Many moons ago, I was convinced by several someones that I really needed to start up a Twitter account. Not only would it be good for promoting my jewelry, it would help me connect with people, and I could then be a part of a brewing, top-secret plan. I hemmed and hawed for a long time, thinking about whether I really wanted to delve into this new media, what my feelings were about Twitter and the way that it enables connection... and I ended up caving in and opening an account. (I even had a small contest to help me figure out what to do with my name.)
After just a few short weeks, I gave up with Twitter. It felt utterly pointless to me. It felt like I wasn't doing anything but re-post what I'd already said somewhere else. Perhaps the audience was a bit new, but the content wasn't, and I ended up feeling like I was just putting out a stream of commercials (and, at that, commercials that I wasn't really sure anyone wanted to pay attention to).
Several months have now passed since I gave up on Twitter, and I feel guilty a lot about it, especially since I had such great help in finding a Twitter name. Did I not give it enough of a chance? Should I try again?
This morning, I read a great article about Stock & Flow (found through Megan's new CraftMBA site). The gist of it is that Stock is what we produce that has long-standing value, while Flow is the stuff we put out of a more temporary nature. Stock is the jewelry, while Flow is the blog. And there is a great string of comments after the article about how we've become overly adept at Flow, bogging ourselves down with all this temporary stuff, while not producing enough Stock to keep people around for a long time. As a result, everyone gets their 15 minutes of fame, and then they're totally forgotten. (I really recommend the article!)
And, suddenly, in reading the comments, it hit me why I really gave up on Twitter... It's an overflow of Flow. Because I don't quite understand Twitter enough and haven't become creative enough with it to use it in a way to keep people around longer, I only know how to put out the sort of drivel that doesn't add anything to the greater conversation.
Which isn't to say that Twitter is at fault. I think there are ways to use Twitter to great effect, i.e. when Russ tweets for @PathLessPedaled (our bicycle journey), which works because (often) there's a point beyond just driving folks to the website.
Anyway, this is a big rambling, round-about way of saying that I've finally figured out how to make peace with quitting Twitter. If you've been following me, wondering when I'll start babbling again, you can officially un-follow me. But, thanks for your support!
And I'm excited to have words for this nagging feeling I've had lately that I need to create more depth in my blog and my work, something more substantial that holds up over time.
Take a few minutes to scoot over to Robin's article. (Thanks Megan for pointing me to it!)
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