Jory Des Jardins, the co-founder of BlogHer with 20 million monthly unique visitors described blogging as curating, speaking of the new skills required to be a community builder and a conduit for conversation, reminding us “its no longer about controlling the conversation” and that consistent relevance is the new competency needed. “It’s about how you resonate in the world.” She reminded those of us who blog to “allow glimpses of being mortal” and said there’s a new value in being someone who picks out the right stuff to share. She said there’s been a tipping point and people expect online forms of communication. “How we’re communicating is not going back. Everyone now expects interaction.”
Jory shared with us about Ree Drummond, the Pioneer Woman, who was a stay-at-home-mom out in the country, homeschooling her kids, who built a following with her blog and now has a cookbook out and speaks to audiences worldwide.
She sited Elise Bauer’s recipe blog as an example of the power of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) showing us that when you Google for certain recipes, Elise’s website ranks higher on the Google page than Food Network and AllRecipes.com and other more famous establishments – all because of her blog.
Another example of a blog well done that she shared is Tom Peters’ blog, which Jory used to illustrate her use of the word “curator” as the role of the blogger. Tom’s site acts as a curator of his subject, where all the posts combine his references to other leaders or resources with a percentage of his original thoughts mixed in.
Here are the rest of my choppy notes from Jory’s session:
curation: curating your subject
be a conduit for that conversation
it’s no longer about controlling the conversation
allow glimpses of being mortal
new set of skills to be a community builder
new value in picking out the right stuff to share
new competencies: curator and community building
distributed model
syndicated to Facebook and Twitter
Don’t worry about RSS, only 4% of the population is best reached via RSS
market your Twitter page
Facebook Connect syndicates comments
The connected world of gaming: Farmville on Facebook and FourSquare, which everyone is watching to see what will develop there
There’s been a tipping point. People expect online forms of communication and it’s not going back. It’s how we’re communicating/ expecting interaction.
“Crowdsourcing” is an overused term, but it means getting many inputs from the audience and creating based on that
Google likes outgoing links…your numbers go up the more you link out
RELEVANCE is the next step, next frontier. Provide relevant information to your niche market
relevant, timely and consistent is key
Consistent Relevance
Keep the influence, own the relationships
empowering addiction
It’s about how you resonate in the world