{"id":677,"date":"2023-03-13T23:44:52","date_gmt":"2023-03-13T23:44:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bursucretleri.com\/blog\/?p=677"},"modified":"2023-03-23T08:32:35","modified_gmt":"2023-03-23T08:32:35","slug":"popularity-matters-ignore-it-at-your-own-peril","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bursucretleri.com\/blog\/popularity-matters-ignore-it-at-your-own-peril\/","title":{"rendered":"Popularity Matters \u2013 Ignore It At Your Own Peril"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The web was not initially created to be a popularity contest.\u00a0 And yet in many ways it has evolved into that because the digital world is merely a reflection of the physical.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m not anymore a fan that this is the reality of the web (and the world) as you are, but better to accept it and know how to make it work for you than pretend it doesn\u2019t exist.<\/p>\n<p>Consider\u2026<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>We create online ranking lists, superlatives and awards because as a society we were trained to do that in the physical world.<\/li>\n<li>Some obsess over number of followers, fans and subscribers not for the\u00a0social proofing\u00a0application but merely to outdo a competitor, similar to brands trying to one-up each other for bragging rights.<\/li>\n<li>A factor Google uses to rank web pages is links, which are in a sense popularity (more popular web pages inevitably get more links).<\/li>\n<li>Like lemmings, many run to new networks with no real purpose other than that fact they\u2019re becoming popular.<\/li>\n<li>You need to be a popular Digg user to submit a story that goes popular as just one example (several communities are like this).<\/li>\n<li>Many are\u00a0conditioned to share\u00a0content merely because it\u2019s published by a popular person or site (think about how you can make this happen for your content).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>While\u00a0popularity is not trust, it is still advantageous:\u00a0 you should orchestrate your own rise to popularity.\u00a0 Whether you\u2019re a company, an artist, marketer or a blogger \u2013 anyone who wants to have their ideas heard \u2013 you stand to benefit greatly:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Popular people\/brands\/ideas\/stories\/content get referenced<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The web is a referential medium \u2013 we link, source and credit quite easily.\u00a0 How many times do you hear Comcast or Dell\u2019s Twitter success story referenced?\u00a0 Exactly.\u00a0 In a sense, these brands being tagged to their success is worth even more than any outcomes from using the service.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Companies are organizing around the tail<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Demand Media\u2019s answer factory\u00a0produces content fast, cheap and profitable as hell.\u00a0 They have organized a business model around the long tail of search and are not the only ones.\u00a0 Now that\u00a0every company is a media company\u00a0if you don\u2019t want to lose rankings to those pumping out cheap content to win mildly popular but important search phrases, your own digital media outlet (blog, newsroom, etc) must be somewhat popular.<\/p>\n<p>As an aside, I find the business digital divide fascinating:\u00a0 there are media companies sophisticated enough to actually structure themselves around a\u00a0social media and SEO\u00a0driven world alongside others\u00a0clinging to the past.<\/p>\n<p><strong>As search engines and social sites innovate together, popularity may be a factor<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Search engines and social sites are already integrating in meaningful ways today.\u00a0 There are opportunities for mutual benefit by working together and so this trend may accelerate.\u00a0 The social sites we are on know quite a bit of detail about us and our web activity, including user popularity.\u00a0 With the rise in personalized search and\u00a0social search\u00a0integration a reality, greater popularity could be a factor for your brand to win the search results of tomorrow.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Popular brands have advocates<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>If I wrote a post titled \u201cApple Sucks\u201d I\u2019d be subjected to a barrage of upset commenters.\u00a0 The brand has an resting army of advocates waiting to pounce when someone speaks negatively.\u00a0 In many cases, popular brands have their reputation management issues handled for them.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Being popular helps you create buzz<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Buzz is a vital element of digital PR.\u00a0 And by being popular enough to have an audience you\u2019re already positioned to set\u00a0viral content\u00a0on fire.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Popular brands court attention<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A quote from Robert Greene\u2019s artful\u00a048 Laws of Power\u00a0solidifies the importance of this:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>Everything is judged by its appearance; what is unseen counts for nothing.\u00a0 Never let yourself get lost in the crowd, then, or buried in oblivion.\u00a0 Stand out.\u00a0 Be conspicuous, at all cost.\u00a0 Make yourself a magnet of attention by appearing larger, more colorful, more mysterious, than the bland and timid masses.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Remember, you don\u2019t need massive numbers to be popular<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The real\u00a0value of your network\u00a0is not based on raw numbers, you just need to be popular among the right group.\u00a0 Look at how\u00a0Louis Gray\u00a0has made himself popular among many technology and marketing bloggers.\u00a0 And for it, we promote him.\u00a0 Louis has both trust and popularity \u2013 a potent combination.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s the why.\u00a0 The how?\u00a0\u00a0Subscribe\u00a0if you\u2019re not already a reader, I\u2019ll revisit this in the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The web was not initially created to be a popularity contest.\u00a0 And yet in many ways it has evolved into &#8230; <\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more-container\"><a title=\"Popularity Matters \u2013 Ignore It At Your Own Peril\" class=\"read-more button\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bursucretleri.com\/blog\/popularity-matters-ignore-it-at-your-own-peril\/#more-677\" aria-label=\"More on Popularity Matters \u2013 Ignore It At Your Own Peril\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1452,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz","category-digital-marketing-and-pr","resize-featured-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bursucretleri.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bursucretleri.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bursucretleri.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bursucretleri.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bursucretleri.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=677"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bursucretleri.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":679,"href":"https:\/\/www.bursucretleri.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677\/revisions\/679"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bursucretleri.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bursucretleri.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bursucretleri.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bursucretleri.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}