Blog Readership…The Challenge
I had the opportunity and privelege to chat with Jeff De Cagna this afternoon about the numerous topics surrounding working in/for/with associations. I say “priveleged” because Jeff is very well known in association-circles having worked in the field for a number of years, is involved with a number of assocation related ventures and is respected and prolific blogger. It doesn’t hurt that he is also highly intelligent, very articulate, and a really nice guy. Conversely, I am a relative newcomer to the assocation world and am still learning the ropes.
However, the common thread that brought us together for our discussion this afternoon was technology, and more specifically blogging. Jeff has made no secret of the fact that he is perplexed by the lack of blog readership and participation among association executives (Why don’t more association execs read blogs?). While I haven’t know Jeff that long, he doesn’t come across to me as a “glass-half-full” kind of guy. Based on reading his blog, attending a panel discussion he participated in at the ASAE Technology Conference in February, and our conversation today, I’d have to say that he is a passionate realist. Perhaps the term “evangelist” may be more appropriate, but regardless, the man understands the possibility and reality of not only technology but also the association-world, so when he raises a concern many people listen.
Naturally, the question on his mind today was regarding blog readership and the challenges faced by bloggers trying to get people actively engaged in the running dialogue (after all isn’t that what Web 2.0 / the read-write web is all about?). From Jeff’s perspective he couldn’t understand why readership, which he defines as actually reading a post or subscribes to the posts feed, was so low among association executives (his target audience) as compared to the readership of blogs outside of the association space. I found myself doing much more listening than talking as I want (a) to hear what he had to say and (b) to see if he had become blinded by his own passion and therefore lost some of his objectivity. I can say that he not only understands the medium as well as his audience and his logic (at least from my perspective) was pretty rock solid.
His basic thesis was that if he (and the cadre of other association bloggers) were posting relevant content in a cogent and coherent manner on a regular but not overwhelming basis and making it as easy as possible for people to access the content (read the blog posting directly, numerous types of feeds and syndication options and even providing a tutorial on how to use one of the more popular “feed-reading” tools) there should be little reason why people wouldn’t want to read it and potentially get involved in the discussion.
I guess I would call this the “victimless crime” scenario…where someone does something that benefits not only the doer but also the receiver. Jeff feels that he, and others like Jamie Notter and Ben Martin, to name just a few, were providing a valuable service to the association community and do so mainly for the intrinsic reward of giving back and helping others. That’s not to say the motives are purely pedestrian or philanthropic, as there is a certain amount of notoriety and “subject matter expertise” associated with having a popular and visible blog, but that isn’t a primary driver or motivation, merely an added benefit.
So if we have folks producing valuable and relevant content at no cost and with little additional trouble on behalf of the recipient, where is the readership?
I have to admit, while I am new to blogging about the association world I am no stranger to the social and communal aspects of the web, and this question has me stymied as well. In fact, I have been so captivated by this question that I puzzled over it for for the remainder of the afternoon and most of my 65 mile / 1.25 hour commute between the office and home. And while I can’t say that I am any closer to solving this question as Jeff, a few questions came to me through a few brief discussions with my manager and colleagues and some deep contemplation. The basic themes that emerged could largely be placed into two buckets: awareness/findability and education.
For example, many association-blogs are linked to off of ASAE’s blog Acronym , but what if association executives were not only unaware of Acronym, but also the fact that these other resources existed? There is an a theory in web design (which actuall comes from the printing industry) regarding the placement of content “above the fold” so readers don’t have to scroll to see important content.
In the case of the placement of links to the other blogs on the Acronyn site, they are well below the fold. Now this is largely dependent on the readers screen size, but I use a fairly large (19″) monitor and it still a few clicks down the screen for me too. So if the primary marketing vehicle for these other blogs is the links from Acronym and the resulting traffic it is no surprise that the traffic is lower than it could be if they were prominent.
Additionally, a basic search of google using the keywords “blogs on associations” only returns Jeff’s site in the top-20 search results. A similar search using the keywords “assocation blog” returns none of the referenced blogs in the top-20 results. My interpretation of this finding is the fact that they are buried in obscurity a few pages into the search results. The long and short of it is the fact that perhaps they need better visibility in the search results, perhaps coming from more targeted search marketing and more promotion both on their own and perhaps through the association. That’s not to say that the association should (or needs to) officially endorse their sites, but perhaps they should have more visibility if they are in fact working on behalf of the organization.
I am sure there are a number of other effective ways to bring attention to these great resources (suggestions please) but the long and short of it is while they are doing a great service they are simply not on the radar, especially if one is just starting off in the association world and has no idea where to turn for advice. Even someone like myself who is definitely on the technical side of the house wouldn’t have known about ASAE’s blog (and I am a member) had I not attened the aforementioned conference a few weeks ago. Whatsmore, had I not been curious enough to do some individual exploring (dare I say nomadic learning) I wouldn’t have known about the many great bloggers out there who deal specifically with topics of interest to those working in/with/for associations.
It may sound like I am trying to point the blame at the direction of my compatriots or at the ASAE blog for the lack of blog readership when in fact I am not. I am merely suggesting that because these great resources are highly targeted and not well known or trafficed outside of the association community they are stuck in relative obscurity. While I am not an expert in marketing, SEO or SEM I do understand the field and would say for the large part this group is doing a good job of promoting themselves and have the basics covered. Additionally, an informal network of association bloggers has seemed to form organically and provides a captive audience, greater exposure and reciprocal links, all of which should increase traffic / eyeballs.
Lets face it, we could have the greatest content in the world but if you don’t know that it exists or where / how to find it if you know it does it exist, it might as well not be there because people either won’t be able to find it or won’t want to commit the time necessary to looking for it (as was previously mentioned it becomes a time sink). Remember the philospohical question: if a tree falls in the middle of the forest and nobody hears it did it still fall? Again, I don’t think this is the root cause, but it could be among a few that is contributing to the less than expected readership.
The other part of this equation is, what I believe to be, a matter of education. I think that deserves a separate post because it could get complicated…more to follow
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My name is Dave Sabol and I work at the intersection of technology, online learning and knowledge management. Associated Knowledge is my way of capturing the insight that I gain as I navigate my way through the world of social media and open source technology.
