Two days ago I posted a World of Good (WOG) story about Haverford College's women's soccer team working with children in their community. It was a cute story about college women giving their time to help teach the sport they love.
Every time I post a WOG, I email the link to the people who are the subject of the WOG and I usually get a really nice note back thanking me for writing about them. This time was no different. Coach Wendy Smith wrote back and said, "Thanks so much - that was a really nice blog - I am sure my kids will enjoy reading it." She proceeded to email the link to her team.
They emailed the link to their friends and family. Thanks to Sitemeter, I was able to watch the viral marketing take place. I got a bunch of hits from haverford.edu and then a bunch more referred by various email links. From the WOG Squad, Mark Shea, Georgette and Happy Julie all linked. Many hits followed.
Not one comment. I even asked for comments at the bottom of the post. It dawned on me with this WOG post that I should have been doing this all along as a special treat for the people I was WOGging about. It would have been great for the ladies from the soccer team to surf over and see a half dozen or so comments thanking them for their kindness. It would reinforce the action and make them more likely to do it in the future.
That's the central mission of this blog, but I can't seem to figure out how to do it. I realized, too late for this one, that I shouldn't send the link to the WOG subjects until the WOG Squad has had a chance to link and I've gotten at least 100 hits on it and some comments. In this case I had the order wrong and the haverford.edu hits came well before the WOG Squad had linked and sent their hordes over.
That's only part of the problem. The other part is getting someone, anyone to comment aimed at the WOGged people. As a further refinement of the WOG process, from now on I will be including a request at the top of my WOGs for supportive comments aimed at the WOG subjects. We'll see if that works.
4 comments:
Justin's law of blogging: If you ask for comments, you don't get them.
I was reading this, and I said; "'WOG', why is that familiar... ...oh I know why, because WOG is my personal shorthand for 'Word of God'." Perhaps your WOGs are in a way, also mine. :)
Peace,
TWS
Maybe because in most of the English speaking world, WOG is a foul racial slur. It's like "nigger" or "kike" for East Indians.
So you might be bumping into some filters.
Staghounds,
Thanks for the comment. I know about the racial slur part, but that's the way the acronym comes out and I like the way Georgette turned it into The WOG Squad.
I accept the consequences.
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