Image by Amit Gupta via Flickr

There is a wonderful vibe in Team Roz at the moment. This is a big year for us, and it seems as if everything in our lives so far has been preparing us for this moment. All the skills, contacts and experiences that Nicole and I have ever had seem to be relevant to our mission for 2009 – to launch a rowing expedition, sure, but more than that, to add our voices to a movement towards a greener future, riding the wave of social media to spread the word. Here is one example.

A few weeks ago Nicole introduced me to her friend and former colleague Rohit Bhargava of Ogilvy PR, author of Personality Not Included: Why Companies Lose Their Authenticity And How Great Brands Get It Back. Rohit is an emerging guru of new media – and a great guy with plenty of personality of his own.

That meeting led to Rohit inviting me to contribute to an ebook called “Women of Personality” – described as “A compiliation ebook featuring contributions from 20 visionary female entrepreneurs sharing their secrets of success.”

(Visionary – who, me?! Hey, why not?!)

And within the first 24 hours (ahem, sorry, Rohit for being so late – been a bit busy) the ebook was going great guns in the new media world…

- Dozens of tweets about the ebook using the hashtag #wop
- 14 requests by email from women to be part of the second edition
- Over 600 clicks on the twitter link
- Almost 2000 visits to the page to download the ebook
- Average time of engagement on the campaign page was OVER 4 minutes!
- Over 100 downloads of the ebook on Scribd of the uploaded version of the ebook

And the good news? You can get the entire book FOR FREE simply by clicking here!

(And great to see Podcast Sister Krishna De included in the ebook – click here to listen to my interview last Christmas with Krishna.)

I realize that to many, this “new media” might be seen as the preserve of geeks and early adopters, but I am excited by its huge potential to broadcast a message – whether that is inspiration, education, or environmentalism. When this year’s eco-initiative is unveiled, I hope there will be lots in there to make even the most sceptical of un-geeks to say, “Wow, cool!” and feel the urge to share it with their friends. And don’t worry – I’ll show you how. No geekiness required!

Just one final note – how come all the other women in the ebook look so fab and glamorous and I don’t? Ah, I’d just finished rowing 2,700 miles – maybe that’s it!