While I basked in the glow of being on the people to watch on friend feed for December 2008, and enjoyed a huge resurgence in traffic because of that, my 15 minutes of fame that lasted for 2 weeks is now pretty much so over with. What ended up happening is that recently there was a blogger spat on friend feed, where this blog was called lame, which is ok, in some respects and at times (depending on how hurried I am) it can be, the articles are not as well thought out as they could be, many people commenting on my grammar, at least I spell check.
The spat was between me and another more popular blogger, a blogger who carries a lot of weight and is fortunate enough to be able to influence a large group of people. What I am seeing is a direct correlation between the spat and the reduction in traffic, and comments, both here and on other social networking systems. The influence that larger more popular bloggers have reaches well past your immediate blog, and extends well into your social network as well.
If your goal for blogging and social networking is audience creation, then this is bad, if you goal (like mine is) is simply to have a good time and talk about the things that are important to you, then this can be an interesting view into how power and influence are generated between people, presence, persona and blogs.
There is no fault here, there is no blame, it is about influence, and how people use influence for the goals they wish to achieve, and the things they want out of why they do the things they do. For every blogger, there are things to remember here; why you do something is more important than what you are doing. Popularity and fame are fleeting in the blogosphere unless you have a plan on capitalizing on it right off the bat when you get your first experience with it. For those who are more interested in the dynamics, it is fun to observe, and see the influence that bloggers have on each other and each other’s traffic or standing in the blogging community.
For bloggers, well these things happen, you have to take them with a grain of salt, and bloggers just cannot make everyone happy. While blogger spats are common and even news site spats are common, the unintended consequences can reduce the reach of a smaller blogger who is just getting wind under their blog and achieving a certain amount of popularity. This is more of a clinical observation and what is intriguing about this is that there is a great object lesson for mid tier or lower tier bloggers here. The lesson is that in some ways you have to seriously pay attention to what more popular bloggers state in public. Private communications are one thing, but when it is on the internet for everyone to see, the ability to sway opinions matters. How you manage that relationship is going to be according to what you are comfortable with, and in line with your reason for blogging.
What is captivating to me at least, is that there is also going to be a correlation here between a general observation of “no negative blog entries about a technology”, or few negative blog entries about technology in the larger popular technology blogosphere. If the influence with a negative entry could be correlated to the negative entry for Techwag, and you could directly observe a 50% or more drop in traffic (that we have seen this week), that would be enough for a company to stop for a moment in social networking and blogs trying to spin as many popular bloggers to the positive side, and writing gushing reviews of products. Popular bloggers carry the weight to promote products or systems in such a way that they sway many people’s opinions, the ability to directly observe this with this blog is worthy of a case study in its own right. I will probably write one in about a month when the holidays are over with. The concept of power, influence, and the blogosphere is captivating, and there are so few opportunities to observe this process directly. There is much to be gained from this; it will be interesting to see where it goes.
Tags: 15 minutes of fame, over with, bloggers, a-list, b-list, c-list, humor, lame, observation, clinical, case study
I hope this is not true. I, for one, have been really enjoying your string of great posts, and have been sharing them like crazy on Google Reader. I’ve even considered blogging on the fact that you keep pumping out great content. That big blogger you reference is under a lot of pressure to be recognized as a leader in this space, explaining their actions. Let’s trade e-mail on this.
sure – I’ll drop you a note – but honestly, this is nothing that I am going to be annoyed by, personally this is one of the coolest things that could happen, honestly, I can’t learn unless it happens to me (don’t know why),
I have a background in org behavior and technology, this is about as fascinating and interesting and compelling as it gets, that is cool part, this is a learning opportunity for everyone. That is why I am so jazzed about this, huge opportunity to learn and grow. Can’t ask for more, totally happy, think this is cool, something more to talk about in social networking.
I will have to say I’m pretty ignorant of politics between bloggers .. I usually don’t notice stuff that happens until it is over. Often, that also means I focus on trying to rate a blog on its merits, instead of its popularity.
So, I’ve been enjoying your posts, although I have to admit that when you first appeared on my radar (in the aformentioned sites to watch list) I was a little off-putted that the blog didn’t seem to have any responsible person behind it.
Before I got heavily involved in social media, it used to be OK for me to find a good blog and not be that concerned by who was writing it.. but now I am a lot more sensitive to it — if a blog only has one or two writers, I prefer if they have a small bio on the about page. If the blog is bigger, like ReadWriteWeb, I like to see the author name on the articles.
Anyway, that’s my process. I just subscribed to your feed, but it will be hard for me to promote the blog if it continues to be completely anon-written.
Interesting – so the anonymous nature of the writing is off putting? That is also good to know, makes for an interesting thought along the way.
As people become more aware of the inherent risks to social networking – some need anonymity, while others do not. How does that influence what credence you give to the blog and the blog author? Is it content that sways you, or is the idea of noting having a name/face going to be of more importance in the longer run?
Admin – I don’t think it’s an either/or type of thing. And I think that anonymity can be handled in a more ’social media’ compatible way, say for example making a persona called “TechWag Head Honcho” or something, and making that persona have a presence on social media sites, etc.
Anyway, back to subject, I think the reason why I am more sensitized to it is because of the process I now follow when finding new content and ideas. I used to just go to a few web sites and read everything. Places like Gizmodo and Cool Hunting. Then I switched to Google Reader and started finding smaller blogs.
But for the last few months, with the immersion to social media, I follow *people* more than specific blogs. If I see a post from Rob Diana, either on his own site on Louis Gray’s site, I know I will want to read the whole post.
Also, as writers grow and gain influence, they often gain that audience first on blogs like TechCrunch, then they establish their own presence, and often invite other bloggers under their own umbrella. Witness The Inquisitr and Duncan Riley. He has invested his time and effort heavily in his name, and that name made the Inquisitr a popular site, where other writers stars are now shining.
So, to boil it down, I don’t necessarily think that you CAN’T be anonymous to be successful, but having a name to associate to a property is a must.
I’ll leave you with one last example: Corvida Raven. Did you know that was a pseudonym? She is as anonymous as you are, behind her pen name.
Phil, excellent argument, and making me think about how to do something like this. I have a number of agreements that I work under, and while I also blog under my real name in other places, adding my name to here is just not something I thought of doing. Didn’t think it mattered.
Dan,
I originally read this as a negative. It looked like you were going to give up, and or stop blogging. Yesterdays drama is long forgotten, this you know. That whole incident was silly. An ego we all know and respect had a meltdown. I don’t think that has anything do with your traffic being down, and In my opinion did not reflect negatively on Techwag. I’m glad you shed some positive light on this. I discovered you on FriendFeed many months ago, and glad that I did. Your writing is good and on par, people recognize this positively. Just as Louis shares your posts, I do the same. You put out quality and it’s recognized by many. The grammar police harp me on constantly as well, I’m no english major, but it does not bother me one bit at all Keep doing what you are doing, and don’t let anything or anyone stop you!
Mike
Mike, I will never give up, remember the post I put up a while back, follow the rules? Never admit defeat.
That fits with my personality perfectly. LOL!
Dan,
HA!, rock on bud
To heck with the “big shots” in the blogosphere. Outside the very tiny bubble of tech blogs no one knows them. And I think that’s what drives the school cafeteria like behavior. I wrote a post about this very topic almost a year ago to the day.
http://blog.awakenedvoice.com/2007/12/19/blog-titans-and-their-wolf-packs/
Hang in there and do what you love.
Dan,
You’re wrong about this.
I’m the one who caused the blowup, but I am still following you and reading you. It’s just that you haven’t written anything that caught our eye since our blowup. So, is it our blowup that caused the lack of attention, or is it that you just haven’t said anything interesting since then?
I guess it’s all my fault. Sorry, but this time I won’t take the blame. Last time? Yeah, I was an asshole. Sorry about that.
We’ll all forget this in a day anyway. Seriously, who here remembers Arrington’s drama last month? No one.
@Robert, totally agreed, and no not even looking for an apology either. I teach this stuff, every day, and I love it, it is like that, agreed on blow over, but this is a totally awesome case study in the influence of others, when I put together the case study from the comments on multiple systems you will see what I am thinking here.
Heck I follow you more than you follow me, been that way on for about 4 years or so now, I don’t expect that to change. I don’t look for traffic from you, I look for thought provoking and informative writing, you do not disappoint there.
Dan – I didn’t follow this drama because I was away from the box for a few days. What I can say is look at all of the attention Arrington’s post on PR is getting today. I find it completely ridiculous. Others that chimed in will soon realize it was very simply self promotional (in a variety of ways) and had very little else. One thing I have learned. The blogosphere (and people in general) have VERY short memories. Overall, it’s probably a good thing. Don’t sweat the details …. Keep writing!
A post like this is an excellent one-hit educator for a relative newbie (me) and is absolutely the crystallised reason why I find blogging so refreshing and honest right now. Then again, I’ve been in an ad agency environment for the last eighteen years, so I’m kinda callused. Love this post though. My introduction to you, via Jim Novo, and many thanks for the spitball honesty.