Thursday, December 31, 2009

Blogging vs Tweeting: A New Year's Resolution


It's been a very long time since I sat down to write a considered blog post. But I'm back here on my blog at 4:15 pm on December 31st 2009 poised at the precipice of a new decade.

Why am I back? Keith Burtis. You may very well know him. During his tenure at Best Buy he made major strides in growing their online community. Now he's a consultant...helping many other companies. So fine you say. So what? Here's what. He recently left me a comment on Twitter that he enjoyed this blog. Don't we all love unexpected praise from an industry expert?

So, thanks to Keith (to reinforce a growing feeling), I'm back with a 2010 New Year's resolution to blog more and use Twitter less often. And that will not be an easy resolution to keep.

Why? Twitter (and all the various social media sites like it), primarily, are short form social media. You can share your views quickly & easily and get instant fulfillment. You know this. Tweets, at least in my mind, don't demand a beginning, middle and and end like a good blog post.

And Twitter, particularly for me, has become addictive. @scottlackey; @jugularnyc (our communications and social media agency), @nycstories (a multimedia site which includes bizarre true stories, my photos and music--all about New York City); and @nycsongs -- (a nyc music Twitter station). And that doesn't even include client social media pages.

Blogging is different. A well developed post for me takes 45-60 minutes and requires, again for me (maybe not you), a more analytical perspective. It requires commitment and time. But blogging does do one crucial thing. It forces you to evaluate a subject more thoroughly and express your feelings about it in a more organized, and hopefully more detailed, fashion.

And it's time to do that. My New Year's resolutions are to blog more. To write more analytical posts. To do less straight reporting. To be more original. To support assertions. To write about what's on my mind and what we're encountering every day at Jugular, and I'm encountering in my life. Our work with terrific indie musicians in Brooklyn and colleges and the websites we're building in the health field. And much more.

I don't want to leave Twitter entirely...just strike a better balance. I hope I keep my resolution.

And..thank you Keith. Happy New Year.

P.S. Here's an article from today's Huffington Post which I just Googled "How To Keep Your New Year's Resolution (Without Feeling Guilty)" At least I've got #2 down. "How To Keep New Year's Resolutions".