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Top five reasons why I haven’t been writing about social media
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My favorite kind of social networking.
Ugh. I’m sorry I haven’t posted anything on Examiner for so long. I have my reasons.
- We’ve been busy. I’m not complaining, but between meetings and writing new proposals and social media strategy documents, I haven’t had a ton of time to ponder and compose a new Examiner entry. And, wow, that little iCal reminder that I need to write sure makes me feel guilty.
- I haven’t been feeding myself first. I’ve been avoiding others’ blogs about social media. I’ve been diving right into work each morning, rather than starting by reading up on what’s happening.
- I’ve been on the road. Seattle is a great town, and we're excited about working with an influential leader there who, I’m convinced, will also be a mentor.
- It’s summer break, which means that I’m often juggling parenting and work at the same time.
But those aren’t reasons. They’re excuses.
There’s only one real reason:
6. The social media industry is chasing its own tail.
We social media consulting types love to expound on the wonders of the social web. We love to proselytize about how businesses and personal brands should harness tools like Twitter and Facebook to build brands and repair online reputations. We’re right, of course; businesses should be paying attention to these new platforms.
But, damn, how many blogs do we need to have about social media? How many tweets about Twitter? How much meta is too much?
Social media writers and commentators are so busy using social media to promote our social media writing and commentary that it’s stifling. Our online chats and teleseminars tend to be iterative and jargon-filled. We’ve become so excited about the medium that it’s all we talk about. Social media commentators have a tendency to become embarrassingly solipsistic in our analyses.
There are some great resources out there if you want to learn how the web is changing the way we interact with our target audiences. And there are some shining stars doing valuable research about online networks and conversational media. In other words, if you want to read about social media, it's easy to find.
Honestly, I’m too busy actually doing stuff (for clients, for my company, for my non-profit, for fun) to write about it week after week. I like reading about social media, I love talking about it and creating and executing strategy plans, and sometimes I have a rant or a diatribe that makes me want to write about it. But if I'm writing about it, rather than doing it, I'm going to get more and more sick of it all. I need to put my energy into practices, not endless, repetitive discussions.
I realize I am ceding thought leadership status to the people who are writing every day. I'm going to focus on content and conversation for my company and our clients, and worry less about my own expert/guru status (unless, you know, it becomes essential to drumming up business!).
So, I need to decide what it means to be the National Internet Business Examiner, and I’d love your thoughts, feedback, questions.
Where do we go from here?
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