Blog Design: Social Icons

 

I found these cute icons on the Web - loved the hand drawn look that they have as I think it matches nicely with my blog. I took a couple of them and adjusted the colour a little bit to create nice matching shortcuts to my social websites. I might play with them more and add a few extras later on.

Surveys: Survs.com Results

Today Marita got back to me with the results of the survey I mentioned in this post here.

Here is a little overall preview of it, however I will avoid including the link with full results she had provided for the privacy reasons, but it's available to me and there's plenty of information to analyze. Definitely worth taking a look at, so thank you, Marita!

Blogging Pros and Cons

Image source:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/ni/2010/11/how_has_blogging_changed.html

Blogging Benefits: LFW

During the past week I got lucky enough to attend a few shows and presentations at London Fashion Week. I am still trying to understand how everything works, but this season I definitely learned a lesson relying on my own experience and having spoken to blogger friends- when it comes to the shows, don't wait until you get noticed and invited and apply yourself at least a month in advance. Having applied as press just a few days in advance, I still got about 10 invites, but all of the biggest shows would be fully booked. The full coverage of the events I managed to attend can be found on my personal blog here and here.

Presentation: Assessment Criterias

   Content 

   1.  Your research area  

         ‐    why your issue is current and important. 
         ‐    Your hypothesis – see above 
         ‐    show evidence of your knowledge of this topic by quoting from 
              newspaper articles, TV programmes, library books, websites 
              (secondary research). 
         ‐    How did  you refine your research area? 
         ‐   Justification for the kinds of questions you asked your network. 
              Were they neutral, were they qualitative or quantitative?


    2.  Networks  

         ‐ What is a network? 
         ‐ What does your network look like? Centralised, decentralised, 
         distributed? Use Martin Raymond chapter on networks to help.  
         ‐ How and why should we use networks for research?  
         ‐ How did you use your network for this particular research? 
         ‐ What are/were your network’s limits? 

          ‐ How diverse is your network? 
          ‐ Weak and strong ties. 
          ‐ Connectors.  
              
     3.  Your  results  

          ‐   what does your research tell us that’s new? 
          ‐   Was it predictable or were there any surprises?  
          ‐    Show your audience in graphs and tables what your network 
              thinks.  
          ‐    Did you get any interesting comments – what were they?  
          ‐    Is it the same as the current thinking in the media or books or 
               have you identified a new trend?  
          ‐   What is the ‘zeitgeist’? 
           
      
     4.   Reflection  

          ‐   What worked and what didn’t work. 
          ‐   Was your network adequate to answer your questions? 
          ‐   Were your questions successful in gaining the information you 
               needed? 
          ‐   Were your results skewed by your network? 
          ‐   What would you do differently next time?

Interview: Blog Partnerships From Brands Perspective - Answers

Wow! I have to say that answers on these questions exceeded all my expectations as I haven't expected brands to be so willing to reveal their thoughts to me, but in fact- they did and they told me more than I could wish for!

I have received the answers from 5 different PR agents of 5 different brands. Since the answers were extremely open and wordy, I have included all of them inside this post.

Interview: Blog Partnerships From Brands Perspective

Having looked at my network model again, I realized that I haven't approached all of the weak-ties in it- brands that I collaborate with, to be exact. I do know them through my blog and email business conversations, but we are not familiar enough with each other and they are from all over the world and of all ages. I felt that I needed to correct that mistake, so I wrote to few of brand represents with following questions:

There are a lot of brand partnerships in today's market, when companies send out free things to bloggers. What do you think of this practice? (e.g. Is it mutually beneficial? Does one side benefit more than another? Please explain)

How much more/less effective are blog collaborations rather than magazines/printed editions?

Since I've managed to cover readers/bloggers attitudes and opinions on the matter, I felt it was essential to get brands side as well. In fact, writing this post made me realise that the link between these three parties could be easily represented by a circle model "brands-bloggers-readers-brands" if that makes any sense (the brands send free clothes to the bloggers- the bloggers demonstrate the clothes to their readers- the readers purchase clothes from that brand- the brand sends more clothes to the bloggers). Don't know if anyone has come up with this thought before, but I find it quite interesting!

Surveys: Survs.com

A while ago I was contacted by a Finnish student inviting me as a blogger to take her survey:

Apparently, she found me by my blog and connected with me same way she might connect with many other bloggers that I might not know. So her being a node or connector in that case made me think of it as a network, perhaps the network I could diverse?

I have completed her survey, in return asking her to provide me the final results once they are ready to add them to my own surveys and she was kind enough to agree to do so. I shall wait and see what information I'm gonna get!

Surveys: Blogs vs Print Media

I have created a survey to reveal today's importance of both online and print media, and see whether one is being preferred to another and how the possible preferences might have changed compared to the past.

It can be accessed on the following link: http://kwiksurveys.com?u=onlinevsprint

And here is the screenshot of the data collected:

Top image source:

http://theory.isthereason.com/?p=391

Blogging Profit Pyramid Model

Image source:
http://www.shoemoney.com/2012/02/08/why-most-affiliate-bloggers-dont-last/

Question: What Makes a Great Blog? Part ll

Being put off by poor response at first and after long considerations and few days gap, I ended up asking the same question on my main personal blog. The reason I didn't do it right away was the fear that it would annoy the readers, but then I got such a great response on my other social networks, that I thought it was only fair to let my biggest network speak and express their opinion on this matter too.

Here is what I got so far:

UPDATE:

The Arrogance of Bloggers

Recently I've come across of an article which suggested that bloggers were arrogant in their behaviour of keeping a blog. It was illustrated by the following drawing:

Reminds you of anything? Yes! "They Way Things Are" scenario with its commenters (nodes) all leading up towards the authour and the blog post (super node) reminds me of a hierarchical network where all the information is shared with main hub. I quite like "the way things could be" scenario with people being anble to interact with each other and make connections.

Oh, by the way, one of the points that "display an arrogant behaviour" on the author's opinion was the lack of sharing widgets at the bottom of the posts. Check ;-)

Full article and diagram courtesy of Sarah Mitchell:
http://www.business2community.com/blogging/the-arrogance-of-bloggers-057352

Interview: A Blogger by Profession - Answers

Meanwhile Karen's answers for my interview came in. Here's what she had to tell me:

-From reading your blog, I know you have recently quited your job for working as a full-time blogger. How has that changed your life?

I finally get to do what I always wanted for a living. I was doing a job that didn't interest me and I died a slow death at my desk daily. Since leaving that job, I feel better mentally and even physically. I am moving into more opportunities that I could not have done before with that office job for example I was hired as a photographer to shoot backstage at NYFW. The world is now really open to me to accept anything. It's a bit scary too being my own boss but I would rather that than the security of a corporate cheque that gave me no joy.

 

-What are the benefits of your job and are there any downsides to it?

I get to work when I want and how I want to. I am my own boss so make all the rules. Blogging is a mobile so as long as I have access to the Internet I can work literally anywhere in the world. It's a fantastic feeling to not be 'chained' to one place.

Blogging takes up a lot of your time. More than I think readers realize. Blog posts can take hours and I have three blogs now. Also it's great being your own boss but along with that I need to be an accountant, photographer, model, writer, promoter I mean the list goes on. I am semi considering getting an intern to help.

-What career perspectives do you see? 

Career wise I see opportunities in so many different directions. Being hired as a photographer is one of them. I have an opportunity that will involve a magazine very soon that I can't talk about yet till its confirmed but I can't wait. It's like the blog can be the stepping stone or launch pad to other opportunities that you don't see coming eg stylist, hosting, modeling, writing, collaborations the list goes on depending on what your blog is about and what you are passionate about.

 

-Would you say it pays off, both morally and financially, so far?

I feel really blessed to be doing that I want now. It's definitely the most satisfying feeling ever to be your own free agent and to know you are doing things in life now for you and no one or no other business. Financially I am matching what I made from the job I left behind so I feel this is a real split screen moment In terms of doing what I want for the same income.

 

What a great girl and a really helpful material both for my project and my own blog! #motivation

Question: Respond on Facebook

Facebook page is pretty much silent too, so far I have only got two responds. More to be added, shall I receive some over the next few days.

UPDATE:

FURTHER UPDATE:

Question: Respond on Twitter

Twitter is meant to be instant. After hours and hours there is not a single reply. NOTHING. I mean, even my foodie posts get more response, hello??

#shocked @passiveness

UPDATE: One respond the next morning:

UPDATE: After getting fed up with the silence I decided to give it another try this afternoon which proved to be more successful, and I received a few valuable comments:

Looks like I already see a pattern here... :-)

FURTHER UPDATE:

Question: Respond on Formspring

Some replies have already started coming back to me, however they are far from what I was expecting.

First of all I intended it to be a quantitative approach, assuming people would name one or two things about what makes a great blog for them, but instead I have received some big pieces of writing to analyze. It's not a bad thing as I can still pick up the bits I want for my statistics, but it just makes me think I should be more careful next time and specify what I am after in more detail.

Secondly, I was expecting far more answers coming in, but perhaps that's due to the late hours I popped the question- as Russia is at least 4 hours ahead and most of my followers form there would be sleeping. I'm hoping to find more answers tomorrow morning and in the days to come. Either way, I will be updating this post with new entries throughout the duration of my module.

UPDATE:

UPDATE:

FURTHER UPDATE:

Question: What Makes a Great Blog?

As I planned, I have now asked my question on the following social networks in both English and Russian:

Formspring

Facebook

Twitter

Knowing how passive people usually are I am not hoping for a massive respond, but I will be happy with any number of people getting back to me as every feedback is important! Let's see what they have to say...

Videos: Andy Torres "The Key to Successful Blogging"

Interview: A Blogger by Profession - Questions

 

To nail my "interview" bit, I have come up with 4 questions that I emailed to Karen from WhereDidUGetThat, as she is one of the few bloggers who work full-time on their blogs (she runs 3 of them actually!) that I know. Although we speak online from times to times as it can be seen from the posts below, we don't know each other in person and our connection is based on blogging purely, that is why I would still consider Karen as a weak-tie in my network. Will be looking twice as forward to receive her answers, being a blogger myself!

Anyway, these are the questions I came up with:

• From reading your blog, I know you have recently quited your job for working as a full-time blogger. How has that changed your life?
• What are the benefits of your current job and are there any downsides to it?
• What career perspectives do you see?
• Would you say it pays off, both morally and financially, so far?

Image source:
http://blog.gts-translation.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/blogger2.jpg

Karen from WDUGT On Advertising

Here are some more e-mail conversations with Karen from 2 years ago, that I remembered about and thought they would come useful. This time Karen speaks about  blog advertising issues:

Karen from WDUGT on Free Clothes Samples

I was randomly speaking to Karen from WhereDidUGetThat when we touched the topic of freebies that are being sent to bloggers, including myself. Below are few things that she had to say on the matter, that definitely made me give it a thought and perhaps even reconsider my relation to that wonderful "benefit". (click to see the original size)

Diagrams: How do Bloggers Communicate?

A diagram found on Internet which displays the way the blog community bonds. It sure reminds me of decentralized network model which in this case probably means bigger bloggers representing super-nodes with a lot of connections and followers.

Image source:
http://www.communitywiki.org/CommunityTiedToOneTechnology

My Topic: Possible Questions

No matter for how long I've been putting away the most important difficult part- it's time to decide on the questions! What is it I want to find out? What will be my questions and which particular network I will test them on? How will I get qualitative and quantitative data? Right now my head is exploding from defragmented ideas, but nothing is clear yet!

Relying on these posts here, here and here this is my possible plan:

1. A blogger by profession: interview a fellow blogger who works full time about all the pros and cons of this choice. Does it pay off? What are the perspectives of the career? etc
2. Blogs vs traditional media: create a survey on peoples opinions about today's value of both 
3. Blog collaborations and brand partnerships: use another survey (ask bloggers) and ask a question to brands via email
4. Successful blog: what makes a great blog? ask the question on Facebook, Formspring, Twitter and Blogspot
5. Qualitative data: interview people in person whether a) they have a personal blog b) whether they read other blogs (if yes, what type?)

My Topic: Possible Ideas

Having agreed on a general topic, I am yet struggling to decide which aspects I will be mainly focusing on as there are so many of them to blogging and right now I've got a great mess in my head! I thought I'd put together some questions/ideas to help me organize my thoughts and see what is it I want to find out. I might even use some of them as my main questions or just include them in my questionnaires/interviews.

• types of bloggers and blogs
• pros and cons of blogging
• blogging and traditional media
• influence of blogs on different aspects
• bloggers by profession
• reasons why people blog
• how to success in blogging
• making money blogging
• brand relationships

Image source:
http://sem-group.net/search-engine-optimization-blog/little-things-bloggers-crave-and-most-never-get/

Social Media in Higher Education

Schools are on a short list of organizations that have been notoriously slow to adopt emerging tech. But within the last few years, as social media becomes more integral to students’ lives, educational institutions are finally catching on, and catching up. When it comes to higher ed, there are not only opportunities for digital learning, but digital marketing too. Some schools have taken the reigns on both sides, with mixed results.

The infographic below takes a look at how schools have fared with social media over the last few years — what platforms are best, where they’ve succeeded, and the challenges that lay ahead.

Infographic by onlineuniversities.com.
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, YinYang

CLOSE

CLOSE

Offline Networks: Personalizing

This is the diagram of my offline network; I've indicated how strong the ties are by different shades of colour- lighter the shade- weaker the ties.

Online Networks: Twitter

Last but not least- Twitter, which proved to be unsuccessful among most of my colleagues and leave them dissatisfied, but I am still eager to give it a try as well, we'll see!

Online Networks: Blogger

This is another screenshot of my personal blog followers. For the moment it is possible to follow me via two platforms- Blogger and Bloglovin' and while some people prefer to use both at the same time and sum of these numbers doesn't quite reflect an actual amount of different people, it still gives me an audience big enough.

Demographic location statistics show the variety of countries my followers come from- great multi-cultural network indeed!

Online Networks: Odnoklassniki.ru

As I mentioned earlier, this is a Russian website which works by the same principle as Facebook- you add your friends, share your photos and thoughts, interact with others etc (highlighted are my friends and groups I participate in). However it translates "Classmates" which suggests that it is more oriented for finding people which relate to you through education. Most of the people there are indeed my ex-classmates, people I know from school and also my Russian-speaking relatives and friends. I believe this is not the best source for my given assignment as all of these people are closely related to me which makes them strong-ties, but I will keep this network as a back-up option.