When I was first getting my professional start in the online marketing space I idolized the folks over at Moz (then SEOmoz). The community was so engaging and vibrant. It’s largely because of Moz that I know most of the people in the space that I do. Heck it’s also largely because of Moz that I was able to navigate my first year or two in online marketing. So when they asked me to author The Beginners Guide to Social Media, all these years later, you can hopefully imagine how I felt. My socks were knocked off. I was totally humbled and scared.
Humbled because whoa.
This is a big task and they were trusting little ol’ ME? Of all people to ask. Me?
Scared because obviously. The Moz community is a huge passionate group of really intelligent people. To put something like this up in front of them and say “I” wrote it…made me quiver. I was scared Moz wouldn’t like it. I was scared the community wouldn’t like it. I was scared of getting it wrong. Not too scared that I was prepared to back away from the challenge however. I sat down with Ashley Tate (now at BigDoor) in a Starbucks one day. Naturally. We are in Seattle after all. We went over an outline that her and Rand had drafted. Made some changes, shuffled things around. Added some topics, combined others. And off we went. Suddenly it actually felt doable. I think that’s the hardest part of a daunting task after all right? Getting started? Well I had a ton of support and encouragement getting started with all of the folks I was working with at Moz.
Fast forward a year-ish and here we are.
The guide is finally done. After Ashley left I started working with the wonderful Trevor who became the steward that pulled this beast over the finish line.
I’ll add a PDF to this post once it’s available (estimate says February) but for now…head on over to Moz.com and check out The Beginners Guide to Social Media. Would love to hear any feedback you have as well. I know there are going to be updates made as we move forward. At the very least this internet of ours changes constantly. Thankfully eh?
