A friend who knows nothing about blogs asked me how they refer to me in the blogosphere and I told him I am called The Great Bamboozler Of Blogging, The Captain of Copy and The Old Obnoxious Dude In The Cave.
He told me aspires to become a better bamboozler and I suggested he investigate because the Earl of Chicanery of the Duke of Conundrums.
Someone tell my assistant to look into that Duke of Conundrums name, I kind of like it.
If only I had an assistant, now let’s get serious for a moment.
Engagement Trumps Traffic
You can add me to the incomplete list of bloggers (Danny Brown, Sly Marketing and Tim Bonner ) who have adopted Postmatic.
If you include me in the list we have a virtual UN of bloggers and that tidbit my friends is part of what I love about blogging.
Between the four of us we cover the UK, Canada, Norway and the US. It is a colourful colorful crew. 🙂
Anyhoo when Danny introduced me to Postmatic there were two things I wanted to explore.
- Was it as easy to use as it appeared?
- Would it drive engagement rates up?
Those were key elements because we are living during a time of short attention spans, extreme clutter and 982,322,932 different social media platforms begging for our attention.
But Josh, you haven’t talked about engagement and traffic.
Many bloggers spend an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out how to drive as much traffic to their blogs as possible but I am not among them.
Why?
Because I like using engagement as a tool to build traffic.
In simple terms I want to build a community here in which the community members talk with me and each other about whatever topic we are covering.
It is an online version of a backyard barbecue, a cool place to relax with friends.
Or if you want to view it a different way, people are hesitant to eat in an empty restaurant and few are willing to wait for hours to eat at a crowded one.
I figured that if I built an active community it would pull in others slowly and over time we would see some organic growth.
All the reports I have seen about Postmatic and the experiences I have had with it make it appear to me to be a tool that has been exceptional at building engagement so I decided it was time to try it out.
Friends and Blogging
My buddy Mr. Emerson died long before the digital age so he is not here to comment upon it but if here were I am sure he would say that blogging friends are people you can be silly with.
He’d nod his head and say I was right and encourage us all to take risks and try out new tools.
I’d nod my head back at him and thank him for his support.
Want to know what is nice about having dead friends?
They don’t spoil your allegations about what they would do by saying you are wrong. They don’t start arguments, they just support your side.
Ok, things just got a little weird, didn’t they. That whole dead friend thing is just awkward.
So forget you read that part and give Postmatic a look over. I think you’ll like it.
I am looking forward to seeing what happens. If it works half as well as I hope it does I think we’ll all benefit from it.
See you in the comments.
P.S. Blogging on two hours of sleep is hard.
I must admit, I was skeptical of Postmatic. But the more I hear about it the more I think it might be a pretty neat tool to drive the engagement that some of us want.
Postmatic has been outstanding. Easy to use and it has made an immediate impact.
To quote our friend Jack Steiner, it feels like a real community again. For that reason alone, I can’t think of a better commenting option for bloggers on WordPress.
Yes it does. It’s a real pleasure too.
I got fed up on chasing traffic a long time ago Josh. Now I just write what I write and enjoy the conversations whenever and wherever they appear. Postmatic has helped that experience become much more enjoyable!
We’re agreed on all counts. Makes life and blogging more compatible again.
It’s interesting to see more people push back on the content mills mindset.
And encouraging.
There will always be an audience for the likes of Buzzfeed, Upworthy, etc.
But for pure blogging and in-depth discussions, the apparent renaissance in conversation instead of traffic as a prime factor is nice to see.
I love seeing the ‘return’ of commenting. I have been screaming about this for years. People still read real books, real articles and posts that are longer than 230 words.
It doesn’t all have to be puppies and lists. Real conversation exists, it is a real pleasure.
Wait, what are these “real books” you speak of…? 🙂
Amen to real, mate. Every time.
The other thing I like about Postmatic is that engagement is less contrived. Blog commenting in the circles I used to be part of felt meaningless and false. I’m all for blogging communities but not if they mean loads of comments patting each other on the back constantly. That’s not the type of engagement or discussion I want.
Very true, and good point. A two-word comment like “great post” may be nice for the ego, but for me – while it’s nice to be appreciated – it doesn’t add to the conversation.
if it’s a great post, share it. If it makes you think, comment on it.
I may be diluting here, and generalizing comments (and apologies to anyone whose whole comment history is “great post”), but content is meant to stimulate conversation. Let’s return that favour, and make the conversation stimulating.
I used to wrestle with the two word comments because they didn’t advance the discussion.
But sometimes the post was so personal it was hard to say more without sounding like a jerk.
That aside the reason I sometimes encourage the short comment is to see if the lurkers choose to come out and join the conversation.
I’ve been subscribing to a ton of blogs for the last 6 months or so (our beta testers). Most of them don’t have an active readership yet so I sometimes feel obligated to send in *something*, even if it is just a few words of encouragement. Sometimes that happens as the first commenter, and then the conversation will start to pick up. It can be a useful way to draw the author into some banter.
Would “sending something in” equate to more than “great post”? Now I’m wrestling with this, based on Joshua’s reply – I still feel the majority of “great post” comments are ones that buffer up social proof, more for the blogger than the commenter, but I can see where it can simply help move a conversation forward.
That’s a good point. Like you say, it is a fine line, and there will be posts that leave people feeling “awkward” to comment. Nice reminder, cheers.
hey Josh!
Thanks for the great post about Postmatic. I noticed that you are using the text-only version of the plugin (emails are sent as plain text) and that when this post went out there was some garbage poking around in it.
We’re looking into it right now.. just a heads up. Thanks!
Jason
Hi Jason,
I really like what I have seen so it made sense to share it with more people.
I’m intrigued! I’m looking forward to seeing how this works out.
Hi Susan,
I think you’ll like it. It’s so very easy to use.
Hey there Josh,
I love the fact you point out chasing traffic isn’t your goal – instead, discussions, exchanges of thoughts, etc. are far more preferable. It takes me back to when blogging was exactly about that – post an idea, let the comments shape it. Then we got sucked into the Buzzfeed economy, and eyeballs and clicks became more important than thoughts and open community.
Here’s to the return of that form of blogging, and the conversations it fosters.
(PS – love the UN quote!)
Hi Danny,
Those conversations are the bedrock of learning, relationships and community.
It’s too bad our friend Leon isn’t still around to participate in.
So true, mate. He would have loved Postmatic (I recall the amount of times he got grumpy over Livefyre, so typical Leon) – the conversations would have been amazing.
Yes, they would have. Simple tools to use for communication would have made him happy.