My Social Networking Experiement

Okay, so most of my readers have probably had time to view the post from Friday, daring you you leave a comment.

What I didn't mention was that I was conducting an experiment. Though, I bet you all probably guessed that. I have very smart readers, you know.

The experiment was to see how many people would actually leave a comment after reading the dare. But I didn't just do this experiment on both my blogs. I also left this same message on my FB wall (I left two messages there, in fact), on Twitter (actually, I tweeted it three times throughout the day), and on my Utah Children's Writers Yahoo! group. And I also dared people from Verla Kay's blueboards to read my blog post though I didn't tell them what it said.

And here's the data I collected on Friday:

THIS BLOG had 32 unique visitors on Friday. Out of those 32 visitors, 4 left a message. Only one blogged about my dare.

MY LJ BLOG had 34 unique visitors on Friday. Out of those 34 visitors, 6 left a message. One left a message saying she would blog about my dare on Monday (today), which she did.

MY FB WALL had...well, I'm not sure how to check those figures. But I have 64 friends so theoretically all of them could have seen the message. Only three commented.

MY TWITTER had...well, again, I'm not sure how to check the figures. But I had 116 followers on Friday who could have seen the three messages I left throughout the day. Two commented, one retweeted.

MY YAHOO! GROUP has a few hundred members. No one left a message there. Though one did click on the link to my blog, but didn't leave a message as far as I could tell.

THE BLUEBOARDS is a bit harder to figure out. There are about 4000 people who are members, and I'm sure a million more who can view the boards, so I really have no idea how many read my message under the "What did you blog about today?" thread. But I had three people from the boards visit on Friday, though not all came from that thread but other threads I've posted on the boards. And since most of my blog friends are also members of the boards, it's hard to tell if any of those people who left a message did so because of reading my post on the boards, or because they routinely read my blog.

So, there you have it. All the data I collected Friday. But what does it tell us?

Well, first of all, it tells us that I am not anywhere near ready to take over the world. (Or is that change the world? I can never remember.) I mean, if only 100 or so people can read my messages, I am clearly not reaching the masses. Those are actually quite pathetic numbers that I hope the rest of you forget as soon as you stop reading this post.

Second of all, I need to work on my inspirational leadership skills. If I can't even get my readers to leave a simple comment, then quite clearly I have not yet figured out how to inspire my followers. (Or is that minions? I can never remember.)

And thirdly, I really don't care a fig about the numbers. I put those here for those of you who like statistics and probability and neat rows of columned numbers. You're welcome.

For me, the real success of my experiment came from what happened in me. You see, when I posted my experiment, I felt a little rush of excitement, and just a bit of recklessness. In fact, I felt like a kid again.

And I can imagine that those who commented felt just a tiny bit of that same nostalgia. Who remembers childhood dares? Anyone? I certainly do. And my little experiment reminded me of those feelings. And that is really what I got out of this experiment. I got in touch with a part of me from those old days. Which is right where I want to be as I get to work on my MG manuscript.

So, thanks everyone, for the successful experiment that helped me get in touch with part of my inner child. Now I dare you to go out and do your own experiment. You'll thank me for it later. (Or is that swear undying loyalty to me as Empress of the World? I can never remember.)