Blog Till You Drop! - interview with Lolly

You will probably think I am crazy - I am interviewing people I know! Yes, but I have a reason to do so, even more than one:
1. I look up to them.
2. I want to know what they think.
3. I want to know if an interview can help me to know them better.
4. I want to share this with my other friends:) and readers:)

I am including in interviews questions I do not know the answer for in our private lives. I am genuinely interested in their reasons to blog, exist on-line and in their every-day life. I am interested, so I ask:)

For the first one, I have asked Lolly, author of two blogs - Blog Till You Drop and Cosmopolitan.
Here it is:

Sylwia:First of all, thank you for giving me the opportunity to ask you few questions, Lolly. Here they are:

Syl: You blog was celebrating second anniversary recently. Tell me, how did it all start? The blogging I mean?

Lolly: I started my career in medical marketing, and I was desperate to do something more exciting but kept hitting a brick wall. A friend of mine who worked for an Internet start-up suggested I start blogging… I was hooked within months and started experimenting with a variety of social media tools. I seem to live and breathe social media these days!
Syl: Did your approach to writing the blog change since the first few posts? How does it affect your private life?

Lolly: My writing has definitely changed over time - I used to blog a lot about traditional marketing and advertising but I seem to write about anything that’s Social Media related at the moment. When I read some of my old posts, I feel like an inexperienced schoolgirl!

I write whatever tickles my fancy and I do not have a set agenda. Some people have joked that I am glue 24/7 to my computer screen but I do have a life offline, so no blogging does not affect my private life at all.

Syl: Did you have on-line presence before starting a blog? You are active on Twitter, Facebook etc - how and when did those preceses join the blog one?

Lolly: I used to spend a lot time on MSN Messenger and Skype. I also had a MySpace account for a while (we’re talking late 2005) but I quickly got bored of it… Pink glittery GIFS aren’t my thing!

Blogging is the foundation of everything I do online – I have a social presence on a number of other sites (LinkedIn, YouTube, Flickr, FriendFeed, Twitter but to name a few) but they all relate and add value to my blog. Facebook used to be purely for my real-life friends but I have now added a couple of bloggers I get on really well with.

Syl: More about your private life, I guess:) As French blogger in London, what can you say about the local blogosphere? You attend the geek meet-ups, so what do you think about people you meet there?

Lolly: The local blogosphere is awesome as there is always a party / meet up going on! Everyone knows everyone! The French blogosphere in London is buoyant – you would be amazed to see how many French bloggers who work in the digital / social media industry live in London

Syl: What is the French blogosphere like? Where do the bloggers meet, georaphically I mean?

Lolly: That’s a tough question! I read a few French blogs but I am not part of the French blogosphere – I write in English after all. The Social Media scene in France is also very exciting – there are dozens of Meet Ups in Paris but also in my hometown, Lyon.

Syl: Do you miss France? Do you think about living in other parts of the world?

Lolly: I am not French, so I don’t really miss France. I would love to live in NYC – who knows; someone might read my blog and offer me a job ;) I also love Italy so that’s definitely another option!

Syl: I'm an expat myself and I am asked that question very often (well, maybe not so often in the UK, still) how do you decide upon a country you want to live in? Is it just job or persoanl hapiness driven choice?

Lolly: I originally studied modern languages and I used to travel quite a lot in my student years. I simply fell in love with the UK. As far as I am concerned, I must be in love with a language to move a country. Job and happiness are of course also very important

Syl: I see you like travelling and run a travelling blog aside from your main one. What is your best and worst memory from Poland?

Lolly: I loved Poland! Nice country, nice people, nice food! My worst memory is not being able to speak the language and the roads! I really thought I was going to die in Lodz at times!

Syl: If you could choose a country to live in, where would that be? Why?

Lolly: NYC career-wise (wait a minute, that’s a city!) or Italy as the lifestyle, language and people are simply amazing!

Syl: And a last very general one: what is the best and the worst aspect of living in a different country?

Lolly: The best aspect is that you learn a lot from other people culture-wise. The worst aspect is that however hard you try, people will always see you as a foreigner.
Syl: thank you!

(If you have any other questions, let me know, I'll ask;))

Part of this interview is also available here.

the best social media marketing practices

Mitch Joel is asking a question about the best social media marketing practices and I must admit it took me a while to decide what is most important in my view...Consistency mentioned on Mitch Joel's blog is crucial, just as much as ethics of any engagement but I think we need to go back to the basics and ensure we know exactly what we are doing. An agency or any of the team members working on a project related to social media marketing must be well trained and experienced in social media themselves, they should study the audience they aim to traget and respect the rules of venues they plan to engage in their activities. Internet has its own rules and most of them can be understood only by people who actually ARE a part of the blogosphere. My personal experience is very small, but being my own blogging experience (together with presence in other places, like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc) prooved to be crucial in my work. My commitment to respect people I work with and great amount of research into the theory of socal media marketing helped me so much! We must never forget that social media IS real people with power to speak up and expect - there is no space for traditional marketing!
(Here you go - I tried to be brief:/)
I also agree with what Chris Brogan wrote: 'Learn how to listen. Simple, I know. But it’s a best practice. ' and I hope to see more bloggers responding to this challenge!

I would like to tag Lolly, Girl , Tom and Colin hoping to see what they think.

BTW - If you haven't read the original post I believe you will be happy to know that you can share your opinion too, as long as you tag the post 'social media marketing best practices', link to original post and tag few other blogs. So, go on!!!

Facebook again! Not happy:(

OK, I am running out of time - end of lunch - so just a quick one: I have experienced another strange thing on Facebook - notifications like this:Why do I get them? Is is a new way of promoting Facebook apps/business/ads? I do not like anything I am not really interested in and getting it in my personal notifications does feel like violating of my privacy...

Facebook virus?! what is this shit?

Oh, just opened my Facebook index and found this:


My ass might not be too bad...still...considering Arnaud is my friend's husband (we do not correspond) and I did not take any videos of my ass AT ALL, I think it's a shitty virus. Did anyone receive something similar? It's not the first time I struggle with this social network and I see traffic decreasing there. Maybe we should all move on? If so, where to? To Twitter and Friendfeed+it's developments? To mobile blogging? To Flickr and YouTube?

I might do...Facebook begins to annoy me with unnecessary issues.

UPDATE: Yep, all of his friends got it! Be aware!