Things That I’ve Learned About People From Blogging

~ Laura

I've learned some stuff about people from blogging all these years. Warning: Gross generalizations ahead. Proceed with caution.

  • People read blogs at work.
  • Because blogs are a diversion from work, they are looking for entertainment. Could be a fight in the comment section or just a good laugh.
  • They are also looking for inspiration.
  • People aren't doing that much work at the office.
  • They don't read blogs much after 5:00 PM, during July and August, and over weekends.
  • They prefer funny to serious posts, but a mix is best.
  • Don't post about serious topics after 3:00 PM or on Fridays.
  • Don't post anything that you hope will get wider attention in the blogosphere after 3:00 PM or on Fridays.
  • People organize their RSS feeds on weekends, not during the week. 
  • People like pictures.
  • People don't like to read too many words.
  • People love lists of movies.
  • If you make a serious and depressing point in a blog post, you should follow it up with a ha-ha.
  • People like a certain predictability to a blog. You can be a generalist with eclectic content, but you should be somewhat predictable about topics and extremely predictable about providing the content.
  • People like to know who they're getting info from. If you don't have an important job at a think tank or a university or a newspaper, you need to divulge more personal information. Photos help.
  • Women like political posts, but they like different topics than men.
    • Women like political posts about issues that are directly relevant to their lives.
    • Women don't like horserace stories as much as the guys do. BTW, most articles in the media are horserace stories, so the media hasn't figured that out yet. 
    • They prefer to read about political debates, rather than policy specifics or quantitative research.
    • If I write a post that I know will impress the boys (Charts! Numbers! Name dropping of academics!), it will often turn off the chicks. I've stopping caring and just write about whatever interests me.

Published by Laura

10 thoughts on “Things That I’ve Learned About People From Blogging”

  1. I’ve stopping caring and just write about whatever interests me.
    That’s how I lost my job with the billboard company.

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  2. I dunno what you were warning for, these generalizations were neither disgusting nor a hundred forty-four.

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  3. “I dunno what you were warning for, these generalizations were neither disgusting nor a hundred forty-four.”
    Another generalization: blog readers can be literal-minded.

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  7. People aren’t doing that much work at the office.
    If anything requires deep thought, I still tend to not get it started until 11:00 p.m. or later. I’m not sure if it is just a bad pattern from grad school or if, what with my foolish decision to give my co-workers my phone number and e-mail, that is the only time I can avoid interruption for long enough to do complex work.

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  8. For the record, I am reading this blog post in an office, between writing a paper and editing it (I’ll probably also eat lunch next, and read blog posts then too). Everyone else on my floor, though, is currently playing golf (I was invited, but do not play).
    I am therefore both (a) wasting time, and (b) doing more work than anyone else on the floor.
    Also, I think horse race stories fall more into the “easier to write” category than the “impress the boys” category. I like horse race news as much as any guy, but prefer to get it from 538.com or pollster.com or someone who will fully contextualize the horse race. The newspapers just can’t do it well.

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