Sunday, July 31, 2011

My Blog Level

from http://bloglevel.edelman.com :

Influence : 11.3
Popularity : 15.1
Engagement : 12.5
Trust : 17.6




Your influence score - Your score is low because your blog is not a well-read resource for the community you wish to be part of. To increase your score you will need to reach out to more people and encourage them listen to your views, engage in conversations via comments, make more informed and regular posts and focus more on understanding your audience to ensure your posts are something that they want to read. 

Your popularity score - Your score is quite low but it is easy to improve. Look at getting the basics right first – have you made it easy for people to subscribe to your blog? Do you have RSS easily noticeable? Do you publicise your content on other social media channels like Twitter and Facebook? Many blog measurement tools purely rank people according to the number and authority of recent inbound blog links but BlogLevel also takes into account how your amplification through other social media channels. Other ways to improve this score is to be a more recognised participant in the area you are specialising in – make sure you link to and comment on other blogs. Finally SEO plays a significant role in your popularity – if your post is not found then it makes no difference how good the content is – make sure you tag what you publish, have text not number titles in your post address and include multimedia (Flickr, YouTube for example) – this has the added benefit of making your posts more dynamic and interesting. 

Your engagement score - Your engagement score could be better. One of the key differentiators of a blog is that (most of the time) it allows people to engage in two way dialogue about a subject. How much does your blog encourage people to comment on what you say and do you respond back? Getting the basics right to improve your engagement score is easy to provided you know your audience - make you know them, write for them, talk to them, read their thoughts and comments and reply individually. Twitter is also an important factor as people often discuss the views of a blog within this media – take advantage of multiple channels and promote and engage in conversations about your posts within this space too. 

Your trust score - Within the blogging world your site is somewhat of a secret. The Edelman Trust Barometer states that 77% of people refused to buy products or services from a company they distrusted. It is trust that makes someone act – for this reason alone, having a high trust score is considered by many to be more important than any other category. To improve your score you need to create interest about yourself – people like to see ‘behind the scenes’ and your blog is a chance to demonstrate your experience and expertise. Remember that Pulp Fiction rule: ‘personality goes a long way’ so ensure your ‘About’ page tells a little history about your blog and also includes contact details. Blog etiquette demands a few rules to improve your trust score – give credit and correctly link where it is due, include a relevant blogroll and make it easy for people to get access to your updates via RSS, twitter syndication and email updates.