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What’s the State of Your Blogosphere?

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Last night, I attended the keynote address for Blogging Success Summit 2011, an online event being organized jointly by BlogWorld and Social Media Examiner founder Michael Stelzner. The speaker was Richard Jalichandra, CEO of Technorati, and his presentation was on the state of the blogosphere. He talked about how blogging has changed since 2008, the trends he sees continuing in 2011, and more – and for me, it was really interesting to see a statistical breakdown of what people read and how people share information.

Technorati publishes a report on the state of the blogosphere every year, and it is definitely recommended reading for anyone hoping to make money online. But I want to suggest that you take it a step farther and do your own annual study. What’s the state of your blogosphere?

See, what makes the Technorati study great is that they poll tons of people from around the world and across every industry to get their results. That’s also its downfall, though. If you’re someone who blogs about social media, your audience might think slightly different from the audience of a blog about fashion, and both of you might have readers who differ from the general public represented in the Technorati study. While few bloggers have the ability to poll thousands of people from across the world in an official, controlled study, that doesn’t mean you can examine your piece of the blogosphere and use the results to increase the effectiveness of your blog.

The Power of Many

You aren’t in this alone. Although every blog has a slightly different audience, there are probably blogs in your niche that have a very similar audience to your own. Team up to do your study! If you send out a survey to your mailing list or post it on your blog you might get, say, 10% to respond. But if 10 bloggers do it and you all get 10% to respond, you’ll have a large group represented. Doing a study of your audience’s habits and needs only benefits you has a blogger, so there’s really no reason for your peers not to jump on board if you approach them with this proposal.

Questions

So, ok, it’s a good idea to poll your audience – but what do you ask?

While some of the questions you ask might be specific to your niche, it makes sense to ask a ton of more general questions, like the ones found in the Technorati report (or similar to the ones found in the Technorati report).

  • Do your users use social media? What are their favorite sites?
  • How many of your readers are bloggers themselves?
  • Do your readers feel that blogs are as trustworthy as traditional media like newspapers?
  • How many of your readers use feed readers?
  • How many of your readers subscribe to their favorite blogs via email?
  • Do you readers get email newsletters?
  • How likely are your readers to comment on a blog post they like?

Asking these questions might produce some eye-opening results. For example, maybe over half of your readers prefer Facebook over Twitter, and you don’t even have a Facebook page. Or maybe most of your readers prefer receiving email newsletters, but you don’t offer one. Or maybe very few of your readers use YouTube, yet you’ve been concentrating on making videos. This list is, of course, just a small sampling of the questions you can ask, but by keeping them general, you can adjust what you’re doing as a blogger rather than focusing only on what you’re doing in relation to your niche.

The Dreaded Essay Question

If you want to get people to respond, you have to either 1) offer some kind of prize, discount, or giveaway for those who answer the questions or 2) keep it short and simple. Usually, it pays to do both.

But, at the end, I’m a big fan of having an option essay question. People who are in a hurry can skip it, but your most voal audience members will respond. What should you ask them?

Be pointed (if you just say “Any comments?” people won’t know what to write), but give them the chance to talk without having to be too specific with an answer. Ask what frustrates them about blogs, what they love about blogs, and what they wish to see in the blogs they read. Their answers won’t be something you can chart on graph paper, in most cases, but reading these comments can give you a better understand of what your readers are thinking. Sometimes that’s better than percentages and charts.

Sharing is Caring

After you compile the results, share them! Don’t just share them with the other bloggers who participated. Post them on your blog or create a downloadable report so that others can see the state of your blogosphere. Part of what I loved about the Blogging Success Summit 2011 keynote is that Richard was so open and willing to share the results. Undoubtedly, Technorati does these reports because they benefit their company, but the blogging community is all in this together. Sharing results makes the entire blogosphere stronger.

Will I see you at future Blogging Success Summit 2011 presentations? There’s still time to sign up to participate, and you’ll get recordings of any presentations you may have already missed!

Mashable Gets A Face Lift

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Today as I was going through some Twitter links that I open in tabs on Firefox, I came across a post that someone had sent me written on Mashable.  I immediately saw a difference in the way the blog looked and read and the overall scheme.  I thought I was reading it through a weird reader or something.  I normally read Mashable with Google Reader in my own time, and normally never actually make it to the site for a look at the real deal.  I immediately asked my Twitter community if I was on a fear and loathing type trip and Jennifer Van Grove and Shannon Paul were quick to end my anxiety.  In fact, it was revealed today Mashable’s new look. I wish I had taken a screen shot of it at the time I saw it because it was clean and devoid of advertising if I remember correctly and it looked very cool.  No I am not saying it doesn’t look cool now it was just clean sans ads.

We are implementing some early stages here of a new look and feel and we will be unfolding those shortly.  I am not sure of the application or whether there will be any significant changes other than certainly our UI and the simplicity of the blog to gear up for our new push for content.  Good job on the changes over at Mashable guys, I am jealous of the coolness factor!

UPDATE:  I knew I was going to forget something important, like the name of the company that did their redesign.  Here is their announcement.  Great job by the people over at nclud.

TechZulu Talks BlogWorld & New Media Expo

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Just wanted t get this interview on the blog as Amanda Coolong does a great job talking with Rick Calvert about the experience at BlogWorld & New Media Expo.


Watch Rick Calvert – BlogWorld Expo 09 in Tech & Gaming  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

I am hoping to get some of these interviews doen myself this year as we travel around to the events and talk with organizers, attendees and speakers at shows we are attending. Thanks to the folks at TechZulu and Amanda!

TechZulu Talks BlogWorld & New Media Expo

Author:

Just wanted t get this interview on the blog as Amanda Coolong does a great job talking with Rick Calvert about the experience at BlogWorld & New Media Expo.


Watch Rick Calvert – BlogWorld Expo 09 in Tech & Gaming  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

I am hoping to get some of these interviews doen myself this year as we travel around to the events and talk with organizers, attendees and speakers at shows we are attending. Thanks to the folks at TechZulu and Amanda!

Did Ashton Kutcher Exploit The Children Of Africa?

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While searching for other blog posts about the recent hubub over the hypothetical possibility of Oprah Keynoting BlogWorld this year, I came across another post that stunned me and brought a whole new perspective to Kutcher’s million Twitter follower quest that I hadn’t considered before.

Blogger Clement Nthambazale Nyirenda has a post accusing Kutcher of exploiting the children of Africa in order to be the first person with one million followers on Twitter.

You really need to read the entire post before commenting, but I would sincerely appreciate your comments when you have read Clement’s post as well as this one.  For now, here is an excerpt:

Ashton Kutcher, an American based actor, is trying to use the Malaria problem in Africa in his quest for personal glory.  It all started when Ashton Kutcher challenged CNN for  Twitter supremacy. As I write, the online community is abuzz with Ashton’s competition with CNN to see who can be the first to attract 1 million followers on Twitter. Ashton has vowed to donate 10,000 mosquito nets to at-risk families in Africa on World Malaria Day if he wins the race by April 25. As a result, many people on twitter are following him simply because they think that by so doing, they are helping in the fight against Malaria in Africa.

I, for one, am completely against Kutcher’s motive. Why should I follow him on twitter for him to release the nets to folks who are suffering in Africa? This guy wants to use Africa for his own fame.

After reading the post, it took a moment for everything to sink in. Did Kutcher exploit the children of Africa?

I quickly concluded it was quite the opposite and wrote a long comment on Clement’s blog. At the end of that process it brought me back to the hue and cry from the Twitterati that Kutcher’s drive to one million was a sham and against everything Social Media stood for.  That still doesn’t sit right with me. I have said before and I will say it again, I think @aplusk absolutely gets new media and certainly as well as any celebrity who has crossed over into our world.

Yes, his one million followers dwarfs one of Twitters earliest adopters and champions  Robert Scoble (82,000 followers). It makes Jason Calacanis’ drive to become King of Twitter look like childs play.

But didn’t Kutcher just prove something that many have been saying about Twitter and Social Media all along?

Didn’t Kutcher just leverage his celebrity and social media to raise awareness and money for a worthy cause?

Isn’t it very similar to what @amanda did with the amazing Twestival event, but on an entirely different scale?

Starting as one person’s idea, Twestival involved tens of thousands of people and raised over $250,000 for worthy causes.

Kutcher’s drive to a million Twitter followers started as one person’s idea and raised $300,000 with just two checks. One from him and one from Oprah Winfrey. It also involved well over a million people in the social media space and millions more in the traditional media world. The CNN coverage alone was immeasurable to Malaria No More.

The cover of their website says it all:

marlianomorescreengrab2

Some are saying celebrities’ new found fondness for social media will ruin it, but they are simply wrong. It will certainly bring a new set of problems that we will have to find ways of dealing with. There will be clueless celebs just as there are clueless businesses and other clueless people who try to use these tools the wrong way. As Beth Harte suggests, we should call them on it when they do.

But the biggest take away from all of this is that celebrities’ adoption of social media is a sign of the beginning of the beginning of new media reaching its full potential.  Adam Kmiec does an excellent job pointing out the pluses and minuses of the mainstreaming of new media much better than I can here.

Bottom line.  The change we have all been espousing for so long is finally coming. This is a good thing for all of us.

Here is the comment I left on Clement’s blog:

Wow your post may have been well intentioned Clement but you couldn’t be further from the mark.

Ashton Kutcher doesn’t need to donate 10,000 nets to Africa or $1 to anyone to raise publicity for his goal of reaching one million followers on Twitter. He could have done that without you, without the nets or anyone else.

Instead what he chose to do was use the occasion to make a very significant donation to a very worthy cause. You should be very grateful he chose a cause close to your heart instead of someone else or none at all.

Furthermore he just raised awareness of this problem to not just the one million people who followed him on Twitter, but the millions more who watched him on Oprah and all the publicity raised on CNN and every other news outlet in the world that covered this story.

This may have been the biggest publicity this cause has ever received and it is all due to Ashton Kutcher. Yes he could have given the money to buy these nets without ever mentioning it. He could have given the money anonymously. He certainly comes off as the type of guy who would do just that. But if he did that what would you have? 10,000-nets. No millions of other people now being aware of this problem and donating $5 and $10 here and there. No world wide publicity raising awareness of this issue.

What Ashton Kutcher did for the children of Africa was far greater in value than just give money; he gave you something very few people in the world could.

And what is his reward for doing so? You didn’t just look this gift horse in the mouth, you spit in his face.

I humbly suggest that you seriously rethink your position.

What’s your take?

Two people I greatly admire have weighed in on the implications of the great Twitter Race.

Jeremy Owyang’s take here.

Brian Solis may have the best post on this seismic shift yet.

Social Media Shrinks the Planet and Enlarges Our Lives

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Social Media has so many facets; it’s impossible to cover them all in any one blog post, or even any one BOOK.  Yes, we make friends online.  Yes, we run businesses online.  Yes, we ask and get advice online.  Yes, we make purchases online.  The list goes on and on.

For me, personally, one of the most awesome things the internet – and I hang out mostly in the Blogosphere and on Twitter – has to show and teach us is that this earth of ours is populated by real people, the vast majority of whom are very nice people.

Not only that: the internet makes us all better people by giving us living proof that even though people might be of different cultures, ethnicities, political stances, races, and any other category that might come to anyone’s mind, we all have something to give each other and teach each other and show each other that will enhance and enrich each other’s lives.

The Blogosphere also proves to us that people whose lifestyles are different from ours, even to the extreme, are really still just people who have more in common with us than either of us thinks.

By peeking through each other’s windows, via social media, we can see that we are all just, well, nice people with much to offer each other, different though our personal viewpoints on certain issues might be.  We make each other smarter and better and nicer by reading what other people have to say.

In our “real” lives, many of us don’t have the opportunity to meet people who are “different” from us.  In the Blogosphere, however, we are all sitting on each other’s sofas and there is much we are all learning from each other.

I think one of the main things we are all learning is that we really aren’t THAT different from each other, and that no matter what kind of opinions and occupations and lifestyles we might have,  we are all trying to make a living, have fun, raise children, deal with problems, pay bills, and deal with life.

I firmly believe that the more we know about each other – the more interaction we have with people – the more we will realize that we are all much more alike than we are different, and this is a very good thing indeed.

The Parenting Blogosphere: A REAL Reality Show in Progress

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bellezappa There are TONS of parents in the Blogosphere, and none of them knows everything about rearing children.

(One raises alfalfa; one rears children.  Semantics, semantics, semantics. . . .)

However, we all know SOMEthing about rearing children, and if you put all of the “somethings” together, we just might have everything.  Maybe.

It’s not just parents with young children who live in the Blogosphere, you know.  There are also older parents whose children are grown and gone, but these people are parents, nonetheless!  Often, these experienced parents are the missing link when it comes to the combined forces of the Blogosphere knowing “something” and knowing “everything!”

For someone like me, for example, with grown children and a shipload of experience but no takers in my real life, blogging about the joys and sorrows and delights and frustrations of raising children is a cathartic thing, with a lot of the bad memories miraculously and conveniently erased.  But to a young parent, some small thing I mention might make a world of difference!  I hope so, anyway.

This applies to many areas, of course, but parenting is the most important job in the world, so it is the one I am thinking about right now.

When my children were babies, and toddlers, and all the way on up to now, all I had to help me were pamphlets and relatives.  Much of what I learned from these very limited resources was viable, but so much more of it just, well, wasn’t.  It would have been wonderful to have, at my fingertips, a wealth of OTHER parents who were learning, as do we all, by trial and error, themselves.

Blogging parents will always have someone to ask, someone to tell, someone to admonish, someone to thank, and someone to fall back in abject horror at the very THOUGHT of being like that.  Often, a bad example is also the best example.

The Blogosphere.  Now, that’s a reality show I could go for.

P.S.  Those are MY children in the picture.  My beautiful, beautiful children.

REAL Bloggers KNOW. We Just. . . KNOW.

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When I first started blogging back in 2004, a lot of others started right about the same time.  A lot of those people aren’t around any more, but those who are?  Most of them are my friends.  We’re friends for many reasons, and when I say that we are “friends,” what I am actually saying is that these people and I are. . . FRIENDS.  Yes, THAT kind of friend.  The real kind.

Why is that, you might ask, and well you might.  The answer is simple.

We are friends because we have something in common.  We KNOW what it is to be a blogger.

Real bloggers aren’t transients.  They don’t get all excited about starting to blog, write a couple of posts, get tired of it, and drop out.  REAL bloggers are here for the duration.  REAL bloggers love blogging so much, we’d rather sit at our computers and participate in blog-stuff than. . . well, than do almost anything else!  REAL bloggers have to watch the clock carefully, lest we ignore important real-life things.  However, REAL bloggers know how to do that!

Real bloggers go to conventions and meet each other.  Real bloggers sprinkle terms like “Twitter” and “Stumble” and “Jim Turner” in their casual conversations with each other.  Real bloggers shake their heads in pity when they encounter people who respond to perfectly legitimate questions like “What’s your Twit SN” with nothing but a blank stare.  I mean, what’s UP with those people?  Why don’t they KNOW?

Bloggers know that the Blogosphere is a real neighborhood; there’s nothing make-believe about it.  Bloggers know that the Blogosphere is inhabited by PEERS, and in the Blogosphere, peers don’t have to be the same age, or even the same generation.  If someone is a real blogger, he/she KNOWS.  Bloggers are peers.

Real bloggers don’t live in fantasy-land, online.  We have OTHER lives, too.  Usually, bloggers have very full and fulfilling lives both online and off.  It’s fantastic, really, the way real bloggers perceive the universe!

Bloggers’ children grow up in public.  The Blogosphere knows how everybody’s kids are doing in school, who won the spelling bee, who struck out in tee-ball, and who had a dental appointment yesterday afternoon.  Bloggers sympathize, and congratulate, and remember birthdays.  Bloggers are people who show up for school conferences, and pack wholesome lunches for their kids, and aren’t easily taken in by advertisements and scams.  Bloggers, on the whole, are definitely above-average people.

There are new bloggers every day, and I welcome them with open arms.  However, it’s the bloggers who are in it for the long haul, who will STILL be blogging five years from now, and ten years, and twenty, who interest me the most.  I have a lot of friends in the Blogosphere, and I want them to stay. 

Then again, those whose hearts aren’t really into blogging probably aren’t comfortable in the Blogosphere anyway.  Some of them claim that they’d really like to blog, but they just don’t have time.  Sorry, but real bloggers don’t buy that excuse.  Real bloggers MAKE time.  Take a good look at the time-clock on most blog posts.  Does the term “night owl” ring a bell?

That’s because real bloggers KNOW.  We know.  And we love it.

Blogging: Not Just For The Young!

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Not only am I a blogger, I’ve BEEN a blogger since April 2004;  I’m no newcomer!  If I may say so, I know whassup with the Blogosphere.  I have several hundred blogs in my blogrolls and readers.  Not only do I blog for myself, I blog for several clients as well.  I read everything I can find about blogging, the Blogosphere, Blog Conferences, and blogs in general, and while it is true that many bloggers are between 18 and 35, I will have to stand up and challenge anyone who claims that the Blogosphere is inhabited mostly by the young.  I know for a FACT that there are Blogosphere neighbors who are, shall we say,  more than just a little bit to the right of the age timeline median mark.

I know this because, not only am I one myself,  I know of definite OTHERS!  I’ve blogged with them, commented with them, MET them in Los Angeles and Chicago at BlogHer, talked with them on Skype and Google Chat and even the (remember this?) telephone! We’re on FaceBook and MySpace together, and we often exchange ideas on Linkedin and Twitter.  We Digg and Stumbleupon and Reddit, and we think social media is absolutely del.cio.us.  Some of us even know about (shhhh) Bit Torrent.

Yes, the Blogosphere is filled with young parents,  and young entrepreneurs, all sharing advice and information, but that same Blogosphere is also filled with older people whose children are grown and gone, and whose businesses are thriving, or were thriving – or not – who can offer invaluable advice to young parents and others who are now where older bloggers once were. The Blogosphere, like any neighborhood, is teeming with people who know, and people who need to know!  Online, we come together.  Online, we can meet and help each other in ways that just aren’t possible in our “other” lives.  No matter where we fall, chronologically, we all love to meet each other, and blog expos and blog conferences are some of our favorite things!

We older bloggers are not interested in Geritol, Assisted Living ads, denture adhesive, insurance, orthopoedic shoes, funeral directives, Depends, bland diets, and articles on how to entertain grandchildren.  I mean, we ARE, but mostly, we’re not.  Please, marketers, do not insult us with such assumptions or stereotyping!  Older bloggers are interested in the same Blogosphere “things” as everyone else:  where to find deals on SD cards,  funky forums, movies, books, laptops, HDTV, wireless digital picture frames, new cars, WordCamps, Amazon, eBay, cool recipes,  blog conferences ( a huge percentage of BlogHer participants were over 40!), cool electronics, fashion, the environment, crafts, education, and humor!

Blogs, blogging, blog conferences, and the Blogosphere itself are not inhabited by one age group only.  Like any interesting neighborhood, the Blogosphere has neighbors of all ages, ethnicities, backgrounds, personalities, and temperaments. 

The important thing is, to be a part of that Blogosphere!  There is definitely something for everybody there.

WE Are the Village!

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I think sometimes that if there had been blogs when I was raising my children, I might not have made quite as many mistakes.

Often, during those years, I felt very isolated.  I was sure that nobody else was feeling the same emotions, having the same problems, trying and failing at so many things, when it came to parenting.  I felt like I was the only one, struggling with this and that, with my babies, and later with my children.  I was embarrassed to ask some questions, because I knew that nobody in the universe could possibly have my same problems.

I used to wish that there was some place where I could find a lot of advice and sure-fire plans to help me.  I used to wish that there were people who had BEEN there, who could share their successes and failures; word of mouth is stil the most believable way of selling anything, and advice has to be sold, you know.  We SAY it’s :given,” but if it’s not packaged and presented juuuuust right, nobody will take it.

I was given pamphlets and booklets and diagrams and videos, but what i needed was something else, someONE else, someone who KNEW.

Sure, there were relatives who were laden with advice.  Friends, who had a lot of advice.  Some of it was good, too, and just as much of it was horrible.  And the “supply” of relatives and friends was limited, so limited, there was no way their experiences could help me with very many of the problems and questions I had.  Besides, they were, well relatives.  And friends, however beloved, don’t always agree with our own parenting methods or theories or needs.

The Blogosphere has changed all of this, and changed it drastically, and changed it for the better!  For every question or problem a blogger posts, there are potentially millions of people who have BEEN THERE, and somehow survived, and who therefore have believable and practical advice for a young parent who is wondering, puzzled, or even at the end of his/her rope.

For parents, some small thing some other parent mentions, that OTHER parents comment on, might make a world of difference.  Bloggers have created a neighborhood of trust, friendship, and advice that really counts because it comes from people who really do know.  They KNOW.

It takes a village to raise a child?  Bloggers, WE are the village!

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