Print This Post Print This Post

Mar

31

A Star Is Born in Her Binary Form, from the Some People Pay Me Department


This month’s column in Cleveland Family Magazine is all about social networking and making connections:

Mothers, MySpace and Facebook are not just for kids any more.

About two years ago, I joined an online community (read: a group that meets in virtual space on your computer) called BlogHer. More than seven million women, from all over the world, consider themselves members of the group. Editors write about, organize and offer news and opinion on topics that range from politics and parenting to journalism and technology.

It’s such a hot idea that in March, The New York Times profiled wowowow.com, a new online community for women over 40 that was launched with more than a million dollars of backing. The Times’ picture of four blondes in a row that accompanies the article did not thrill me, but who will quibble when the blondes are: columnist Liz Smith, journalist Leslie Stahl, advertising agency founder Mary Wells and Joni Evans, former president of publisher Simon & Schuster.

But enough about those has-beens. Back to my cyber-enabled success story.

The editor of the political section at BlogHer is a graduate student at Harvard. She has been on CNN and other stations’ news segments over the years. In February, a CNN booking agent contacted her for suggestions of people who could appear on “Blog Buzz.” The BlogHer editor gave the agent my name.

Why my name? I can’t say for sure, of course, but I came to the editor’s attention because, although I’d been dormant on BlogHer for two years, I started to take the time to engage in the political material there. As I received encouragement from other participants, I committed myself to staying engaged at least through the presidential primaries and debates.

Around the same time that I first learned about BlogHer, I also had learned about the Media Bloggers Association – a group that gives legitimacy to bloggers in a way most like how news organizations legitimize other journalists (a blog refers to a weblog, which is like a diary but online and on the Internet). From time to time, I communicated with the MBA’s founder about conundrums on my personal blog.

It just so happens that he frequently relies on a freelance writer friend of mine (who, incidentally, I met because she was mentioned in an e-mail newsletter I had signed up for when I began my work as a freelance writer). That connection, between the MBA founder and this writer friend, resulted in the MBA submitting my name and blog to Newsweek.com as a possible source for election coverage.

Why? Because the founder solicited my friend for her opinion on bloggers she would recommend for the project. And guess who she named?

Although my blog was submitted for consideration by the MBA chief, it wasn’t selected. But I gave the MBA person the name of a blog I like and that one was selected. Of course, coincidentally, I had guest-posted at that online source a few times and, another coincidence: the founder of that site is from my hometown and went to the same high school as me.

Last connection that matters: At the end of 2007, the founder of that blog asked me if I would be a co-blogger for his site. After he made sure that it would be OK with Newsweek, I started.

Who would hear about that tidbit? The CNN booking agent. When she contacted me, we discussed this other blog and I gave her the founder’s contact information. His compliments about me resulted in a callback from the booking agent in which she said – more or less of course, “You da bomb. Get thee to a television studio in Brecksville.”

The rest, as we say is history: I appeared on CNN just 20 minutes before most stations started their Academy Awards coverage. My husband started to field calls immediately after the segment ended. And relatives who hadn’t called me, ever, were leaving messages about seeing this lady writer on the TV.

But the biggest boost I got came when I received an e-mail from the BlogHer editor who had referred me in the first place. She wrote, and I quote, “Saw [the booking agent] from CNN tonight and she raved about you!”

Is there any better proof of the power and value of virtual tools helping people to realize real life dreams, even if they’re over 25, married and don’t know MySpace from outer space?

Jill Miller Zimon, we are proud to say, contributes to Cleveland Family, in addition to CNN. And remember, gentle readers, blogging can be done from home with kids!

Bookmark and Share

By Jill Miller Zimon at 7:33 pm March 31st, 2008 in Blogging, Media, Women, Writing 

Comments

2 Responses to “A Star Is Born in Her Binary Form, from the Some People Pay Me Department”

  1. 1 Joel Libava on April 1st, 2008 11:09 am

    Nice post, Blondie.
    Joel Libava

  2. 2 Kimberly Kootsouradis on April 1st, 2008 7:18 pm

    You’re inspiring, Jill. Very cool.

Leave a Reply




"));