Blogging vs. Other Social Channels

Lately I’ve been thinking about the fact that I’m not blogging as much.  But really, I don’t believe I’m blogging less – just differently and on new channels.  In the old days (2005 to 2011ish) my blog was my primary social media outlet and my other social media channels were supplementary and supportive. However, the times and technologies have changed and my toolbox has evolved.  

Lately I’ve been thinking about the fact that I’m not blogging as much.  But really, I don’t believe I’m blogging less – just differently and on new channels.  In the old days (2005 to 2011ish) my blog was my primary social media outlet and my other social media channels were supplementary and supportive. However, the times and technologies have changed and my toolbox has evolved.  

I’m busy, so a tweet here or posting an image on Pinterest there is so much easier and faster than setting up a weblog post.  As a result, my “collection” of digital content is now diversified across multiple platforms and better organized and this has helped me to actually expand my collections. The best example of this is my healthcare infographic collection on Pinterest.  Another is my Twitter stream of all of those interesting bits of news and articles that really aren’t worthy of a full blog post.  An then there is my engagement with the people with whom I have actual professional relationships on Linked In. I’m also on Foursquare, but that is really only for me — finding places when I travel or to see what people think about my clients.

As I reflect on my blog and other social media channels, I realize I need to do a better job of integrating all of my tools on my blogging platform to make it much more robust and a more accurate reflection of my social activities.  Widgets will help with this and perhaps there are some better ones since I last looked.

What does this all mean? I think it means that we can expect our strategies to change overtime as the technologies evolve and help us increase our efficiency and effectiveness.  I think we also need to recognize as we consider our metrics that less might actually be more — because it is only different. This all points to the importance of annual reflection and its contribution to improvement – in our focus, strategies, tactics, measurement and performance.

So, when was the last time you reflected on your social activities?  What are you waiting for?