Hey Gang, welcome to a very special edition of Whiteboard Friday. Why is it special? A couple of reasons: First, Rand's discussing one of his favorite topics, blogging, and second, we decided to get a little crazy this week...you'll see what I mean when you watch the video.
Apart from the ridiculous theatrics, Rand discusses why it's important for bloggers to try and make friends and influence people. The blogosphere is actually a very close approximation of traditional social networks, with small, tight-knit groups of individuals who influence, feed off of, and generally agree with each other. Niche blogs and blog micro-communities function almost identically, reinforcing their own ideas and maintaining a comfortable, if isolated position.
source: the Network Weaving Blog
Pull out to a wider view though, and you start to see how those small niches could gain much more influence, participation and perspective if they did some outreach to more well-connected sites and communities.
Political blogs are a great example: there are blogs, both big and small, on the left and the right, and they are numerous. However, the largest audience and the most influential blogs are those in the middle. By reaching out to those centrist blogs and communities, even fringe bloggers can help to increase their footprint in the overall arena.
Beyond the landscape of blog communities and participation, Rand goes on to discuss several tactics bloggers can use to make themselves better connected within the social graph. He'll also discuss some of the primary benefits and rewards that can come from a little community outreach effort.
Enjoy!
For those who are interested, here are a couple of articles related to the psychology of blog niches and the associated social geography:
- Washington Post on the isolation of Political Blogs
- A similar article from the New York Times
- Network Weaving on the problems with fractured communities
- New York Times on how social geography can lead to innovation
Also, ReadWriteWeb did an excellent overview of the technicalities of the social graph, for those who want to delve deeper.
A couple of things from my perspective. This has to do with the content, not the production value:
Again, those are just my opinions. Maybe it's just me...
Ok, that's already not enough that you were invited to Oprah. Now you aim at the whole Discovery Channel! :)
Great lesson and production. I like "The Voice" too. I hope he makes more guest appearances. Let's call him the Wizard of Moz.
"Wizard of Moz"! Has a nice ring to it!
Alas, "Wizard of Moz" is Rand's title. We'll have to come up with something else for our mysterious narrator.
Holy production values Batman! Great job as usual guys!
Excellent edition of whiteboard friday, thanks seomoz! I especially like the fact that (as with all your SEO advice) the focus is not simply "this will help you game the system and get high rankings" - it always comes back to creating a better, more useful site, connecting with your audience (and peers) and if you do that well, then search engine rankings will follow.
I also loved the David Attenborough impression...shame about the dodgy English accent ;) Hope to see more creative whiteboard fridays like this in future.
Yeah, yeah, yeah...I know the accent was crap; but come on, do you expect me to learn how to do motion graphics and study an accent all in the same day? :)
You do just fine when you're trying to mock the way I speak!
Puppayyy! There's a cah in the wahtuh! I want a Lahmb Burguh!
Yep, that's exactly what Kiwis, Aussies and all varieties of Brits sound like.
They've made fun of the way I pronounce "water" since the_first_day I worked here.
It's adorable!
You missed a supreme linkbait opportunity that would dramatically expand your niche.
Original: "Wild Bloggers"
Retitle: "Girls Gone Wild Bloggers"
That's next week ;)
Very ethereal!
"Like the noble marmoset!" Some pretty funny stuff. I have to ask whose voice that was? Whoever it is, you're missing your calling.
Overall, enjoyed the presentation and particularly the visual representation of "social graphs" - somewhat analagous to constellations in both appearance and concept - "big stars, little stars, etc."
Very interesting post! Most of all the theory of the Political Blogosphere.
I'm replying from Italy and in a couple of mounths there will be the political Election. The italian situation is very very different compared with the USA one. In Italy there are more then two political Party so it is impossible to talk about right and left.
At least we have a centre-right (Berlusconi), centre (Casini), centre-left (Veltroni) and left (Bertinotti) parties.
W.r.t. Rand's picture of Political Blogosphere and Rand's theory about the way to get more popularity (i.e. the connection with centre/mainstream), Casini and Veltroni should have more "outreach capabilities".
According to this hypothesis, and considering Veltroni not able to win alone the election, in a couple of mounths in Italy we could have a Casini-Veltroni government even if (according to polls) Berlusconi is the stronger favourite!
(Sorry for my bad English!).
Sound liek a betting opportunity haha
What is this, the new Dharma Bums? lol! I loved it!
A great, succinct expose on the Blogosphere, I loved how you made sure to include the "Big Payoff" in the end.
Love this WBF, Scott - great job. Sphunn!
I liked the lesson, but not the overall presentation. It appears I'm in the minority. I didn't find the transitions added value. If I had to sum it up, I would say you guys were trying too hard and didn't appear natural to me. I do think there is value in trying new things and pushing the envelope.
When you try to make a significant jump in production value it is only natural that for a while the focus becomes on the production rather than the presentation--I think this goes for websites as well as videos.
Luckily in this case the content was still rock-solid, and I believe that with continued practice and attention to production values we'll see the "naturalness" return but in a tighter, glossier format.
Agreed on the fab diagrams...as above, so below
fab diagrams! nice.
I found this WBF useful as well as practical. Creating a strong blog persona and following can seem like a daunting task, but you give some great structured advice :o)
As far as the production value, I think you are making great strides. Playing with the format and shooting style will not only help grow your editing skills, but it ensures you will continue to attract new viewers. People who are new to the industry might feel as if they are at a lecture if you keep with the same format. By mixing it up, you have people returning to see what will be new next week and encourage growing viewership. Of course it is the content that is the linchpin, but a strong and evolving presentation doesn't hurt!
This WBF session is excellent. I have already dugg and sphinned it for others to read. Great information! Very useful and easy to understand.
Thanks Rand
Very unique Whiteboard Friday. I loved it. Someone needs to tell that broad that her laptop can't breathe lying on a comforter.
This video could be improved with a tweed jacket--with obligatory elbow patches--and a doctorate for Rand. Misters don't study wild bloggers.
(No other worries. He's already got the beard.)
I liked the way everything is linked together, defining the end goals/rewards and a high level looks at the actions needed to acheive them. I could imagine this being shown in unversities by up-to-date business lectures, that like get down with the kids...:)
yes Joe. The level of SEOmoz's Whiteboard Friday's proffessionality and proffessional appeal are phenomenal. The quality (with a few exceptions) has been on a steady rise and at this point I'd say I've just watched the best one (yet)
wouldn't miss it for the world.
I'm no blogger- in fact my most successful blogging has been on this very site, and I think what Rand said about leveraging the power of the well-connected blogs is absolutely true in my case. I ranked a YOUmoz post 4th in Google for chicken soft taco, a task that would be otherwise impossible on one of my startup blogs.
And more people are curious about my brand because of it. The more bread crumbs I leave back to my name and my site, the more money I'll make in the end.
-just Fred
this whiteboard friday is different, and I liked it as we still have Randy drawing lots of interesting things on his whiteboard, and giving us tons of tips and ideas.
The voice over though was not too clear at times, and sounded as if it had been recorded in a room far from the microphone. But, you're trying to improve it, and that's the most important. Keep it up !
Whiteboard Friday’s production value is slowly moving forward. I like that some weeks its humor and some weeks its humor with a message and other weeks its straight up education.
Your theories make a lot of sense and bring up ideas I hadn’t really considered. Missed Opportunity is a great way to explain it. The political example was an excellent choice. I do wish sometimes I had the time to be a blog writter instead of only a blog reader.
I've read so much of this stuff lots of times, but your video presentation definitely have a great impact. These things are fun, high production value, and loaded with good information! White-Board Friday's are definitely a great way to close out the week!
wow, the comments here really center on the production aspects of the video. It's certainly a break from past WBF and I liked it for a change - especially the angle shots of Rand. I can tell real effort when into this one! But the content of the post was equally impressive. Combining the two I would say this is my favorite one.
But please don't feel burdened to go Spielberg on us every week, I like the raw/let's get this sucker done and posted WBFs too.
Moving on to the content, some really great points. On an adpated theme, I would invite someone to blog on tips for being effective in the blogosphere when you know (deep down in side) that you don't have the time and social energy to do your own full blown blog, but still want to get the benefits. Um, i'm in that bucket.. my solution is to hang out here ;-)
I really enjoyed this entry--not just for the content but the noticeable jump in production value. It does seem you all are just getting used to the two camera setup. It throws me off a little when the camera switches and Rand is still talking to some other point off camera. Keep improving the production value and you'll have a real HQ webcast--but either let the talent know where you're shooting from or better yet, edit around where the talent is looking.
He knows where the cameras are, he can see them, and it's not a live broadcast so I have footage on both angles for the whole time, I just don't like a static, medium shot for 3 minutes straight without breaking it up a bit. Although the B-cam should've been on the other side of the room since Rand tends to favor his right side.
Glad to hear people enjoyed the extra level of post-production this week. It's new software and I've never worked with motion graphics before, so it's probably still a bit rough (and it was very time-consuming). I'm doing what I can to try and make these things both entertaining and informative.
Cheers!
How did you snag Sir David Attenborough from the BBC?!? Wow, SEOMoz does have some serious connections!
Rand Nice. Being on oprah gave you some production experience :)
Rand doesn't film the videos, Scott does.