What's This? An Editorial?

Are you concerned about the future of blogging as a viable social medium? While entering Trackside Treasure's 12th year, I read this rather dismayed (but not defeated) post on Chris and Connie's Facebook page this week. Chris and Connie do a lot, see a lot, share a lot. They're committed. Their post is lightly-edited, with my thoughts at the end:

We're a touch worried...

We can't shake that feeling that this here Facebook page, and our HQ on the web BIGDoer.com, has run its course.

And it comes down to one reason really: engagement. It's fallen and continues to drop. We get scads of traffic between those two sites but in return the response tells us we've lost our audience. For example a recent week at BIGDoer.com had us greeting four thousand unique visitors, who on average read three separate articles (of the 1200+ there) and spent some ten to twelve minutes each browsing in total. That's 12k pages views and 666 person hours in those seven days. And from that came a single comment and one social share. And it's not like doing either is made difficult there. 

We operate these sites for fun (I don't how in some minds they think we make money off it – I wish) and with the hopes that other people will enjoy the experience too. But lately it's been the sound of crickets and of course that always present background noise from haters and the (fill in the blank) police. They always let us know they're around. If the positive vibes flow they can be drowned out though.

We really should be getting better results than we do. Not that we don't appreciate those who have been cheering us on and doing their part – we love you guys muchly. Please join them! We put a lot of time and resources – we're volunteers here people - to bring you these articles.

Plain and simple, if we're not hearing from you, via comments, here and especially at BIGDoer.com, by likes, shares or any other interactions the numbers tell us there's little reason to continue. Let's make this comparison...we're a band, a pretty good one too...exhausted but knowing we've done something great, the crowd gets up, turns and leaves without a sound. No ovation, no applause, no calls for an encore. Just deafening silence. That's the state of it. And it's been getting progressively worse for many, many months.

I also came across this post on Mike McNamara's interesting Northeast Kingdom blog. What I would normally call the 'death of a blog' admission (haven't posted here in a while) but notice the pivot to Facebook posting:

The illustrious Kingston Sub modeller Jason Shron also marked the pivot to Facebook:

Now, I've consistently stated that anything I do, online or in a book, is really for my own use and enjoyment. That sounds self-serving, and it is. But I'm not doing it then hiding it nor putting it up on a shelf in my office. I'm sharing it. If you or someone else gets something out of it, so much the better. But I catalogue my memories, some photos and observations this way. A quick glance at my Blogger statistics shows that my comments-per-post are pretty consistent: 0, 4, 2, 0, 3, etc. Can't really judge pageviews because of those weirdos in the Ukraine and India using my post to sell cars and shoes. Don't care.

Blogging is not the future. Facebook is not the future. Likes and shares is definitely not the future. Dollar signs are not the future. If engagement is the future, then engagement happens in a continuum. Years from now, I will send my Trackside Treasure posts to you in a single thought via some plasma channel or other StarWarsy hologram thingie. Whaaaa?

To help me with my quandary, I reached out to three fellow rail enthusiasts who are making excellent and varied use of social media: Dartmouth's Chris Mears plus Mark Perry and Steve Boyko, both in Winnipeg...

I asked fellow blogger Chris Mears about the blog/Facebook issue:
"I’m trying to create a balance. I get so excited by these things I like and the compulsion to share them can be hard to suppress, and I’m not sure it should be. I’d hate to think I was burdening my friends or a group with these outbursts so I created the blog and the Facebook page to act as outlets. I like the ease of posting content to Facebook from my cell phone and it feels like maintaining a sketch book of ideas. 

As the Prince Street Facebook page matures I think it plays well to exercise ideas that could mature into posts on the blog, which remains the heart of my creative output. In those two domains I have a place where I determine what is suitable content. As well, Facebook is becoming my primary cloud storage platform for my current railfanning photos. I’m willing to regard Facebook style of cost for that of other storage. The ease of Facebook seems to encourage it."

Winnipegger and TRAINS magazine contributor Mark Perry is posting almost daily to Facebook. What does he like about it?
"I pretty much only put my photos on FB, not much into writing magazine articles anymore nor do I want to post pics on sites like Flickr so that thieves like B**** can steal them. I like a story with every photo, and I try to shoot photos with a story behind every one of them.  Lets face it, I've had enough of 3/4 wedge grade crossing shots to last a life time. I like FB!"

Fellow blogger Steve Boyko puts it this way,
"My issue with FB is that we don't own the platform. FB controls everything, including if and when it decides to show our posts in feeds. I prefer to host the majority of my content on my own site where I control everything. If nobody comes, well, that's my fault for not writing something that people want to read, but at least I control that."

Sure Facebook and other social media are easier to post to. But they're not as 'permanent' or 'searchable' and that is really paying a compliment to blogs, which are known for being not all that searchable and who knows about permanent? We gravitate to what's easy. What's fast. It's tough investing time in a project if we feel no-one is giving us any return on our investment.

Not sitting here looking at charts and graphs of which of the social media are on the rise, and which are in decline. The next big thing for the young people? Myspace, facebook, blogs, email, portable cell phones, colour TV, talkie movies, sitting around the ol' Victrola? They come, they go, some stay.

While I enjoy the immediacy of Facebook, and the neat things I've learned and been part of there, I don't see myself gravitating that way for anything other than immediate things. I also don't see myself duplicating Trackside Treasure in Facebook form. But I do feel the pull of Facebook, and acknowledge that it's already pulled me away from Yahoogroups. Yet the strongest pull is the resiliency and depth that blogging offers me.

It's been said that writers desperately want to be heard. As a blogger, I'm a writer and photographer. I suppose photographers desperately want to be seen. I can do both these things on various social media. Blogging forces me to formalize, focus, format and forge posts that can be all about the past,  in the now, and updated in the future. [Ed. note - an effective editorial always concludes with a strong call to action. Cue the call to action!]

                                         It's time I stopped navel-gazing and get to work. 

To the ramparts! To the bookshelves! 

To the photo albums and notebooks! 

To seek, to strive, to share, to blog, and never stop!

-Eric

Running extra...

Thanks to Chris, Connie, Mike, Mark, Steve and Chris Mears for their valued input and doing the work online, sharing what is nearest and dearest to them. Don't ever stop.

Congratulations to Winnipeg's Ian Lisakowski for being the first to note all five differences in Trackside Treasure's eleventh anniversary Lego Swap contest! The oft-coveted Trackside Treasure prize pack will be winging its way westward! Honourable mention to TLC's Railfan Sisters' Allison Gagnon for her studiously collaborative entry. Here are the substituted 'F-units' that were to be found! Good F-F-F-F-Fun!