Unfortunately, Ryan, I think you may be right with the whole social media – social proof thing. The internet has been and continues to be expanding at an enormous rate and you can’t read it all so you use the social proof (diggs, tweets, whatever) as a way of economizing and getting the “best of the best” on the internet.

To continue to display my verbose nature, one final point. I think that keeping these clues in mind are essential (and props for the post btw) but what are you blogging for? If it’s to be liked and noticed by everyone then maybe you should play the game 100% but if you’re genuine and passionate and maybe march to your own drum a little I think you will get noticed.
Alright, enough. Cheers!
Reed

One thing I try to do, that you listed here, is breaking up my posts visually, so that they are easier to follow and digest. But there’s lots more food for thought here…

Cheers,
Shane

I like your thoughts and it has popped a question into my head. Do readers pre-judge an article based on social media buttons with a high number next to it?

Let me explain a little more. I have seen tweet-buttons, socialable links, diggs and a ton of other social media buttons all over websites. I know on your blog post Simply Zesty : Social Media Predictions 2010 you talk about there will no longer be a numbers game involved, but are readers getting to the point where they are only choosing what to read because it ranks high in social media? Will they only read something because it has 200 diggs, or 100 re-tweets?

Sometimes I feel like a sheep with social media, and the biggest number is my shepherd.

The 3rd one is the most important as all readers are selfish. They only go to blogs if you are offering something and will stop the second you stop giving them something. You are well on your way anyway

Jason, I agree that blogs with a ton on information that is too complex is a real deal killer at times. I feel that readers do not like to decipher what your message is and may detour readers. Good point on the first sentence being the most important, making your content even more scan-able.

Great follow up information friends, I will add an update to the bottom of this post with your ideas. Happy Holidays!

I’m a huge fan of saying what you have to say in as few words as possible. If a blog article is short, I’m more likely to read the entire post rather than when it’s long I just skim through reading the first sentence of a paragraph.

There’s an important add on to this list. Put you’re most relevant information in the first sentence of a paragraph. I think a lot of people will read this first sentence then skip to the first sentence of the next paragraph.

Great post!!!