For about the past year or so, this blog has been in "sunsetting" mode--but I haven't quite wanted to shut it down. Part of my reason for shutting it down has been my increasing dis-interest in hyperlocal journalism and the newspaper industry; a growing lack of interest in many aspects of technology. Not to mention growing dis-illusion with the overall media landscape--which Jon Stewart parodies so well....
I'm also not all that thrilled with social media these days either. It used to take quite awhile for marketers and advertisers to get with the program when it came to new, fun social platform on the Internet. Now, it's a matter of a few short weeks before someone's slapped a new chicklet together and another someone's figured out a rudimentary way to bust up the fun. Then, there comes a book. The latest platform to get "socialized" is Pinterest--where every few days some social media genius-guru-ninja has come up with a new way to put out a marketing message on it. I'm inundated daily with infographics that are long on message, short on significance.
I took a look at what I did all these years among these various media to see if there was anything that I truly loved about it. First, I love the fact that this is real populist media--that one doesn't need to go through editors and such to publish. Second, I needed to bridge the time I spent in this world, innovating and working with innovators, with tactile world work. With spending copious amounts of time with innovators and technologists, I developed a distinct in-ability to express concepts in terms that non-techies could understand. That was a total revelation to me. Third, I needed a challenge, but one that would not feel like the labor of Sisyphus.
So, I decided to go into fashion blogging. Fashion has always been significant to me--our choices in clothing, in fashion and style are ways in which women express themselves. Sure, some might think it's "superficial" but I really don't care about them. In the world of Fashion Blogging, though, there's a dearth of older women--a lot of young women--and I believe that my age and experience, both in life and in everyday fashion decisions, gives me a unique blogging perspective.
There's more to it than just the superficial. Ever since my friend Tom Guarriello suggested I get a subscription to Women's Wear Daily, I have learned a whole lot about the fashion and beauty industries. These multi-billion dollar industries make their money primarily from women, yet women know very little about the business decisions of the various companies and brands we engage with daily. This is information, I believe, we *should* know. So, in time, my plan is to begin to weave fashion and beauty business journalism in with talk about firming body lotions and to wear a latest trend like a woman (not a girl.)
If you are at all interested in where I am going with the blog, you can check it out at High Fashion Average Woman.com. I've started a new twitter feed to go with the new blog: @HiFashionAvgWmn.
So far, this new blog is doing fairly well. I've used my rudimentary knowledge of SEO with the right subjects and have cornered some pretty good traffic because of it. I understand that to build a popular following with take quite a bit of time, but, once again, I'm more interested in having this blog be a vehicle for bigger projects, and future employment--thus making it have a larger purpose than making friends with fashion conscious peers.
Which, I must say, it's doing pretty well there, too...
I have also picked up blogging on social media and related issues at TishGrier.com, the site I use for my social media consultancy. My @tishgrier Twitter account is still active, and is now associated with the TishGrier.com site.
So, the time really has come to put The Constant Observer to bed. It has served me well over the 6 years of my professional blogging and social media career. It's been the vehicle for many great opportunities, and I have met many fantastic, forward-thinking people through it. I hope to continue to meet great people through both High Fashion Average Woman and TishGrier.com, and hope you will consider following me on either one or both of those blogs.
Fondly....
Onward and Upward.....
Tish
