I've been catching up on my blog reading these past few days and I've noticed that most people have some sort of resolution list - whether relating to their blog behavior or their off-line life. My intention is to take a bit of a different tact and reflect on why I even started this blog 1.5 years ago and renew my commitment to those intentions.
1. Force Myself To Be Informed - A major reason why I started my blog was a selfish one - to force myself to stay current, read incessantly and keep in touch with the marketplace. Not that I needed any motivation to stay focused on what I love, but I thought that having a perspective on what's happening in our business would somehow allow me to keep my saw sharp. This holiday break, I've re-configured my reading list into the all-powerful Google Reader to become, what Steve Rubel calls, a Knowledge Management Ninja.
2. Contribute To The Advancement Of Our Craft - I hope to offer valuable perspectives and opinions against the quickly-changing craft of marketing & advertising, that in some small way, makes a difference. Whether someone is doing research for a brand brief or a school paper, I hope to provide them with a nugget or thought that helps them along. In all honesty, my post velocity has dropped off over the past few months for a variety of reasons but I resolve to quicken the pace over the coming year. I don't know if it was writer's block or a falling off of the passion to post - but whatever it was I feel like my head is back in the game. When I'm out in the market place, I hear myself saying " I need to write about that" more than in the past few months. So for all you people from Poland and Moscow that are visiting my blog on a regular basis, thanks for coming and I promise to keep up.
3. A SoapBox For My Experiences - Throughout 2007, I found myself writing about bad customer experiences on my blog, whether Comcast, Lexus or Luna Carpet - my blog was my outlet for letting the world know I'd been wronged by a brand. And, in some small fantasy way, hope that management from those brands would see that I'd been affronted and hopefully change their customer service strategy moving forward. I'm big into great brand experiences and vow to write more about the GREAT ones and be less of a bitch-session on this blog.
4. Build Brand Marobella - Sure, let's face it - most people that start blogs and spend time away from their families, friends or work writing on their own personal space have a selfish agenda. Some more than others, of course, but I have always felt that writing about our business was something I wanted to do. Someday, I hope to pen a book about marketing and/or advertising and I thought writing a blog would be a good first step. Or maybe the topic for the book would be borne out of my writing. I also love to write editorials for trade magazines and other blogs and by writing here, it has helped raise my awareness.
5. Meet Cool People - One by-product of writing this blog has been that I have met some super-cool people that I probably wouldn't have met otherwise. I have had people from all around the world reach out to me and offer to meet when they are in Chicago or when I am in their town. Just to talk about our business. I've met people that I've written about and others just seeking out good business conversation. I hope that doesn't end because it really is the best part of spending time writing this blog.
[wire] stone is uniquely ranked on both Top 50 lists for BtoB and Advertising Age's Integrated Marketing and Interactive Agencies. We're also in the top 2% of marketing services agencies in the United States ranked by billings. 
