Well, my holiday social media hiatus is over. Every year I feel the need to shut down and get away from the computer as much as I can to re-boot. I still start to feel a bit of anxiety about how my social footprint suffers when doing so. Such is life.
So here’s my new outfit. I’m using what I think is the most fantastically simple, clean and amazing theme I’ve come across yet. The Standard theme is wonderfully minimilist, yet loaded with options and the ability to customize. I spend countless hours looking at and researching WordPress themes, and considering I invested quite a bit in a custom design last time around, it took a pretty special theme to convince me to use it.
So it’s still a work in progress, so bear with me as I unwrap a few more customizations over the next few weeks. My goal this time around was to really simplify my blog, and go with a look that was focused on the content, and more clear on who I am and what I do. Trust me when I say I went back and forth on my tagline “social pro”. I thought maybe I was entering borderline social douchebag territory, but the fact is, I feel my experience and work history warrant calling myself a “pro”. Plus it’s painfully simple and lets people know exactly what I do. Feel free to disagree of course!
I look forward to seeing what 2012 has to bring and continuing to write about my experiences and helping others as much as I can when it comes to social marketing and tech.
More to come soon!
Test comment.
As I ponder becoming a more active promoter of myself (sigh…), I find myself considering the “social douchebag territory” you mention. While I’m completely comfortable with being considered a douchebag by close friends and family, I’m not entirely found of expanding my public online persona in a way that will earn me that distinction. At the very least I want to deliberately be a douchebag only when its called for. I’m curious, since you seem to have considered it, if you have some general guidelines that you work buy to avoid squandering your influence online.
Hi Trevor. Thanks for stopping by and sharing. Ultimately for me it’s about my communication style and my blog posts. If people take the time to read through a few of them, I think any preconceived notions of social douchebaggery are quickly squashed. I felt I had reached a point where I had built enough social credibility that I could be a bit more bold in identifying myself as such.
Hey Jason, I’m just curious what were the runner up themes in your decision among other themes? Did you only look at theme frameworks or a mix of frameworks and pre-styled themes?
Good question. I was actually considering the Pixel Power theme over at Themeforest.net heavily, but once I found the Standard theme, I was sold. I was looking for something that was a bit more minimilist, and coded cleanly without the need for having to use a lot of plugins. I’ve already noticed a substantial difference in site loading times.
Having a social media hiatus is definitely a good thing; disconnecting from the Web and all forms of digital technology can be difficult for most of used to 24-7 access.
I witnessed this first hand on a family vacation to Disneyworld a few days ago. While waiting in the never ending line-ups to some of the theme rides it wasn’t uncommon to see people totally engrossed with their smartphones, presumably posting Facebook status updates, Tweeting and texting. In one line-up I recall overhearing a man, with toddlers in tow, take a business call and discuss financial reports with one of his colleagues.
It seems the convenience of the mobile Web means you’re never more than an arm’s length away from social media (and the office), so taking a true hiatus becomes almost impossible unless rigorously self-imposed.
Great timing on your post Darryl. I’m actually headed to Disneyland later this month and hope I can pull myself away from everything as much as I can. Wishful thinking.