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Notes from #blogchat – Open Mic Night

June 27, 2010 by Ian 3 Comments

I asked a few questions on Open Mic night for #blogchat this week – so I hope you’ll forgive me if my Lessons from Blogchat today focuses on what I got back for those.

Question 1: @jeffjarvis blog post today made me wonder: How important is provenance to researched blog posts?

Crickets. No response whatsoever. Got a question from @prosperitygal about what I called researched blog posts. Ah, well.

Well that blew that. clearly, I’ve been asking the wrong kinds of questions. Here’s what really stood out:

@billboorman asked if bloggers consider micro-blogging to be a valid form of blogging. Unfoortunately little response – this is an interesting question.

@OrganicSpider – swiftly becoming one of my favourite participants – made a note about tools for blog measurement, specifically Google Analytics and WebCEO, which I agree with. I’ve got some more notes on blog measurement here: Taking Advantage of Easy Metrics, Hack Analytics: A Participants’ Guide.

@justinlevy made a comment about long-form posts being the bricks of a blog, filled in with snackable mortar posts. We’re in agreement here; pillar content has to be the stuff that holds up the remainder. We all have them, too – those four or five posts per quarter that really light up the numbers and keep you wanting to write more.

I asked Justin about editorial calendars – here again, we’re on pace. Justin keeps a calendar about a week our (which is my preference when I’m on the ball) and an idea file. Having seen this from a number of bloggers, I’d say it’s a good practice. Keeping a scheduled post buffer instead of an editorial calendar can help you address events that pop up as needed far more effectively, without breaking your pulse.

Question 2: How much weight do bloggers put toward trusting another blog based not only on the subject of the blog, but the author’s stated values?

Now thar be dragons. A lot of people seemed to agree that values not matching with the blog’s article content was a good reason for ceasing to read a blog. We shouldn’t be surprised about this one at all.

What got my goat was that people showed a distinct disconnect between values and blog subject matter. If a political blog doesn’t match your values, you simply don’t read in the first place. However – if you’re a liberal thinker reading a tech blog written by a totalitarian… No beef? Not a criticism; I’m actually kind of amused. I agree that subject matter has more to do with values displayed than declaration of values, but somehow, I was expecting a more vigorous response.

At this point I thoroughly lost track of the conversation. There were some posts about writing for yourself, blogging being essential to economic success in some industries. Lots of good stuff, I’m vaguely aware. Unfortunately, there seems to be a density problem in Blogchat after a while, and the Retweets take over the chat. Not that that’s inherently a bad thing – it just means keeping up becomes difficult as the echoes roll in.

Had an aside with @AmidPrivilege about pillar content as well. We agree, the term “pillar” content is a misnomer – a blog is not necessarily a temple. But then, all buzzwords exist entirely as intentional misnomers to direct shared understanding toward a complex subject.

Wow. That was a mouthful.

At 9:06pm ct, @MackCollier posted the transcript here: Transcript for #blogchat, June 27th 2010 – Open Mic Night

No sign of Kevin Lyons – if someone posts a list of participants, I’ll add it here. One of these days, I’ll figure out how to do that myself, I’m sure.

Looks like a participant lost! TweepML #blogchat participants 6/27

What do you think? Have I missed something? Please weigh in – keeping the dialogue open during the week is a challenge, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

… I had the pleasure of getting some advice about asking for comments from Mack and from @LisaPetrilli – who has a very provoking post about making the ask here: What I Learned about Networking when I Asked a Stranger for a Kidney.

I’m going to be digesting that one for a while.

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Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: #blogchat, lessons from #blogchat

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