Anatomy of a hiatus.

Hey you. It’s been awhile. What’s new? Oh yeah? How’s that going? Good? Good.

Me? I’ve been keeping pretty busy. I started a new job last week and hit a bit of a breaking point when it comes to what I can fit on my plate and still devour everything with the same zest for life to which I have grown accustomed.

I feel like we started off on the wrong foot. The angry foot. The foot that would rather rant than converse. For that, I sincerely apologize. My point is this: Color Me Social was supposed to be a discussion. Even while I was writing angry, fiery posts about how you are screwing up and why I have a chip on my shoulder and yadda yadda yadda, I knew that I couldn’t keep up with the tone that I was building. It’s not in my nature to focus on the negative. So let’s try this again, but this time let me be clear about where I’m coming from and where I’m trying to go.

I talk too much, too loudly and sometimes come off as abrasive. It’s not my intention. Often when people have very little to say, they make up for it with extra volume. I’m absolutely guilty on this count.

I got an e-mail from a colleague right after my last post that read like this:

Hey Ben,

A few points:

a)      You should really get an RSS feed…would make it easier for me to keep up on your blog

b)      I feel that with a number of your posts you take the ‘angry guy in the room’ approach and try to shout as loudly as possible, which perhaps isn’t the most effective way of getting your points across.

c)       I do feel that you have some extremely valid arguments, but sometimes they get lost in the shouting.

I guess don’t take anything I say too personally, it’s been rather interesting reading your blog, Boondock saints II, dirty dancing, social media, it’s all fitting together.

 Keep it up!

XXX

I took his points to heart. I don’t want to be the ‘angry guy in the room.’ I don’t think Lewis Black is that funny. I think that his bits are hit or miss at best, and downright awkward at worst.

So there it is. The most important point that I’m trying to convey here is that tone is everything when it comes to social media. The anger that was coming across in my blog posts was a result of some personal issues that I was dealing with and it showed.

It’s important to draw a line between personal and professional web presences and although they sometimes occupy the same territory, you must find a way to keep the negativity out and let your positive attributes and character traits shine.

Sometimes it’s a good idea to take a deep breath, step back and examine what kind of web presence you are building. Is it helping your personal or professional brand? Are you drawing people to you or pushing them away? What are people gaining from their interactions with you?

These are the questions that I didn’t have good answers to a month ago. Color me sorry for that.

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