In the first part of this post (Blog Readership…The Challenge) I briefly discussed my conversation with Jeff De Cagna surrounding his concern about the lack of blog readership and some of my initial thoughts about why it could be happening and ventured an educated guess that part of the issue could be attributed to the lack of awareness of these great resources. As I closed out I suggested that another contributing factor could be related to education. It is worth noting at this juncture that I am not trying to solve the problem through this series of posts. Rather, I am simply attempting to stimulate a discussion, not only among the bloggers, but also with the target audience to see if some of our assumptions need to be re-examined or paradigms changed.

With that being said, I want to examine the educational side of the issue to see if any ideas bubble to the surface as I look at it more closely. I do know that there is definitely a set of expectations on both sides of this issue that for better or worse have shaped the face of blogging. On the bloggers side there is the expectation that “if we build it, they will come” suggesting that simply the act of putting up a subject or topic related blog will attract a sufficient amount of readers to sustain and grow a site over time. At least that’s the way it was when blogging emerged as a activity conducted by the technical elite and those that had nothing better to do with their time. A few years ago, you never knew what to expect when you went to a blog site on any topic and the quality was questionable at best. Generally, these blogs seemed to be well left or right of the median, and were written as personal rants or personal marketing pieces by anyone who had an opinion on anything and were largely a waste of time (for the blogger and the reader) as opposed to insightful and thoughtful discussions on germaine topics that encouraged genuine discussion written by intelligent individuals.

The Misconception of Blogs, Blogging and Bloggers

While many (perhaps most) blogs are still poorly written and lack focus and clarity, a new breed of blogs (and bloggers) have come onto the scene as the field has evolved and matured. I am of the opinion that the association bloggers fall into this second category. The problem is…what if my opinion, which I believe is echoed by many of those that read these blogs on a regular basis, is the exception not the norm?

What if we incorrectly assumed that the first image that comes to mind when someone outside of the community thinks about a blog/blogger/blogging isn’t a well-crafted posted written by an experienced and/or educated individual hoping to make a difference or shape and influence ideas but rather that angry ill-crafted rant written by someone with an axe to grind?

It would be easy to fall back on the assumption that blogging has gone “mainstream” , at least if we believe the media and all of the so-called social media experts, but (a) have our audiences heard the same news and share the same opinion - if they aren’t reading our blogs because of a lack of time / interest could this type of information have fallen to the wayside as well? - and (b) should we really believe the so-called experts that didn’t see blogging, tagging, and social media as a phenomenon that would last and still consider MySpace to be a “hot commodity”? When I put those questions in writing, I begin to think there may be an expecation gap between what is and what has been promised compounded by a pretty acute attention gap (also see this essay on the Attention Economy for a more thorough explanation).

Like it or not, on a daily basis we are bombarded by information almost everywhere we go. The challenge for both producers and consumers of information is not in finding relevant materials but in being able to separate the signal from the noise. But how do we define what is core from what is peripheri? That has been, and will continue to be, the the number one problem in our information-overloaded society. Perhaps it is our responsibility as a network of bloggers (producers) to educate our readers (consumers) on how to best consume our information in an intelligent and time effective manner. I think Jeff made a good first attempt at doing so in suggesting how to use Google Reader, but perhaps there is a lot more work that can be / needs to be done.

Let’s face it, one of the fundamental rules of marketing is to identify an un/underserved need and then create a demand for a product or service where one previously hasn’t existed and to simultaneously make people understand the value proposition related to using / consuming it.

Action Item: We need to educate our readers (both current and potential) to the value of what we are providing them with and why it is different/better than other sources.

What do people really want?

Another area of concern that I have is whether or not what we are blogging about is of interest to the audience we are trying to attract and engage. Every blogger makes somewhat of an assumption about what his or her audience is interested in and over time shapes and hones what they write about to continuously deliver value to that audience. Largely it is based on an analysis of core blogging metrics - referrers, pageviews, linkbacks/trackbacks, and comments - but maybe that isn’t enough. In some cases bloggers keep an eye on relevant news and post about those items, in others they troll discussion boards to see what topics are being discussed. Regardless, what if that really isn’t as much of interest as it meets a current need. News is only news until it’s reported on, then it becomes part of everyday dialogue. Most folks post on discussion boards because they are interested in solving problems that are relevant at the time they post.

Granted, in both of the aforementioned cases the information that is generated fulfills an immediate need, stimulates some latent interest in the subject and serves to expand evolve the existing basis for knowledge, but does it have a broader applicability? It may, but it also may not ..the problem/challenge is that nobody is asking the question. Isn’t web 2.0 supposed to be about active dialogue, encouraging participation and the open exchange of information? Why is it then that we are still having one-way conversations by assuming what people want or need, when we could just as easily ask them?

In the education/training world it is generally accepted that the act of giving a learner a textbook and calling that learning is erroneous. Learning only takes place when the learner is interested in (or given reason to be interested in) the subject matter and becomes actively engaged in the learning process, emerging on the other side of the interaction having undergone some sort of cognitive, affective or psychosocial change.

Why is it then, that by simply posting static text on a blog (regardless of how good it is), we assume that people will read it and learn from it when we aren’t actively engaging them? Let’s make an effort to find out what people want, provide them with relevant and timely information, and get them involved with the discussion.

Action Item: We need to find out what our readers really want and then endeavor to provide it to them in a value-added manner. We also need to think beyond the sheer relevance and value of our content and get our readers engaged in the discussion.

The Challenges of Technology

Technology has increased the quality of our lives by opening up access to information. We can now find information when we want, where we want and the way we want it. The downside to the convenience and accessibility of the information is the fact that there is now more of it and managing it effectively takes on a life of its own. In project management we are governed by a concept called the triple-constraints (time, quality and money), and it has served the profession well over the years. However, if we were to apply it to this situation, I believe a fourth dimension (attention) needs to be added called attention.

Not only was technology supposed to open up information access to everyone, it was supposed to make it easier to manage it. Many, if not all, of us struggle to keep up with the througput of information on a daily basis. And while it has helped, I believe technology is still a long way from achieving the “management end”. I am not saying technology is bad or wrong, but now instead of just confronting the dearth of information that this new era has ushered in we are now trying to figure out which technology(ies) are best to help us managing the influx of information. The freedom of choice and ease of access has transformed from a great innovation to yet another challenge: Information yielding more information.

If the technologically literate among us are struggling to use technology to manage information flow, imagine what it is doing to the average user or consumer of information. So, while I would really like to say that it is an imperative for us to educate our users on which technologies to use to make their lives easier, I think it’s (a) difficult at best due to the varying level of technical competencies among all Internet users and (b) counterproductive because it assumes we really know what our users want and how they want it (see what do users want above).

Getting people to adopt new technology is a long and complicated process that doesn’t always end as one would expected even when it represents positive change for those involved. We are also not the first to encounter this issue, as evidenced by one of the most well-known viral marketers, Seth Godin’s, attempt to convice his readers to use his rss feed and further summarized at thisBrand Autopsy blog entry. Feed Readers (all 2000+ of them and Feeds in general (597,855 feeds) is just one example in many of depth and breadth of information that surrounds us and the almost overwhelming amount of choices that could be made by a consumer of technology or information.

Given a choice of being buried in choices or doing without, it is easy to see how many simply decide not to choose. It’s up to us to help make our readers / potential readers choices easier, not necessarily by “teaching to the test” but by becoming better consumers and users of information and the tools used to make the process easier.

Action Item: Determine ways to help make the user experience better.

Conclusion

I touched on a number of topics in the past two posts that I think provides a framework that we can use to further discuss (and hopefully improve upon) why blog readership, specifically among association execs, may be as low as Jeff reported. While I don’t think what I have presented is a comprehensive situational analysis nor an adequate list of solutions, I hope it serves to advance the discussion of creating more value by association bloggers. That’s the beauty of technology, especially surrounding the social aspects of the web, there are no absolutes and the only guarantees is that change is constant…it provides each individual with the opportunity to explore, think, learn and grow as they attempt to make sense of it all. What more could you possibly ask for?

Sphere: Related Content