Meme generation, and thoughts about the old blog.
I’ve been noticing an effect here on the blog. You all know I work hard to be ‘first’ to a particular kind of eclectic story ... and you all notice I don’t seem to get any cred for it. My dominance as a meme generator ended in 2004, but most significantly in the months after Twitter opened the floodgates. My thousands of unique visitors a day dropped to below 500 within six months. In the last few months, a pattern has been becoming all too clear to me, a pattern that has been gradually becoming more clear since that time:
There’s now a social aspect to news.
I’ve seen this effect over and over again now. Being first to a story does not matter as much as posting a story when the social conversation is peaking. The story’s only important now when everyone else is talking about it. Even folks who I know read this blog regularly, will pick up and post a story I’ve reported days before from another source than mine - when it’s peaking in popularity. I felt it was a stab in the back, until I realized the importance of the social buzz. Folks seem to feel safer forming opinions and expressing opinions within a group environment, where the consensus can be built from multiple sources. Most importantly, however, building consensus opinion is now entertainment.
I was discussing this with Brian Tercero (Santa Fe’s Twitter powerhouse and Wordpress MU master) at a party the other night, and he suggested watching Twitter trends and perhaps delaying posts until trends peak to maximize reach. Traffic has never really been my goal, reputation and authority are ... but Brian laid out convincing argument that popularity, social trending and authority are now inextricably linked.
My ‘00’s romanticism of how weblogs should influence people is no longer accurate, nor is this ‘old school’ romanticism effective. This has been niggling at the back of my brain for a while, but this romanticism got laid out on the road and run over a couple of times Saturday night.
It was also mentioned by party host and occasional commenter ‘Eric of Santa Fe’, that one of the main reasons he frequents my blog is for Santa Fe news ... Santa Fe ‘flavor.’ I’ve gotten away from that a bit, and it needs to be restored.
So I’m going to be doing some experimenting here, watching my stats a little closer to see what trends within the blog. This blog is really an extension of my own wide-ranging curiousity, shaded a bit by what I know certain readers enjoy reading.
I picked up “The Four Hour Workweek” the other day, and though I have doubts about the ethics behind some of it (my brain screams ‘con’ at some of the chapters), I cannot deny the author’s contention that maximizing effectiveness is the way to go. This blog is not at all effective. In fact, it’s almost a living fossil, a coelacanth. Time to change things up a bit, narrow the focus, play to my strengths. I need to take into account how you all are absorbing your information.
Should I echo posts in Twitter? Use Twitter as a sideblog of sorts? Focus more on longer narratives? Local color? Emphasize art more than tech? More/less photography? Show you how I’m remodeling my house? Deemphasize politics? Add video? Do a podcast? Do all these things? None?
Let me know, if you have time in your busy days, what you come here for ... what you’d like to see here. I know what I’m planning to do (it’s a surprise), but I’d like input. I’m interested.
