Yesterday a coworker asked me for advice about starting a blog. I told him that it’s easy to get blocked because you want to find the perfect topic to write about; you want to kick off your venture with something insightful, provocative, and illustrative of your own expertise. I told him to forget all that—the best way to start a blog is to just start.
I clearly need to take my own advice. It’s been a freakishly long time since I’ve written here, and even though I’ve posted a smattering of things for other sites, I’ve essentially been MIA from the blogging world. But don’t worry—I haven’t exactly been twiddling my thumbs.
What have I been up to? Well, the company I worked for was acquired by LinkedIn back in April. I’m now an editor working on the company’s content branch, LinkedIn Today. This includes the Influencer program, where luminaries like Richard Branson, Barack Obama, Jack Welch, and many more share their thoughts on our platform. I help with all things editorial and also tweet over at @LinkedInToday. Come say hello.
I’d be lying if I said working for a 4300-person corporation didn’t terrify me at first; coming from the start-up world (Pulse was my previous largest company at a whopping 25 employees), the prospect of a Real Company like LinkedIn was intimidating. But I’ve found that my team operates very much like a start-up—or, more accurately, a newsroom. I work with amazing folks who cut their teeth at publications like Fortune, Wired, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal, and the AP. As one of the team’s only non-journalists, I’m getting a crash course in the state of modern content. I’m learning about ledes and heds and higher ed and the Fed taper and all sorts of things I hadn’t contemplated much since college. I’ve been mired in this music world for so long, I’d almost forgotten that most people don’t get their news from Pitchfork or Consequence of Sound.
With that in mind, I’m not sure what’s next for this blog. What was once a catalog of all the folky goodness I’d discovered on the web has now become a ghost town. I want to get back into the swing of blogging, but my focus is going to be a bit broader than the latest quartet coming out of Brighton. My new gig has given me a lot of food for thought, and I need a place for the feast.
Expect more from Red. It’s been a while since I’ve been here, but it’s nice to be back.
Red Said 