That Voodoo that You Do, Social Web Magic

Spurred on by a Marshall Kirkpatrick Cinchcast early this am, I’ll take a cut at identifying what works for me personally as a browser and content creator. Marshall thought out loud about what small changes he could make to the Read Write Web to induce more reader interaction and engagement*. Even though he’s the lead writer at a popular web news site, and I’m working to discover and construct high utility web tools, our plights share more similarities than differences.

Marshall views interested and intelligent discourse in post comments as a chief metric of site health. For Victus Spiritus, well thought comments are the primary measure of a posts quality no matter what my personal topic biases are. For social web tools that Victus Media develops, each creation is only as good as the satisfaction of the folks who use and enjoy them. We’re still working towards the social proof of healthy usage. It may seem like a small step to get a group of people using an early created product. But it’s no simple task to get the right folks involved, and lay the foundation for a platform worth contributing to in a mutually beneficial way. For Tyler and I, it’s a privelege developing social web software.

Fred Wilson’s AVC has Bullseyed Engagement

My immediate reaction to Marshall’s podcast about reader engagement and comment quality/level is the great community at AVC. Fred Wilson has returned daily to kick off conversations related to web tech, investment, and startups for over 5000 posts. Regular commenters there are recognized immediately, myself among them. There’s a vibe of critical discussion and a diversity of views, but always with common courtesy and respect. I’ve learned more from the community at AVC about startups, business, and a variety of web tech/tools since late 2008 than anywhere else^.

Notes:
*= I suggested Marshall check why I can’t comment with my Google openid (I have to rely on Twitter authentication in the meantime). Disqus would be an interesting commenting option, but I’ve had mixed success with it lately. Comments were closing on posts they shouldn’t be, although it appears to be remedied now.

^= Victus Spiritus is growing in value as a learning and knowledge source but comments are still very small compared to the interaction on AVC

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  • http://arnoldwaldstein.com awaldstein

    Hi Mark

    The correspondence between comments and value is unclear…and something I think on all the time.

    You nailed it with Fred and AVC…It is a magic dynamic and it really doesn't exist in that collegial and positive way on any other blogs I hang out on. I think it lives somewhere in the intersection of leadership and community dynamics. The chicken and egg here is unbreakable.

    For myself, I”m constantly puzzled. I've made a few new friends on my blog but honestly as the readership has gone way up, I find myself getting more emails and pings to talk live about projects and more retweets than more comments.

    Something must be right but that community is missing.

    Ideas?

  • http://blog.botfu.com Kevin Marshall

    As much as I hate to say it, in most cases people are in it for themselves…engagement works on AVC because there's a large percentage of people that want Fred's time and attention…and he actually gives it to them by being an active participant within his own comments.

    Engagement doesn't work as well on things like RWW because by nature they are 'reporting' sites…they are telling you about news…and people are not traditionally interested in interacting with the news (catching up on the news is really a passive thing)…at best, you might get people to 'share the news'…which is really only half-engagement (but still way better than no engagement).

    If you want true engagement, you've got to develop a system that can turn your average Joe into a superstar simply by being actively engaged…and then you've got to actually do that for a few hundred average Joes out there (which, no way around it, takes time).

    Oh and it can't be a pseudo-superstar where it doesn't really mean anything to anyone but you…you've got to turn them into a superstar in the eyes of all the other average Joes that are passively using your system (and possibly most important, you've got to turn them into a superstar in their own eyes).

    See…it's simple! :-)

  • Leland

    Kevin following this line of thinking you are going to be very interested in our blog system when we launch into beta. I can't say anything right now but suffice to say it is in the same line of thinking that you are going down. :)

  • http://www.victusspiritus.com/ Mark Essel

    Comforting to see that there's no clean connection for you as well Arnold. I have a few ideas about our social web path and community building.

    First it comes from who we are, our professional history, and what we're working to achieve. This expressed message will attract a certain group of commenters and readers.

    There's probably little coincidence that people prefer to call you directly, it's the type of person you are and the way you best operate.

    My ideal contact is by email or any asynchronous messages. There are few times where an interruption won't cost me hours of spin up time. On the contrary, I find chatting while walking to be very enjoyable.

    Fred as an investor of a fairly sizable early stage fund attracts other investors, founders, early employees of startups, and entrepreneurial types. Fred's also a gifted tech blogger so he attracts plenty of people that don't fall into the above category (that's how I found, and kept reading AVC initially pre-startup notion).

  • http://www.victusspiritus.com/ Mark Essel

    Right on Kevin about engagement and psychological pseudo-superstardom.

  • http://arnoldwaldstein.com awaldstein

    Let's keep exploring this subject Mark when you return and in future posts.

    This has made me think about what and how I write…It's important to me to use my blog as a place where I put out my ideas in some depth on the components of my approach and thinking to business on the social web. It's a good discipline, starts to build breadcrumbs to book and speaking ideas and let clients see what I think.

    But I'd like it to be more as we both know, we need the process with others to figure things out in a changing world. Oh welll..puzzles are fun and this is certainly on.

    One think I would add about Fred. There is no other blog that I participate in that is a community in the sense that Fred has created. It has, as you state, to do with who he is and the audience, but something else. He really does care and that open and interested and unrushed approach really shows. Amazing gift. Amazing place to hang out over coffee a few mornings a week.

    Enjoy.

  • http://www.victusspiritus.com/ Mark Essel

    It's comforting to hear that a professional such as yourself is also
    uncertain about the source of social gravity. It likely has to do with
    who are are as people, what we wish to accomplish professionally, and
    how open we are ideas contradictory to our initial views.

    Fred does have a massive amount of social proof with a hefty backlog
    of posts about web tech and platform philosophy. I was a big fan long
    before the idea of a startup was a glimmer in my eyes. But USV is a
    trustee of a sizable early stage fund that can literally change
    founder's lives.

    There's also active crowd moderation that calls out highly negative or
    disrespectful comments. Kid has worked hard to identify trollish
    comments with his anti-troll detection system (he reads the comments
    as regularly as myself and has done so for a much longer time which is
    a sizable time commitment).

    We all care about what we say and what others say and share on AVC.
    This makes it a very special place.

  • http://www.victusspiritus.com/ Mark Essel

    Will do, have a wonderful weekend

  • http://arnoldwaldstein.com awaldstein

    Communities are magic when they work.

    Fred's is one of the few that really pulls, really has social gravity from the market to the his URL as the center. Makes me feel good to be part of it in a little way.

    Maybe the equation goes like this:

    Interesting & unique & timely consistent posts–>platforms for conversations–> community feedback and policing–>leadership and personality–> over time (a long time) + luck = community.

    Enjoy your holiday.