Dr Jo's blog

Multimedia choices

Multimedia forms of communication are everywhere. You are reading one form now – the blog. I am immersed in digital media, both with business and in my project with Universities around Australia. Just think – a few short years ago, to get any information about our chosen interests, we had to read books or if you were scholarly, read journals. In some ways nothing has changed. There is still a prestige attached to publishing your work in books or journals but is there anything wrong with widening your publications?

I choose to publish on the web. That way I have the widest audience. Knowing your audience is the key to having a successful business.

I would like to pick your brains, those who are reading this, and understand your use of digital media. What is your favourite form of obtaining knowledge about pets (or any other chosen subject). Can you pick one as a preferred means of obtaining information – videos (You Tube etc), podcasts, websites or blogs or do you need a combination of these? Does it differ if you are looking for education or entertainment? Are you creating digital media yourself? And how do you measure your success in reaching your audience?(If so, please leave links to your sites in your comments.) Thanks for your comments.

I’m not an expert on blogging. I just like to blog – to share my thoughts with others. While websites are great for providing factual information, blogs allow a certain degree of freedom of thought. Another benefit of blogging is the interaction. Other people can comment which leads to expanded ideas – great – if you can get comments!

There are so many blog posts and tips and guides about how to write blogs and how to get people to comment on your blog. Maybe these tips work, maybe not. Some of my thoughts:

• People comment when you least expect them to, just like twitter and facebook – it’s not always the most profound ideas that generate comments.
• People comment at the source of the blog recommendation. I tweet about my blogs. People tweet their comments back to me. They don’t comment at the blog site.
• People (ie. me) give up commenting when it is too hard – having to sign in, become a member etc. They may have something to say but it will never be heard.
• Blog comments are a great networking resource.  Leaving contact details with your comment can be a great way to expand networks and drive traffic to your own sites.
• Sometimes we read bogs but don’t know what to say. In counselling you learn when you don’t know what to say, to simply say “I don’t know what to say”. We don’t do that when reading blogs for fear of sounding silly.
• Does sounding silly worry us so much that we don’t comment at all?
• People like to lurk. To be nosy. It’s human nature, to look at what others are doing, saying, how they behave, how they blog. No words are necessary.
• As a blogger, you know people are there. Analytics & subscriber numbers tell you. Sometimes it would be nice if the lurkers would just say hello

I read lots of blogs. I don’t usually leave comments: I didn’t want to be the first; I didn’t want to sign in; My comments might be silly… All sorts of excuses.

Now I realise that I have to change. Time to comment. Perhaps karma will lead others to comment on my blogs. If not, at least I am building my networks and helping bloggers feel that someone is out there.

Would you like to comment?