(Edited August 2010)
It’s about time I made a compiled page of who / what I am.
It all started in August 2008. Long story short — my prior agency was uninterested in Social Media, so I jumped on board on my own. I had had a Twitter account under my real name for some time but wasn’t discussing work issues to avoid problems with the clients. But I wanted to talk PR, particularly when having a bad day (i.e. problem with the press, clients, co-workers, boss, etc.).
More on that can be found here from an interview Valerie Simon and I did years ago.
Over time I discovered a small group of friends in the business. Those that happened to be local coordinated a tweetup — to our knowledge the first ever Masquerade-themed meetup — Masquertweet (also mentioned in the above article). Full history can be found at the Masquertweet page.
Shortly thereafter, this motley group of flacks upon numerous morning discussions about all things communications started a blog. And it grew. (Interview with Valerie and the whole group can be found here.) And my venom against clients and my boss and journalist tapered off. I still took other professionals to task when needed in my opinion, but it was much more rare and really only merited in few circumstances, and some of them I still hold no personal grudges against (though some of them I do), though we may disagree professionally.
Over time the need to expand beyond Twitter became apparent and so I started FB and LI accounts. Of course those required a “real” name — continuing the charade was necessary and so a false first and last name were adopted. Unfortunately the choice of names brought about many questions about my heritage. To clarify — no, I’m not Italian. I’m first generation American on one side of my family and the other side came over 20 years after the Mayflower. Middle Eastern, Eastern European, Native American and Welch — but no Italian.
Eventually I “went solo” but was/am always looking for new opps where I can learn new things.
[Update] I’ve recently joined up with an agency doing quite a bit of digital work (and highly impressed with how they handle the work internally and with their clients). They pretty much know all the sordid details about my dualsonas (yeah, I made up the word), so for now it’s unlikely anything’s going to really change. 🙂
That’s where I am now.
But…
[See above update] If all goes as it should — by the end of summer it’s very likely I’ll move to combine my proper persona – the one with strict PR experience and the other that goes batty over stats on prbc. Only time will tell whether or not that pans out, but for now — it’s a goal.