Internet Bard is the weblog of Kat French, aka coffeecupkat: a gen-x wife, mom, social media manager, writer, and general all-purpose geek.

I’ve been writing seriously since my early teens, and have written everything from radio commercials to 200 page technical proposals to build weapons simulators (odd, in retrospect, considering I’m a pacifist).

My current full-time job is social media manager at Doe Anderson, an advertising agency (and the opinions expressed here are my own, and don’t represent those of my employer.)  In addition to here, I post occasionally on my boss Jason Fall’s blog, Social Media Explorer.

This blog is about the part of my life where I’m exploring the power of story and what really connects people.

Why on earth is this blog called “internet bard”? What is an internet bard?

I answered this question first in an interview with Gab at SEOROI.

Smart copywriters and other brand marketing folks need to evolve into post-modern internet bards. It’s not enough to just come up with sharp, one-way copy.  We need to learn to be masters of interactive storytelling.

Skills like content strategy, social media expertise, and the ability to effectively interact with, influence, or even lead online communities are going to be increasingly important.

Like the original bards, we need to be masters of improvisation and we need to acquire new skills quickly.

The inspiration for the name of this blog came from my husband’s and my renewed interest in role playing games (RPGs).  I was reading the AD&D Player’s Handbook, and I realized that if I were a Dungeons & Dragon’s character, I’d be a Bard.  (More specifically, I’d be a Gnome Bard, but that’s probably more than you really wanted to know, isn’t it?)

Which got me thinking about my evolving vocational role, and how it’s really sort of an updated, post-modern internet version of the ancient bards.  Bards were the first “mashup” artists, not only creating stories but collecting and remixing them.  They were an early form of messenger service, delivering missives to and from the communities on their “route.”  They inspired others to acts of heroism–but they did it in an entertaining, lighthearted way.  And while they may have taken their roles and responsibilities seriously, they rarely took themselves too seriously. 

Plus, I’m a huge admirer of the Bard, William Shakespeare, whose keen grasp of human nature and mastery of both comedy and tragedy is something to which I aspire.