TBT, training expat entrepreneurs to use social media

This was seven years ago, in Istanbul: talking to a group from the International Women of Istanbul about using social media for entrepreneurial ventures based on intellectual property -- aka creative entrepreneurship! 

We started with a round of introductions and got an overview of the various enterprises run or being developed by IPWIN members. We heard distinct stories, and overlapping concerns. “How can I sell my service when the local market doesn’t value it yet?” “How much of myself should I expose?” “I had to take time off to raise my family, and we moved a lot but I want to get a career started in Istanbul.” “How do I present my company, my product, my idea, my brand?” “I run multiple businesses, should I merge them in one site or have separate Facebook pages?” “Which language should I blog in, how do I decide if French or Spanish is best?” “I’m trying to figure out what new business is going to last.”

Here are some of the issues we discussed during the meeting.

Why is social media important today?

Social media used professionally is an unrivaled way to become visible to a global audience at very low cost, by building a virtual network and sharing your expertise. People now want to do business with people, not faceless corporations. Even big companies are now trying to appear “more human”. Solo entrepreneurs everywhere can thrive in this new online environment.

What does the ‘social’ part of social media mean?

It means user-generated web content -- as opposed to static web pages -- that allows us to interact with each other through various web technologies. Think of “liking” a Facebook page, or tweeting a blog post, or even commenting on a blog. We can get feedback on our work, we can respond to customers in a public forum and demonstrate the quality of our service, we can meet and learn from others who are interested in the same things, and we can share our best discoveries on the web with our own networks.

What is creative entrepreneurship?

A successful business provides a product or service that solves a problem or fills a need. Creative entrepreneurs design offerings based on their personal inclinations, skills and talents. Often these develop out of a need to live and work in non-traditional situations. Social media is a wonderful vehicle to build professional projects on the web regardless of your location, time or language constraints. Creative entrepreneurship is a perfect solution to the problem faced by people who move around a lot or live in cultures not their own. It’s how to “bloom where you’re planted,” as Tara’s Turquoise Poppy catchphrase suggests.

What is a global niche?

Coined by Anastasia for global citizens to feel at home,  a global niche is where you uniquely belong in the world, both personally and professionally. Your sweetspot. A place occupied completely and perfectly by you -- so naturally there are no competitors, there are only neighbors. It’s where you can operate to your potential, and embrace all the worlds you love to belong to. Finding your global niche is part of being a successful creative entrepreneur. 

How do I define my profile on the net?

Building your global niche -- in this case, a professional web platform --  involves uncovering your place in the world and defining that place on the web. Inevitably one of the first steps in establishing your digital profile is communicating who you are in a way that others can relate to and may include using text, images, audio or video. For those who are in the process of self-discovery, social media is an extremely useful tool to explore and have conversations with like-minded global citizens.

Does being accessible on the web require extensive personal exposure?

Social media facilitates your interaction with others. People want to know who you are before connecting with you whether personally or professionally, help them find ways to relate to you. You’re not required to share private information that might compromise your security. By using a clear photo of yourself in your profile and including a link to your hub site people can learn exactly what you want them to know. (Don’t know what a hub site is? Find out in Tara and Anastasia’s free email tutorials.)

How can I find potential clients, customers and collaborators using social media?

Your ideal customer or client (or employer, if you’re a job seeker!) finds you by entering specific keywords into a search engine like Google. By entering these keywords yourself you’ll learn where you rank amidst the competition and you’ll also see where conversations relevant to your niche are taking place around the web. Social media enables you to monitor these conversations (with tools like Twitter and Google alerts) and participate in them with your own ideas, expertise and professional solutions.

How do I fit social media into my work day?

Social media is useful to creative entrepreneurs because it allows you to work in a way that suits your lifestyle. Setting your own schedule for publishing content as well as interacting on sites like Facebook and Twitter means you can work at your own pace. Keep your posts short and “mindcast” rather than “lifecast”. Share important thoughts, what you are reading, what moves you -- not mundane things like what you had for breakfast. Give your network value through the things you share. Use automation and syndication services to reach relevant audiences at key times around the world -- without actually working around the clock!

What is my ROI for the time I spend using social media?

Using social media to build your network and reputation is an investment in yourself. The time you dedicate will pay off when you want to sell your product or service - whether it’s a book, a necklace or a coaching program. Use social media to educate yourself and stay on the cutting edge of your field. In today’s market, trust and attention are valuable commodities that you can only develop by being well-informed, authentic and providing useful, accessible content.

TBT, '80s Meatpacking District fashion, society, film production

Remembering an arty, downtown jet-set of the late '80s....at the first fashion show of an emerging Houston designer, featuring the granddaughter of a woman who was married to Howard Hughes.

Here's what the New York Times reported about a later event by the same emerging designer.

And here’s what Cathy Horyn wrote in The Washington Post about what she called the “first show” of B. Moody (but clearly it wasn’t the first show, 👆that was, in 1987.)

TBT, TEDGlobal in Oxford, England

Ted.com director June Cohen speaking at the Sheldonian, a "secular cathedral" — at Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford, England, 2009.

Harry Potter breakfast at TEDGlobal, Oxford — at Keble College.

TED reception at Natural History Museum — at Oxford University Museum of Natural History.

Punting on the Cherwell, TED closing lunch — at Cherwell Boathouse.

Reception at Bodleian library exam hall — at Bodleian Libraries.

Love hanging with my fellow mentors, program leads, & university observers!

Fun dinner with chief mentors, VCs, university observers, life coaches & family from the European @innovationacademy in Turin!! Photos by Radha! #eiamoments #eia2017italy#eia2017turin #accelerator #startups#entrepreneurship #Torino #Turin

Early supporter of TEDx events

The TEDx initiative was launched the years when I was attending TEDGlobal so I attended then first three TEDx gatherings in Istanbul.

What we mean when we say "Berkeley"

Much of what I and my Berkeley-native peers experienced growing up there was being duplicated in alternative communities everywhere, and also much of it was a product of the times. We didn't know that.

Berkeley is revealed in its "byzantine cultural complexity" by secular Jewish homegirl author of new book about going undercover in Jerry Falwell's evangelical church.

"If you’re from Berkeley...you know the muscle of the Berkeley Left is actually made up of a million fibers, often flexing at cross purposes — the Green Partiers, the Clintonites, the Obamaphiles, the Slow Foodists and Dumpster Divers, the Second and Third Wave feminists, the Marxists, anarchists, and Revolutionary Communists, the vaguely apathetic left-leaners, the merely apathetic."

Read the Berkeleyside article here.

"The first time I saw a bowl of table grapes I had a panic attack. ~ KOKO MULDER"

Connecting through social media with the diaspora of Berkeley kids, and comparing our upbringings. Read the New York Times article here.

Hosting an Expat Litchat, TBT to when Twitter chats were just beginning

2009, pioneering with the twitter chats.

We've all displaced our nation...

TBT to meeting a blogger after my own heart: Mary-Lea Cox Awanohara, the editor of DISPLACED NATION....

Chief Mentor At The European Innovation Academy

Honored to be a Chief Mentor at the European Innovation Academy this summer in Nice, France. (That's like Tim Gunn's role on Project Runway, for up to 7 groups of entrepreneurs.)

500 college student entrepreneurs will take an idea to a tech startup in 15 days in this program that brings together faculty from 75 nations, and education programs developed with universities and organizations like UC Berkeley, Stanford, Google, IBM and Amadeus.

Thanks to Ajda Mustafova for making this connection.

Hosting a livestream of BinderCon sponsored by the Harnisch Foundation

Woman writer in the Bay Area? Come to this livestream party for BinderCon at UCLA on Saturday March 19

Join our LIVESTREAM PARTY for BINDERCON2016! 

Mingle with your sister Binders and other Bay Area women writers, and watch back-to-back sessions from this year’s conference at UCLA -- thanks to the Harnisch Foundation

1. Freelancing in the digital age panel
2. Lunchtime keynote with TV writer/producers Lisa Kudrow & Robin Schiff
3. How to build writing community panel

See more about speakers & sessions this party will stream

Learn more about BinderCon, a professional development conference designed to empower women and gender non-conforming writers with the tools, connections, and strategies they need to advance their careers. 

Global women's leadership issues advocacy, TBT

Nine years ago:

Seven years ago:

Leading A Social Brand Workshop For Young Pros In Silicon Valley

Loved speaking on social branding with Tanya Monsef Bunger to the Silicon Valley branch of TurkishWIN (Turkish Women's International Network).

Thanks to our experts @AnastasiaAshman @TMonsefBunger, @CarrFerrell for hosting us, and amazing SF Chapter team! pic.twitter.com/aGmmQGvuAd

— TurkishWIN (@turkishwin) December 3, 2015

The event took place at Carr & Ferrell LLP. Menlo Park, December, 2015.

Set 2016 Intentions for Your Online Presence from Anastasia Ashman

Dynamite Waiting To Happen: My Fantasy Speaker List For A Conference On Global Women Entrepreneurs

Originally posted 12/9/2013, still want this to happen!

Thinking about who I’d want to hear from on the topic of global women entrepreneurship, started a list of women whose thinking, feats and contributions in those three colliding spheres happen to bowl me over, and have, for YEARS.

And when I write ‘global’ I don’t mean ‘outside of the US’. I mean global thinker. Global acknowledger. A woman owning her spot that’s bigger than a particular place. Someone who considers deeply on a regular basis what it takes to operate in the world, and in the world today. This incorporates media, and politics, the economy, culture and society, business and tech.

To me, ‘global’ means people connecting dots that have never been connected before. These global women entrepreneurs are necessarily feminist, they are people pioneering their lives and work in ways we can all learn from.

I’d love to see them all speak together, both separately and in panel discussions.

Female wisdom nurturer, creative thinker and author Justine Musk. Haven’t met her in person yet, but will soon, and we will compare some odd overlaps in our lives, like rocket scientist pasts, and writing books influenced by The Great Gatsby featuring characters with multiple personalities. Know her mind and her heart, and her capacity to help us all be who we really want to be.

Multidisciplinary strategist, educator and jeweler Shefaly Yogendra, whose principled verve and deep perspective I’ve been enjoying on Twitter and Quora for many years. We’ve only managed to spend a morning together in London but I know there are many more adventures and discussions yet to have.

My fellow global nomad, Istanbul writing group colleague and author Nassim Assefi, who’s the director of stage content for TEDMED’14 as well as a global women’s health doctor and single mama extraordinaire. The woman attended at the birth of her own daughter. She wins everything in my book.

Worldwide people connector and super-techy Joyent SmartOS community manager Deirdre Straughan, a fellow international operator I met through a Twitter friend who went to boarding school with her in India. She’s forgotten more than most of us will ever know about digital publishing, and the Italian culture. She’s also the kind of woman to say, “I rock!” and be quite right.

LadyBits founder and “feminist cyborg” Arikia Millikan, who’s pioneering a new media model for writing that tech-savvy women want to read, and she’s doing it during a year’s trip around the world.

Future thinker Nilofer Merchant, author of the totally prescient Social Era Rules and role model for me in making good use of her resources, and telling us what she wants and what she cares about and what she sees, even (and especially?) when it costs her to do so. Nilofer suggests Al Jazeera politics and economy columnist Sarah Kendzior, whose writing on Central Asia has also captivated me.

More names started coming.

Another Bryn Mawr woman, an immigration and startup specialist who I met through the expatriate network and then in person on the Expat Harem book tour in Washington D.C., Kirin Kalia.

There’s global entrepreneurship author of “Steve Jobs Lives In Pakistan” Elmira Bayrasli, who I met through the Expat Harem blog’s discussions about our mirror-image lives as she is a New Yorker of Turkish descent. Elmira’s launching FPInterrupted, a startup to raise the voices of women in foreign policy.

More insistent names are coming to me.

Like new media-old media-McKinsey social media dynamo Aparna Mukherjee, who I’ve had the pleasure of being wowed by in Manila, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, New York, San Francisco and Istanbul since we met at an Asia-Pacific college reunion in the 1990s.

Like Michele Wucker, author and president of World Policy Institute.

I think we SHOULD make it happen, Fifi Haroon, mediamaker and political activist. (Fifi was my mate at college and we’ve been working our way back to each other for 30 years!)