Tuesday 18 February 2014

Why don't people comment on blogposts more? The power of ERS/XX.

In the last couple of days I have been talking with friends about various aspects of social media and blogging. Two topics came up that seemed to be linked. The first was whether a tool like Linkedin really generates employment opportunities and the second was how to generate comments/debate on blog posts and other contributions.

In relation to first I am sure that Linkedin does generate opportunities, but often indirectly and that probably the more selfless one is, the more likely one is to benefit; a touch of karma if you like. Undoubtedly Linkedin is a data source for many recruiters, that of course is its commercial model. I do get quite a few requests to connect to (and related calls from) recruiters who have seen my profile up there. Many seem to have real opportunities and some progress further, but to date none has actually led to employment for me.

I tend to monitor my profile stats both profile views and appearances in searches to ensure that I am still “in play”. As they say you have to play if you want to win. For me the number of people looking at my profile averages around 35 per week and in the last three months has ranged from 23 top 75. Now this is a mixed population and I don’t get fussed about whether it is new viewers, repeats, friends or anyone else. Instead I take it as a measure that I was top of mind, if only briefly, of a good number of people each week so when I am looking for work they will be aware and may be able to help.

The appearances in searches is also useful as I take it as a measure of the effectiveness and content of my profile against skills and experience sets that recruiters are looking for. This is averaging a little over 200 per week and if it starts dropping I take a moment to reflect what I might add or change to freshen my profile.
Throughout all this I will happily try and help anyone I can, through brokering contacts, passing on opportunities or just being a constructive critic of their efforts. I do this unconditionally, expecting no specific or direct return other than maybe the odd beer or two. One could say I am investing first and that would be correct. I expect and hope that my reward will come in time, but most likely indirectly and without traceable links.

My current role is an indirect result of such effort. In this instance it was not Linkedin, but through eFinacialCareers (eFC), where I also maintain a profile. I think my eFC profile benefited hugely from the work I was doing on Linkedin with the feedback I received being a major contributor to an agency I had never spoken to before calling me for a role with a company I had never worked for. That was out of the blue and the deal was closed within 48 hours!

I believe that helping others first in a rather selfless way actually makes it more likely that someone, probably unconnected, will help you in future. In contrast if all you do is clearly about you and only you, ie very selfish, then the amount of help others will give is soon limited.

Moving on to question about blogging and comments on entries, this has been something that has puzzled me. My blog is over three years old with over 300 entries and over 45,000 hits, yet the number of comments it has elicited is less than 30. If you look through my blog I don’t think it is not because the subjects are all safe and boring.

I have looked at entries in other blogs and on Linkedin to see if I can understand why some receive a torrent of comments and others do not. I think I have something of an answer.

Before I do it is worth stripping out the sycophantic element that is clearly present amongst the comments on “celebrity” posts. Celebrity in this instance not limited to media stars, but covering prominent, public individuals. These are typified by “well done”, “good post” or similar and add little or nothing to the debate.

The second strip out are the clarification questions. These suggest that something was left out of the original article/post and while they may help complete the post they do not move things forward.

The level of real comments and debate seem to come when something like the following exists.

For blogs that received large numbers of comments one can see the following elements:
· (E)ngages the readers and usually communicates, implicitly or explicitly, something of the author’s values and point of view
· Is a topic that is (R)elevant to a significant number of readers.
· Tends to evoke a (S)trong reaction (either for or against the content of the post – one the reader can share)
· The thing that seems to hold people back, at least I think so, is if the reader perceives a personal risk to e(X)posing their own views or position. They will think twice about posting.

This suggests that the number of comments is a function of (E x R x S)/(X x X) . The top line (numerator) is a product because if any of these are absent (or near absent) then the chances of comments is pretty much zero. I have suggested that the denominator is the square of the perceived risk that would result from posting a comment. I use the square as is suggests that in the face of any risk all three of the numerator elements have to be significant if there are to be comments.

I have no scientific evidence to support this, it is purely derived empirically and from thinking about the issue, but I feel there is more than an essence of truth in it.

If you look at Facebook many items are commented on as there is engagement and relevance (to the audience at least) and little perceived risk related to commenting. In these circumstances it does not require any great strength of feeling for people to comment.

What do you think?

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