Talking To Expat Entrepreneurs About How Facebook & LinkedIn Don't Touch Twitter
My comments from a discussion thread at the private forum for expat entrepreneurs run by Karen Armstrong: You can find me on Facebook (which I'm using increasingly more as a place to share what I'm reading, thinking, what I'm doing, etc -- and created recently an Expat Harem page which still needs a lot more love), Linked-In (which I've begun to join in forum discussions here and there) and Twitter.
I'm most active on Twitter because it works so well for me as a writer, as an expat, as a trafficker of ideas.
With Twitter I'm back in school (taking business courses, marketing and media affairs), I'm at summer camp, I've rejoined the publishing industry, and making new filmmaker friends, and following peripheral interests through the lives of people more devoted, taking part in live discussions about literature, editing, branding, virtually attending conferences and events like yesterday's brown bag luncheon thrown by Random House on the topic of digital publishing.
The other two sites have their purposes but nothing touches Twitter.
Three Word Goals for 2009, a la Chris Brogan: Project. Realize. Live.
Chris Brogan asks what our three word goals are for the year ahead. Mine: PROJECT - project myself into my communities, raise awareness for the work I do, foster meaningful connection to others
REALIZE - a combination of 'execute' and 'achieve excellent results', materialize dreams
LIVE - breathe deeply, take chances, do new things I might love and old things I still love, get rid of stuff that slows me down or doesn't reflect who I want to be, embrace my health and opportunities
My Expat Philosophy: Why Two Life-Abroad Experiences Are Night & Day
Thoughts I shared in an expatriate group: About a decade ago I lived in South East Asia for five years. I know some of you are longtime, veteran expats and hope you'll indulge me when I share my developing philosophy about being an expatriate.
My two life-abroad experiences have been like night and day, and I'd like to think the main reason is that in Malaysia I identified my boundaries after the fact (by having them badly over-run by circumstance and culture, among other things) and that in Turkey, I have protected them much more from the outset....my sense of self being my most valuable expatriate possession.
I have found the more that I honor what is meaningful to me, the more my expatriate life takes care of itself.
For instance, when I moved to Istanbul from New York City, I was committed to writing a memoir. Soon it was supplanted by another literary project which helped me not only create a solid foundation for my life here, but incidentally, for the travel memoir I have now returned to.
Along with a fellow American expat, I edited a collection of true tales of cultural conflict and discovery written by foreign women from seven nations about their lives in modern Turkey.
Compiling the anthology has helped me as an expatriate in many ways.
It's put my Turkish experience into perspective, brought me quickly up to speed on the region's culture, connected me with my foreign and local peers and other personal and professional communities of interest, and has fueled my writing career.
This is a result miles away from the disenfranchisement I felt in Malaysia, languishing in the jungle, attending social events with people marginally related to me and my interests, never quite being myself, never sure how I was going to fit in or if I even wanted to.