Merging

I’m taking a punt and it’s an experiment, really. The past two weeks at work have been great — the learning curve is steep but I’m totally into it.

The reason for this title is, I’m joining my work and my personal life together. I was inspired by what Microsoft did with the making of their Vista software — they put up a blog to chart their software engineers’ progress in producing, tweaking and testing this new software. The public loved it because they could see the faces, the thought process, the challenges, and the emotions that went into making this product. Public relations companies often present corporate giants as faceless, inhuman entities that just pump out stuff for you to buy, but with Web 2.0, it’s all changing.

I’m not selling anything but being a little shameless in self-promotion. If you noticed, I put up a new sidebar section to display the links to the websites I’m working on. This blog has been used to chart my progress in Japan — sort of a travelogue and a space to talk about relocation/expat issues in my adopted country. But a big part of my journey has been about developing my career as a writer and I want to start blogging more about this.

Last year was full of stops and starts but now it’s taking off in a much more serious way. I was trying to continue my work in print journalism but found it too hard and the rewards pittance. The option to work with the kangaroo wasn’t an easy decision but it’s turning out to be just fine. Maybe I’ll even blog about tips on how to work well with your domestic partner. A lot of people ask me, “Don’t you just hate talking about work all the time?” Actually, not really. I like it that we have a common interest. The kangaroo is such a workaholic, he’ll talk about his work 24/7 anyway.

Going back to my experiment: why am I putting up links to my work websites? Social media. As mentioned, public relations and advertising just cannot ignore the possibilities of marketing campaigns on social media networks. A lot of successful webmasters, small business owners and the self-employed infuse their work with their personalities. So here I am, representing myself.

Watch this space, folks.

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