New Year’s Resolutions. We all have them, or at least most of us flirt with the notion of starting the new year with a fresh approach, a new goal or maybe just trying to avoid eating the cookies in the faculty room. I am no different in this regard. It’s been a while since I have posted here on ESM. In fact, way too long and when I took some time to reflect on why, I realized that I had over extended my social media self. Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, blogging. I had a social media presence just about everywhere and in fact, it became increasing more and more difficult to manage the time commitment, the amount of “chatter” and status updates. And honestly, I felt like I wasn’t really contributing anything to its fullest. Maybe I am the only one, but life gets really busy and every once and while, its nice to go outside and smell the fresh air.

SO…therein lies one of my New Year’s resolutions. I have trimmed the social media fat and reduced my participation to those networks that I feel I can most benefit from and contribute too. While I have kept my Twitter account active, I won’t be posting updates or checking to it any time soon. It has become just to much to try and sift through and while my personal blog has been a wonderful creative outlet, I feel that if I am going to blog, I should put forward my effort here at ESM where I can help contribute to the growing community of independent school folks eager and excited about how social media can transform schools and institutional advancement. So that leaves Facebook and Flickr. If you are interested in what I am personally up too, that’s where you will find me, and its in this small, teeny New Year’s resolution that I urge all of you to consider if you are trying to do too much?

For those of you have heard me speak on this topic, you know I believe that you should try to do one or two things really, really well. You can’t simply bolt social media onto your website and expect it to foster conversations, cultivate relationships and nurture participation. Just because you have it “all” doesn’t mean your are participating fully, and in fact, your message can become diluted. If some of the social media tools that have become so popular over the past 18 to 24 months don’t feel like a natural fit, don’t force it. Don’t dive in simply because the school across town has. Pick the tools that will help your school reach its goals and stay true to its mission.

There you have it, so in 2010, I for one choose to focus on quality versus quantity. Happy New Year.

Photo Credit: Optical illusion