Shonali, let’s begin at the beginning, what is your story?
I started my professional career as an actress.
Yes, I earned my bachelor’s degree in economics and then completed a three-year program from the National School of Drama in New Delhi. I was an actress and director in India. I did mostly theater, but also some television and radio; my acting name was Shonali Ghosh. I began helping people with their public relations needs, which led me to start a business in event management and PR before I moved to the US. [the author’s mouth hangs open as Shonali continues] I moved to the US in 2000 after marrying an American, and he was very keen that I continue my acting career. But frankly, I’d been in the throes of the whole “drama thing” for so long, and I didn’t want to have to start at the bottom all over again in the States. Since I had some experience of PR, I started networking and found a job with a boutique PR agency in San Francisco, where we were living at the time. That was actually a terrific fit, because at the time, the agency did a lot of PR & marketing for Bay Area engagements of Broadway shows…so, in a way, I was still getting my theater “fix.” The rest is history as they say. Now, having worked at small and large agencies, as well as in-house, I consider myself a PR agency of one. I’m not your typical agency, though, focusing solely or primarily on media relations. I like to work with individuals and organizations on their overall communication strategies.Nugget of knowledge: My goal is to get them to understand how good communications can help them solve problems. How have you been able to capitalize on your acting training and experience to help organizations with their communications?
Excellent question. First, part of acting is reacting, listening to your fellow cast members and reacting to them, this is where magic happens. To become a good actress, you have to listen with your eyes and your body. You have to pay attention and react to your audience as well because their reactions are not predictable. My training taught me how to be a good listener, and in turn, I’d like to think I help organizations become better listeners. Second, I learned to understand body language, which is an invaluable skill. Our tweets have body language. Word choice, capitalization, grammar and so on, comprise the body language of our tweets. Finally, I learned to project, not just my voice, but my energy. I leaned how to interact with an audience and bring them into the story we were telling.Nugget of knowledge: This is key for organizations, as they have to capture and hold an audience’s attention with stories about products and services. It’s about my clients first, not me.How did you begin your virtual life?
I began slowly with Twitter. I followed people I knew and respected in real life. My “tipping point” came after the terrorist attack in Mumbai, where I was anxiously trying to find out how my friends and family were. When the attacks started, there was nothing on TV here in the US. So I found news feeds from Indian television online and started sharing what I was seeing, or “secondary reporting” via tweets. I became immersed in it over those days; I remember it was Thanksgiving, and I pretty much spent it in front of my laptop and then the TV, when they started reporting on it here. And as you know, once you start, you can’t stop. Twitter is tough to understand until you actually do it. It was my comfort level with Twitter that led to my blogging. Speaking of which, your blog is Waxing UnLyrical, how do you maintain it with everything else you’re involved in?*
It is difficult to get one’s head around blogging if one hasn’t done it before, and I’m trying to get better at it. I was hesitant at first, thinking like a lot of beginner bloggers, “why would anyone want to read my blog?” But as I got comfortable on Twitter, I realized that I often wanted to share opinions that needed more than 140 characters, and felt more and more compelled to turn to the medium. I jumped in at the start of 2009 and am trying to find ways to make it engaging, entertaining and enjoyable. One advantage is that it’s a personal blog, so I write about whatever I want. Initially, I took this all over the place, even sharing recipes that I developed (I love to cook), but as I’ve been reading and learning more—I subscribe to quite a variety of different blogs to see what I can learn from them—I’m trying to focus it more and more on PR, social media and related topics. But there’s still a personal voice, I think, which I would not want to let go of, if I can help it. The other thing I’ve started doing recently is bringing on regular guest bloggers. This helps with the regularity of content and it also helps keep the blog fresh. Is this a personal pay-it-forward plan?
You can say that, my first blog post was for Communication Overtones, by Kami Watson Huyse, APR, aka @kamichat. She really gave me the confidence to start writing; I mean, I’ve always been a decent writer, but not having written consistently for a while, I was intimidated by some of the blogging I saw. I still am, but a little less scared now, and I want to give that same opportunity to other bloggers. Since so many people helped me get started, I figured that if I can help someone find their voice, then I want to do it.
*For those who don’t know Shonali, she is an adjunct faculty member at the Johns Hopkins University, the current president of the International Association of Business Communicator’s DC Metro chapter, managing editor for Women Grow Business, contributor to BNET.com, an entrepreneur, public speaker and last, and certainly not least, a wife.
