flowerguy1Charles Bohannan, author of Wordful (a place to get support, advice and tips for your writing and your blog content), recently won two tickets to an information-packed workshop on social media. Charles has generously offered to share the wealth by creating a contest to give away his second ticket to the summit. He’s asking interested folks to write on their blogs about how social media can help them meet their blogging goals. If you’re interested in participating, visit Wordful for all the details. The deadline is May 25 at 6pm PST.

Here is my response to Charles. It was fun to do!

My single greatest challenge with blogging?

My blog, Cherry Blossom Soup, is dedicated to offering stories, videos, music, and other adventures of the spirit that help people wake up to all the joy, color, and vitality that life has to offer. I want this space to feel like a combination of artists’ salon, motivational retreat, and a conversation between friends. Ideally it will be a place where people of like minds can meet, connect, and discover new resources. There are so many amazing people working toward similar goals of bringing more joy into life. My greatest challenge is how to connect on an authentic level with these people and find a way to create a thriving web community that we all can use to offer our own resources and to seek out those we need. I want to create a vibrant community in which everyone is helping one another to grow – personally, as well as in business endeavors.

2. How will the Social Media Success Summit help me overcome this challenge?

The program will help me in a myriad of ways, but the aspect I am most excited about is learning all the basics of social media sites and then creating a PLAN. I know about and trust many of the folks who are leading this summit, and what they are offering is training in how to be effective and useful. It’s a lot of fun to send out tweets and engage with people on Facebook and Link’d in, but what I really want is to be a great RESOURCE for people – to offer simple ways for people to easily connect with what brings them to life. Having the tools and a plan would ensure that I am being of service and not adding to the information overload out there!

3. How do you envision your success online?

My success online would look like this: I have implemented a social media plan that works to consistently drive readers – new and old —to my blog. The growing base of readers are also often teachers/guides who have services and products to offer. Since we are all working toward the same goal, we use Cherry Blossom Soup as a way to communicate with one another about tools and practices that have helped bring us more joy and delight. There is a generosity present that allows for an amazing circle of giving: a continuous giving and receiving, being promoted and promoting others. What would make me feel successful is if every day my efforts were part of a virtual “barn raising” for someone’s inspirational project. I envision active conversations about everything from someone’s new life-changing book to improv dancing in the streets to whimsical five-minute boosts. I would know my online work is a success if every day dozens of people were in conversation together on Cherry Blossom Soup and were pointing each other to helpful resources all over the web.

Thanks for the opportunity to enter, Charles!