Caveat blogger: Posting on others' blogs can be dangerous to your health

Posted by Milos Sugovic 

Blogging is a popularity contest and those that adhere to reciprocity norms get people to pay attention. Say something interesting along the way and you may rouse curiosity and encourage click-through. So, PR firms advise their clients to actively participate in online discussions. It’s a no brainer. 

But the “evidence” till now has been anecdotal and experiential. Do higher levels of content production and proactive engagement really translate into higher readership?  

Turns out for the most part that’s true, and here’s the empirical evidence: A study by Gaudeul et al. (2009) examines the relationships among bloggers to identify the statistically significant variables that determine blog readership. If you look under the hood, you’ll find the following nuts and bolts of their research: 

• A one percent increase in the number of entries per day is associated with a 0.6 percent increase in number of readers. 
  
• A one percent increase in the number of comments received is associated with a 0.8 percent increase in number of readers 
  
• Membership in online communities has a very small effect on readership, while “seniority” - the age of the blog - is associated positively with the number of readers. 
  
• The most surprising finding is that posting comments on other blogs is negatively related with the number of readers, all else equal. 
  

The first three findings support the blogosphere rules of engagement. But what does the last bullet mean? Will posting on other blogs reduce your readership? Is the failure to reciprocate “sanctioned” with higher popularity? This seems to defy intuition.

 

The explanation behind this finding is that having more readers means the blogger is less likely to engage in dialogue with each. It’s a question pertaining to causation, not just simple correlation. That is why it’s important to understand not only how to measure the variables in question and establish the inter-relationships, but to also accurately interpret the statistical results.  

So, the next time your PR firm encourages you to be more active in blogging, keep the findings above in mind. In the blogosphere, the currency is mutual attention. The only other question worth asking is: how does this attention translate into business outcomes?