Looking For Suggestions
Looking For Suggestions
I figured something out about blogging a few months back. The more I cared about stats and the number of readers, the less I enjoyed writing. I found myself trolling Facebook and Twitter trying to enhance my brand instead of having true, deeper interactions with people. That made me sad. So sad, in fact, that I have stopped looking at stats altogether. Not just for this blog but also for The What’s Up Next Podcast. Sure, Paul tells me that readership is building and lets the number of downloads slip occasionally. But I don’t even have the password to check.
For the most part, this has been great. As I am aware, however, that the popularity of the podcast is growing, I do find myself missing the interaction with the community. Even if no one was commenting on my blog, at least I could look at the numbers and know people were reading. So, I am looking for suggestions about What’s Up Next.
How do I make it into a community?
When we started the podcast, we also formed a Facebook group. While we have had some interaction there, our numbers of participants is far lower than our audience based on the number of downloads. I know that people are listening, but they are not getting on social media to discuss with us.
Which is generally okay. But I can’t help but feeling that the podcast should be a jumping off point for deeper conversations. While our panelists, Paul, and I get to wax poetic about a subject, it is our listeners who I long to hear give comment.
I’m looking for suggestions because I do feel like a community is beginning to form. Right now, however, the members remain in individual silos.
Blog
We decided to post new episodes on the DiverseFI blog instead of creating a unique website for What’s Up Next. I know this is somewhat controversial. It makes sense to allow the brand to stand on its own. On the other hand, Paul and I wanted to concentrate on putting together top rate episodes. That leaves little time for messing with WordPress. Admittedly, it was just easier to use the framework and structure that I already have.
The same goes for the episode pages. I know many create beautiful detailed episode pages for every new show. I guess I skipped this step because I wanted the recording to speak for itself. Have I been to hasty?
I’m looking for suggestions because I am wondering whether the website is the place to truly engage.
Visual Media
I am itching to add some visual media to our brand. I would love to release some of the video that is recorded with each of our episodes. I don’t for two reasons. One is to respect our panelists who may not want their faces on the internet. The second, of course, is my own anonymity.
For several reasons that I don’t want to discuss here, I don’t use my real name or image. In the future, this may have to change.
I’m looking for suggestions on how to do that. My initial idea is to make the Facebook group private, and then instead of recording outros for the show, Facebook live-ing them every Friday with Paul and I. That way, instead of recording the last few minutes of the show where we wrap up the episode, we could do it live with both audio and video.
Final Thoughts
I am excited to see the podcast audience growing. Although I don’t look at the stats myself, Paul promises me that we are moving in the right direction. Instead of numbers though, what I really crave is interaction with our audience and building a community.
I have not found that my blog or the Facebook group have grown to provide this type of deeper interaction yet. We are still at the way beginning. But I am starting to ponder whether adding some visual media will help.
What do you think?
That’s a tough one and I know from personal experience what you say rings true. Blogging can sometimes become not fun if you just purely concentrate on stats. I am not going to lie but there is a couple of times where if I am in the mood I wonder if continuing my blog is just worth the hassle if the message I write only gets seen by a few people. But then a later post takes off and I get a lot of comments and I am back riding high. It can definitely give you some mood swings if you let it.
I tried my own FB group and it is tough to manage that while I also work (you have an advantage now that you have decreased your clinical time). So FB got tossed out. I have been sticking to Pinterest and Twitter mainly to promote stuff but I haven’t put much work into it to see any appreciable effects.
Blogging is a patience game I think. Hopefully by my 2nd year (I haven’t even reached my 1st yr anniversary yet so got a ways to go) I will know what I have on my hand and make a decision at that point.
I guess you also have to look what you have already and decide if you are happy with it.
I struggle with this too. I currently do zero social media and just blog. However, it also means no one is reading which raises the tree falling in the woods philosophical question. When you find the right balance of promotion versus creation let me know 😉 Also, Doc G, just a heads up, you have a typo in the name of your podcast in this post “what’s up net”?
The balance is the key. Fixed. Thanks.
Doc G.. .for what it is worth, going non-anonymous has been great. It was not the “big deal” that I thought it would be. While I don’t know your personal situation, I can tell you that my friends and family (even the ones that I thought shouldn’t “know” about our financial situation) just didn’t care. It was an infinitely bigger deal to me than it ever was to anyone else. No one has come out of the wood work and asked anything of me that they weren’t already.
I think dropping the anonymity would be good for your podcast, and for your opportunity to interact with your community. Let them get to know you, warts and all.
That said, I think that your podcast does produce interaction. It actually produces a lot of thoughts for independent blog posts, but that doesn’t necessarily bring the community back to you. For example, you interviewed Ryan, Fred, Michael, and Ben. This prompted a blog post that I wrote, which – in turn – produced a blog post from Fred. The topic created thoughtful conversation, it just didn’t come back to your blog or facebook group.
I think your panel-design is interesting. though I do wonder if four people is too overwhelming for both guests and listeners given that there are also two hosts.
Either way, I think the podcast is having a greater outreach than you realize.
P.S. I am absolutely at where you were a while back with the stats. I am tempted to just delete the wordpress app from my phone and be done with it.
Jimmy / TPP
So far we have done panels of 3 and 4. We might mix it up. Stats are useless.
I think you need an actual sustainable business plan with some hard talk about reality and likely probability about whether something like your “dream” is even viable much less economically feasible. I think the whole blogging podding vlogging model has it’s limitations and the whole personal finance domain’s content as envisioned by boggleheads is quite limited in scope and the topic is already quite saturated. The very first thing is to decide is if this buggy even has a motor.
I know what it’s like to lose motivation over focusing too much on stats and view. For what it’s worth, I think you have good ideas, but maybe a few too many to try out at the same time. If it were me, I would just try to focus on one of them and see how it works out.
Personally, I’m trying to increase my blog exposure through Pinterest.
Good luck with your experiments!
Thanks. We will see.
I’m awestruck reading this post because I came here today to find an email address for you. After listening to your recent podcast with the panel of physician FI bloggers, I wanted to send you a personal message of thanks.
I am a 42 year old ER doc who left medicine 8 months ago to travel the world with my family. Was it burnout or a normal reaction to extreme frustration? – I still don’t know. But I thought I might be done with medicine – at a time when I should be at the top of my game, at a time when all kinds of other MD-related opportunities were starting to pop up (teaching, presenting, promotions, etc.).
We are FI, so I don’t HAVE to work but listening to that group of docs from a dusty gym in Hanoi, Vietnam, I realized maybe I still WANTED to work – just less. A lot less so that I have time to use the skills and experience I have developed in other meaningful ways – like you guys are.
So, please know that what you are doing is not just disappearing into the ether. It made a difference for this guy and might just be the catalyst that gets me back into medicine. Thank you.
~Matt
Hey Matt. I totally appreciate your comment. Knowing that the podcast is reaching half way around the world and effecting someone is truly magical. Thanks for listening.