Bloggers: Stop wasting Techmeme Real Estate

Categories: Social MediaPosted on October 16th, 2007

The majority of bloggers, when they find out they are listed on Techmeme, are over joyed and flex their authority by linking to every top story for the first few months. I should know, I was once that blogger.

Here are the basic three strategies bloggers do to play the game on Techmeme:

1) When I look at the expanded view of Techmeme, all I see is a regurgitation of the same bloggers repeating the same titles, and same information I’ve already read from the top story. Why? attention, and the ability to build up a referencable database of posts increasing search engine juice and potential views for advertising.

2) Other bloggers play the “net” game, they round up all the thoughts and opinions of other bloggers and lay it out on a single post. Other than collecting the information (which Techmeme does by default) they add very little value or opinion.

3) Break news or add interesting opinion, analysis, or entertain. I’m not talking about you.

I wonder when we can all consciously start trying to contribute original content to Techmeme, and stop wasting the real estate. I’m getting close to closing the “Show Discussion Excerpts” option on Techmeme, how about you?

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 16th, 2007 at 7:16 am and is filed under Social Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

It’s a nice idea, in theory. But I believe the discerning audience can distinguish between those leading a story and those following. Over time, most will ignore the followers.

Also, based on a site’s muscle, we “B Players” often can look like we’re following, even if we had a story first or more fully.

If “Big Blog A” writes about X 30 minutes after I do, it’s likely “Big Blog A” will get picked up on TechMeme and I won’t. Therefore, it’s tempting to edit my post and add a link saying “Also see: Big Blog A”. Then, I’d be in the discussion section.

TechMeme does a great job of measuring the hot conversations. But it doesn’t prioritize the old journalism boosts around scoops and original reporting, only who’s biggest and gets linked to more often.

Posted by Louis Gray on October 16th, 2007 at 7:45 am

Hi Jeremiah,
As a newbie blogger, I am ‘guilty’ of point 2, but that’s not to say I think it’s bad as I am still listening, conversing and forming an opinion. And how close is the general tenor of your post - be original - to what Andrew Keen has laid out? Techmeme just puts it into sharper focus.

Posted by Jasbinder on October 16th, 2007 at 7:46 am

Yup, guilty as charged. The nice thing, it took me to a whole other level (blogging did). These days, I don’t blog as much, and still will try to drive in a little traffic for grins.

Rex Dixon
Publisher Relations, Lookery
Director of Social Media Content, Lending Club

Posted by Rex Dixon on October 16th, 2007 at 7:52 am

Jasbinder

Keep on growing, learning and conversing. I embrace that.

The challenge is those who consistently “Game” techmeme without adding any value at all, either for themselves or for the community.

Andrew attacks the industry as a whole, which is no different than what Nicholas Carr did for IT, which I’m sure can trend back to critics to every industry. In that light, none of alive are original.

Posted by jeremiah_owyang on October 16th, 2007 at 7:55 am

Louis,

Yes, I was avoiding the can o’ worms about techmeme itself. No system is perfect.

As you suggest, the best system is the reader him/herself

Posted by jeremiah_owyang on October 16th, 2007 at 7:57 am

[...] came across this post - Bloggers: Stop wasting Techmeme <b>Real Estate</b> - and thought it was worth sharing. I hope you find it interesting too and take the time to read [...]

Posted by real estate » Bloggers: Stop wasting Techmeme <b>Real Estate</b> on October 16th, 2007 at 9:44 am

Jeremiah and Louis - fully agree with you.

There is too much repetition and not enough analysis on Techmeme these days - and some of it is outright spam. However, given time, these blogs will be filtered out of the system. If somebody consistently stops adding to the conversation, he/she will not get linked to anymore and should drop out of the index over time automatically.

I try not to blog about a story unless I think I have something new to add to the conversation.

But I am guilty as charged as well. When I just started out, I would leech on to any top story on Techmeme (basically following Jason Calacanis’ advice there). Without doing that, it is tough to get onto Techmeme in the first place and if you are a new tech blogger not listed there, you don’t get much attention/links/readers.

And even today, I do the same thing as Louis describes. Sometimes I know I had a story first, but nobody linked to me, so I will still tag on to the Techmeme headline.

Posted by Frederic on October 16th, 2007 at 11:35 am

What if Techmeme had some type of voting feature so we could get rid of duplicate type posts.

Or someone could built a filter to sit on top of it.

Posted by jeremiah_owyang on October 16th, 2007 at 11:38 am

Jeremiah - that would be an interested idea, but isn’t part of the attraction of Techmeme its simplicity?

Posted by Frederic on October 16th, 2007 at 11:48 am

[...] Jeremiah Owyang chastises bloggers for wasting Techmeme real estate. Here is his list of the three strategies he sees blogger play on TM. 1) When I look at the expanded view of Techmeme, all I see is a regurgitation of the same bloggers repeating the same titles, and same information I’ve already read from the top story. Why? attention, and the ability to build up a referencable database of posts increasing search engine juice and potential views for advertising. [...]

Posted by Wasting a good Techmeme : The Last Podcast on October 16th, 2007 at 11:58 am

Frederic

Only a few would vote, but it *could* improve the User experience.

The downside is that it could be gamed…everything can and will.

Posted by jeremiah_owyang on October 16th, 2007 at 1:14 pm

>What if Techmeme had some type of voting feature

You mean, like, erm, Digg?

Posted by Paul on October 16th, 2007 at 2:06 pm

Repetition is the very soul of the net. (from usenet alt.config back in the 90s)

Posted by Edward Vielmetti on October 16th, 2007 at 2:17 pm

[...] being over 40 in Facebook is just downright creepy. Irony: Jeremiah is hypocritical Just yesterday I ranted on bloggers that summarize and add no value, and here I am with a wrap up. Shame shame. Well, truth be told, no one else is cutting the data in a way like this (automated or [...]

Posted by Weekly Digest of the Social Networking Space: Oct 17, 2007 on October 17th, 2007 at 12:07 am

I prefer reading the smaller blogs instead of the York Times, who often doesn’t link to the source of a story.

Nah, I won’t be changing that option.

Posted by David on October 17th, 2007 at 4:26 am

[...] are saying this. At the same time they are telling you not to worry about linking so much. In fact according to Jeremiah Owyang you should be adding substance and not worry about linking to Techmeme [...]

Posted by Content my ass - it’s the power links | WinExtra on October 17th, 2007 at 7:26 pm

I have to completely agree with Louis here. While I do my fair share of finding stories on TechMeme and then writing about them - I do much more of finding them in my RSS feeds and then writing about them before they’re on TechMeme - but my story simply floats in the ether while the big blog will come along with no links in yet and become a headline.

Now, granted the big blogs have earned their status and to keep a site fresh with a more breaking feel (as opposed to something like Digg where ‘breaking news’ is no longer breaking by the time it hits the front page) this is needed on some level, but as Louis said, it can be very hard for us ‘B’ guys to get a headline - I’ve only had a handful.

I’d be all for TechMeme doing something like a ‘backpage’ where maybe some of the quality but smaller writers could have a chance to shine with some original content in the world of tech.

I think your points are all pretty solid Jeremiah, we’ve all no doubt noticed this, but just consider that for some of us this issue is just as much Techmeme’s fault as it is ours.