Content Overlap: Topical Islands of Federated Interest

Another jewel from Michael Feldstein this morning: Weblog Audience-Building and the Strength of Weak Ties. He discusses how people tend to form two sorts of connections: strong ties (people who are close to you – family, close friends, etc.) and weak ties (friends of friends, acquaintences, etc.).

In the blogging world, this is analogous to direct vs. indirect overlap between a blog’s content focus and its readers’ interests. The key to building a weblog audience, Feldstein asserts, is to blog not just about one topic, but about a few related ones…

He writes:

“In the blogging world, strong and weak ties (it seems to me) are more defined by content. The blog world tends to congeal into islands of federated interest. For example, probably 70% of the blogrolls on e-learning blogs link to the same handful of sites. It’s the other 30% that makes life interesting. What you want to do in order to achieve your fame and fortune (well…fame, at least) is to be part of that 30% in one or more groups outside of your core content area. “

In other words, if your blog provides enough content and links in related areas outside your core focus to consistently appeal to other communities of interest, your blog will probably enjoy a much wider audience.

This is exactly what I do with CONTENTIOUS, and it works. My core content focus with this blog is, well, content – writing and editing, the style and business of online content, media, etc. However, my professional/intellectual interests stretch into other related areas such as e-learning, content- and knowledge-management, information architecture, communication theory, webfeeds, personal productivity tools, etc. So I blog about those topics as well, always trying to relate them somehow to my core focus of content.

Also, while my site doesn’t have a “blogroll” as such, I do make available my extensive list of webfeed subscriptions (via Bloglines), organized into categories. A surprising number and variety of people visit this collection download it using the “export subscriptions” function , and use it as a launching point to explore a diverse array of “topical islands.”

The result? The CONTENTIOUS audience over time has expanded from primarily writers and editors to include professionals and academics in the fields of e-learning and knowledge management, as well as a fair smattering of technical types who are beginning to care more and more about content and communication. In fact, I currently seem to actually get more references and links from blogs that focus on those “related fields” than from content- and communication-focused blogs. Perhaps that’s because I’m offering a new twist to the people in the “related fields,” I don’t know. It’s interesting.

I like that Feldstein’s piece refers to blogs as “islands of federated interest.” According to dictionary.com, one definition of federation is: “an organization formed by merging several groups or parties.” Not that blogs (or bloggers) are terribly organized or officially federated, but the ongoing conversations that occur between blogs do seem to constitue a loose, informal, evolving federation of sorts. I wouldn’t want this web of relationships to be formalized – I think rigidity kills online media. But I do see and have experienced what Feldstein is talking about.

So welcome to my “topical island.” Enjoy your stay here, and build bridges to my beaches if that suits you. I wouldn’t be blogging if I wanted to be isolated.

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