So I spent some time over the holidays looking back over my blog, my tweets, my status updates and the like, basically, reviewing all the places I’m active online and, well, it turns out I’m really not that active at all. Or at least I’m less active than I used to be.
Am I surprised? Nah, not really.
The truth is, last year was an amazingly good, but challenging year for me at Voce. We won several big accounts. We grew our team. We formalized partnerships (and forged new ones). We innovated. And where we could, we shared what was working. And amidst all of this, I must admit, I felt an increasing need (really, a responsibility) to focus whatever extra attention, energy and know-how I had on my projects, my clients and my teams.
As a result, I went dark online.
But here’s the other truth: My insularity was also influenced by my frustration with the signal to noise ratio, especially around social media consulting. When everybody’s talking and acting like they’re the experts, the last thing I wanted to do — really, the last thing I could do — was to try and show my expertise by shouting the loudest or talking the longest. That doesn’t help anyone, plus, you know, I don’t want to be that guy. Also, it bears mentioning, after reading stuff like this, it just begs the question:
Who’s *really* benefiting from what I share here?
That answer used to be “me,” it was a place where I could kick around my own actions and ideas and either through reflection or dialogue, I could learn something. Maybe share something too. And while I haven’t exactly given up on that, nowadays, I look at my site metrics, and the comments and the links and I see an awful lot of my competitors here. Fortunately, I see a lot of my colleagues, my partners, my clients, my business prospects and my recruiting candidates here too, which is motivating.
So, am I giving up on this blog?
Nah. This year marks my 5th year blogging and there’s much I’m still admittedly learning, and much still I’d like to explore further here — be it with my colleagues, clients, competitors or otherwise. I think the reality of the economy we’re in and the responsibilities I have will just dictate the frequency of things. I’m gonn’a try, however, to get a couple of posts up per month and be a little better about up leveling the discourse and debate in this industry — including calling bullshit when I see it…
In between, I’ll be right here, oh and here, here, here, here, here, here, and here, so, you know, easy enough to find.
So with that I’ll just say…more to come. Happy new year, folks.
January 2, 2009 at 10:09 am
Mike: I hope you (and me & Josh and David &…) do start blogging more again. These other things are great for signaling interest in something, helping people find an event, etc, but they aren’t doing much in the way of helping create or develop more interesting ideas. They help interesting ideas spread, but I’m afraid they have lead us to be less thoughtful. Similarly, there is so much buffoonery out there that you just don’t want to appear as though you’re on the same team. I do keep learning from you, and that’s why I’m happy to spread your links around. Keep it up.
January 2, 2009 at 10:22 am
Well said. We talked a bit about this before break and I’m feeling the same. It’s time to get that signal to noise ratio back to a positive vibe.
January 2, 2009 at 11:04 am
Agreed. Also, it bears mentioning, I have no problem with new voices (or old ones either), as long as they’re moving dialogue and thinking in a healthy direction. Too often I think Brian’s right, the echo chamber has become deafening….
January 2, 2009 at 12:30 pm
Mike – your blog was one of the first ones I subscribed to nearly four years ago now. Your no BS approach and on-the-job insights back then are still the same reasons I pay attention to your posts today.
Looking forward to what you say in 2009.
January 2, 2009 at 1:21 pm
I think we all went through a bit of a lull in 08. It was a pretty tough year and to top it all off, as Brian put it, the echo chamber just became deafening.
I’ve been trying to pick up the pace a bit. I hope you, and Josh and Brian do as well. And we have to do a podcast again one of these days.
January 2, 2009 at 3:19 pm
If there’s universal one truth on the Internet it’s this – quality content wins, always. When I say “wins” I mean it finds an audience. That’s why I am here and will continue to read your stuff and clearly so will others! Happy 2009, Mike/
January 3, 2009 at 9:55 am
Thanks Steve, so quality content ‘wins’ the most fleeting and fickle commodity on the internet — attention. Mike Manuel everybody, FTW!! Thank you, I’ll be here all year.
January 3, 2009 at 12:55 pm
Mike, I had a similar Come-to-Jesus moment looking back at my blog during my first real vacay in years and realizing how little I’ve contributed to my digital legacy, and yet it was a time when I’ve done more speaking and educating on social media and marketing. It depressed me that my blog bling was outdated (I couldn’t even quite remember how to change it!) and that my meatiest recent piece was on wearing tight jeans. I used to geek out on social media, even get sweaty writing about it! But alas, the more work we have In Real Life, the less time I’ve had to participate online. I’m going to endeavor to get re-involved–how else do people put their money where their mouths are? But in different fashion than in 2005. I actually have a JOB other than reading blogs and writing four hours a day. It should be interesting.
January 5, 2009 at 10:16 am
I am feeling a similar evolution in my blogging. My blog home page looked stale, but I was active online. So, over the break I installed Sweetcron and started my lifestream that aggregates my activity from the various places I am active online.
I also decided I’m not going to blog about business on my personal site anymore. I’m going to blog about the Ducks, tequila, RC helicopters, Portland, and other things I enjoy personally. At the end of my work day now, I don’t want to talk anymore about social media. I’ll save that for Voce Nation, where I think it really belongs anyway.
January 5, 2009 at 12:44 pm
Great blog – mainly because you chose to bring up something likely on a lot of people’s minds!
This topic does lead to recognizing the division between blogging as a commentator (more journalistic with focused content primarily) versus as a past time (general interest, more personal and aimed at a smaller, closer group).
Of course nothing is black or white so there will be overlap and gray areas… but still, this is becoming increasingly more the case in the Social Media world. And that isn’t a bad thing!
January 12, 2009 at 1:01 pm
“I see a lot of my colleagues, my partners, my clients, my business prospects and my recruiting candidates here too”
To me, this exact insight addresses the major opportunity posed by cheap (“social”) media:
What happens when firms communicate with all players in the value net through blogs/twitter/facebook/etc? Not just “customers”?
((“value net”: http://bit.ly/XKNw and http://bit.ly/HMnl ))
When coordination costs (nee “transaction costs”) get this low, what is the rationale for the firm?
((HBS article, “Unbundling the Firm”: http://bit.ly/157nN ))
It’s an exciting time to be in communications, that’s for sure. Looking forward to more discussion; thanks for writing!