I owe my blog an apology.
Ever since launching ME Consulting four months ago, I’ve treated it as a second-class citizen. It used to receive my love and attention every day – including weekends – but as business started to happen, it became alright to skip blogging for a day or two.
At first, there was a sense of guilt, like I was cheating on the blog. But the lack of attention was justified because business is, after all, business. And any thoughts or ideas that had to be shared were done using Twitter – a younger, sleeker, sexier entity that’s making blogs look boring and matronly.
Recently, however, I’ve started to have second thoughts have letting my blog collect digital dust.
Some of it has to do with simply having more time to think now that mesh ‘09 is over.
Some of it has to do with an inspiring conversation with Mike Masnick, who told me he’s got 95 different ideas for blog posts (many of them contained within tabs on Google Chrome)
Some it has to do with a comment made during a mesh panel by Techmeme’s Gabe Rivera, who said there seems to be fewer independent high-tech bloggers writing insightful posts.
It got me thinking that as more people devote more time to Twitter, there’s an opportunity to stand out from the crowd by giving my blog more love and attention.
I’ve also realized a blog is a different and valuable personal branding tool because it lets you provide insight, perspective and, hopefully, valuable/useful information. It provides people with a sense of what you think and who you are in a way that’s different from Twitter or Facebook updates.
For someone trying to build a business based on the idea of giving people strategic and tactical consulting services, writing a blog is probably the most powerful personal marketing tool in your digital arsenal.
After a trial separation, I think my blog and I have reconciled. It feels like a whole new beginning.
Technorati Tags: blogs, ME Consulting, mesh, twitter
8 Comments
Welcome back!
I'd much rather read a well thought out blog post than the same thoughts rolled into a series of tweets.
–Mike
Mark, I think that your time on Twitter and your blog can co-exist. Being the online marketing maven that you are, you have no doubt notice that as online content is refined, it is contracted and expanded in different mediums.
Twitter and the blogosphere are a good example of this. You can start or summarize a blog post on Twitter and encourage users to read the full explanation on your blog.
This combined medium approach isn't new. Advertisers in other mediums such as television and print have been doing it for years. However, it seems that online, our quest for the "next big thing" creates a singular view of technologies. I think that quickly folks will of course participate in a variety of places such as blogs, twitter, etc, but the messages that they project across these mediums will come from a single, common thread.
Twitter: AR_RobBrown
Loving this. As much as I love Twitter, I don't want to see the more fleshed-out blog posts wither away. On behalf of your blog Mark, welcome back. All is forgiven.
Great Post, sometimes my blog gets neglected, but I always go back to it.
Good stuff man. Your blogs is one of the few that I still look forward to reading.
Not really related, but I'm just finishing up Amy Jo Kim's "Community Building on the Web" and I need to recommend it to everyone. It's 10 years old now, but the information contained gives some great insights to communities and social media in general.
As great as twitter is I don't consider it an alternative to blogging. We still need the big meaty posts to convey ideas, 140 characters is get for conversing but we still need the work from bloggers such as yourself.
Your words are touching but the blog lacks a tear jerking emotional element. Maximum impact really requires Barbara Streisand music in the background. I recommend "Evergreen".
now I’ll stay tuned..
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