If We Were Having Coffee . . . (1000 Speaking for Compassion Edition)

If we were having coffee, I would tell you this was one of those weeks that started out hectic and got absolutely insane before it was done. The day job takes a lot of time and attention to detail this time of year, so not a lot of planned free time to be on the social media. I could not have kept all the balls in the air this week without a smart phone, so good that I got one  back in August.

I would tell you my family is awesome. It’s been a week of homework and errands. I haven’t seen much of them this week, which is typical for late January because most of my time goes to the office and to keeping the writing up. This has been a more writing-intensive week than usual because my friend Gretchen turned me on to 1000 Voices Speaking for Compassion, also known as #1000Speak.

The idea of #1000Speak is to have 1000 bloggers write something about compassion and publish their posts on Feb. 20. Gretchen tagged me with it on Facebook and I put the post through on Monday afternoon. By the time I was able to get home and look at the details, Diana and Sabina had already joined the group and I decided I liked it well enough to give it a promotional post and join the discussion.

At the time I made my decision, the group had fewer than 100 members and the posting date hadn’t even been decided. I figured I’d write a post, pick up 5 or 10 more bloggers for it, and put the date on my calendar when it was announced. I rushed out a short post for Tuesday so I’d have the link to share and generate buzz leading up to the weekend.

Freely shareable image by Pam Bennett

Before I was halfway done writing the post, a hashtag was being crafted. There was a thread in the group just for video-producers to brainstorm a project. Feb. 20 was being discussed as the posting  date because it coincides with the U.N. World Day for Social Justice. And just to be crystal clear — you do not have to mention social justice to join in here. The only requirement is to do a blog post about compassion in your own way. But the choice of posting date is an exceptionally good one.

On Tuesday, I came home to find that the Facebook group had grown to 300. That blew my mind. I started tracking the growth in comments on my timeline. As I write this in the wee hours of Saturday morning, the group is above 750 and the Facebook page has almost 400 likes. Promotional images and blog posts are beginning to spread across the Internet. People are using the logo as profile images. Videos are sure to follow.

And here is the brilliant thing. Every blogger who’s been paying attention to me this week (and I really have no clue how many that is) now knows about my favorite weekly social activities for bloggers. That information can be helpful to them long after Feb. 20 has come and gone, and those are the sorts of activities that allow people to get to know one another and form friendships. So in addition to doing my bit for a worthy cause and a favor for some bloggers I appreciate, I have accomplished a personal goal this week, as well.

I’d tell you, too, how grateful I am that I’ve gotten to know Lizzi better this week and struck up a conversation with Yvonne. It’s been a hectic week, but worth it. The most fulfilling week of blogging I’ve had since I started.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you the long run of contributor blogging we’ve been planning since October starts Monday at Sourcerer. We’ll have posts from four bloggers other than me there over the next week. I’ll have a preview tomorrow and you’ll see some new “Recent Posts” widgets on the sidebar over there later today.

I’d tell you the Feminist Friday schedule is solid to start on January 30 at Part Time Monster, and promotion for that starts next week. Gretchen was to write the post for Feb. 20. Gretchen and I discussed a tie-in. We decided that since at least four of us are writing for #1000Speak, and Gretchen has another post idea for that, it’s best to just take that week off and use the weekend to read and comment on compassion posts rather than building a thread for ourselves. Aside from that minor adjustment, the schedule hasn’t changed since the last announcement.

Then I’d ask what you got up to this week.

(ed. – The linky post for the Weekend Coffee Share at Part Time Monster goes up at 9 am Eastern Time and we retweet from #WeekendCoffeeShare at odd intervals on Saturdays. I took an early nap this evening, so posting this early because I want to see what posting on Saturday morning, European time, does to the weekend traffic. If I see new faces in the likes/comments, I may try it out for awhile. This blog is good for that since I typically only post here a couple of times per week.)