re creating first.

In Other Sunday Serial News

When you’re done lusting over Ryan Gosling, here are a few other articles for you to read:

• Do you want more engagement OR more traffic to your blog? by Mack Collier on MackCollier.com
• 5 lessons from the world’s most successful online community manager by Monica Guzman on GeekWire
• Brands, don’t kill your social feed by over-automating it by Doron Simovitch on VentureBeat
• The myth of the eight-hour sleep by Stephanie Hegarty on BBC Magazine

What did you read this week?

Post updated on April 22, 2012 to reflect multiple authors and the official web “home” of CrossFit Ryan Gosling to be here. Thanks, Gabe and Robin for stopping by!