Confessions of a Content Pimp

If I had to pick one thing I pride myself on, something that has helped steer the course of my career, it would be my willingness eagerness to look beyond my job title and responsibilities. For 10 years, I served as editor-in-chief of CollegeBound Teen Magazine, which, during its heyday, was the créme de la créme of glossy publications for smart and savvy teens. We did what we did — engaging and educating readers with information on getting into and succeeding at college — exceptionally well, and received plenty of accolades along the way. (The decision to shutter the magazine in October of 2007 wasn’t due to any editorial shortcomings, but because of the migration of our readers from print to online, readers who have stayed with us as that one magazine emerged into the 12 education-specific niche Web sites I manage today.)

Back then, being at the editorial helm meant connecting with directors of admission at top colleges, best-selling authors, and leading college-bound celebrities, from Lindsay Lohan, Mandy Moore, and Hilary Duff (they all used to be college-bound, sigh). It meant I was invited to speak at teen marketing conventions, appear on morning TV news shows, and serve as a judge for everything from “Why I need this scholarship” essay competitions to an apple-pie recipe bakeoff for teens vying for admission to the nation’s top culinary college.

I was responsible for our company’s editorial direction, management strategy, and the content arm of all new business development. Yet still I whipped my red pen out to edit everything that appeared in print; eyeballed most queries (the majority of which were from students and other aspiring writers); and took time out to speak to college journalism classes.

I have always strived to be a “writer’s editor.” I can count on one hand the times I had to rework an article without a writer’s collaboration, since doing so would go against most of what I believe in. Being a good editor means not red-lining shouts over someone’s words, but rather helping them express themselves in a more eloquent way. And part of being a good editor means being a good leader.

No matter what the industry, a leader worth his or her chair in a corner office is someone who can command with knowledge and experience, not only of the most high-level aspects of a job, but of the lowest levels as well (oftentimes some of the hardest tasks to accomplish). How else can she motivate her team members?

And so it was that I found myself parking WWE champion John Cena’s truck.

It was years ago, on the morning of an exciting photo shoot for CB Teen, one in which I had helped wrangle the 6′1″, 240-lbs., four-time world-champion wrestler to appear in an exclusive cover story about brains and brawn. What many didn’t realize (and still don’t, probably) was that Cena is a proud college graduate (he received a degree in exercise physiology from Springfield College). Being able to share the story of his “scholastic muscles” to hundreds of thousands of impressionable teens was part of what made our magazine unique, innovative, and successful.

Of course, the wrangling part wasn’t easy, since Cena was a top-notch score. The planning involved in getting him to us was, I’d say, more difficult than putting a whole magazine to bed. When the day finally arrived, we waited with baited breath for the star to shine. Our photographer was all set up; the mag’s art director was focused on developing her vision; my senior reporter had her tape recorder at the ready; and stylists were standing by.

And then my cell phone rang with a question that was really a command: “We’re pulling up in three minutes. You’ll have someone there to park for us?” My eyes quickly scanned the room… everyone had a job to do and was intent on doing it. We didn’t have a valet on payroll to jump at the task, so I grabbed my coat, told my crew I’d be right back, and down I went.

When I met Cena and his rep in front of the studio entrance, I don’t think it registered that I was the magazine’s editor-in-chief. They just handed me the keys and listened to my directions upstairs. I hopped in the Ford Explorer and laughed to myself. Here I was, parking John Cena’s truck — a surreal career moment, to say the least.

Upon my return to the studio and after a more formal introduction, you could tell the look of confusion on Cena and his handler’s face… like, Why did she park the car? It was simple… something needed to get done and I could do it. I should do it. I felt the same way the time I handed out magazines at a college fair; sealed envelopes with entry forms for a scholarship contest our magazine was sponsoring; and carried boxes of back issues to the elevator bay during office clean-up days.

I truly believe that when you get caught up in power trips where the destination is “That’s Your Job, Not Mine-ville,” you stop doing your job well. An exceptional team leader knows how to accomplish a goal by understanding her team’s strengths and weaknesses, realizing the importance of stepping in when necessary, and never deeming oneself “too good” to do any particular task.

For me, turning that key in John Cena’s truck signified a turn in my outlook on success. It’s not about what you do that necessarily makes you great, it’s the attitude with which you do it.

I’m an editor, so it’s no surprise that I’m all about words. When it came time to write my wedding vows, I let my heart pour out from my fingertips. During my first pregnancy, I documented the changes in my body and the development of my firstborn on what became a Mommy blog. Just recently, I wrote a letter to my second daughter that I’ll give her when she’s older about how it felt to have my heart suddenly expand on the day she was born.Every day, I use words to convey what’s on my mind, both personally and professionally. So you can see how someone who so clearly needs a keyboard to express herself, not to mention who makes a living treating commas and contractions like a doctor doing brain surgery, would be convinced that writing about a cause is the best way to share that passion with others.

Until writer’s block hit (an occupational hazard, yes).

I had sat down to express my support of 12for12k, which combines social media and fundraising to change the lives of millions – just me and my WordPress “Write” screen. I already knew the “Content Pimp” route I’d take to deploy and broadcast it – how I’d write a few clever Tweets, ask others to “Please RT” it, post the link to my Facebook account, maybe call in a Stumble or two. But the words wouldn’t come.

As I wrestled with jumbled thoughts, I remembered something that had caught my eye in the past. That little One Day for Human Rights guy over so many of my Twitter friends’ faces and the pastel-pink wave of avatars during Pink for October were etched in my brain, so much so that I decided to put the words away for once.

Thanks to Danny Brown (@DannyBrown), the man behind 12for12k, I was hooked up with graphic designer Darin Berntson (@iGoByDoc), who helped create a Twitter avatar and background that put my 12for12k support front and center with my identity. A few quick clicks and an upload later, I sat and waited, hoping people would not only notice my new look, but that it would inspire some of them to explore how 12for12k empowers us to use our social networking powers for good. The 12for12k message is simple: With as little as $10 per month, we can make a world of difference in the lives of those less fortunate. Doing that, and then using our social networks to spread that message, is key to affecting change.

A Pebble in the Twitterstream

Though it may not seem like much at first, we all know that the picture we choose to accompany anything online, be it our Twitter pages, Facebook profiles, or blog/site “About Us” areas, can define so much, so quickly. I liken all of my Twitter friends’ avatars in my TweetDeck to friendly faces at one big party. There’s @CarynRN’s dog, @Jamesbedell’s dark eyes, @Carissa_MomIF’s profile, @MSchechter’s “Hey!” look, @BrianCarter’s sly smile, @SugarJones’ green-hatted grin, @BlogWellDone’s jalapeno pepper-rockin’ dude rag, @DanLopez2012’s shades, and so many others with images just as memorable. When there’s a diversion to that space – a blip in my visually indexing of friends – I take notice.

John Sheridan (@JohnSheridan), my Twitter friend and president of blindSpot Business Consulting Inc., which specializes in creating best practice solutions, and a long-time architect of social media environments, explains it best: “It’s the picture in a thousand words of who you are for others to mentally store away. Since all we have online is a little picture, it becomes even more powerful as a communication tool. And since web 2.0 is all about micro, the real estate on a tiny avatar is highly valuable, and therefore, important.”

When I put out my new 12for12k avatar, it was like throwing a pebble in the stream: Though it certainly didn’t make a big splash, I immediately noticed some ripples. What John said about that ID real estate being so important started to sink in.

After deleting my 14th spam email about reigniting the spark in my love life; how I can get more Web traffic; and all the money that’s waiting for me in a Nigerian bank account, a figurative light bulb bounced up in my MacBook Pro’s dock.

Maybe one of the ways we could de-stigmatize spam emails is if they were edited by a professional team. Between being written in massacred English and deployed via non-html’d, eyesore email formatting, let’s face it, they could use a revamp. And what are editors for, anyway, than to step in when comma emergencies and the like rear their ugly heads?!

Case study #1:

So, no… spellcheck doesn’t work on subject lines, which is why my first order of business would be to earmark the quality assurance of those ino — uh, I mean, into — someone’s workflow. And, trust me, Mr./Mrs. Canadian *** Pharmacy client, that Inline typo would have never gotten past someone on my staff!

Case study #2:

First up, it doesn’t take a marketing rocket scientist to tell you that this one needs a more compelling subject line (and some capitalization). And, where is the comma after the salutation? Also, though we suspect the underscores-in-place-of-apostrophes may be technical glitches, those are still typos. Take this one up a notch by mixing in a designer to spice up the pitch’s presentation, especially since there’s no explanation about the company’s name, success rate, nor why this one’s coming from a general gmail account. A good-looking, well-written email may let those missing key features slip by.

Case study #3

An editor looking at this type of email — one that actually spells good “gud” — can be likened to an orthodontist looking into a mouthful of crooked teeth. We see “college education for our kids” if we’re able to let loose with our services (and the subsequent bill). How we’d start off this editorial surgery is by approaching the client very, very slowly: What is it you wish to convey? If you wish to draw someone into your “attraction” site, the best approach would begin with the correct spelling of flattering adjectives.

Case study #4 (saving the best for last): 

Where do I start? Reviewing this post, my eyes (and my red pen) are bleeding. Those yellow highlighted areas, as you can see, merely touch the surface of what is, quite honestly, one of the most poorly-written emails I’ve ever seen. Take this one into MS Word with “Tracking On,” and you’re sure to have something that more closely resembles a football playbook than a written plea about some poor, deceased family with “Twenty Two Million, Three Hundred Thousand United States dollars” to offer you. Put a good writer/editor duo on this account, though, and you may be able to dupe more than just some naive Internet newbies. Maybe make them cry for poor Mr. Francois, even.

There are plenty of opportunities where these came from, which leads me to my final thought: Spammers — an untapped market for editorial consultants?

(No worries, I am biting my grammatically-correct tongue…!)

My daughter got this “Being Girl” toy from her school’s grab bag.

I’m an editor, so typos of any kind make me ill. But this one has even my ironworker husband who can’t spell worth a buck reaching for a red pen!

There are really no words…..

It’s not everyday that you get to “interview” yourself. I’ve got quite a few years of experience asking questions of others and then writing about them. I think when you interview yourself, though, all that means squat.

Anyway, the challenge was set by Nora Burns (@noraburns), who “Twitter tagged” me to share seven interesting, eclectic, unique, WOW-Who-woulda’-thunk-it?! facts about myself. I don’t think I’m all that fascinating, but since I’m a journalist, I’ll just instead do my best to make it all “sound good.”

Of course, I wouldn’t be a “Content Pimp” worth her weight in commas if I didn’t try to focus on my writing/editing quirks here. First, however, the rules of play must be shared or else I hear this blog may self-destruct. Worse yet — it could be hacked by typo terrorists. (Just shoot me now, if so!) Read ‘em here, and see if you’re among the Tagged!

1. Just call me the Doogie Howsie of magazines. I was named editor-in-chief of CollegeBound Teen Magazine when I was 23 years old. That was back before email and when ambitious, fearless girls didn’t get sidetracked by the online world and instead faxed publishers magazine critiques and an editorial business plan to demonstrate that they really, really, really wanted the job. (I’ve since gotten shuttered out of the magazine world when CB Teen converted to an online-only format in 2007; more how I feel about that in #4.)

2. To this day, I check, double-check, and triple-check the spelling of the word “school” when it appears in something I’m editing. It was way before my time, but there is an old issue of CB Teen that had a ginormous cover line that proclaimed it the “Back to Shool” issue. OMG.

3. I once received a “creative” cover letter from an associate editor applicant that started out, “Hi. My name is Assjack….” and then proceeded to tell me all about the porno magazine editing experience he had (because that would be oh-so-relevant to editing for a magazine targeted at high school kids. Right?!). I don’t know what that was all about either, but whenever I come across an annoyingly off-target journalist or PR person, I call them an “assjack.” (You like that one, don’tcha’, Peter Shankman?!)

4. I’m an equal-opportunity editor, but I have always been swayed by a hand-written thank-you note from a writer or PR rep. Toward that end (somewhat), I LOVE paper, collect stationery, and cry a little bit inside when a print publication shutters.

5. I see typos like that creepy kid in “The Sixth Sense” sees dead people. (Yes, I use that line all over the place in my social media profiles, but it’s so true.) I’m a little “possessed” that way.

6. The older I get, the less I trust my grammar judgment. I used to be able to apply the rules of the English language with no frame of reference; I’d just get it. These days, I find that I need to Google affect vs. effect, further vs. farther, lay vs. lie, especially if I hadn’t had my token cup of decaf for the day. Shhhh… don’t tell my clients!

7. I started out as a newspaper intern in high school writing obituaries. What it taught me: Writing about the dead really makes you appreciate the living, and that no experience is invaluable… even *that* job (we all have ‘em). Mine required I fetch the editor-in-chief’s dry cleaning, straw-up her seltzer at lunch (”with bendy straws only”), and pick up the senior editorial staff’s kids at various busstops. While freezing my butt off at said busstop one day, I made myself a promise to never treat employees like “do-ers.” I take the team-oriented approach instead, committing myself to lead with passion, not sweat (or demand) the inconsequential stuff, and ask of others only that which I wouldn’t mind doing myself.

So you see, I can ask seven of you to take a few minutes out of your ridiculously busy days (or Twittering-about-insomnia nights) to do this Twitter tag — I’m been through it myself…

Jason Kintzler
Lisa at MyThoughtsIdeasandRamblings.com
Chris Brogan
Kelby Carr
Sarah Evans
Brian Carter
Peter Shankman

If you missed it, here are the Twitter Tag rules.

One of the “rules” I try to apply to my role as editorial director and consultant is to examine the overwhelmingness factor of content. (Oh, in case you missed the memo –  since I’m an editor, I can make words up!) Though isolating these Twitter Tag rules onto a separate post won’t drastically decrease the word count on my “And so I interview myself…” entry, it will help a bit.

• Link your original tagger(s) (Check.)
• List these rules on your blog. (Got it!)
• Share seven facts about yourself in the post — some random, some weird, some pimpy. (Missed it? No worries — here you go!)
• Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs. (If I’ve invited you, it’s because I find you fascinating — and OK, want you to look at my blog, too. Thanks in advance!)
• Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs and/or Twitter. (Alright. Doing that next…) Get to it now…
  

… her name was misspelled on her invoice. Yes, her name.

It’s no wonder she couldn’t complete a copywriting project without rampant typos.

So that’s just a quick what-not-to-do-to-an-editor ditty. Now, find out what not to say…

The more I dive into (er – become obsessed with) social media, the more amazed I am at how very much the Internet can shape, cultivate, and bring the fulfillment of goals to fruition.

I started exploring Twitter.com only a few months ago, and in that time have discovered a whole new way to utilize this online space we love so much. It’s become second nature to me now to check in with my Twitter network to share with them what I’m working on, the challenges I’m facing, and the interesting things I’ve encountered both personally and professionally.

From my TweetDeck, I’ve learned volumes about utilizing social media and other online techniques to improve my business and that of my clients. I have continued to add to my arsenal of editorial knowledge and build my staff. What’s most valuable to me are the connections I have made with an amazing group of professionals, all of whom inspire me, enlighten me, and have demonstrated that we can truly make a difference in other people’s lives if we lead with our heart, even from Tweet to Tweet.

That’s one of the reasons why I am so excited to be giving back on Tuesday, November 18th, when the weekly GNO online meet-up at Twitter.com will focus on a “virtual food drive” to  help provide Thanksgiving dinner to 14 million Americans through FeedingAmerica.org.

During the hours of 9-11 p.m. EST, there will be announcements of live auction winners for products and services from a multitude of talented, knowledgeable, and gifted professionals across a range of industries. You need not be online at that time to win, however, if ever you were looking for an online experience that will forever convince you about the power of social media, it will be then. (Not to mention that everyone who does donate, either directly or through a live auction, will be eligible to win one of many “door” prizes being distributed at the event.)

{11/18/08 - 11:30 p.m. EST - BIDDING IS CLOSED}

Bid now on the editing package offered by GL Editorial Services:

Three hours of editing consultation (to include the professional editing and critique of three blog posts, complete with line and stylistic edits, overall feedback, and suggestions for blog/Web site enhancement)

GLES has worked with companies large and small, from Experian Interactive, The CollegeBound Network, HotelHotline.com, BOTW.org, ParentSociety.com, SeniorsforLiving.com, CollegeBound Teen Magazine, Empire Hotel Group, SUCCEED Magazine, Online Degrees Magazine, HotelsCheap.org, and others. Our writers and editors have had their work featured on AOL.com, MSN.com, Yahoo.com, HotJobs.com, WorldNow, Internet Broadcasting Systems, Inc,. etc.

Read more about GLES

But, don’t take it from me… Testimonials

The opening bid will be $50. Please include a comment below with your name, site URL, and bid amount (please make sure your email is included in your back-end registration).

{11/18/08 - 11:30 p.m. EST - BIDDING IS CLOSED - Congratulations and THANK YOU to Chris Perrin!}

You may also donate freely to the Virtual Food Drive with as little as $5 using PayPal here.

1. Do you want me to proofread my article before I send it to you?

Astounded editor: Hmmm… that would be helpful. We all make mistakes — that’s human nature — but as a writer, you’re held to an even higher standard. Submitting work, especially as a first-time writer for a firm or publication, means you submit stellar work. Silly errors or sloppy formatting, or — for that matter — a casual, matter-of-fact accompanying email like this, can make or break your chances for future assignments.

2. When you say you want anecdotes, do you prefer I speak to real people as opposed to fictional sources?

Dumbfounded editor: I don’t even need to add commentary on this one, do I? Alas… we’re not crafting the next Harry Potter here; GL Editorial Services is not in the business of pimping fiction. We’re reporting on issues as journalists. Last time I checked, you needed real people for that.

3. I’m not sure what you are asking. By source sheet, do you mean you want me to cite all my interviewee’s info? That’s going to take a lot of time.

Laughing-because-she-can’t-believe-what-she-just heard editor: While I encourage all my writers to come to me with questions, this one is Journalism 101. Just think of all the time it’ll take me to have to find a new writer — one with verifiable sources — to report the story.

4. I apologize for the messiness. I don’t want you to think that i took the project less serious than i would have one that paid more.

Editor who now dreads opening up the attached file for fear of the messiness awaiting her: First of all, why do you arbitrarily lowercase your i’s? But truly, instead of apologizing for the messiness, you should be fixing it up. And, let’s face it — a comment about a project’s rate should never be included in the same sentence as one about the subpar quality of your work. (You should never even submit subpar work, but that’s another post…)

I know what it’s like to accept a project and then realize, after all the work has gone into it, that the hourly rate came out to something like $7. However, I would never go back to a client to complain about it (or even “innocently” point it out). When I feel that my work was not compensated correctly upon a project’s completion, I am diligent about negotiating more carefully with that client the next time around.

5. Can I come to your house/office to pick up my check?

Editor who likes her privacy: Uh… no.

Find out more about what my team of good contributors — those who would never make this list — do here.

I’m so busy pimping other writers’ content that I’ve limited time to craft my own. But for me, NOT writing this blog is like not eating breakfast…

Check in regularly to see if I’ve gotten my act together. Once I do, this blog will be like a fortified breakfast for those of you interested in hearing what the major portals look for in front-page articles, how not to annoy an editor, and 33 reasons why a writer should must be entrepreneurial. (Why 33? Because that was the age I finally figured that one out.)

Now I’m hungry…