April Horoscope, Belated Blogiversary, and I'm Drowning in Social Media.

April's Horoscope for us Cancerian types. Mercury goes direct on April 4. I can't wait. I have felt stuck in the mud for the last month.

I realized yesterday that the end of March was my blogiversary - I've been blogging for NINE years (and still get little traffic). And yet I keep doing it - it's somewhat theraputic at times, though lately I have been a blogslacker.

The reason Excuse of the Month: Social Media for Business. I'm freaking drowning in it. Maybe this stuff comes naturally to 20somethings, but I am finding creating a business profile on the web hard to do - it feels unnatural. After all, I blogged here for years relatively incognito, not using my full name or posting personal pictures, in an excess of caution. Now I'm basically REQUIRED to put myself on a half dozen websites with my face, name, email and contact numbers! It's...weird. I haven't found my business online voice yet. It'll come - and it will probably evolve into my irreverent and snarky normal voice - but right now I'm just clearing my throat and trying to figure out how I want to handle this.

I haven't even launched my Facebook page yet - I'm adding content as I see things that I think are interesting and/or useful, but that takes a surprising amount of time. I know that, too, will get easier as I figure out the best sources for information and entertaining content, but right now it's a time-consuming job.

And then there's the flood of email in my in-box every day. This morning I deleted 83 unread emails from various vendors who feel compelled to keep in touch with me on a near daily basis - and that's just the stuff that hit the in-box! The spam folder probably has the same load of crap. I spent some quality time this morning hitting various Unsubscribe buttons. I know who you are, if I want you, I'll come looking for you. Get out of my in-box. Delete. Deletedeletedelete.

And this brings me to my next issue/dilemma with Marketing Myself - it's standard practice in real estate now to put potential customers on drip campaigns - an automated program of mailings, usually via email (because hey, it's free). I have looked at many, and can't quite bring myself to set one up. I know how much I hate unsolicited crap in my own in-box, and I can't bring myself to market unto others in a way that annoys me when it's done unto me. Especially marketing MYSELF that way - it's one thing to email somebody an advertisement for the world's cutest dog collar, it's another to bombard them with YOURSELF. I feel weird about doing that, yet obviously I do have to do SOMETHING to get my name and contact information into the hands of potential customers!

Just for giggles, I've added a poll in my sidebar on the subject, and if you have any opinions or words of wisdom to share, please do!