Reconnecting with Dan - and why I don’t blog so often now
Posted on November 10th, 2009 in Leadership |
This time Dan and I were members of the same HR online community and were regularly in communication. We have been out of touch for a while and I was delighted when he got in touch through Facebook . And then he said
“I notice you are blogging a little less often and seem to be travelling more (Although that might just be a guess). ”
This comment really got me thinking .Yes indeed I do post on this blog less than I did maybe say a year ago. So why is that?
I realise it is for a lot of reasons
- my business has developed in a way that means that I lead training more than I ever did in the past. This is a very good thing because I have discovered that I love to create and run workshops. But when I am in front of a class I am not in front of my PC which leads me to..
- I have found a way to manage my time online better than I used to. I now have a Blackberry and can read e-mails when I am with clients and if I don’t need to respond that day - I don’t. If I don’t need to switch my PC on when I get back - I don’t. This has been very liberating for me…because
- using social networks for business has proved to be a successful inclusion in my “marketing mix” and much of of the client work I have now has been if not gained , hugely enhanced by interacting with my online community . Linkedin and Twitter are the main tools - but Facebook catching up. But as anyone who uses any ( or all) of those sites - there is always the capacity that spending time there eats into time you need elsewhere. I have learned to be disciplined - it is not perfect but pretty good which brings me back to …
- why I am blogging less. I always committed to myself that I would only post when I thought I had something useful, interesting and NEW to talk about. And that final part is crucial. So many of my conversations, links and connections happen on the other sites so that they do not feel new to me by the time I think about writing a post. I appreciate though that some of my blog visitors only connect with me there and I am refocussing to that I don’t disappoint ( and lose) them.
So there is my challenge - and thank you Dan for bringing it to my attention.
How is what you do using social media different from this time last year?
5 Responses
A heap lot more! But I am also more aware of the type of traffic I receive and what people want. I see my blog much more now as part of a service where initially its purpose was to encourage me to write daily!
What happened here? Many people blog less. I notice from my feed reader. Many blogs are being moved into a “once a month category” and are being replaced by “professional blogs” or students actually. More post -grad students are blogging.
Our interests also morph and blogging and reading blogs makes that clear. Personal projects come to an end are replaced with something else!
Over the last year I have blogged alot less as well. In the end, I think it is healthy for people to go to a more recieve mode for a while. I have started a new job and have been fully engaged with learning a whole bunch of new aspects of my profession. The opinions I have been forming I have been lucky enough to put almost immediately into action. With such low downtime between thought and action I have not had much time to ponder and really get into the details of how my actions are relating to the bigger picture. Throw in a down economy and it has been almost frantic. I think that the downside of the blogging culture is that we can get too bogged down in selling and defending our respective points of view that sometimes we get out of that learning mode. It is good to step back and stop having a point of view for a while (or keep it to yourself) so that you can be open to other things for a while in my opinion.
It is interesting how things do develop and as more and more people come into the world of blogging who is most readable which changes for me over time too. Thanks for the comments Jo
You make a very good point Dan - there are days when I only read what others have written - and I am looking to learn. Other times I feel I have something to say . And each of us have the business ups and downs to contend with too. Personally I find it impossible to write a good quality blog post if I am feeling less than positive…for others that would be the perfect time. Thanks for being my inspiration for this post - and for commenting too!