Blog Posts About: blogging

Michael Pick of Automattic was one of our Explainers to Watch in 2009 and he's already delivered.  WordPress.tv is a new platform for learning about Wordpress via videos and screencasts.  The intro on the site does a good job of making the case:

This is exciting to see and something I think other companies will be doing in the future. If we consumers are lucky, companies will stop depending on crappy instruction manuals and make videos instead.

The biggest barrier? People to make all the videos. If you're into screencasting and video, I would think about the value WordPress.tv provides for WordPress customers - and what role you can play in helping other organizations see this kind of opportunity in the future.

Nice work Michael!

I must admit that each time we post a new video, we go into buzz mode - What are people saying/linking/doing?  Where are they doing it? How many said something?  What do we need to say in response? 

Watching the reaction is something I anticipate and love about the process.  At the same time, I wonder if I'm doing it right.  I'm always looking for new ways to scan the web.  Here are some tools we use - please suggest ideas/sites/tools that you think would help.

Blog Comments - Of course, our blog is the home of the videos, so we pay close attention to the comments.  We've seen the number of comments per video decline in general, which I don't take as a bad sign. Personally, I think people are commenting in other ways, like on Twitter.

Blog Post Views - The views that the blog post receives are certainly a powerful indicator.  However, because the video exists on video hosts, these page views are not comprehensive.

Referrers - Our blog software (Drupal) tracks referrers - sites sending traffic our way. This is one way to see the sites from which the most traffic is coming.

Google Analytics - On a high level, this is how we measure the overall impact of the video over time. It's a very powerful tool and we look at a number of the stats, but the big one is impact over time - did the video increase views/visits? For how long?  To what degree?

Video Hosts - The views and ratings (and to a lesser degree comments) on the video hosting sites like You Tube and Vimeo are always useful in measuring traction, etc. You Tube has been our vehicle for having the video shared on blogs, though that may soon change.

Technorati Reactions - We have a persistent Technorati search for "commoncraft.com." Whenever someone links their site to Common Craft it (hopefully) shows up in a Technorati search. This gives us a view of who is linking to us, what they're saying and how influential they are.  Often, this is how we identify discussions in which we should participate. We use Technorati every day.

Diggs - When a new video is posted, we usually include a button with the video that allows people to Digg it. We've seen this produce amazing results, but only if the video makes it to the "popular" list and the front page. Otherwise, it almost seems like a distraction.  You have to be pretty provocative to get the Digg community's attention.

Del.icio.us Bookmarks -  Bookmarks are another way we gauge popularity.  Like Digg, if the bookmark can make onto the popular list, it can drive more traffic and bookmarks.

RSS Subscribers -  This is more of a long range stat. We pay attention to how the number of subscribers changes in the days after the video is posted.  This can be powerful conversion metric.  If we're doing well, we turn a more and more visitors in subscribers.

Twitter @Replies -  Twitter has become our #1 resource for understanding perceptions about our videos.  We always announce the videos on Twitter and the @replies are our first look at what people think.

Twitter Search - I don't know what we would do without Summize and/or Tweetscan.  We track the search results for "commoncraft " and "plain English " on these services. Often, this reveals how the videos are being spread through Twitter and what people are saying.  When we see people asking questions, we do our best to reply to them.

Twitter Subscribers - Did we see more subscribers after the video?

Viral Video Countdown - These days, getting onto the Viral Video Countdown front page is a goal and we look for it with each video.  It's one of our consistent, objective ways to see the degree to which the video is being shared on blogs. The Social Media video made it to #2 yesterday. Ice Rocket's Popular Video List is something we check too.

dotSUB translations - We share each of our videos on dotSUB, where they can be translated into multiple languages.  We love to see this happen and check in often to how many languages are present.

What else should be using for tracking reactions?

At the moment Google reader tells me that I have 490 unread items. Once again my feeds are mocking me.  The problem is that of the 490, I'll think 4.9 were really interesting. Such is the blog world I suppose. This kind of minor overload is one of the reasons I love the Very Short List. 

It's a single email 5 days a week (with a web site) that succinctly reviews a tidbit of semi-obscure pop culture. They use great writing and cool little Venn Diagrams to explain their product and each subject they cover:

For example, a recent subject was A Compilation of the Very Strangest Scientific Papers.  Here's the Diagram they used to explain it.

The Very Short List does one thing very well - and they do it in a unique and engaging way. It's simple, usable, entertaining and it works for me in 30 seconds every morning. I wish at a few more of those 490 blog posts would do the same.

This almost seems unreal - maybe it is.  Dan, a Stanford student,  has a chance to make a guest post on TechCrunch about his viral video company.  What does he do?  He proceeds to make it stunningly clear how misguided and irresponsible his "viral video" tactics are.  It reads like a manual for new media douchebaggery.

Some examples:

Blogs: We reach out to individuals who run relevant blogs and actually pay them to post our embedded videos. Sounds a little bit like cheating/PayPerPost, but it’s effective and it’s not against any rules.
Forums: We start new threads and embed our videos. Sometimes, this means kickstarting the conversations by setting up multiple accounts on each forum and posting back and forth between a few different users.
MySpace: Plenty of users allow you to embed YouTube videos right in the comments section of their MySpace pages. We take advantage of this.
Commenting - Having a Conversation with Yourself:  A great way to maximize the number of people who watch our videos is to create some sort of controversy in the comments section below the video. We get a few people in our office to log in throughout the day and post heated comments back and forth (you can definitely have a lot of fun with this).
Dan finishes with this bit of perspective and advice...

You simply can’t expect to post great videos on YouTube and have them go viral on their own, even if you think you have the best videos ever. These days, achieving true virality takes serious creativity, some luck, and a lot of hard work. So, my advice: fire your PR firm and do it yourself.
I think I speak for you when I say O_M_G. Dan has the nerve to call his advice ways to acheive "true virality".  Doesn't he know that what he's doing is blatantly artificial? I'm floored. 

Update:  Dan posts again TechCrunch. This time he's saying that he doesn't use all those techniques, he was just saying that that some do. I don't buy it, though I do know Dan has big regrets about his original post. I'm not sure why, but his words and those that support him eat at me in a fundamental way. I've wasted too much time on it already, but I may have to write more just to get it out.

My most recent Tweet (a short update to the Twitter service) was this:

• Today's my twitterversary! 1 year of meaningless drivel flowing from my keyboard and phone. I still count it as time well-spent. about 4 hours ago from TwitBin
  

It's true.  I've been using Twitter for one year as of today and I've been thinking about it.  What does Twitter mean to me? Why have I adopted it? 

First - a bit of explanation. Twitter provides a way for you (and your
friends) to share short updates about your daily life. It's free and you can use a mobile phone or the Internet to post these updates and follow the updates of people you choose.

So, my thoughts...

Twitter has become part of my online life.  Whenever my browser is open, the left side of it displays the updates from my friends via TwitBin.  I follow the updates of about 100 people, most of which I know.  About 300 people follow my updates and I've posted close to 500 updates in a year.

The beauty of Twitter is how lightweight it is.  It makes blogging feel heavy and cumbersome. Because you are limited to 140 characters, you can only say so much in an update.  This takes away the anxiety and time it takes to blog.  You can go from a thought to sharing it in seconds.

Speaking of blogging, Twitter has impacted my blog reading.  I abandoned my RSS reader for a couple of months without too much thought.  I think Twitter became my surrogate RSS reader - it gave me the connections and discoveries that I found with blog reading - without the fuss. I've recently cranked up Google Reader again.

Twitter has impacted my relationships.  140 characters at a time, I've gotten to know my online (and real-world) friends much better. Daily life is the only real life and Twitter shines a spotlight on it.

Twitter is new, but the concept is forever.  Twitter opened up a layer of information that never really existed before online. It's a type of information that has meaning in the context of friends as it asks: what are you doing right now?  Whether it's Twitter or some other service, this layer will persist from now on.

Twitter's growth and adoption is related to it's low barrier to entry.  I have a number of friends who may have never started a blog, but jumped right in to Twitter.  Why?  Because there isn't much a learning curve.  Everyone knows what they are doing right now and Twitter makes it easy to share.

Twitter isn't for everyone.  There is a lot of noise and crap.  But, if you can find people you know and have a way to integrate the updates into your life, you may be addicted.

Twitter enables a new kind of news that's nearly real-time and uniquely on-the-ground.  I was fascinated watching Nate Ritter use Twitter to track the events around the San Diego fires. Mainstream media can't do what Nate was doing.

So, I'm a fan and I plan to use Twitter as long as my friends do.

We adopted Twitter at the very end of a year-long trip and some of my favorite Twitter memories are from sharing updates as we approached home after a year away.

The very first update (that also highlights my persistent typos and misspellings):

• Just about to watch Momento in an apartment in Barcelona.11:32 AM November 21, 2006  from web  

After Spain we arrived in the US and drove across the US to Seattle...

• Feelin the love from the family in North Carolina. 05:53 AM November 29, 2006 from txt

• Turning right onto "Preacher Smith Rd. " in Rome Georgia... 08:35 AM December 02, 2006

• Has officially entered wile e. coyote country. Beep beep. Flagstaf 162 miles. 10:39 AM December 05, 2006
  

• Just passed Talent, Oregon. The local cops drive cars that say "Talent Police" according to Sachi's eyewitness acount. 11:06 AM December 11, 2006 from txt

• Seeing the Seattle skyline for the first time in a year. We cannot sit still. Smiles and deep breathes all around. I wonder what awaits us now. 06:19 PM December 11, 2006
  

• We are arriving on our street serenaded by Nirvana - Smells like Teen Spirit. Welcome to Seattle. 06:36 PM December 11, 2006 from txt

• 2007 - you are my bitch. 11:56 PM December 31, 2006 from txt

Perhaps you'd like to follow me on Twitter? 

We’ve come to depend on our time off as a time to re-think, to re-consider, to re-formulate.  It happened last year when we looked for ways to make video a part of Common Craft and it happened again last week.  Among other things, our time in Mexico gave us a chance to talk about this blog.

For a few months now, I’ve not been happy with my blogging, aside from the videos.  I was at a blogging crossroads – a time when I struggled to define the blog’s focus.  Our business, our product and world moved so fast that I couldn’t build any momentum outside of posting new videos.  Often, this meant not blogging at all or only posting our videos.

We’ve decided to make a change.  We’re planning to open up a little more and blog about our life.  We want to focus on the things that fascinate us, make us laugh, give us inspiration and make us think – and I mean us, not just me.  Sachi may not blog often, but she will be, as usual, a big inspiration.  We want to give you another look at the people behind the videos and hopefully learn more about you too.

This being said, we want to know your thoughts.  What are you interested in knowing about us?  Ask a question. Challenge us.