The beginning of the #BloggORS
There’s a certain Twitter chat I really enjoy, #EngagORS, which is (and this is my description, not an official one!) pretty much a group of sociable, enterprising folks getting together to chat about all things social media. And a bit of business. And a bit of just being silly and having fun together. They’re a fantastic group, and if you can spare a hour from 1pm GMT on Thursdays I fully recommend having a look in. I can’t participate as much as I’d like because it falls during my working day, but I manage to add the odd thought to the perpetually lively conversation — I’m lucky to have a great boss who trusts me to manage my time, and my dual screens (seriously, I love my dual screens) allow me to keep half an eye on the gang without hurting my productivity.
Today the #EngagORS tribe were joined by online presence strategist, speaker and consultant Damion Elson, and during the course of the conversation we got on to the matter of authenticity and being your genuine self. I’m a huge proponent of this, though I do find it hard to talk about myself sometimes. See my previous post and this response to Pete Ross for more on that from my perspective, but Simon Barry sums it up nicely here:
Immediately, I got to thinking:
Maybe a bit too quickly, in fact.
What’s an ORS, anyway?
The ORS part of #EngagORS comes from Thomas Power’s Open, Random and Supportive philosophy, which is a great way to look at online interactions — by attempting to genuinely be those things, I’ve grown in confidence, garnered a Twitter following of amazing people, and found myself with a whole heap of friends I can call on for professional advice and personal support. Playing on that, I came up with #BloggORS, and a few other #EngagORS chimed in and said they’d like to play too.
At first, I thought one of those “thirty day blogging challenges” could be a quick and easy win, but on further consideration, we’re all busy people with jobs, personal projects and family lives. Varun Kumar summed it up in four little words:
So this is it. #BloggORS is go. I have just two rules in mind, and they’re pretty easy-going, honestly. (Really, if I was any more laid back I’d be a pushover.) They are:
Write something personal.
That’s not to say that the amazing entrepreneurs and businesspeople of my acquaintance can’t write something about their entrepreneurial experience or business ventures, but keep it personal. Write from the heart. That’s where the really interesting stuff comes from, anyway!
Write (at least) 500 words, twice a week.
That’s it. That’s not so hard. Even I can do that… right?
No more rules.
There’s no scoreboard, and nobody’s getting kicked out of the #BloggORS ‘gang’ (tribe? group?) for not posting regularly. Stuff happens; life happens; and while it’s certainly my intention to try and form a habit here, it might not always be possible.
So that’s the plan. I considered posting prompts, and I’m happy to go digging and find some searching questions if that’s what people want out of this, but I also think there’s value in just seeing where folks end up.
The #BloggORS … challenge?? … is open to anyone, not just #EngagORS regulars, and I’d love others to join in. Share this post, rec this post, tweet this post, tweet me, tweet the folks I’ve linked by their names above; join the community. Get involved, and let’s do this together.
One question to get us going, perhaps. See what you make of this:
Why do you want to write?
500 word minimum. There’s your first post. Go.
Oh… and have fun!
PS. Here are some prompts to get you started, if you’d like them. No obligation to use ’em, but if they help, go nuts. :D
