Days Since Running: 4
Days Since Chocolate: 2
Days Since Blogging: 11
I really am too wordy ~ must try to keep things “snappy”. Gutted that I’m not going to be able to make the mingling session on 10th June, but I’ll be flying out to Sardinia so I think I’ll cope (subject to ash cloud, BA strike and anything else that might come along to ruin my holiday).
Naughty me. I haven’t blogged for 22 days and I went to the second session of the IAB’s Rising Voice in Social Media course without having done my homework. I haven’t done that since school….. No, wait a minute; I didn’t even do that at school because I was a geek. Now I feel even more disappointed in myself 😦
The task was to blog a critique on a corporate Twitter account that is ticking the boxes, and one that it is getting it all wrong. The flaw with this was that along with the disappearance of blogging off my radar, Twitter sadly also fell by the wayside. A flurry of novelty tweets and then nothing. So, picking out a good and a bad from the 7 Twitter accounts I am following (and by following, I mean following in its loosest, most absent sense) was quite hard.
I’m going to make this quick because I haven’t been home before 9pm all week and I seriously need to do some shopping and do some exercise. There’s a good chance that neither of these things will happen regardless of what time I get home ~ but there is a direct correlation between lateness of arrival home and likelihood of shopping/exercise so at least if I head home soon then I’m in with a chance.
See ~ this is my fundamental gripe with the art/practice of blogging. When do I find the time? I am flat out most days at work, and I don’t have a computer at home. Excuses. Guess I just need to make time.
Anyway ~ so I’m still not so sure I have it right. Apparently “dear diary” is OK. Writing about things that I’m in to is OK. And suddenly now that this has sunk in I feel much more comfortable and inclined to write things. Ultimately the intention is for me to better understand social media so I guess as long as I’m doing that then it doesn’t really matter what I’m writing about.
Two promises to myself;
I will do my homework, even if its late
I will make sure it is less than 22 days before my next post
I’ve had blogging all wrong. I’ve been thinking, and if I’m quite honest liking, the idea of pondering, reviewing and venting my thoughts out into the echo chamber that can be the internet but really (and perhaps now obviously) I realise that it’s more about “communicating and connecting”. It’s about writing something relevant, that people want to read. It’s about inviting comments and responding. The idea is for people to actually read what I’ve written. It’s not “dear diary”!
Shit. People might actually read what I’ve written?!
This epiphany came to me at the first session of the IAB’s Rising Voice in Social Media course – which kicked of yesterday with a whistle-stop tour through 6 types of social media and best practice blogging and tweeting. So essentially I now know the basics; the do’s and do not’s, what makes a good blog and what makes a bad blog.
But I am just me. I am not a corporation and I’m not trying to promote anything. Really – at this stage I’m not too bothered whether anyone reads this or not. My “niche” at the moment is in figuring out what blogging is all about. So do the same rules apply?
I’m not quite sure what I’m going to write about yet, or how I’m going to find the time (traditional media still begs for a lot of my 9 to 5 you know) – and I really need to work out how to make this page look just a little bit more interesting – but… well it’s a work in progress I guess.
Oh and apparently I need to follow people back on Twitter!
Blogging. Hmm. Tweeting. Double hmm. Two things that by my attitude and general aversion to technology, should continue to be bypassed indefinitely. But in the name of professionalism and in forcing myself to develop a greater understanding of the things upon which my job entails, I’m giving them a go. The most stressful thing about tweeting so far has been signing up. All the names are taken, thus it took a good 10 minutes to reach a satisfactory combination of letters from my name, middle name and surname ~ plus a few random numbers to finally settle on something unique. I’m currently being followed by/following no-one so my few little experimental, nursery tweets have so far floated out alone. I think, for now, I prefer it that way.
I am the only person on the planet with no desire to ever own an iPhone
I am the only person on the planet to watch terrestrial TV only on a 15” VCR combi (I don’t have Sky, or Freeview, or anything else)
I don’t own a computer
I still refer to DVD’s as “videos”
But at least now I Tweet and Blog
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