Reading habits
True confessions time: I no longer make use of my Google Reader. There are thousands of unread posts in there.
Somehow, about six months ago, I stopped culling RSS feeds and following certain people. Now, I just go to Twitter and follow tempting links from there. I cannot tell a lie: it’s so extreme a change that I’m not even faithful to Seth Godin anymore.
If I had more time, every day, to spend reading posts, it would be wonderful to keep up with everything. As it is, however, going fishing on Twitter (and sometimes Facebook) for an hour or so is all I can afford. Oh yes, and LinkedIn group discussions enthrall me for some time every day as well.
This keeps me up to date on many things, though the process mostly lacks the in-depth study that’s available through a Reader. In-depth is best when you have a chosen a path for learning; but using social networks and grazing blogs and articles relates well to plain old daily life.
It stumps me that we’re all urged to post to a blog daily, but no one really has all that much time to read. How can these opposites attract?
Blog as window
In my update course on social media marketing, we were talking about writing up a bunch of tweets for a client’s account, and helping them finesse the writing to make the tweets appropriate for the medium. Inevitably, social media and each of its channels has its own lingo or rhythm of speech and vernacular, which is a big part of its strength.
The respectful participant will observe and listen for a while before jumping in. They’ll ask the advice of experts. They’ll take steps towards learning the language.
While blogging is often promoted as central to online presence, many people still wonder what exactly blogging is supposed to be. It’s a web journal, okay. How intimate, how professional? Should it be personal, technical, or journalistic? It’s not easy to decipher blogging’s culture.
May I offer the thought that blogging is the articulation that comes when you’re looking out a window. Blogging is looking out through a window on your subject.
Unlike journalism, it’s a dance between your real self and the panorama.
Unlike a diary, it’s as factual as possible.
You are on one side of the window, your subject is on the other. And your reader is the glass.
Comments and SEO
Blogging. A strange concept. Flinging your moods and tirades out in public like so much laundry on the line.
Only a tiny percent take on such a challenge, no matter how crucially necessary the experts tell us that blogging may be. It is both a tedious chore and an immense privilege.
As shown on Jonathan Fields’ Awake at the Wheel today, there’s a lot of confusion about the nature and value of this particular kind of communication.
To my mind, the ultimate worth of blogging is the creation of community. Some blogs have accomplished this; most have not. It’s easy to feel alone and scared as a blogger, posting day after day with no participation from other people.
One reason to comment as much as you possibly can on blog posts is that the courage (chutzpah?) and determination of the author are noteworthy, if nothing else.
But an even better reason to respond regularly to blog posts is that your comments are indexed quickly and prominently. Solely by virtue of commenting, you can find yourself on Google’s first page for the given content with amazing speed.
In short, it’s hard to beat the SEO of commenting. Do it today, okay?!?
