Cat Got Your Tongue

I love blogging.  I love social media.  I am a twitter addict.  Addicted to Facebook too.  You name it, I seem to have the social media addiction and plenty to say on most web venues.  I sat down with the CEO of a web based company recently to talk about social media strategy for the new business.  Mr. CEO says to me- “you like to write.  I wouldn’t have anything to say.” 

Guess what Mr. CEO- writing isn’t necessarily an easy skill for lots of bloggers or social media gurus.  Sure, I have a journalism background, so I do have more writing experience than the average blogger, but there are many great bloggers who aren’t necessarily great writers and many writers who aren’t necessarily great bloggers. 

Blogging or interacting in any social medium takes practice, often more than skill.  You start, you bomb, you learn, you grow, find out what interests you and what interests your readers and it gets easier.  So you can practice, practice, practice, but even the best writers lose their words and don’t have anything to say sometimes.

Blogging block strikes again 

Yep, I go through this all the time.  Sometimes I can whip out a post in no time, other times I struggle for days, occasionally weeks, once or twice even for months.  As much as I dislike it, I am comfortable with the fact that blogger blocks happens even to the best of us.

So, all is good, blogging is going fine, until one day, I realize I have a new block.  A type of block I could never imagine.   A type of block I am not sure if I am comfortable talking about.  It is called…

The Twitter Block

Yes, the Twitter Block!  Have you ever had it?  Have you ever sat and stared at that little 140 character text box and realized you can’t think of a thing to say?   NOTHING.  You can’t even think to say the cat ate my tongue.  Twitter ate my tongue. No way!  I can’t think of 140 characters to say?

The curse of twitter. I have become so comfortable with Twitter, I just expect 140 characters to roll out.  Then block happens.  What if its not witty?  What if qwitter goes crazy as followers jump ship? Who created qwitter anyway? 

I don’t think I ever would have predicted that I might get Twitter block.  I had a couple of days where I would sit and lurk and watch what people were saying and I couldn’t think of a single thing to write.  I wasn’t sure how to get out of it.  Finally I realized I was trying too hard.  Twittering shouldn’t be forced.  It has to come naturally.   When all else fails, post a twitpic.  Just like a blog, pictures speak a thousand words.