2013 Blog Survey Results

In January I asked readers and followers on several social media platforms to share  their thoughts and ideas on how to make this blog a better online experience.  I have been able to extract a fair bit of quality data from this survey that I am happy to share with you. A review of the data confirmed a few general ideas I had about the blog and illuminated some new and pleasantly surprising perceptions. Overall, I found the data extremely helpful while I craft the next phase of ‘MidnightBlue’.

I had promised this data months earlier and apologize for the delay.

To start, I have released the top percentage answers from the eight multiple choice questions.

How did you find this blog?

• Friend 29%
• Link from other blog 21%
• Twitter/Conference 18%

How do you follow this blog?

• Direct visit 68%
• Twitter 42%

Why do you follow this blog?

• Sense of connection with the author 76%
• Quality information 41%
• Photo tips/Eclectic content 35%

What topics would you like to see more of on this blog? 

• Politics 57%
• Photography tips 46%
• Opinion on current national and global issues 46%

Post frequency preference on this blog.

• Whenever you post is good for me 64%

Would you be interested in occasional guest bloggers?

• Yes 32%
• No 3%
• Maybe 53%

What type of posts would you like to see more of on the blog?

• A mix of all the above 60 % (Interviews, Reader Q&A, Video posts, Photo essays, Podcasts)
• Photo essays 40%
• Video blog posts 29 %

Appearance matters. How do you like the overall design of MidnightBlue? What can be improved?

• Perfect –  no changes 58%
• Go with two columns 19%
• Too cluttered 11%

 

Far and away take home message was the authenticity of the collection of posts through readers sense of connection with me. This sense of authenticity and connection has also been confirmed off line when meeting twitter followers.   I will continue to post in this manner across all social media platforms – I am me online or offline.

I’m not sure how to interpret the results of the guest blogger question. While I’m not philosophically opposed to guest blogging, I like to have a certain level of control over the content produced on this website.

Thanks again to all who participated in this survey. I learned quite a lot about how my content is received in public and hope to use this information to improve the level of content provided within this website.