So I spent some time over the holidays looking back over my blog, my tweets, my status updates and the like, basically, reviewing all the places I'm active online and, well, it turns out I'm really not that active at all. Or at least I'm less active than I used to be.

Am I surprised? Nah, not really.

The truth is, last year was an amazingly good, but challenging year for me at Voce. We won several big accounts. We grew our team. We formalized partnerships (and forged new ones). We innovated. And where we could, we shared what was working. And amidst all of this, I must admit, I felt an increasing need (really, a responsibility) to focus whatever extra attention, energy and know-how I had on my projects, my clients and my teams.

As a result, I went dark online.

But here's the other truth: My insularity was also influenced by my frustration with the signal to noise ratio, especially around social media consulting. When everybody's talking and acting like they're the experts, the last thing I wanted to do â€" really, the last thing I could do â€" was to try and show my expertise by shouting the loudest or talking the longest. That doesn't help anyone, plus, you know, I don't want to be that guy. Also, it bears mentioning, after reading stuff like this, it just begs the question:

Who's *really* benefiting from what I share here?

That answer used to be "me," it was a place where I could kick around my own actions and ideas and either through reflection or dialogue, I could learn something. Maybe share something too. And while I haven't exactly given up on that, nowadays, I look at my site metrics, and the comments and the links and I see an awful lot of my competitors here. Fortunately, I see a lot of my colleagues, my partners, my clients, my business prospects and my recruiting candidates here too, which is motivating.

So, am I giving up on this blog?

Nah. This year marks my 5th year blogging and there's much I'm still admittedly learning, and much still I'd like to explore further here â€" be it with my colleagues, clients, competitors or otherwise. I think the reality of the economy we're in and the responsibilities I have will just dictate the frequency of things. I'm gonn'a try, however, to get a couple of posts up per month and be a little better about up leveling the discourse and debate in this industry â€" including calling bullshit when I see it...

In between, I'll be right here, oh and here, here, here, here, here, here, and here, so, you know, easy enough to find.

So with that I'll just say...more to come. Happy new year, folks.