Betty White, social media, and HARO

Peter Shankman (aka Skydiver) founder of Help A Reporter Out asked on twitter:

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”

I want to be Betty White. Not just because she’s Betty White, but at age 88 she is working, loved, and revered. If you haven’t “Liked” Betty White hosts the Oscars (which went from 11K yesterday to 66K today) you should, cause that would be awesome.

Here’s why (SNL’s opening monologue from Betty’s episode below):

If you don’t know the story behind Ms. White’s appearance on SNL you should. It started as a facebook page. That’s right some guy started a page over his cup of coffee one morning (possibly in his pjs) and eventually it got so big SNL noticed and asked Betty to be on the show. It doesn’t hurt that she had great roles in film (especially the Proposal) and those Snickers ads this year.

What can you learn from Betty White?

Betty White isn’t an overnight success. She has been working in show business for her entire life. While she is well loved for her roles on many shows, I remember her as Rose Nylund from the Golden Girls.

Betty White works hard. She makes it look easy, but being 88 and still working shows how dedicated she truly is to her craft.

Betty White loves what she’s doing. Why else work until you are 88? She loves what she is doing, and it shows.

If you are passionate enough, work hard enough, and commit to working hard for as long as it takes you can be successful-you can have a career like Betty White’s.

Betty White and Social Media

Fortunately for you and me the state of the internet allows you to move even faster and be more influential than ever before. So while you may have a lifelong career, you don’t have to work a lifetime to reap the rewards. Bloggers can live off their blog income, moms can work from home, and twitter and other forms of social media can be used to raise money for good causes. Without the rise of social media Betty White would have never hosted SNL.

HARO shout out

Since this post was inspired by Peter’s tweet, I will share one of my trade secrets with you. Sign up for HARO. Whether your business is blogging, branding, or even gardening you will find media seeking your opinions for magazines, radio, TV and more.

People constantly want to know how I get so much press. Start with HARO. HARO is one of the reasons I get to craft an amazing career that is all my own making. If you can’t stand sifting through up to 60 queries 3 times a day, sub to your speciality subsection only, and don’t feel bad about deleting them if you don’t have time.

I did an interview today that I landed from a HARO pitch. And my press page, well, it’s full of HARO responses.

What do you think about the Betty White phenomenon? What are you passionate about?

Kelly

About Kelly

Kelly Whalen is the founder of The Centsible Life, a blog where motherhood and money meet. Her goal is to help readers live well on less. Kelly is a mom to 4, and loves that she can stay at home with her kids, and still pursue her passions for writing, personal finance, and social media. You can often find her on twitter and Facebook talking money and motherhood.

http://www.thecentsiblelife.com/ Kelly Whalen

LOL-it's great that it gives you credibility! It's an impressive thing to say.
http://www.thecentsiblelife.com/ Kelly Whalen

Isn't it amazing? That never would have happened a few years ago!
sarahhubbell

Love HARO, it got me quoted in USA Today and my company has been milking that for all its worth. I rarely have time to even look at the HARO emails though…glad to see it's working for you
http://www.itsjessicaslife.com Jessica Rosenberg

I LOVED hearing that it was a Facebook page that put Betty White on SNL. I just think that’s so neat, especially all the generation crossing that went on.
And thank you for the reminder to actually read HARO. I’ve been slacking!