Nancy Lyons

AMA Follow Up

Posted on December 15, 2009

During our recent presentation at the MN-AMA’s Get in the Game Conference, we focused on giving people a solid foundation of 101-level social media knowledge. We’ve posted a recap of our presentation here, along with some helpful links and resources.

Where to Start

After defining social media, we assumed everyone in the room had two basic objectives: to establish and manage a social presence, and to define and implement a monitoring and response process.

The steps we suggest for social media success are:

Define goals
Set benchmarks
Educate internal audiences
Create processes and policies to manage content and conversation

Thinking about social media as a conversation is vital, and “conversation” is a new mindset for many marketers. Social media is not a strictly push tactic: it’s about listening, connecting, and participating. These conversations and connections can be a powerful way to connect with your audiences (both internal and external), but you need to teach internal audiences how to behave this way. Companies, organizations and brands are not used to having two-way conversations with their audiences. They are often structured such that one department “talks” and another department “listens” — and sometimes those two departments barely talk to one another!

Define Goals

When you consider your goals it’s also important to think about the goals of the audience with whom you are trying to connect.

Keep in mind when defining your goals it’s hard to measure ROI in the ways that you are used to. Often there is no clear call-to-action with social media, and you might have to do some listening before you can make clear goals.

In many cases, old measurement models don’t quite fit. Luckily, lots of new ways of thinking about how to measure social media are beginning to emerge.

Set Benchmarks

It’s never a good idea to jump into the internet with no strategy or direction in mind, and it’s important to set benchmarks and checkpoints to compare to in the future. Sounds familiar, right? It’s not like this approach is new, but because social media is “The Next Big Thing!” far too many marketers seem to be jumping into the tactics without enough strategic forethought.

At the very least, you can start listening to what’s being said in a variety of social networks to gauge the overall number of conversations and get a sense of whether the energy is bad or good.

Initially, the idea of monitoring Twitter, Facebook, blogs, etc. can seem overwhelming. The good news is that for most brands it doesn’t have to be! There are many free tools like Twitter Search, Google Alerts, and RSS feeds and, for many brands, it’s possible to start with a homegrown monitoring solution. (Later, as you start getting more comfortable with social media monitoring, you might consider a paid service or agency.)

Below are some guides on how to set up and use different monitoring services:

Educate

As a company, you should also be thinking about implementing a social media policy so employees have a clear understanding around what is okay to share, and what the “voice” of the company or brand in the social media space is. A great way to get internal audiences involved is to host a bootcamp or workshop to educate employees about their role in representing the company or brand.

Create Processes & Procedures

In addition to educating audiences, you need to make sure that your company has some sort of internal process for responding to conversations in social spaces. Once you start listening, you’re going to want to talk! So, who approves those responses? How do you handle any possible legal issues? What do you respond to, and what do you ignore? What is the voice and tone of your company or brand?

Again, depending on the size of your organization, these processes don’t have to be overly complicated. But, it’s good to think through the questions before you dive in. Here’s a wonderfully simple example of a local restaurant doing social media “right.”

Get in the Game

The last thing to remember is that you’re not alone: there are plenty of other companies and professionals out there trying these tools for the first time, and there are lots of resources and people out there to help you. Our goal is for everyone to feel like no question is stupid when you’re trying something new. Drop us a line and let us know what you think! We’d love to hear from you.

This post was cross posted at the MN-AMA blog.

Podcast #4: MPR Technology Follow Up

Posted on December 8, 2009

I had the pleasure of talking to Kerri Miller on the Midmorning show on MPR this morning. (You can listen to the show here.) Her guest was Robert Stephens and I was a call-in guest for a short part of the hour. It is so hard to even try to touch technology in an hour’s worth of time. It’s even harder to speak to the cultural impact of technology in short bytes. We try to do all of that here on the Geek Girl’s Guide. But we try to do it in a way that encourages very broad participation. We want to open this up to audiences that may not normally be included in a conversation about technology. Of course when I finished the interview my head was spinning. The only logical thing to do was to keep talking to Meghan about the ideas we’d only touched on in the on-air chat. Here’s the resulting podcast. Enjoy!

Listen Online

Click the cute little button below to stream the audio in your browser window.

How To Tweet: The Movie

Posted on December 4, 2009

The first video we posted from our meeting with Karen Gillespie Haeg focused on being open to trying new things, which is the first step toward being successful with social media. First, you have to get over any mental hurdles you have about what your goals are, what you want to share and why one would even bother sharing that information at all. But, beyond that, there is still the question of, “So, wait. How do I actually DO this?” Below is part II of our meeting with Karen, where we get into more details around how to actually use Twitter.

Karen is a practitioner at Spot Spa in Minneapolis, and new to Twitter. We talked to her about why keeping your tweets private isn’t a good idea, how to find followers (and people to follow) and whether Joan of Arc would have used Twitter. (Do you think she would have?)

Giving Thanks In National Adoption Month

Posted on November 26, 2009

Thanksgiving sends us all through the same exercise – we think about those things for which we are most thankful. Generally, the first thing that comes to mind is one’s family. Families are a great gift and the people that make home feel like home. November is also National Adoption Month so it seems only logical that I should share with you my story – the one in which I was lucky enough to create what is now my family with more than a little help from technology and early social media. Just maybe what I share here will be of some help or comfort to someone who may stumble upon this post and find in it a little nugget of hope when they need it most.

Adoption is a very personal decision. I think those people on the outside of it make assumptions about why people decide to adopt. But those assumptions are generally a pretty narrow view of reality. In truth, some people just know that adoption is the path for them. I have always been one of those people. I always knew I’d be a parent, but I never felt any sort of compelling urge to give birth. Adoption is one of those subjects that exists in the periphery of cultural consciousness until you decide that you want to pursue it. Once you are serious about becoming a parent via adoption, a whole subculture starts to reveal itself to you. But not without a pretty significant amount of investigation. Thankfully, when I began my journey, I was already very familiar with the internet. Unfortunately, the adoption industry had not yet caught up to technology and was slow to adopt new channels of communication. At the time I started I was able to research adoption agencies through newsgroups. (Remember those? Newsgroups?) I’d hear about one, and then I’d search various adoption newsgroups for people with experience with the agency. Then I’d make contact with those people and, if it made sense, follow up with contact with the agency itself. Let’s put this in context, I started this process over 9 years ago and it took me six years to find my son. The web was still a less than effective way to really find and connect with resources in a way that really moved the process forward. But for me it was a little different. I was a blogger.

When we talk about Social Media, the Geek Girls try to point out the value of blogs and bloggers as community builders and mechanisms for two-way dialogue. In a world where Facebook is the social tool dujour, and Twitter is Facebook’s cooler, thinner younger sibling, blogs tend to get dismissed as less than social and certainly not as powerful for creating connections. But my story suggests otherwise. My blog was where I chronicled not so much the boring adoption journey itself, but my emotional response to a process that really isn’t very forgiving of emotion. See adoption is a lot about preparation, anticipation, anxiety, hope, disappointment, grief and, if everything finally comes together, ultimately its about celebration. Being embroiled in the adoption process (read: bureaucracy) for six years meant quite a few blog posts about this crazy range of emotions. I don’t need to recap all of it here, but I will tell you that we started pursuing international adoption, which has it’s own set of complications associated with it. We accepted and lost two referrals (a referral is a child in adoption speak) about 18 months apart (this was after waiting over a year for the first referral). Those children just disappeared into the ether that is that process. With the international thing no one ever tells you where the referrals go — they are just gone. We switched agencies three times. We transitioned from international to domestic in shifting from one agency to the next. Each comes with its own set of fears. International is expensive and the process can be long and disappointing, depending on the country. But with domestic adoption there is the fear of the first mom changing her mind or the first dad not really being on board. Nothing worthwhile is ever easy though, right? As I moved along this path I talked about it on my personal blog. And the craziest thing started to happen. I started to meet people who were rooting for me, or who were also embroiled in the adoption conundrum, or people that had been victorious and were wise, experienced parents of adopted children. A real dialogue and a real community of supportive humans started to emerge and they stayed with me through the entire ordeal.

I blogged when I was confused by paperwork. I blogged when we got our first referral. I blogged when I lost sleep and when that referral drifted away, when the invitation to travel to another country never came and when our adoption agency dealt with some shady issues. I blogged over my frustration with the wait and the silence and with people who popped out babies one after the other. I wasn’t really doing it for anyone else. I didn’t expect anyone would care or be moved to return to my site or participate in the discussion. I just needed to say what I had to say and my blog was that outlet. But people were reading and they did care and they were participating. It was single people, married people, straight and gay, moms and dads, grandparents. People who wanted kids. People who didn’t. Families immersed in the adoption quagmire. I was humbled and grateful for every blog comment, every email, every new friend or acquaintance. They kept me hopeful on those days when I had no other reason to be. And six years into it, when I was ready to give up hope, I wrote a blog post in response to a woman who, when suffering from mental illness, threw her twin babies into the Mississippi river. I wrote her a letter, actually. Her and anyone like her that was struggling. It wasn’t really for her or them. It was for me. It was my inner dialogue coming out and I published it for the world. I begged her and anyone like her to please please consider me. Not ‘me’ per se. But us – all of us in that place – that limbo between wanting a child and having a child. That place that is a cloud of confusion and desperation and hopefulness. That letter, that personal plea, that prayer moved my little community into a conversation I can’t really describe. Suddenly I was receiving emails with suggestions for immediate action that I should take. People who’d had luck with one angle or another were sharing their secrets and I was determining which to pursue.

I moved again into the breach with renewed energy and a feeling that this would be my last great effort at reaching out and trying to find my family. One suggestion was an aggregated list managed by a woman who collected crisis situations from all over the country. So instead of aligning with an agency, I would be choosing to pursue individual situations. I don’t want to get into the mechanics of the adoption process, that’s not what this post is about. But, suffice it to say, these people in my online community altered my perception of what was possible and when I decided to think absolutely outside of my comfort zone and pursue these various options, things started to happen. I followed up on a couple of crisis situations, which led me to a conversation with an adoption coordinator who remembered me months later when a woman came to them looking for a family just like ours. We were interviewed by the first mom and her family, we ultimately met them and grew to care very deeply for them. In July of 2006 my son was born and we took him home 48 hours later. When I am asked if the wait was worth it I always answer in the affirmative. Because now that I know him, I know why we had to wait. It was for him. He is exactly who we were supposed to meet. He is our family.

Why is this a Geek Girls post? Why have I decided to share this today? Because with all of this talk of social media and the miracle that it is for business (I use the word ‘miracle’ facetiously) and personal branding, at the end of the day these are human interactions. It is our humanity that moves the needle forward – a little at a time. With all of our tweets and status updates, pictures and connections, I want us to recognize that ‘transparency’ is just a buzz word. What we really want is honesty and authenticity and humanity and, even a little vulnerability. We are not connecting because we are fabulous. We are connecting because we are real. We are flawed. We NEED each other. We learn and grow from and support each other. We challenge each other. The tools have changed. There is more possibility for connection. The conversations might be bigger. But we are still perfectly imperfect humans.

On this Thanksgiving I am thankful for my family. My bright shining light – my boy. His first mom and dad and the gift they gave us. And all of the lovely, far-away people on the internet who never let me lose hope, who gave me energy and ideas, and ultimately (whether they know it or not) led me to my son. Happy Thanksgiving.

———

*Note: this post is not meant to be representative of the adoption process in any way. It merely reflects my experience with it. Every experience is different. Adoption is a worthy, worthwhile pursuit and I wouldn’t change a thing about the path that lead me to my son.

Additional Resources

National Adoption Day

Adopting.org

Adoption.com

The Five-Minute Guide to Google Alerts

Posted on November 18, 2009

If you’re not already using Google Alerts, you should start. Now. Google Alerts is an easy (and free) way to monitor news articles, blogs, videos, and other media.

We often say you can’t afford not to listen online, and Google Alerts is just another tool to help. With that, here is the Geek Girls Guide to Google Alerts:

1. Delivery Method
We start with the end only so you know where all of this is headed, and can think about how — and how often — you are going to want to monitor particular search terms. You can choose to have the alerts delivered to an email address (either as-it-happens, once a day, or once a week); or you can have the alerts delivered to an RSS feed (as-it-happens). If you want the alerts delivered by an RSS feed and don’t already have one set up, you can read the three part series on how to get started with RSS. You can go ahead and do that. We’ll wait here.

Okay, let’s move on.

2. Brainstorm Words & Phrases
This is where you need to put your thinking cap on.

First, get creative: if you’re monitoring mentions of your own name (which we highly recommend) don’t just set up an alert for your first and last name. Do you need one for your maiden name? A common misspelling? What about monitoring for close relatives’ names? (You think Meghan doesn’t have a Google Alert for her husband’s name? She totally does!)

If you’re monitoring for a business, put in your “official” name but also any common misspellings, or commonly-used shortnames. Put in industry keywords that you want to keep an eye on to help reveal industry content that you can comment on, blog about, or just be aware of.

Second, get picky: We suggest only searching for one term at a time, and if your term has more than one word make sure to put the words in quotes. Here’s what we mean: we monitor “geek girls guide” but not “geek girls.” Geek girls on its own is too generic and we end up with too many unrelated things.

While the full name of the company we work for is Clockwork Active Media Systems, lots of people just call it Clockwork. But, if we monitor “Clockwork” we get a TON of unrelated content, including lots and lots and LOTS of stuff about the movie, A Clockwork Orange.

Google has excellent tips on how to set up good searches (which applies to alerts as well):

Basic search tips: Including tips on how to use search-friendly phrases (which may be different from the human-friendly version).
More search help: This includes information on how to exclude terms. Remember my Clockwork vs. A Clockwork Orange example? One of the terms we monitor is “Clockwork -orange” which filters out a lot of the stuff we don’t want to see.

3. Get Alerts!

Go to google.com/alerts and enter the terms you would like to set up alerts for.

For each term or phrase, choose the type of results you want. These include: blogs, news, web, groups, videos, and comprehensive. We almost always choose comprehensive because we want to see as many results from as many sources as possible.

If you are choosing to have your alerts delivered to an email address you will need to enter that email address (if you’re logged into Google your email should already be there). Additionally, you will need to choose how often you would like to receive emails: as-it-happens, once a day, or once a week.

If you choose to have alerts delivered through a feed, the “how often” will automatically be as-it-happens.

Your frequency choices for each term or phrase will likely be different. You may want an alert about your own name as-it-happens, but only need to see an industry alert once a week. You can always change this later if you find that you’re being alerted too often or not enough for a particular term. Start somewhere, and tweak as you go.

4. Managing & Refining
If you are monitoring something with a specific end date (like an event) or things change (you break up with that boyfriend you’re monitoring), you might want to delete an alert eventually. From the Google Alerts main page you can click “Manage Alerts” and you will be taken to an admin section. To delete an alert simply click the check box and then click delete.

If a term starts making your mailbox overflow you might want to change the frequency or delivery method, or tweak the search terms if the results are not crisp enough. From the the admin section mentioned above, click “edit”, change any of the parameters, then save your changes. Boom.

5. Celebrate
Congrats! Do a little dance; you have now set up Google Alerts to help you monitor the ebbs and flows of the social media sea.

One note: Google Alerts won’t catch all tweets, so we advise setting up Twitter monitoring systems as well. To learn how to do that, read our Five-Minute Guide to Twitter Monitoring.

Best of luck! Let us know how it goes.

The New Face of Networking

Posted on November 1, 2009

Recently a financial services provider for Clockwork (the Geek Girls have day jobs at Clockwork) sent a note asking us where we network for business. I assume our contact was hoping to meet other small business owners like us and thinking that attending such events would be the best way to do that. Without thinking I started to answer, but it was tougher than I thought to come up with any kind of meaningful list of networking events that I attend regularly to connect with business contacts. I stopped trying and simply responded that the majority of significant connections I’ve made over the last few years have been made via social networking. In fact, I had tweeted only days prior that I was struggling with a particular experience with this financial services provider and, while I received several responses from competitors, I heard nothing from anyone from the brand itself. It was unfortunate, actually, because this is no small brand. In fact it’s huge. The idea that they seem to have a very minimal (if they have one at all) social marketing presence seems sort of backwards.

Later that day I did an informational interview with a freelancer looking to make new business connections for new work. While discussing her desire to find new opportunities and people in my network with whom I could connect her, I asked the question, ‘What are you doing with social?’ She responded by admitting, as so many people do, that she didn’t really see the usefulness of it — especially Twitter. I suggested that Twitter might actually be a very valuable tool in her quest for connections because, via Twitter, she’d have access to people she never would have opportunity to meet in any other setting.

Both of these conversations got me thinking about how some business and professional individuals still view social media. They see it as too much ‘social’, there’s not enough business value. The Geek Girls always say that we’re not here to sell our readers on social media. But I would suggest that those among you who still think it’s mostly fluff, might want to look start ‘listening’. Tune in to those people on Twitter that you know and respect in a professional capacity and then start to leverage their networks. See who they follow and start listening to more peripheral conversations. If you’re curious you should know that Twitter doesn’t work like Facebook because you can follow just about anyone. And if you decide to participate you have that option, as long as you are contributing in a relevant, authentic way. In essence, you can leverage your contacts’ networks to determine those among them that could be beneficial for you to know and, ultimately, introduce yourself to them and participate in conversations with them. It requires an investment of time and attention. But the opportunity is not insignificant.

When the Geek Girls are out talking to people about technology and social media I often talk about how we have opportunities to be better friends because of the connections social networks have enabled for us. I know that I am a better friend because of what these services bring to my relationships. Life is busy. Being a mom and a professional and a person with interests, social networks have allowed me to connect and reconnect with my friends on my terms. It may be late at night, I might be exhausted or in my pajamas, but I can make contact with my friends, catch up on their lives and their families and the things that are important to them, and remind them again that I care and I’m here. But these sorts of interactions are not reserved for our personal lives only. We can also make and foster new connections for business. And I would suggest that business networking is equally as difficult for some in real life for some of the same reasons. Using a tool like Twitter gives us access to people we need on our terms. We can learn from them, converse with them, make an impression on them, perhaps even influence them, all on our own time and our own terms. Perhaps even late at night in our pajamas.

I can join and participate in my professional associations, but my free time is so rare and so valuable that the events they produce really have to provide some serious value. Getting a babysitter or coordinating with the rest of my family or sacrificing family time or the time I need to actually get my work done are all difficult prospects. I am not alone. Most people I know are very selective about the traditional networking and continuing education events they attend. But when you consider the potential that social media offers, suddenly you’re confronted with the idea that there are now, for the first time ever, far fewer than six degrees separating each of us from just about anybody.

Don’t get me wrong, the Geek Girl’s also say that, whether you’re a brand trying to have a presence for social marketing, or a person trying to engage with friends, family or professional connections, we do not recommend that social networks take the place of real-time interaction. Social media is ‘in addition to’, not ‘instead of’. But wow, the potential for access and first contact is huge. Where you go from there is up to you. Don’t discount this social revolution on the web. It’s moving like this because there really is something to it. My recommendation is — start listening and see what you hear. And, if you’re the financial services provider I mention earlier in this post — call me. I’ve got a few tips for you.

Where Does Content Come From?

Posted on October 27, 2009

I am a horrible client. I am one of those people who finds myself prefacing many conversations with ‘do as I say, not as I do.’ Recently, when discussing the content needs for a client’s website, we were addressing the elephant in the room — the logical reason for a blog for their business, the potential for real contribution to an industry dialogue, and their feeling of overwhelm when confronted by the responsibility of creating that much content. They aren’t alone. I hear this every day, from clients in every industry who want to take advantage of the fluidity of the web, and the new channels for communicating a message. But the idea of committing to regular blog entries, or having to think of interesting ideas that often, just leaves them stymied. And believe me, I get it. I get overwhelmed with the responsibility of my work, my life and then, on top of all of that, this blog. Life is overwhelming. Being interesting is just not easy. So I thought I’d share with you what I share with clients — just a few inspirational pointers to help get you started down the path to creating compelling (relatively speaking) content.

This thing that is happening on the web right now with Social Media has everybody talking because there is a lot to talk about. All of the connections and conversations and industries and ideas are exciting to watch and to learn from and to participate in. You can start by listening in on your industry or those conversations that touch on topics around which you feel passionately and find room for your own voice. I try to encourage clients to participate in the dialogue because, quite simply — that is content. Respond to conversations that are already happening. Bring them back to your blog and take a position. Whatever it is – whether you agree or disagree–your contribution adds richness to the discussion. I think people often believe they need to comment on a blog post or article and that must be the end of their interaction with the material. Really, there’s nothing wrong with taking it home and expanding on your comment, your opinion, your reaction to the piece and encouraging others to do the same. Participating in conversations that are already happening will also expand your network, or potentially establish your voice as that of an industry expert.

I have one client who is, for all intents and purposes, a teacher or business coach. This particular person interacts with large audiences of people in classroom settings every single day. And she’s exceedingly passionate about the work that she does because, in her mind, and based on quantified data, she’s changing these businesses for the better. But the very thought of blogging adds yet another thing to her mile-long list and that is one thing too many. Here’s the deal – oftentimes you ARE your content. You’re creating content every day in your engagement with your clients and customers. Find ways to capture and share easily digested pieces of that on your blog. In her case a Flip Camera is an easy, affordable way to not only capture clips of the work she’s doing, but also to tap into her audience for their reactions and response to what they learned. One session with a live audience could potentially fuel many blog posts with rich and engaging content. Taking some video every time means she’ll build a really resource-rich library that could prove a real asset to her blog and her company.

There are even simpler ways to address the content dilemma. Talk to the people around you, the people you work with, perhaps, and brainstorm topics that you think need to be tackled. Talk to your audience — what are their expectations? Ask them for feedback, questions, contributions. Invite other industry leaders to guest post on your blog. Distribute responsibility for content topics across your organization. Don’t try to manage the overwhelm alone. Talking to people plants the seeds of content. That is the first step.

Let me be clear — this post is not at all a guide around content strategy. There are additional considerations that I’ve not touched here. But I am suggesting that you needn’t be overwhelmed to the point of silence by your need for content. It just requires a shift in thinking about what constitutes good content and where we get our inspiration. At the end of the day, if you love what you do and you are willing to talk about it and share your passion and just plain participate — you’ve got yourself some content.

Technology-Enabled Parenting

Posted on September 23, 2009

The other day I was surfing the radio and I landed on a discussion on talk radio about parents who text when they are with their children — in the park, at home, wherever. The debate centered around one mother having witnessed another mother sitting on a bench texting on her phone instead of interacting with her child on the playground. The eyewitness mom had a real problem with the texting mom — she really felt like the texting mom was neglecting her little one. The radio host was inviting people to call in and give their opinions. Texting while parenting: good or bad? I couldn’t call; I had reached my destination. But my first thought was this: parents need to stop judging each other. Just. Stop.

We should know better! Being a parent is hard. Every parent is different, and every parent needs to determine a way of parenting that works for them and for their children. It’s not really for the rest of us to say what that should look like. If children are fed and cared for and if there is love — the rest is really up to each family to decide. (Yes, there are exceptions to every rule and no, I’m not going to discuss them here.) As a Geek Girl, and a parent, I am so deeply appreciative of how technology has enabled me to be a more present, available mother that I want to talk about it here.

I was raised in a home where both my parents worked. I grew up in a relatively small town in Michigan where most moms (or at least the mothers of my friends) either did not work, or did not have jobs that kept them very far away from their families. Not so in our house. My mom is a physician, and when I was a kid she was at the height of her career. I know that my mother’s career shaped my view of the world and, more specifically, my sense of what the world had to offer me. I never doubted my potential. But when I look back on my childhood, I don’t remember my mother ever coming to a playground with me. When she talks about me as an infant, she says she changed maybe a handful of diapers. My father and other caregivers did the bulk of the diaper changing. My goal, as a parent, was to be more present for my little guy. Technology: my laptop, my mobile device and wi-fi, has allowed me to do exactly that.

My work is such that, if I don’t have client meetings scheduled, I can do it from just about anywhere. Deadlines are my only real time constraints. Certainly, the world expects me to be available and in my office during general business hours, but there’s a lot of flexibility there. Thanks to technology, I am not tethered to my place of business, or a desk, or a desktop computer, or even hours in the day. My mobile device allows me the freedom to be physically present for my son, while also being easily accessible to my staff. Am I ever entirely focused on my phone while I am with my son? I really hope not. But sometimes I have to strike an unpleasant balance. Sometimes I do have to answer a call or a text or spend more time dealing with an issue than I would prefer. But that’s the deal: I get to go to the playground, or take off early to go play, or stay home and take care of him when he’s sick. And our family has worked out a schedule that means limited daycare time for him in any given week. We’re comfortable with daycare, too, because of the social interaction with other kids. I feel good about the balance we’ve been fortunate enough to strike. But here’s the deal: I can only speak for what works for ME and MY family. I have no business judging anyone else’s choices. It’s also probably not healthy for me to compare myself to other mothers. There are always mothers better than me, more available, making cupcakes, or scrapbooks or knitting hats. I can only do the best that I can do.

My 3-year-old has opinions. It isn’t unusual for him to slam my laptop shut if I am working on a Saturday and he’s had enough. I get frustrated, sure. But I also listen to him. I walk away when he needs me to. I guess it’s just like anything — balance is critical. It makes no sense for me to go to the park and entirely ignore my child. There are times when I owe my son and my family my complete attention. Mornings, mealtimes, bedtime: those are sort of sacred around here. (Again, there are exceptions to every rule, and no, I’m still not discussing them here.) There are also times when I owe my business or my clients my complete attention. The rest of the time my life looks like something in between. Because, it’s about that balance.

So, if you see me in the park with my kid, cell phone in hand, texting madly just know this: I’m doing my best. I’m conscious of my choices. And technology has allowed me to be present for him. I am paying attention to my life. And other moms (especially the judgmental ones) should just pay attention to theirs.