I’ve never approached blogging as a “thing I do,” when people ask me what I’m into.  That answer is usually, “I draw,” or “I make art,” or even, “I make ads and think art can be advertising.”  But never, “I’m a blogger.”

Yet, I’ve maintained this blog since 2008.  And it needs work.  Enter the Blogcademy, an intense 2-day educational gathering where Gala Darling, Shauna Haider, and Kat Willams spoke about blogging best practices.

Most of the girls I met mentioned Livejournal or MySpace as the place their blog habits began, but for me, all negative blog memories track back to that time.

When Livejournal was happening, emo was in.  I was in high school.  And whoever had a journal worth following usually meant it was overshare to the extreme.  Reading someone’s Livejournal sometimes seemed like a huge invasion of privacy, no matter how public the forum: weird and sleazy.

So I stayed away from overshare, and kept this space as a pre-Pinterest collection of images.  Then I started writing.  I realized I liked writing.

A huge issue that I believe contributes to the anxiety of Milennials and Generation X— we’re being tasked to create our own online/ digital etiquette.

No one sat us down in grade school and explained when and where it was appropriate to use your cell phone.  No one told us that sexting was only for mommies and daddies who loved each other very much.  We’re making this shit up as we go along.

I realized that blogging is merely a new form of interacting with the world and people across the globe.

If the energy you put into the universe is the energy you get back from it, my 2D presence should reflect my meatspace personality as much as humanly and digitally possible.

So much Blogcademy inspiration came from seeing the Headmisstresses compeletely own their project.

Packed with fashion, fun, intelligence, humor, design and honesty, the three ladies have been doing this since last February.  That’s incredible.  They’re now on a world tour, creating connections and leaving a trail of inspiration and groups of new friends in their wake.

The idea of connection, I realized, is the true spirit of blogging.  Every woman (and it was mostly women) I spoke to had a yearning to “find her people” or to “connect,” beyond simply finding new customers for their life coaching or customers for their photography sessions.

Mini-Blogcademy-marketplaces have begun to spring up, with women contracting women to help program, strategize, design, photograph, model for, and promote one another’s blogs.  This, for me, is the interesting part.  I love to watch commerce thrive in its own little ecosystem– and when this occurs, you’re doing something right.

Currently, I’m in talks with a team of amazing women to transform this space into a fresh, new home for my words and images.

If you’re interested in my strategic and research skills, you’ll be able to learn more about who I am, how I work, and how I think.  You’ll be able to read case studies, ask me questions on Twitter, and find me on LinkedIn.

And if you want to collaborate, here I am, my forever favorite sights & sounds on Tumblr; my shenanagins on Instagram.  We only live once- but in 2013, we get to do so in the digital world, as well as the physical.

Live, learn, and optimize.

xo,

suzymae

All images ©suzymae, the Blogcadettes, Headmisstresses, and especially Caroline Winata of www.milouandolin.com

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