Time Out!

I've been blogging for almost two years.  506 total posts, 507 including this one.  Because I haven't been posting as much these past few months, some quick math will reveal that I was posting at a pace of more than once per day for well over a year.  Social media experts, some of whom really are experts and many of whom are merely self-anointed Facebook and Twitter addicts who are trying to parlay their passion into a profession, say that frequent posting is important.  Similar experts describe the endless economic possibilities and boundless business upside associated with maintaining a blog.  Particularly if you're a CEO.  They'll tell you it's something you just gots to do...

So I did it.  Faithfully.  For a long time.

Was it valuable?  Well... yes and no.  For me, it's been valuable.  At the peak, I was getting close to a thousand unique visitors a day and several other industry blogs linked theirs to mine.  In the I'll-scratch-your-back-if-you-scratch-mine world of social media, I always wondered if those other bloggers really liked what I had to say... or whether they were just in search of reciprocity.  No matter, many flocked to my blog.  And many commented.  It was good.  For me.  At industry association meetings, colleagues walked up to me and said: "hey, I like your blog"... or even, on occasion, I'd get questions and feedback about something specific that I said.  I never exactly became an internet sensation, but my ego felt sensational.  A highlight came earlier this year when at a big conference for home care CEOs, a speaker, touting the benefits of social media, put up there in front of the ballroom my own blog front page.  He spoke, gushed actually, about how great my blog was.  My hits went through the roof for the next two weeks.  I received emails from strangers telling me how cool I was.  Nice.

But what's the business value?  How does this translate into real value for my organization?  That, I'm still not so sure about.  It might be there, but I've just not been able to mine it.  Yet.

That's why this isn't a farewell.  It's a time out.  I'm going to stop posting for a while and see if anybody misses me out there in cyberspace.

The world is changing and those social media experts, self-anointed and otherwise, might yet be right.  If so, I'll be back.

In the meantime, if you're in search of the best home care, hospice or private care services on the planet, check out www.bostonvna.org.

If you're looking for me, I can be found at rspadoni@vnab.org.

Thanks...