Going Solo

At the risk of repeating myself, one idea which is at the core of Going Solo is that even though we may be soloists, we are never completely isolated. We learn a lot from our peers or mentors, and this is something that I wanted to achieve with the conference. Experienced freelancers sharing some of their insights, and a place to take the time to think about our business skills.

It became clear at the event that there was extremely good interaction between participants, be they attendees, staff or speakers, and in looking for ways to prolong this community richness online, the e-mail discussion list seemed the obvious way to go.

I am therefore happy to introduce Going Solo Together, a discussion list for web-enabled freelancers, soloists and small business owners to share stories, advice and problems with their peers.

Though of course the material provided through the Going Solo conference is going to be a topic of discussion at first, the objective of this discussion list is not be concentrate on the event itself, but more on the various issues that arise when being a soloist. Share tips, advice, or ask for them.

Archives are members-only, which gives some amount of “privacy”, but keep in mind that anybody can join the group. If something is really private, you should probably not be sharing it on a public e-mail list. However, we do ask list members to keep the issues discussed here reasonably confidential.

At the difference of the Going Solo Newsletter, which is a one-way form of communication (I send out newsletters, people read or hit delete), Going Solo Together goes all ways. Everybody can participate, so the traffic could become heavy. If it’s too much for you, be sure to visit the mailing list site and switch to “digest”, which collects multiple e-mails into one big one, thus saving you from inbox flood.

You may also subscribe by sending an e-mail to going-solo-together-subscribe@googlegroups.com.

Many thanks to Daniel Schildt who came up with “Going Solo Together”, a name I immediately liked.

With Going Solo, I’m learning tons about how to advertise/promote something through social media. It might seem ironic, as a large part of my work has to do with explaining social media to people, but this is the first time I’m really actively trying to get the word out about something. Of course, I have established my reputation as an individual through social media, but I never really tried to achieve that. It’s something that happened to me, took time, and sometimes almost feels like an accident. I didn’t have an agenda.

In the case of Going Solo, however, things are different. From the start, time was of the essence, as there was a set date where everything had to come together (and that date is now less than two weeks away). I had an agenda: get the word out to as many relevant people as possible, encourage people to blog about it, to register, or to sponsor. Gather feedback, leads, and even get help. Encourage a community to form around Going Solo.

A new experience for me. I made mistakes of course, and learnt from them (I won’t detail everything in this post, or you’ll still be here reading it tomorrow morning — if you haven’t fled by then).

One of the things I still haven’t quite figured out is whether it’s better to “spread the word” all over the place, or concentrate on one or two spots. It’s the same kind of headache I faced recently with videos: upload everywhere, or chose one service and stick to it? My tendancy is to be present in as many spaces and communities as possible, though I’m not sure I quite trust my judgement there. Urs of ComMetrics thinks it’s better to concentrate on a few tools rather than spread oneself too thin (see the end of his post):

As well, to sustain your competitive edge it is necessary to limit the social media tools you use – using a blog and Twitter well is better than doing Facebook, MySpace, blogging, and Twitter – it just fritters away your time.

Urs Gattiker, unified communications – what it means with Twitter, Friendfeed, StumbleUpon, Del.icio.us

The discussion is open.

In the meantime, as I’ve spread Going Solo all over the place, I’d like to give you a round-up of where you can find us.

Facebook

• Going Solo event
• Going Solo group (this seems to be working really well!)
• Going Solo fan page
• Going Far fan page
• we’ll be adding public events for the pre-conference drinks and the party shortly
• video of LIFT08 Open Stage speech

Upcoming

• Going Solo upcoming event

E-mail

• Going Solo newsletter on Google Groups

Twitter

• Going Solo Twitter account

Crowdvine

• Dedicated Going Solo social network (for attendees only)

There, I hope I didn’t forget anything! I’ll write another post on keeping track of coverage, but in the meantime you can check the link collection on del.icio.us (includes blogs posts and interviews, mainly).

First, my apologies for the silence these last days — I was bitten by a cat (it’s not as benign as it sounds).

Second, I’m happy to let you know that Going Solo finally has a newsletter. Feel free to sign up. We won’t sell your e-mail address or share it (even if we’re begged to!) and we’ll keep the traffic low. You can sign up by visiting the newsletter page on Google Groups or by sending a mail to going-solo-news-subscribe@googlegroups.com.

Even if you don’t have a Gmail address, you can easily create a Google Groups account with your regular e-mail address, and then join the Going Solo News group to subscribe to the newsletter.

I’m currently rediscovering the power of e-mail — a long post to write about that once my typing comfort is back.