19 Comments to “Hearing the Conversation”

1. July 2nd, 2009 at 8:09 am
   Joel Kelly said

   I hear ya… I made my first video blog on Monday and nobody talked about what I had to say, they just talked about my vacation beard.

2. July 2nd, 2009 at 8:16 am
   Todd Smith said

   This is a good question, Kathryn. I think your title contains the best hope for an answer: “hearing the conversation.” My experience is that comments are often all over the map, but I consistently am surprised by the valuable ideas people put forth. The more I make my blog posts about wanting people’s opinions, the more the comments seem to come in line with what I want to talk about. I guess blogs are mainly that: a listening forum.

3. July 2nd, 2009 at 8:47 am
   Web Media Daily – Thurs. July 2, 2009 | Reinventing Yourself... said

   [...] Hearing the Conversation …Liz Strauss [...]

4. July 2nd, 2009 at 8:50 am
   Fred H Schlegel said

   Unpredictable responses is part of the fun when gathering around the giant internet campfire. If a throw away sentence or your ‘vacation beard’ becomes the topic de jour, I think I end up learning and thinking more than if everything went the way I would expect.

5. July 2nd, 2009 at 8:54 am
   Joel Kelly said

   Great point, Fred. I actually wrote a post about how happy I was people talked at all, and how I guess if my beard was more interesting it says a lot about my content

6. July 2nd, 2009 at 9:47 am
   krissy knox said

   I do. And I am with your and my friend CCseed. Wait for the audience to find YOU. You’re wonderful, girlie, and you have a niche, and your audience is out there! They just need to find you. Write for them! Of course, this is hard, I know this myself, sometimes I feel I’ll starve this way, LOL! At those times I think –well I’ll write twice a day — for two different niches, perhaps in two different styles. I’m very diverse, so I can do it! One niche or style I may prefer better, but I’m thinking that perhaps I’ll keep up several blogs and styles, until what I really want to do takes off! Just a guess. It’s a hard call though. You’ve got to eat! But I still think you won’t be happy until you follow your heart…

   krissy knox
   follow me on twitter:
   http://twitter.com/iamkrissy

7. July 2nd, 2009 at 9:47 am
   kathryn said

   HA! Your post today says way more than look at my vacation beard Thanks for stopping by!

8. July 2nd, 2009 at 9:48 am
   kathryn said

   I’ll try and remember that - good advice. Thanks for being part of the conversation & hearing what I thought I was trying to say !

9. July 2nd, 2009 at 9:49 am
   Christa M. Miller said

   I don’t think “off-topic” comments are necessarily bad unless they become a consistent pattern. At that point, the writer should perhaps reevaluate… do the readers need something different than what’s being provided? So then maybe you ask a few regulars for guest posts to keep everything balanced, or find another way to add variety.

   Another issue: lack of comments. I sometimes feel like I’m blogging into a vacuum because hardly anyone ever responds to me! Yet subscriber numbers grow, occasional feedback is very positive, and I get the feeling that as Todd says, my blog is mainly being listened to (and processed) at this time. Good enough for me.

10. July 2nd, 2009 at 9:50 am
    kathryn said

    Good idea - I have noticed you do that. I do like learning from you all! Nice to see you here

11. July 2nd, 2009 at 10:05 am
    kathryn said

    Thanks Christa - all good things to remember. Awesome idea about the guest posts. Lack of comments is something that seems to be happening everywhere. I try to think od a Tweet as a type of comment. At least it’s someone noticing and taking the time to share your work! It’s fun to shake things up and balance things out……! Thanks for stopping by

12. July 2nd, 2009 at 10:05 am
    Darrin Searancke said

    It’s kinda funny to read the current stream of preemptive blog posts - about blog posts! It really is the social media instant-feedback that speeds up the entire justification/quantification process. Say you wrote a novel. You would submit your novel proposal, have it approved/edited and published. Then let the critics have their say, hope the general public made the purchase, enjoyed your novel and made your literary masterpiece a best seller. But as is a constant reminder of all published work - people have differing expectation/opinions - and as a result take different things from almost anything; a movie, a novel, or a blog post. Some will relate to it. Others wont get it. And as history has proven, some will focus on an entirely irrelevant point and react to that!

13. July 2nd, 2009 at 10:06 am
    kathryn said

    So nice you stopped by Krissy! Really good to hear from you and yes, I agree. Follow your heart. Your comments are just the little nudge I needed to remind myself of that.

14. July 2nd, 2009 at 10:17 am
    Tiffany Monhollon said

    Kathryn,
    Definitely faced this. I try to think about it as I’m sharing my ideas, so that helps, I guess, because it keeps me from being territorial about my meaning. But it’s a great thing to think about.

    The gap between intent and impact can teach us a lot, if we just listen.

15. July 2nd, 2009 at 2:18 pm
    kathryn said

    Darrin, preemptive? possibly. but if you’re trying to convince a client, company, corporation etc. that blogging is a successful tool as part of a winning marketing strategy it becomes important. It helps to think about how and if the audience will respond to the message you’re trying to convey within that content. I think the same goes for any author, at least the ones I know. They work hard at making sure their idea and characters are crafted in such a way that their intent at least influences their impact (thanks Tiffany for that terrific intent & impact point).

    I do agree, however, the “instant feedback” culture - or “internet time” influences the whole process.

    Thanks for stopping by. Happy to see you here.

16. July 2nd, 2009 at 3:13 pm
    Karen Jefferson said

    Writing is like a Rorshak test, you never know what readers will find in it.

    When I am soliciting feedback on my writing, I do NOT read it outloud. If I do, I am putting the inflection where I want it, not where the reader may put it.

    We all see the world through our own filters (or blinders). Even face to face communication can’t eliminate them.

    All we can do is to keep trying to communicate and know that the comments (or lack of same) are not necessarily a reflection on the writer, but more about the reader (or lack thereof).

    Write on!

17. July 2nd, 2009 at 4:08 pm
    kathryn said

    Karen - True enough and thanks for reminding me about those blinders ahem, I mean filters.

18. July 2nd, 2009 at 5:46 pm
    Janet said

    Karen’s right on about the filters thing. I DO read my posts aloud in the hope that it sounds remotely like what I’m trying to say. Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn’t but I hope that if it sounds right to me it will be easier for the reader to hear it.
    It’s a way to trim out the things that may lead them astray to talk about your dog or whatever. But hey, once you start the conversation you don’t have much control anymore and sometimes they find the tangent more interesting.

    Just gotta roll with it or try to re-direct in the responses to the comment. (which pretty much never works for me!)

19. July 3rd, 2009 at 8:46 am
    Jason Sanders said

    Kathryn - I try my best to anticipate distractions in my writing, but I don’t always catch them. If I notice something after the fact, I have no problem going back and editing the post to massage away that distraction.