Wednesday, 13 January 2010

Back in the Social Media Saddle



I have taken a hiatus that was much longer than ever expected from writing my blog. I noticed that my last "official" blog dates back to October of 2009. I am not sure how I lost my way, but I do know that the effect of not writing a regular blog makes me a bit grumpy and thick in the head. Or at least that is my excuse for the moment.

I find blogs to be, personally, difficult to write. Creating nice linear patterns of thought and sentence construction does not come easy to me. This is especially true with all the time I spend on Social Media with its fractured, fragmented and unrelenting content that to me often feels more like being in a blizzard than a soothing stream. Luckily my mind seems well suited to chaos and seems to adjust to filtering out these bytes of information and somehow making sense of it all.

The good thing about writing blogs is that it forces one to think through a thought from beginning to end. Check for its veracity and determine if in fact it has value. One of the benefits of social media is also it bane. The ease of sharing information seems to have removed some of the sense of responsibility in understanding before reporting it. I believe that too often content is shared based only on a clever title and maybe not much more. Whereas, I value the free exchange of information, I value more knowing that when I receive something from a source that I have confidence it is worth my time.

It is my opinion that everyone could benefit from writing a regular blog. Whether it is like me only for the critical analysis to see if I can prove, at least to myself, that I am being clever or whether I am, more often than not, full of sh**. Or if it is just to provide a good outlet to let your mind take some of the power out of the hurricane of thoughts that maybe going on inside. And then of course there is the possibility that what does make it to print is something others will be glad you took the time to do.

I am looking forward to writing on a range of subjects now that the fast has been broken.

  • Broadcast vs. Engagement
  • Use of multi-channels for effective marketing strategies
  • Social graph and search
  • If you have to buy your friends are they really your friends
  • PR and Digital Agencies -- why all the fuss
  • Social Quotient -- the Holy Grail of new marketing

Any many more. . .

Much success,

Doug