How interactivity is essential to an effective and useful weblog

Given that we are discussing “social” media, it is perhaps a good idea to explain how this comes hand-in-hand with interaction. The ability to express one’s opinions openly, tell stories and lessons learned from certain experiences and comment freely on others’ opinions or research is, essentially, what interactivity is. 

Websites like wordpress and blogger make it possible for anyone with an email account to set up their own weblog. You can post and comment as much as you’d like. You may realize quickly, though, that this does not quite satisfy your blogging needs. Many bloggers have little to no readership. What makes blogs useful and helpful is the dialogue created with comments, whether they be friendly banter, full-on debates or neutral. These conversations that are held worldwide is what makes blogging exciting and useful. At least, this is what active blogger Alexander van Elsas believes.

van Elsas’s blog discusses new media’s effect on social behavior. He believes that the value of social media lies in the “social” part of it. It is hard to believe that we are all so tech-savvy, creative and extroverted as our interest in blogs make us seem to be. What the real draw is, says van Elsas, is the ability to have a dialogue with people with similar or different interests and opinions. I believe he makes a good point when he says that if this blogging phenomenon had turned into an outlet to merely listen to what people have to say, it would quickly die out, especially if no one was listening. Social media does not work because we are able to express ourselves… that’s only half of it. We are able to interact!

In an article called Old Values, New Media from the Journalism Practice journal, this necessity to interact is discussed in the journalism concentration. We have always, as a society, valued our ability to communicate and create dialogue with people. The internet has made it possible to do that world-wide. Now, social media has brought our old values into new media and the importance of interactivity is seen across disciplines.

Interactive Job Searches and Their Effectiveness

Especially in this economy, job searchers are faced with a very tough market and any way to get a foot in the door is helpful. This is why we are seeing sites like GeoWeb Jobs where users can create an account, receive employment advice from HireRocket, use resume tools built into the site to edit, update and delete resumes, sign up for the GeoWeb Jobs newsletter, and learn more about possible employers. They call themselves a “complete job agent” because they provide tools on their site to network with everyone imaginable. They give free demo resumes, post success stories and have a featured employers page.

Along with websites such as GeoWeb Jobs, we are seeing a growing popularity in LinkedIn. In this linkedin article from the Advertising Age journal, the author discusses the importance of not only job seekers interacting on this site, but the fact that there are employers who actively check the site and attempt to network. As more people are losing jobs, the subscription rates are growing at LinkedIn because the amount of people looking for employment is growing. People are realizing that the most effective way of getting a foot in the door is to network and have discussions with people. The job interview and how you interact with your possible future employer is not as important anymore as how you are interacting in the job search itself.

The Downsides to the Availability of Interactive Sites

I have given you many positives to creating an interactive webpage and blog, but what we have not discussed is the downsides to interactivity. One example I would like to bring up is the website “Juicy Campus“. Although it is no longer running under that name, all traffic has been redirected to collegeacb.com and this site is essentially the same as the Juicy Campus site. If you are not familiar with this site, it can be most simply described as an anonymous dicussion board for college students from campuses all around the country to spread gossip, whether true or not, about their classmates worldwide. Some college campuses decided to ban the site from their networks. Others just discouraged its use without taking away the rights of their students. Juicy Campus did not release it’s archive information when it shut down, but if you had the opportunity to visit the site before it’s February 5, 2009 ending date, you would realize how anonymous interactions especially can be extremely hurtful to those involved. The following is a video Ragan Report on Juicy Campus.com

The Juicy Campus blog tells its readers and about interesting posts, etc, and when rumors started circulating about why it was shutting down, explained that the tough economy and low internet ad revenue was the cause. I my opinion, good riddance. It is bad enough that rumors can easily be spread through a whole college campus, but once you put that on the internet and create a discussion about, for example, a certain sorority girl whose social interactions are being questioned, then the whole world can gain an opinion on that girl that could be very untrue. 

The US News Report on the shutting down of Juicy Campus sparked several remarks on their website, the majority of which were posts of relief that the site was no longer in existence. Where one thing ends another begins, though, and now that people are used to the ease of interaction on the web, I do not believe this type of malicious gossip will be avoidable.

Tips for Interactivity on YOUR Blog

I have been making posts about using blogs to be interactive for several weeks now and realized that there may be some of you out there who are now ready to start your own blog or suggest ideas to the company you work for. I have decided to take a break from the ways in which blogs are used to stay interactive in different environments to provide a few helpful hints as to how to make your blog successful and interactive.

ProBlogger suggests several tools that are available on most host websites to use on your page. This list includes:
1. Chat Rooms
2. Newsletter or Mailing List Sign-ups
3. Guest Maps
4. Forums
5. Discussion Boards
6. Polls
7. Guestbooks

To get people commenting on your blog, consider putting interesting, important or recent comments left by users on a highlighted sidebar. This may catch people’s attention when they visit your site and start up a conversation.

Be sure not to use all of the aforementioned tool, though. Your page will then become too busy and users probably will not spend much time on it. Also, do not include any tools that you do not plan on using yourself. To encourage yours readers to be interactive, you must be interactive with them!

A great example of a blog that uses just the right amount of tools and interacts with it’s followers is USAToday’s Interactivity Blog. On the sidebar, there are three options of how to receive updates on the blog: RSS, IM Alerts and Email. There is a multimedia list, as well, so readers may become interactive in that way. The blog itself explains the multimedia and design department of USAToday, so it is centered around interactivity as it is.

Hopefully these few tips will help you make your blog interactive.

Blogs as the new Record Labels

I am sure you have all heard of “DJs”, disk jockeys who broadcast songs on the radio. A less popular term is “VJ”, meaning video jockey, first used by MTVs Total Request Live show. But what about “BlogJs“? That is the term that Gerd Leonhard of Media Futurist is using to describe future music bloggers. Within the next two years, he says, the blogs that are leading the music culture right now will become record labels themselves. He sees these BlogJs as using their blogs to gain people’s attention through interactive multi-media such as TV shows, chats, webcasts, and games.

Advertising music on a blog has the ability to be extremely successful because of the way the writer’s personality can show through his or her posts. In this way, these blogs can be incredibly influential. Leonhard also sees these blogs linking up with social networks so that bloggers can list their favorite upcoming artists, genres, albums, etc essentially creating their own record label.

One of the most interesting points I believe Leonhard makes is the possibility of these BlogJs opening up sites and groups where users can meet and discuss their tastes in music. Everyone will be more connected.

There are several reasons why this might work in the future. Eliot Van Buskirk of Wired Magazine has suggested it publically, as well. Popular music blogs have a massive audience. Their main objective is to show fans new music, not the Top 4o songs. Fans can submit songs and because of mp3 technology, these can be digitally distributed worldwide. Also, mp3s can be sold on the blog. 

In fact, we are already seeing some music blogs attempting to make themselves into little record labels. One example is Earvolution which announced it’s beginning in January of 2007. This label, though, only focuses on the music the BlogJ likes or believes deserves more credit. This project stems from what seems to be a deep hatred of the music industry and record labels.

Interactivity in the Classroom

As more students are surrounded by video games, internet access and other interactive technologies, teachers are seeing an effect in the classroom. Keeping a child’s attention is no longer easy and reading, although literacy rates are not being affected, is just not as appealing to kids anymore. They have television, internet games and chat rooms available to them. They are used to immediacy and interactivity; so, that is what some teachers are beginning to bring to the classroom out of necessity.

In the journal article Understanding Class Blogs as a tool for language development, the author discusses different types of blogs that can help students learn. The “Tutor Blog” lists homework assignments and also resources for parents and children to use together. The “Learner Blog” is like an online journal where students can write about what they are learning in and out of the classroom. Their classmates can read their entries and learn from them, as well. This is a form of interactivity that will definitely boost classroom morale and success.  The “Class Blog” is a joint blog between teacher and students. It is collaborative and creates a good relationship between teacher and student. It is a place where students can feel comfortable asking questions and engaging in conversations. Sometimes the written word is easier for shy students, especially.

There are several websites that have been created solely to host these classroom blogs. ClassBlogMesiter’s motto is “Learning as Conversation”. Conversation is sometimes what is lacking from a classroom, especially at an early age when students are unsure and shy. At this site, you can look at the most recent teacher blog posts, featured articles and bloggers, and statistics of the blog.

As the culture surrounding us changes, we must realize that it affects everyone in a different way. Students are not  immune to cultural changes. Teaching methods must change with the times if we plan on continuing to succeed in educating.

How bands use blogs to become interactive with fans

In 1981, MTV changed the music scene by making bands more visible to fans rather than radio-based. Through videos, pictures and on-the-air interviews, more fans began to understand their favorite bands’ music. Recently, MTV has become more focused on reality TV and bands have had to refer to their websites and youtube to keep their presence.

One way bands are beginning to reach out to their fans is through a site called “The Republic Project”. A BusinessWire article about this site has led to other articles in newspapers around the country, including this one in Sierra Vista Arizona Herald.

The Republic Project isa site where communication between fan and artist is prominent. It features exclusive albums, rare tracks, artist blogs, and live chats. For fans, this means that they have access to behind-the-scenes stories about tours and song sheets. They get to watch studio and tour bus video and pre-order albums. This builds an incredibly deep relationship between artist and fan.

Mashable (The Social Media Guide) did an article on The Republic Project, as well, stating that this new site is a way for artists to finally take control of their content. The fact that they can sell albums directly from the site, have live chats with fans and blog about whatever they would like to is challenging the control of record labels in the music industry. Opinions may be varied on it, especially throughout the industry. It seems to be a huge win for artists everywhere and a loss for labels, big ones especially. What I focus in on, though, is what the fans are going to get out of this. It is just another way to form a more personal relationship with your favorite musicians. I believe it is better than any other out there.

Social Networks that engage fan discussions

Many of us are familiar with social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook. An emerging trend, though, is niche networks that are largely popping up in the sport fan world. One article from Business Week called “Social Networks That Break A Sweat” discuss one of these sites created by world champion skier Bode Miller.
The author, Paula Lehman, tells us a story of 24 year old Brandon Witkovich, an avid skier who wants to learn more about the slopes in Colorado. Witkovich found Miller’s site, called SkiSpace, and used it to learn about the area to which he was moving with his fiancee and made friends with fellow skiers. The SkiSpace social networking site helped Witkovich investigate ski resorts in the area and talk to people who visit them frequently. This is an example of a niche social networking site that is attempting to connect people with the same passions.

In the past year, the NBA, NHL, Nascar, and PGA Tour have begun message boards that their fans can comment on and created interest groups to connect people. Outside of these league sites, athletes and executives are forming their own communities to expand on this interaction. Miller acknowledges that there is a big difference between a broad social network site and one that has information on a particular subject that fans of that subject are interested in.

Advertisers are also realizing the positives of niche networks. Since each viewer is already interested in the topics being discussed, each ad placed on the page brings in more money, on the average. They are more effective.

An article from Mashable The Social Media Guide discusses FanNation, a social network for all sports fans. Launched in Spetember of 2006, the site has since been called the “MySpace for Sports”. It pulls thousands of news articles each day from different sports, teams, etc and brings them to its members. To see for yourself, visit http://fannation.com

The Future of Public Interaction on the Web

People around the world are having conversations on the internet. They are interacting by commenting, giving advice, reading about each other’s experiences, etc. This is just the beginning of this swelling of interactivity as many users are just getting into blogging or finding out what it is. There are some out there, though, who are already looking towards the future and what this phenomenon might mean for social behavior and social media.

Alexander van Elsas’ blog discusses why he believes public interaction will become less important. The idea is pretty simple. If you begin interacting on the web, you can sort of become anonymous just as we all were before any of this was possible. Before social media, few of us were heard by such a large audience. It is difficult to grasp the idea that 6 billion people are listening to you (OK not literally, but it’s possible). Now that we have been exposed to public interaction, it will stay around out of necessity, but conversations may move to smaller networks of people. The web is becoming centralized around the user; so, we will need smaller networks that reflect this. In this way, we will evolve.

Perry Belcher, an independent podcaster, has his own thoughts about where social media and public interaction are heading.

Belcher mentions:
1) The growth of Twitter and online advertising, while TV advertising drops dramatically.
2) He believes companies will start using spokespeople again, whether they be famous or not. The importance of using someone who is “real” to their audience rises. People will be able to show their personality via the internet.
3) He thinks that Google will begin ranking influence of not just company websites, but individual bloggers. This will be important information for advertisers.

So, according to Belcher, 2009 will be the year of the individual versus van Elsas’ belief that anonymity will return.

These are two interesting outlooks on how public interaction will change on the web. Which one do you agree with? Do you have your own opinion?

Outlets for Interactivity

Paul Levy, CEO Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital, really touches well on the idea that there are lots of people around the world who deserve to have a voice. They have wonderful ideas that can now be heard through the emergence of interactivity.

One of the most interesting emerging trends in Social Media is CEO Blogs. For a few years now, we’ve had communications specialists, technicians and employees blogging and commenting on the blogosphere. What is being seen now is more CEOs and other executives joining the force. The phenomenon of heads of companies joining in a dialogue with their employees and their customers is exciting for both parties.

Why is all of this important, you ask? Why are these emerging trends so interesting? Professionals around the world are realizing how important interactivity has become to consumers and the like. It is a new way to communicate and seems to be much more efficient and helpful, especially when it comes to CEO blogs. Interactivity crosses many online disciplines, though.

We are beginning to see a new kind of journalism. The days of passively receiving news are behind us. User-generated news has become extremely popular on the world wide web. Paul Bromley, the first Viewer’s editor in British television history and blogger for Sky News, mentions this new trend in journalism on his blog. In December 2008, with help from students at the University of Worcester, Paul set out to gather information on the earthquake that hit England in February of 2008. All information was user-generated and students engaged and listened to their audience. Paul’s opinion is that interactivity is a concept that has burrowed it’s way into internet society and it is here to stay.

There you have it, folks.