June 14, 2010

Why does Facebook not listen to its users?

Well I can't quite answer this question because I am not of the Facebook staff.  That, however, is a very good question, I mean, come on Facebook take a look around; we want a "Dislike" button, not a new layout, not another "Like" button.  Seriously Facebook the "Create a Dislike Button" fan group (now like group I suppose) has 110,248 fans (likers?) and growing.  You think Facebook would get the idea and implement a "Dislike" button, but no, what Facebook does instead is get a new layout.  Where did that come from?  I have not seen anything asking Facebook to get a new layout, maybe suggestions for a customized layout, but I don't think they meant for Facebook to customize it for them.  There is even a Facebook page "For everyone who hates the new layout!!!" in which 184,538 Facebook users partake.  So  after that, you think that maybe in the next Facebook update there will be a dislike button, but no, instead Facebook implements another "Like" button that replaced the "Become a Fan" button.  I didn't hear anyone asking for that to be changed either.  I am not the only person who is confused about the new "Like" button, but so are 673,428 (and growing) other people, who are part of the "We asked for a dislike button, and you gave us ANOTHER like button?" Facebook fan (liker) group.  Then there is another 18,577 people who do not like the new "Like" button replacing the become a fan button and are part of the "I don't 'LIKE' this new 'LIKE' button!!! hit LIKE now!!" Facebook fan (liker) group.  So again, why does Facebook not listen to its users?  I don't really know, but maybe it is because they think that the ideas of the Facebook staff override the ideas of the users, but I am a web designer and an expert in html, php, javascript, and css, so I know that it would be very, very simple for someone at Facebook to just copy the code for the "Like" button and just change everything that says "like" to "dislike" all in a single day.  Facebook even proved that its employees are capable of doing that when they changed the "Become a Fan" button to a "Like" button.  Another reason Facebook may not be  listening to its users may simply be because the ideas of the users never got to the staff, and just in case they didn't, now they did, but one more reason Facebook may not be listening is because they think that they have tons of users and don't need to listen to what they have to say because if one person stops using Facebook, then who cares, they still have millions of others using it, and Facebook may not know this but May 31 is "Quit Facebook Day" and a recent poll of Facebook users showed that over half of Facebook users are primed to quit.  That poll however was over privacy, which Facebook did listen to its users then; Facebook released a new privacy system.  Alas, it is almost the same thing as the old one.

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June 5, 2010

How To Get People To Stay On Your Blog

Alright so I am going to tell you how to get people to stay on your blog, and by this I mean to get them to finish reading a post, not to continue checking back to your blog everyday or something like that, but instead answer some basic questions like "Why do people come to my blog and immediately get off?"  and "How do I get people to stay on my blog for longer time frames?"  Well when you have a blog post and it is titled with a question, I will take the question "What is the best time of day to workout?"  If I were to title a blog post like that and write a few paragraphs about it, I would want people to actually read it, not just come in get the answer and then get off.  For example the other day, I Googled that question and one of the first links I came to was a blog sort of site, it had the question, then the answer and then a few paragraphs about it.  But all I wanted was the answer, so as soon as I read the first line, it said, "Whenever you are most awake."  That was the answer, that was all I went to the site to get so after I read the first sentence, I just closed it out, but I saw that there were a few more paragraphs about it, but I didn't care to read those because all I wanted was an answer and that is what I got.  So I was on the page for a  whole 10 seconds maybe, but when you get people to visit your blog you don't want them on for only 10 seconds, you want them on for a longer time.  So this is what you do: you simply put the paragraphs that you want to write about your answer first, and then put the answer at the bottom, that way the visitor reads the full blog post because they don't want to miss the answer so they just read until they find the answer.  And it works, look right now, you just read this whole post to get that answer I just gave you.  So congratulations on your new found technique.

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