Wednesday, 04 November 2009
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Misreading the tea leaves
How many times have we heard people long for the good old days? When we hear it from our parents or elders we normally roll our eyes. Like right.....
Well in many ways I can't help think the same thing about the analysis of the trending in Xanga traffic. Being an analyst (systems /plant management~~not IT ) I understand it is very easy to misread trends.
At first, facebook was not a direct threat to Xanga because of it's rules of membership. You had to have a email with a educational domain. Now while a lot can be read into this, one thing that really makes a college education a big deal is the networking aspect of university life. The contacts you make may in fact be more valuable than the classes you take in many disciplines. So facebook took that and actually expanded the potential networking aspect of the educational system.
As facebook opened up (most likely because many users moved into the real world), facebook became a bigger deal. Facebook did not displace Xanga, but it has cut into the market share of people who are interested in networking. It also does a much better job of being a information hotline.
So while many are forecasting a funeral for Xanga, I am not sure that I believe their analysis is correct. Xanga trying to "be what it was", is most likely not the answer either. Xanga adapting and finding it's place in the evolving blogging world trends is the key. I believe if you expect Xanga to have its former traffic, your expectation may be unrealistic. People only have "x" amount of web time.
Did you read many of the departing odes to xanga over the years?Many were people who had moved on from being in a educational setting into having families and employment. Being tops on xanga was no longer as important. Being involved in trolling had no allure. They had to manage their time. And that is where facebook and twitter came in.
It's not always what, it is who
Xanga has a "rep" too . While myspace might have been for kids and young adults, most artists and even youth ministers had a myspace. Many columnists have Facebook and Twitter. You can get latest breaking news and opinion on those two services because of who belongs to those networks.
So as social networking popularity grew, many forms of it also grew. People only have so much time to devote and they normally pick one or two to be their primary source. To think that market share would not be lost as your primary audience is always evolving is a unrealistic expectation to hold Xanga to.
I think Xanga will remain a strong hold for interactive blogging, one of the most interactive on the blog sites. It is a place not dominated by star power which gives people a chance to be read and perhaps even discovered if that is what they are looking for. I think most xangans like how interactive this blogosphere is and that the friendships developed through that is the drawing card. For those of us that see that as the reason why we call Xanga home, the traffic trends are not that great of a concern as blogging trends are not one that should be expected to remain a constant.
Just my two cents.............
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Comments (27)
well put. i joined xanga post facebook expansion, and agree that this is an excellent place for interactive blogging.
I have said this, bigshow even added a bit to it: Xanga lacks a person with sense for the business. Bigshow stated they are probably people who just love computers. Now, I don't if that is entirely true, but I do think they do not represent themselves well by marketing themselves as much as they could.
I agree with @Paul_Partisan , Xanga needs marketing expertise. For better or for worse though, Xanga is home
Xanga was my first and really only shot at blogging/social networking. I have FB, Twitter and MySpace but this is home. I don't know if the Xanga people just kind of swerved into this by happy accident or not but there seems to be a core of committed xangans who wish the Xanga team would show them some love and make it easier to be here.
It is the community that keeps me around.
I believe that the people that helped xanga grow in the beginning are no longer there. I say this because everyone talks about how xanga shamelessly promoted themselves in the beginning and they do not do that now. Having talked to several members of the xanga team, there is no one and that includes anyone from the very top who is even remotely marketing driven.
What do I mean by marketing driven? I am on vacation this week from my job. I still spend an hour each day marketing just because it is a habit. I do not believe my location can grow without me marketing every day.
Xanga can turn it around. They just have to exercise basic marketing skills.
@Paul_Partisan - I think in a way John and some of the other team thought if they gave people the tools to make xanga what they wanted it to be that xanga could take the directions of the users wanted to take it. Kind of like developers and bloggers taking off on their own using xanga as the base service. They have placed many tools there for it to potentially exploit. But xanga is not as much a geeks service and forum as it is a bloggers forum, so I think there was some "thinking that people would do this if the tools were made available" mindset, that just didnt pan out.
Marketing encompasses quite a bit . If you take it from the aspect that they are not customer service oriented (a known) and they are not very interactive, but rather lurk in the shadows, that is negative marketing in a "interactive" environment. You would think that a interactive service would itself have interaction with its clients rather than the "blogger/blogspot approach". Perhaps that is where some of the new people came from or the model they use, but it is not their customer base model. I dont think xanga views us as customers who they owe any service to (individually) and if you dont like it, hit the IT highway.
I could be wrong, but that is the impression I have formed over the past few years, especially since John's wife got pregnant.
@TheTheologiansCafe - your correct, traffic/sites are not self perpetuating. I notice a traffic difference when I do not push traffic and when I am not "out in the community". I did it intentionally to see the cause and effect and it is direct.@mrcolorful - ditto Tim. Investing years in relationships and just plain having fun with people some times..kind of like a orange fedora.
@followfreedom - I think they are following the blogspot model of customer service John
@pandoratheexplorer - I dont think there is a true equal at the moment...
@ShamelesslyRed - I heard about xanga through a person and I joined. I told people about xanga and they joined. None of the aforementioned are still active bloggers though some do have accounts. Most of their impression of xanga is negative
The people to people marketing, running promotions to draw traffic-real prizes. Maybe even writing contests with prizes on topics, a scholarship, something that a big name could use to advertise. For a international company they think small. I am not talking a xanga t-shirt however cool they may be...........cameras, phones, ipods..you can get companies to sponsor things like that to get a free ad or promote a contest.. I imagine colleges are a untapped market here.
i play games on facebook,,, the games are endless there,,, i like that,,,
my xanga is so that my family can see im still alive on a semi regular basis,,, im seeing most also have a facebook account,, but since im mostly into gaming there,,, my homepage moves pretty fast,,, well,,, theres the news feed,, but i hang out at the live feed....
my space is kind of a joke in my personal opinion,,, got an account there,, and have threatened numerous times to delete it,, but theres members of my family i have on my list there i dont have anywhere else,,, not that they hear from me,, i update ,,, well,,, never,,, log in maybe 2 or 3 times a year...
you tube,, i like you tube,,, not only can they read about im still alive,,, they can see it,,, sometimes,,, i dont always turn the camera towards myself,,, sometimes i hand it to someone else to take a shot of me....
none of my stuff has educational value,,, none of it is meant to,,, altho sometimes i throw up something that annoys me for other people to see,,, if they are interested,,,,
if any,, or all,,, of these sites go down in flames,,, there will always be another waiting in line to gather up the pieces,,, kind of like the drug cartels here some think can be dismantled.... hahahahahahaha,,, not going to happen...
@mejicojohn - yeah, they all have different features. I like the mini version of bejeweled when I have a dexterity minute, but I dont have the time for mafia wars and all that/
I prefer xanga because it's easy. facebook is a pain in the ass and seems like a good place for teens and younger to hang out
I have a FB, myspace and a ravelry account. I never visit myspace and FB is just for keeping up with people I know personally. ravelry is a knitting/ crochet site, but nothing compares to good ol' xanga.
I've been here a long time and seen people come and go. I dabble in the other areas of the web market, but keep coming back. What can I say? But I have seriously considered ending my premium status. Eh.
Xanga is where you can make and keep real friends. Some of which we have been blessed to meet this year. Nothing else is as indepth as Xanga.
Great analysis. I have met some WONDERFUL folks on xanga who are real-life FRIENDS and (in SOME cases), like FAMILY, even.
the tea in the cup on the pic kinda look like mushrooms you been drinking shroom tea?
I hope Xanga survives. I find Facebook and Myspace seriously lacking in depth and attractive to people who consider having a thought long enough to text taxing.
Nobody drinks tea! *drinks tea*
@bukeshow - now how would I know what that looked like?
@JJ_Ames - I think Tom Petty did.
@clintspirations - I met a missionary when he was home on leave two years ago . I know mostly former or occasional xangans. It was a phase. That was another aspect of the post...was this just a phase at its high point and those if found appeal to stuck with it?
@spititoutalready - I have a great network of activists on fb. I get some breaking news on twitter. I like blogging on fb and I am networking on tcu
Well, there is definitely a smiley face in those tea leaves, so that's encouraging.
I have thought of leaving xanga and setting up a blog elsewhere, but after spending years and making new friends here, it doesn't seem worth it. Practically all of the friends I knew when I started here are gone, but I guess the creative outlet is addicting to me, because I keep coming back. I think a lot of the people I knew came here for social networking rather than blogging, and naturally they moved on. It's okay...I really don't have a desire to be like everyone else. But if xanga goes under, I'll definitely be sad. It's a simple format and I'm used to it--not sure I have the energy to set up a new site!
@ProvokingThought - jeez... well, if you're into all that, that's cool. I have lots of other things I'd rather do than follow what everyone else has to say ( I have exceptions of course). lol... I just don't care all that much I guess.
I know so many people who left Xanga for other blogsites and essentially ceased blogging. They TRIED to get people to go over to their new blog, but it didn't work. They just do FB, and FB is the anti-blog.
@homefire - NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!
Sorry. What was someone saying about the social, relational, interactive aspects of Xanga? Yeah. That's true! I'm rather attached to some of you---whether we ever meet, or not.
@spititoutalready - it's more tips than anything and with facebook being auto posted and twitter being autoposted from facebook, it doesnt require as much as you would think. The one thing it does most is push traffic back to xanga. the conservative underground I just post the same thing as here and trying with a link back to the xanga discussion.
I dont watch tv news so I get it from a variety of sources..
@BooksForMe - gv is primarily networking. Like I said I think if someone wasnt a intereactive blog, this is the best place.@homefire - the time investment is certainly a factor and the years of building realtionships. Very few of my original friends are still on xanga but over time others have developed . and yes, there is a smiley face in the leaves