When I first started using Twitter and my blog, I was concentrating, as most new folks do, on how to push my stuff out. Even though that isn’t a best practice, it’s also hard to avoid when you’re new. You need to show that you have something to say other than “Earn millions of dollars while working from home,” right? Eventually, though, I started to see the error of my ways, and I wanted to start pushing other peoples’ stuff out there too. I realized that the only way I could do that effectively was if I started reading other peoples’ blogs.
So, I started making a concerted effort to read a few blogs a day. I chose about 4-5. And I would gravitate towards those same blogs every day.
After awhile, I realized that wasn’t really the spirit I want to bring to Social Media either. It wasn’t that I got tired of those 4-5 blogs. It was just that I started engaging with a lot more people who had a lot of good things to say, and I didn’t even know if they had blogs. I wondered if lots of other people had the same experience as me. After all, there is only so much time in a day.
That’s why I started the idea of #30Thursday. There are a few key facets to the idea which are kind of hard to get across in 140 characters, so I thought I would expand a bit on them here.
Introduce other bloggers to people who read my blog
Not only do I get to read a lot more blogs now, but I also have the privilege of introducing you to people whom you might not know via any other Social Media site. I am introducing you via a brain-to-brain handshake (woah, that now seems way too creepy of an analogy but I’ll stick with it).
Help your blog get exposure
If you feel like people aren’t seeing your blog posts (which can be a common and very discouraging sentiment), #30Thursday can help get you out there a bit. Not saying that I have a whole ton of pull, but if you’re listed, you’ll have a fair amount of eyes seeing the title and content of one of your blog posts. I want to take this one step further, however, and talk about…
You starting your own #30Thursday Posts
My ultimate goal is for other people to do exactly what I am doing. Take recommendations of posts to include in a “top 30 of the week” post. There are a few reasons for this.
1. It will help you read a lot more blogs, which will enrich your Social Media experience
2. It will introduce you to new people
3. It will show that you are a legitimate human being who isn’t out there just trying to get more followers
4. It epitomizes the idea of promoting other people first (I believe very strongly in this)
5. As a side benefit, if you are starting out, it will help familiarize people with your own blog
A Blog Book Club
Ultimately, my vision is for #30Thursday to become an expansive book club. With #30Thursday posts appearing at the hash tag every Thursday, there could be hundreds of blogs being shared, commented on, retweeted, etc. Think about it…if just 9 other people, in addition to me, started doing this, that would be 300 blogs shared in one day. Would that not be amazing? Would that not give you enough fodder for your own blog posts for the next 5 years, every week? Would that not introduce you to some amazing people that might be beyond your sphere in Twitter? I sure hope so.
The rules
People who have submitted recommendations to me tend to ask, “Do you think this will be of interest,” or “does this qualify?” Really, anything that you think is well written and worth sharing qualifies. I have been able to take everyones’ submissions thus far because I haven’t gotten more than 30 recommendations – I supplement with posts that I read that affect me in a major way. If I start getting a lot more submissions, it will just be the first 30 I get. I do read every post I get so that I can offer a brief preview when I post a link. If you just post 30 links, you’re not really doing much more than broadcasting, right?
I have not contacted people to let them know they’re on the list. I thought it would be fun to kind of surprise people. I’m kind of jostling that around in my head a bit. Let me know what you think would be more effective.
So that’s pretty much it. I hope that this clarifies some of the questions that were popping up out there.
Weekly Pictures
By the way, I’d like to take this opportunity to announce that I will also be accepting one picture a week to go with the #30Thursday post. My stockhouse that I use doesn’t have a whole lot of exciting things to say about “30.” If you want to use the artistic side of your brain, just let me know. Try to keep it under 1mb, make sure you have rights to it, etc.
Clear as mud? 🙂