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In my last post, I shared why I’ve taken a social media hiatus in August 2012 {short story: big business shifts ahead} and what I planned for my hiatus to look like {no Twitter or Facebook, limited email}.

I decided to keep a periodic diary of my hiatus so I could track how it went, and share my insights with you.

I’m currently on Day 19 of this planned 21-day hiatus. All in all, I’m emerging calmer in my nervous system, more centered around what it is I do and want to create in this next phase of my business, absolutely delighted to have discovered what actually works for me in terms of social media interaction vs. activity, and — missing you and this conversation.

Here’s a rundown of my escapades in social media hiatusland.

DAY ZERO

Tonight, before bed, I delete the Twitter and Facebook apps off my iPhone. I feel as if I’ve just deleted the bank accounts that hold all my money. Interesting.

DAY ONE

In my home studio, on my desktop PC: I take one more quick look at my Facebook business page and the private copywriting group I co-facilitate {sorry, writers, we’re all full for now} before logging out. I log out of Twitter, too, without even reading all of this morning’s @ replies. Wow. Unhooking from these platforms feels to me like wading out into a deep lake without a life preserver.

I keep grabbing my iPhone and automatically scrolling to the second home screen where my social media icons usually live. They’re not there, as I deleted them last night. I realize this with a sudden dull pang, each time, like I’ve swallowed a gust of wind and it lands in my stomach. Whomp.

Already today I am noticing how much more quickly I get shit done. I’m producing. I’m tearing through my Inbox, one email response to the next. {Nothing gratuitous or outside-of-business: these are emails I actually need to write and respond to.} I push out client deliverables easily, like making specialty sandwiches I’m really skilled at making. {Not quite.}

I feel more peaceful in my stomach, and inside my brain.

DAY TWO

My brain synapses feel {if they can indeed be felt} healthier and less frayed already. I am having thoughts — complete thoughts! — about my work that glide whole, in succession, into place, one after the other.

Between finishing one client deliverable and starting the next, I find myself thinking, “Oh, I’ll just check Fa – -,” “Oh, lemme check Tw – - .” And then I remember that I’m not doing that anymore. Not right now. And I get back to work.

Kind of amazing. But I did find a reason to InstaGram something yesterday.

DAY THREE

The ideas for this next iteration of my business, they have begun to zoom. I keep Google Docs and Basecamp open as tabs as I work on a client project, and it seems every 5 minutes I’m clicking over to add a new idea into one of them.

So this hiatus? Really doing my mind and emotions a world of good, and it’s only Day Three. It’s interesting, how insidious I’m seeing the *pull* of social media is for me. Granted, I haven’t had much time to work on my stuff because I’ve been doing client work, but my focus is so much there and I’m accomplishing everything faster.

I’m seeing that my way of using social media really was slowing me down, like adware or spyware running in the back {or front} of my mind at all times. Like a pop-up ad I could never make go away.

DAY THIRTEEN

My social media hiatus is going really well. My brain feels healed, actually. The constant pinging and bouncing back and forth from one interface to the next is gone.

Have decided I’m going to permanently revise the way I use social media, as I can clearly see now what’s distracting and useless and just activity, rather than adding value.

For instance, this is what’s true for me:

Adding value: Tweeting about my work, what I’m excited about, what peers and colleagues are up to that I want to bring attention to. Sharing business-related updates on Facebook 1-3 times a day and responding to comments once a day.

Useless activity: Tweeting every quirky thought that enters my head, just because I have working fingers and an empty box that can hold 140 characters. Scrolling through my Home feed on Facebook. And scrollingandscrollingandscrolling. Like. Scrollscrollscroll.

Adding value: Intentionally logging into Twitter 1-2 times a day, for 10 minutes or so at a time, to thank people for retweets, interact, answer questions. Checking out what peers and colleagues are up to on Facebook for business, Liking what’s genuinely exciting to me, and offering comments where I have something to add. Then getting the hell off.

Useless activity: Tweeting thank-you’s within 2 minutes of every share, and getting lost in back-and-forth convo for 20 minutes with whomever happens to be online at that moment {however much I like and appreciate them}. Doing this eight times a day. Bouncing from Facebook biz page share to the sharer’s blog, reading their blog post, reading the blog post they link to in that blog post, and — you know how it goes.

DAY 19

I notice that my Twitter followership has continued to grow at my usual rate even though I’ve been off of Twitter for two and a half weeks. And as per usual, about two-thirds of them look like quality follows, not spammers or people who followed after searching some rogue keyword {“sea salted sesame seeds, anyone?”}

Over the past couple days, I’ve caught myself missing Twitter and Facebook. I’m missing the feeling of being haphazardly folded into distant friends’ lives by virtue of a one-time digital connection, the click of an Accept, and I’m missing being in the loop of colleagues’ business plans {what’s Brit Hanson been up to?}.

I also miss the constant cameraderie of my private Facebook group for copywriting professionals, which I co-facilitate with Emma Alvarez Gibson. These ladies have been an incredible support and resource over the past several months. From afar, it feels to me like they’re all on vacation somewhere and I wasn’t able to make it.

My business plans have been progressing nicely. I’ve spent the majority of my hiatus energy working behind the scenes on the service I’m developing with a new collaborative partner, whom I’ll be sharing about soon. I’ve also spent several rich hours curating a file of inspiration images for the talented web designer who’ll be bringing the next iteration of my business’s visual identity to life.

And I’ve been doing lots of client work, still maintaining nearly a full-time production schedule while I’ve been social media-quiet, so emails, collaborating in Google Docs, and Skype sessions haven’t stopped. Rather, I’ve found that I have even more energy for creative work than I did before I ever went on hiatus. The work comes more quickly, with less effort, and the work seems — better.

DENOUEMENT

This hiatus, with two full days still left in it, has showed me exactly what my addictive patterns around social media use look and feel like. I can’t believe how much more relaxed my nervous system feels. I have more focus and energy for my personal life, too.

I have a structure in mind for how I’ll return to Twitter and Facebook next week once my hiatus is over. I refuse to act like the now-thin person coming off of a successful diet and resuming eating ‘whole hog.’ I’ve got to eeeeeaaaaase back in, retrain my brain to engage on these platforms in shorter, more intentional bursts, and take action quickly to log out once I’ve recognized that I’ve passed the point of diminishing returns.

All in all, what I’m recognizing is the story I’ve told myself so frequently over the last several years of creative self-employment {6 and counting!}: that’s there’s never enough time to get everything done.

That’s true if we’re staring at a dining hall full of everything. Business goals grow and the attendant tasks they require mushroom and multiply. And so it’s easy to distract ourselves from the whole enchilada in front of us by Twittering and Facebooking away the hours, groaning over our lack of perceived productivity.

One thing I’ve learned over the past three weeks is this: there’s enough time in any day to move any worthwhile project forward. And incremental forward progress is where it’s at.

This business shift I’m heading toward has been a long time in the making. If I could have future-cast this 6 years ago when I first opened my brick and mortar retail shop, I probably could have envisioned myself doing something exactly like what I’m now building behind the scenes.

What I couldn’t have predicted were the quality of the relationships I now have in place to make this happen. I finally have my right people. {And I’m getting ready to teach you how to find yours.}

Update since the last post — let’s work together in this season:

From today through October 2012, I have:

ONE ZERO Phraseologie Luxe spots available. I may have availability for the right smaller projects. Please email me at Abby {at} AbbyKerrInk {dot} com if you think you’ve got a writing project that may be a great fit.

THREE ONE Voice Revelation spot available. {Click the link, then scroll down the page ’til you see Voice Revelation.} Clients are reporting amazing breakthroughs from this intensive 1:1 work.

FIVE TWO + TWO = FOUR Voice Profile spots available. I’ve added two more spots for Voice Profile clients, my most popular {and currently lowest priced} service. Today there are 4 spots available before October. Is one of them yours?

Now, I’m going to schedule some tweets and Facebook postings of this article, then get the heck off social media for the next few days.

If you appreciated this article, I’d appreciate you sharing it with your audience. I’ll be checking back in with Twitter and Facebook on Monday the 27th.

In the comments, I’d love to know . . .

Have you ever taken a social media hiatus or digital hiatus? How did you know you needed one? What did you learn?

Photo: allaboutgeorge

{ 23 comments }

I’m taking a social media conversation hiatus for most of August 2012.

I’m entering full-on creation mode for the next phase of my business. It’s time to clean-slate my brain — at least the part that handles marketing content, online business conversation, professional connectivity, and all things having to do with the teaching and learning of skill sets that support an online business. {My brain will still be treated to daily doses of this story, which truly is as good as everybody’s saying.}

Here’s how I’m running my social media hiatus:

• logging out of Twitter and Facebook on both my PC and my Mac — and not logging in {this is key}. There may be a few pre-scheduled tweets to share current and vintage content, but nothing over the top. I will not be checking DMs, Facebook messages, or responding to @ replies. My VA will monitor public channels once a day to make sure everything is copacetic;
• deinstalling all social media iPhone apps;
• shutting off email notifiers on ALL devices, and
• refraining from logging into Skype outside of appointments that were scheduled pre-hiatus. No Skype chat.
• Exceptions: InstaGram for iPhone, which isn’t a rabbit hole for me. My Inbox, which I’ll limit to checking twice daily for no more than 20 minutes, including response time. Emails from clients and prospects will be tended to as always {quickly}. Friends know I’m hiatus-ing and say they’ll only reach out and expect a response if it’s truly acute {or, if they’re inviting me over for margaritas, in which case the answer will be yes}. For everyone else, my incredible virtual assistant will stand in the gap.

I’ll be working from coffee shops: my favorite suburban Starbucks where, if I’m lucky, I can score the big table for two-with-only-one-chair; the French patisserie downtown with the killer affogatos, and the Euro-inspired marketplace and café that plays a Pandora station I might’ve curated myself. {I’m less thrilled there when it’s Motown station day, which is forgivably not very often. Much love to all the Marvin Gaye fans.} I’ll also work from my home studio, and from long drives into the country, dictating into the Notes feature on my iPhone {but only when I’m the passenger}.

What I’ve been working on behind the scenes for the past few months.

A colleague recently asked me what has changed about my writing business since I began back in early 2010.

My answer? Lots of things: my income levels {in and out of flush, lean, and ‘status quo’ times, as I learned to balance out many factors of building and working a business on my own terms}, my portfolio of experience {to serving, in the beginning, mostly retailers and those connected to the boutique industry, to serving, today, life and business coaches, web designers, bread makers, yoga teachers, natural skincare product line owners, photographers, and dog trainers}, and my bandwidth {very little energy or tolerance for that which doesn’t truly serve me and my clients, and more depth of exploration where it matters}.

But most of all, what has changed since I began my writing business is my vision.

I started Abby Kerr Ink as a holistic, nearly full-service branding/copywriting/marketing outfit, a one-woman show. I had nearly 20 service packages, all with the requisite cute-and-hoping-to-be-memorable names.

I repeatedly sold 3 of the 20 packages, showing me clearly what my audience wanted from me.

After a year like this, I then narrowed my focus dramatically to explore service in one particular area: brand editing. {Remember The Lustermaker?}

Then, early in 2012, I opened back up to serve my market with a skill set that was highly sought after {organic SEO copywriting and brand voice development — oh, that fluid dance}.

Earlier this year, I wrote about my brand identity crisis and how you can go about resolving yours quickly, holistically, and without embarrassment . . . you know, should you ever find yourself in one.

Now, I’m both “niche-ing” more fervently and intentionally, while building my business model to draw on the talents and expertise of others who I madly respect {and would be referring my clients to anyway}.

I’ve never served my clients in a vacuum — I’m known for making strategic, fortuitous referrals and connections in the timeliest seasons for clients and others in my inner circle — and now I’m building that holistic point of view into my business model.

Less collaborative than it will be cooperative {less creative-splash-on-messy-workshop-table, more sinewy-limbed-contemporary-pas-de-deux,-pas-de-trois,-pas-de-quatre}, I envision a cadre of independent, highly skilled and gifted creatives who work independently around a shared vision and project goals: integrity, relationships, clarity, excellence, creativity, futuremindedness, and authenticity.

I’m neither a creative director, exactly, or a project manager, inadvertently — rather, I’m a powerful voice of one, looking to strategically complement other powerful autonomous voices.

For months, I’ve been in conversation and collaboration with a coterie of smart, gifted individuals — creative professionals all, from copywriters to web designers, a social {multi}media strategist/digital storyteller, a holistic-thinking searchologist, and a Swiss army knife of a virtual assistant. I’ve been, and am still in, the process of culling my right partners for this venture.

In October, Abby Kerr Ink — the site, the brand, and the business model — is re-emerging as a new entity.

It will have a new name, an energized and built-out focus on voice as a brand asset, and an enhanced suite of services and learning opportunities to make your online voice carry, connect, and convert. {Because if we’re running businesses, being online is about more than spinning endless loops of conversation, don’t you agree?}

I look forward to sharing more with you.

Meanwhile, it truly is your last chance to get my quite popular {but old, in internet land} 10-part e-course, Creating a Truly Irresistible Niche. I stand by this content 100%, even though it was written in a time and place in my business when I only could see so far down the road. It’s best for those who are just bringing an online business idea to the table and trying to figure out how to make their brand go, although the take on niche-ing is quite sophisticated and multilayered and can serve your business for the longterm. I still get weekly thank-you emails about this e-course from new subscribers. In a matter of weeks, the course will be pulled, revamped, and repackaged as a paid product.

If you’ve been thinking about working with me inside one of my current services, now is the perfect time to get started.

My clients have been having terrific results through working with me via the offerings below, and I’m not sure how these services will look {or how they’ll be priced} when my business relaunches. 

From today through October 2012, I have:

ONE ZERO Phraseologie Luxe spot available.

THREE ONE Voice Revelation spot available. {Click the link, then scroll down the page ’til you see Voice Revelation.}

FIVE TWO + TWO = FOUR Voice Profile spots available.

I would love to work with you in this season.

Thanks for reading. More soon.

{ 18 comments }

Dear RSS Subscribers –

Please excuse the accidental post you received from me by RSS on June 21st, 2012 called Protected: Fake Post for Illana. I accidentally publicly published it when I was trying to share a photo embedding issue with my techie friend. RSS grabbed the mistakenly published post and sent it out to readers before I could modify the setting.

Thanks to all who let me know about this tech snafu! I appreciate you and your readership. :)

– Abby

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Thank you to all who participated in this past week’s survey. I asked which of my 3 free e-course ideas would be most useful to you right now.

Here are the survey results:

92 people took the survey. More than half of those left some super insightful feedback around having a voice online. Thank you.
54.3% wanted Creating Relationships With Your Audience Through Language
29.3% wanted Noticing Your Own Brand Language
16.3% wanted Finding Your Voice Once You’ve Lost It

The next free e-course I’ll release will be — Creating Relationships With Your Audience Through Language.

This new e-course will be available for sign-ups very soon. Sign up here to get word as soon as it’s ready {you’ll start receiving my current free e-course on nichification, which is soon to be pulled from the market, when you do}.

And the winners — yep, didn’t stop at one — of the complimentary VOICE PROFILE are:

Naomi Niles

Leslie Forman

I chose these two because they are active and prolific online, and their offerings couldn’t be more different. Naomi is a user experience and user interface designer. Leslie connects entrepreneurs transcontinentally through translation, training, and trade.

Naomi and Leslie, I’ll be in touch with a few details about your VOICE PROFILE very soon.

One VOICE PROFILE client was concerned the other day that I might not be able to ‘read’ her voice because her archives aren’t very deep.

Truth is, I can read a voice from three blog posts, from static site copy, or from a Tweetstream alone. Even if you’re just starting out your online convo and ‘don’t have much to show for it yet’ — you actually do. That’s the cool thing about voice. It’s always with you — even in a single line of type. Click here to learn more.

In the comments, would you be willing to share . . .

What has been challenging for you around creating relationships with your online audience?

{photo credit}

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