Nearly everybody gets twitterpated in the springtime

Your head’s in a whirl. And then you feel light as a feather, and before you know it, you’re walking on air. And then you know what? You’re knocked for a loop, and you completely lose your head!
Friend Owl, Bambi

I have been around technology for awhile now and I am certainly no newbie when it comes to buzz on the web, but I still find myself in awe sometimes.  I had a wonderful chat with a lecturer from the Media, Film and Communication department today (see http://www.otago.ac.nz/communicationstudies/staff/pearson.html).  We spoke at length on developing a blogging community which seems to have three components:  a blog/blogger with something worth saying, the ability to attract readers, and the desire for readers to stick around, engage in the discussion and become a part of the blog’s network.

I need work on all fronts, but have been in a bit of a panic about the second point on attracting readers.  We discussed different mechanisms for directing people to the blog including asking friends, through social networking, and meme.  Additionally, Erika said she’d twitter an advert to my site as part of the “you know and trust me, and I am vouching for her, so check it out” strategy.  Well tonight I took a quick peek at the blog stats which have been hovering around 0 and what can I say – it was up past 15!  Fifteen people (and yes most of the referrals were from Twitter) checked me out.

All I can say is wow, there is something really powerful about the manner (and speed) of online networking.  I think there is definitely something there worth a deeper look.  And yes, I do feel slightly twitterpated.

If I write it, will they come?

“If you build it, he will come”
Ray Kinsella, Field of Dreams

So now I see that the challenge in blogging is not just about opening up and writing something interesting.  It is really about writing something interesting enough and frequently enough, that people want to read it.  This should have been obvious, but has actually altered my plans a bit.  Instead of spending time writing concise, poignant, and slightly humorous posts about my experiences as a post graduate researching blogging, I’ll also need to find and attract readers.

The plan for this week is to seek out friends (and friends of friends) from Facebook and my other onine social networking sites, and find out who blogs.  I have started reading several already (see blogroll) and I am really enjoying them.  They cover a range of topics, but are all well written and fun to read.

Developing a blogging community to study is a bit trickier than I first imagined, but we’ll see how it goes over the next few months.  If you blog or know someone who does, please comment on this post or through email, chat, FB, LinkedIn, etc. and I’ll start reading your blog.  Over the next month I am going to start posting questions here and I am hoping to get a good dialogue going about why people blog.

If you blog it, they will read…