Chancellor Emeritus

Twelve years ago this month, I rebranded this blog – which had started in 2006 as Lines from Lee and later evolved to the clunkier PR, New Media and GTD – Lines from Lee – as Social Media University, Global, or SMUG.

It’s time now (or rather past time) to reorient it based on the fact that my career has evolved far beyond anything I could have dreamed when I gave myself the title of Chancellor.

My idea was that through SMUG I would learn in public and invite others to come along for the ride. I would develop some curriculum categories, and other communications professionals who wanted to learn to use social media could use my example as a resource.

I had a lot of fun with it, and one of the best points was when people would greet me with my self-appointed title.

But then in 2010 my employer, in response to a proposal I helped to develop, created the Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media, which in 2015 became the Mayo Clinic Social Media Network (MCSMN). It was gratifying that this teaching role I had created for myself on my personal blog became part of my day job.

We provide learning resources for our Mayo Clinic staff to help them apply social media in their work, and also open membership – Basic (free), Premium and Corporate – to provide access to these resources to colleagues globally. Oe of the best parts is that we also learn from them!

So while Social Media University, Global was a lighthearted, tongue-in-cheek phrasing, MCSMN made that global vision a reality.

As a result, when I have written online about social media, I have been much more likely to do it on the MCSMN site instead of here. So after averaging 160 posts a year in 2009-10, since 2016 my SMUG post average has been… 3.

As of today I’m recognizing that reality, and will be coming up with a new name for this blog. I’ll probably keep the same domain name for a while at least: no one types URLs anyway, and it’s kind of a pain to switch. All of my previous posts from the SMUG era will remain available.

I don’t expect that my post volume will approach 2009 levels, but I will be a lot more regular in my blogging. Over the last three years I’ve been reading and learning a lot about health, diet and fitness that’s pretty radically different from what I had previously heard and believed.

It’s made a huge difference for me.

I’ll start telling that story tomorrow.

I’ll also use this space to write about other things I find interesting. That will be the common thread.

If you want to follow along, I’ll be tweeting links to new posts and sharing on Facebook. Or bookmark the site, and check in occasionally.

So as of today, I’m giving myself a new title: Chancellor Emeritus.