I stopped posting to Twitter a few months back and it felt really good. Today I’m making my first post in 142 days.
Before I get into why, I’ll quickly explain my history on Twitter.
I joined Twitter in August of 2007. I got on pretty early, but I couldn’t get any of my friends to join. I tried to explain the site, but I couldn’t figure out why it was better than Facebook (or why it should be used in conjunction). One friend joined and made one post.
Since none of my friends joined, I followed bloggers who I respected. They mostly tweeted about people I didn’t know and places I’ve never been. I didn’t have much to add to the conversation.
I got bored.
After this I let my account go dormant.
Around a year ago, I picked back up. I don’t remember what the catalyst was, but I came back and used it pretty hard. I started using it during marketing webinars and then I finally learned how to effectively use Twitter Search and Hashtags and everything changed.
Now I was finally earning followers and interacting with people. I was really getting into the network and meeting new people and I was enjoying it.
Over time this changed and I couldn’t put my finger on why. It dawned on me what the issue was; I was following too many people and way too many marketers.
Too many marketers. You know the type. They don’t want to interact. They want to promote themselves and retweet whatever Hubspot posts. Because of this, I stopped posting about marketing or myself and started posting about UFOs, Mega Man, and Kevin Costner instead and my followers started dropping.
I got bored again.
Fast-forward to now – I’m coming back to Twitter.
I was writing in my journal about why I left Twitter (everything you just read) and I realized why I really left Twitter: I wasn’t using it right.
It wasn’t everyone else. I know most people suck and only care about themselves, but I was doing the same thing. To make it worse I changed the purpose of my account, so it’s no wonder I lost followers. I guess marketers don’t like Kevin Costner posts.
I am going to come back into Twitter with a new plan and use it the way it was supposed to be used. I don’t know why I didn’t make this connection earlier; I was just as bad as the other “Gurus” I’m criticizing.
If I’m not going to connect with them and they aren’t going to connect with me, why am I following them?
Has anyone else had any realizations about how to use Twitter like I did?
This blog has been a good time and has taught me a lot, but it’s run its course in its current version. I have about 100 different posts on here (not all by me) and it’s time to simplify that down and start from scratch.
I have changed the format of this blog a number of times and now when you flip through the blog you can find reminisce of that. As you dig deeper you can watch it change like going through the layers of the Earth, except boring.
I’m not embarrassed about what is up here or what I’ve posted in the past, but it is necessary to keep this page consistent and that is something I have done a shitty job of.
The ironic thing is I’m happy about what I’m writing now and it’s moving in the right direction, but I can’t fully move on until many of the old portions of the page are removed.
This isn’t going to happen right away and I am going to keep posting until then, however it will happen shortly and a new website will launch that isn’t like anything you have ever seen before.
I don’t know if anyone actually read through the 6 change method I posted yesterday, but after choosing your goals the first real step is to break them down into 8 small steps.
My first one is getting on the computer in the morning and logging into my blog. It’s not actually writing, but at least it will (hopefully) lead into writing in the future.
I am going to do this until Friday and then from there begin the actual writing portion of the goal.
The ironic thing about this goal is that I’m writing about writing, but I’m not counting these updates as part of my goal.
I want the writing to be something that takes more creativity than these progress updates. I don’t know what the end goal is yet, but you’ll know it when you see it.
A note on the picture, I couldn’t find something that represented this post, so I figured how could I go wrong with this one.
I mentioned before I have new projects going on and as much as I want to write in this blog, other goals have become a priority.
Even though I said that, I was lying. Don’t act so surprised.
I am going to use this blog as a way to help me stick to my goals and will be writing more often than before (*Fingers Crossed*). I am going to use the plan by 6changes.com to help me with my goals throughout the year.
Even though I haven’t chosen 6 goals (Which is Step 1), I am going to start with Step 2: Pick 1 of the 6 habits to start with. The first habit is writing more. That doesn’t mean in this blog, but that will help towards the goal. Everyone at one point in their life says, I could write a book because they think their life is crazy and adventurous (now they say they could start a reality show). I am not that ambitious (yet), but I do want to be writing on a daily basis.
The 3rd step is to Commit as publicly as possible to creating this new habit in 2 months. That is what I am doing here.
This week I am going to finish the plan for steps 4 and 5 and I will post them all on here. I will also post my progress and chronolog my work. There will be a new tab for writing coming in the future as well.
Every time I start a new Project, this blog seems to suffer.
With that said, I am working on a few new things and have not put the time into working on my posts. This is not one of those “I promise I will post more often” posts that I used to write in LiveJournal all those years ago, this is a “I’m going to post when ever I have time” post.
I love this blog and writing in it is one of my favorite things to do, but its a hobby. As some of these new projects come further along I will start to post them here. I do check in though, so feel free to keep leaving comments.
p.s. I know I am asking for hecklers on this one, so let me start you off:
It’s not like we read it in the first place.
I didn’t read your LiveJournal posts either
When you start a new project your blog seems to suffer? Man, you must be working on a lot of projects.
It’s a good thing you didn’t post what your other hobbies are, oh wait nobody reads this, so we don’t need to worry about the children’s fragile minds.
I finally got a PS3. Now my television has the holy trinity of video game systems. After buying it, now I am wondering why I ever bought a XBOX 360 in the first place.
The current consoles are still defined as “Next Generation”, but that is a whole other conversation. I think what really defines this generation of games is not the fact that the graphics are amazing or that the sound is spectacular, I think the biggest thing is not one console has any really amazing games that are console specific (except for Nintendo games). Well of course there is Halo.
The PS2 had a lot of games that the XBOX didn’t have and that is why I got a PS2. The biggest 2 for me were Kingdom Hearts and GTA (I know it came out on xbox as well, but now nearly soon enough) and the XBOX had a lot of first player shooter, probably still does, but I don’t like them, so that means nothing. Then I really understood the difference, but now out of all the games that I have I’m not sure any of them are console only, except for the previously mentions Nintendo games.
The Wii is really next generation, because it is something completely different than anything else has been before and that is what the industry needed, but sometimes it is too much of a good thing. Even though most games are launched for the Wii as well as the ps3 and the XBOX 360, I rarely buy them for the Wii because they just throw in motion controls because they can. Does this add to the game? Most times the answer is no. I play video games when I want to relax and some games I couldn’t even imagine without the motion controls, Wii Bowling for example, but there is a reason I bought Tiger Woods for the ps3 instead.
This was really more of a rant than anything else, but are there any awesome console only games out for any of these systems? The only developer that is making great games and isn’t whoring them out to as many developers is Nintendo and that is for obvious reasons.
NOTE: I am not against the idea of every game for every system, but I do find it interesting. Okay now I am going back to playing Lego Batman on the Wiion the XBOX360 on the PS3
So I haven’t been posting recently. So first I apologize to my tens upon tens of fans. Up until this point, my website has gone through two distinct phases as of now.
Originally I posted about whatever I felt like, mostly about video games and technology. I posted mostly because I liked writing and for my few friends who checked the site. I felt a little weird about it because with only my friends reading I couldn’t really post about Social Media and the business side of things, so I made a major switch.
All social media and internet marketing. Now I will preface this next statement by saying I love social media and inbound marketing, but that’s now all I wanted to write about and today I had a revelation while talking on Twitter:
BrianCarl@templer08 I use one twitter account for business and pleasure. It’s okay to let your geek flag fly in the prof world. I do. #imu
Why am I trying to separate my interest in business and my geekdom into two separate places on my blog if I am not doing that on Twitter? I tell people all the time that one of the most important things to do online is to be transparent and true to who you are in real life.
So I am disregarding any format or theme to this site. It will still remain as my professional site, but if all you want to read about is social media, there are billions of other sites out there to check out that talk about only that subject.
Be prepared for more posts about music, movies, tech, and all around geekyness.
Lets be honest now here. It’s gobbledygook. Thought leadership has become just another Internet hype word, that people are told they should strive for.
The basic idea is that if you blog, tweet, and post thoughtful content online you can become a thought leader and the leads will come flying in. Is this true? Sure as hell is. Why isn’t everyone doing this then? It’s just not that easy.
Not everyone can be a thought leader.
Should you try to become a though leader? Probably not, but you should still be posting thought proving content.
Why blog if it’s not to be a Though Leader??
The main reason is so that you can post keyword rich content for the purpose of Search Engine Optimization. This post isn’t about SEO, but I will go over the reasons quickly why Goolge loves blogs.
Google likes fresh content
Every page can target new specific keywords
If you are writing good content, it will be a link building magnet
If you are lucky enough to become a thought leader you will be really successful. If you can’t do that, having a good blog producing SEO results will still drive leads into your website if done right.
So should I have a blog for my business?
Becoming a thought leader is great for you and great for your business, but don’t take it too seriously. You might not be getting hundreds of re-tweets or comments but as long as your blog is generating leads and links for your site, it is worth your time.
Whether you want to keep trying to be a thought leader or not, you need to have a blog for your business. If you don’t have one, don’t make excuses, there is no better time than now.
A few weeks ago Microsoft took down a video that they produced called OMGIGP. Luckily YouTube still has a copy posted.
There were a lot of different reactions to this video being posted from people thinking it was a fake and then others thinking it is in bad taste.
I have to say I think its brilliant. After Microsoft announced Bing! and the millions of dollars they are spending on advertising it, I thought they were just going to keep up their same advertising plan that they have been. In the recent past the only ads they have been using featured either Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld having a boring conversation or people walking into best buy talking about how they can’t afford Mac’s even though they are better.
I’m glad they are pushing the envelope and creating a campaign that was obviously designed to go viral. In the end I think them pulling the ad is going to help it go viral much quicker than it would have if they just left it up on their site.
I was talking to my friend Carter (Who I forced to join Twitter) today and in the middle of the discussion he said something that I had to copy.
I stopped posting to Twitter a few months back and it felt really good. Today I’m making my first post in 142 days.
I don’t know if anyone actually read through the 
I mentioned before I have new projects going on and as much as I want to write in this blog, other goals have become a priority.
I finally got a PS3. Now my television has the holy trinity of video game systems. After buying it, now I am wondering why I ever bought a XBOX 360 in the first place.
