At then end of this year, this blog will celebrate its tenth anniversary. That’s ten straight years of daily blogging, over 3500 entries, and lots and lots of dog pictures. It’s been a huge commitment, but an enjoyable one nevertheless. The demands of daily posting leave me with little opportunity for much else in terms of online activity. Still, that hasn’t stopped from trying to cover my bases…
Facebook: As Akemi put it to me last year – once parents start using Facebook, you can be sure their kids will be abandoning it soon. I mean, it’s a nice way to keep up on the mundane developments in your “friends” lives (Status update: I ate toast!), but otherwise, I find it a complete waste of time outside of the opportunity to share my daily blog entries – along with LOTS of “lost dog” and “dog in need of a good home” posts.
LinkedIn: I’m sure this site offers great career connection opportunities for those who need the introductions but I honestly haven’t used it outside of its messaging feature – and then rarely. In fact, I’ll go months without checking this site out and maintain a sparse presence only because I’m not at all sure how to deactivate my account.
Google+: Does anybody actually use this? Judging from the feedback I’ve received to date, I’m going to guess “No.”
Instagram: Akemi loves it – so much so that she manages my account, constantly pestering me for behind-the-scenes photos (that eventually make their way onto the blog anyway). I use it to follow a good three dozen accounts and their adorable pug pictures.
Twitter: A good way to track breaking news. Also a fine way to interact with the fans although the limited character count keeps that interaction to a bare minimum. Twitter does offer the opportunity to reach a wider online audience thanks to the retweet appeal of my Dark Matter-related links. That’s when I rely on the amazing online support of @SyFyUK @SyfyDE @SyfyAU @SyfyAsia @Syfy_Spain @Syfyfr @Syfybr and @Syfyla who have done an amazing job of liking, retweeting, and generally getting the word out/keeping our international audience informed. Broadcasters closer to home? Not so much, which is why I’ve just stopped tweeting them altogether. I live-tweeted though the show’s first season with, uh, arguable results. I mean, yay, we trended. Congratulations? I do like twitter’s Periscope feature in that it offers opportunity for great live content with all of its potential pitfalls and unforeseen consequences.
Reddit: I’ve been aware of reddit for quite some time but only recently began using it as a means to getting the word out about the show. As time has gone on, however,I’ve become increasingly active in other subreddits, among them books, food, pugs, science fiction, and, of course, Stargate. I’m having such a good time that I’m planning to do an AMA in May once Dark Matter’s second season ends. Stay tuned!
I must admit, Joe, you amaze me how you fit everything in on one day! Sure you haven’t got several clones on the go?
Massive congratulations on the ten year mark!!!
3500 – wow! It seems like just yesterday that was 2001 – A Food Odyssey! (featuring – me!) Time sure flies. But I can say that every single blog entry you have done is both interesting and entertaining, and if there were any justice there would be millions of followers of this blog.
There’s still a Google+? Huh. Save for FB, which I use in fits and starts, and sometimes I take a run on Twitter for a few days at a time, I don’t do much of the other social media stuff at all. For what it’s worth, I’ve really enjoyed the live tweeting during DM’s first season. I thought it really added to my enjoyment, although I’ll admit I usually have to re-watch the episode to catch everything. And I think your Periscope sessions have been great!
Here’s to another 3500 blog posts! 🙂
I really like the Twitter interactions. It’s a great way to get info & news about the shows you like & the actors that are in them. Twitter is my main social media that I use.I also wish more people would link their Instagram pics in Twitter, that is how I get my Instagram fixes. Periscope is nice, but many times the scopes are too long. I do not do Facebook, just too much junk & ads on there, quit using it a couple years ago. I do use Google+ daily. I belong to a few communities & follow some of my favorite tech sites, automotive news etc there. I follow Dark Matter on G+ but nothing ever gets posted.
I have also started using SnapChat to follow some of my favorite sports, people & youtubers. It’s amazing how many people use it & post pics & Vids several time per day. Hint Hint…..
I have blogs, they languish. I might update with TMI once a year so I remember it myself.
On Facebook a lot, it is where my burner friends and I gather to complain about eplaya (Burning Man bulletin board), where I am a moderator and must mind my manners. The fire conclave and the local burner communities are there too, and my liberal Navy mom friends who left Navyformoms en masse when we got harassed for supporting Obama, and for being pagans. I’m still on N4M, because I’m the resident expert on marriage after Navy boot camp. On FB, I have most of my family blocked, or not on my feed.
I have twitter and instagram accounts, but neglect them too, along with Pinterest.
Reddit is amusing, touching, and like gazing into a cesspool. I joined for the Secret Santa gift exchanges, and stated for the drama llamas.
Ten years … I see the traditional gift would be something made of aluminum. I can throw an old soda can on your balcony if the construction guys have failed to do so. Congrats!
Your blog is the only one I read everyday. Thank you for the variety and updates.
I think it’s admirable how you’ve kept such a great presence online with this blog and your interaction with the fans.
I do miss Stargate, though it seems like since it left the network, Syfys scripted average has got progressively worse. Though that’s to be expected when a network cancels a flagship series that kept it relevant.
Hands down … by far … completely at the forefront … You, Mr. Mallozzi, are one of the best with social media. You’re the bloggiest!! You’re the twitterist!! You’re the matter that’s darkest!! (Er … maybe not so much that last one.)
Thank you for all the fun, and insights, you’ve brought to your followers!! 😀
Congrats on kinda, sorta, almost-there closing in on 10 years of blogging! This is the only one I read on a regular basis, although I sometimes have to play catch up. I admire your dedication to plugging Dark Matter, as it so deserves. I liked the live tweeting last season. It was fun. I’m on Twitter way too much, but I follow a lot of newspapers and get most of my news that way. And there’s almost 11 months of tennis to follow on there, as well as watching the matches. Facebook is mostly for friends and for posting cats and dogs stuff, including sharing the local Humane Society’s posts. Gotta find homes for all those critters. 🙂
<3 Congrats on approaching 10 years! Here's to 10 more!! <3
Was thinking, although Google+ is indeed more so used by tech community, educators & Good Read reviewers, – You could make use of it to host 2 way video hangouts from time to time to become visually acquainted with (virtually meet) some of your loyal fans & blog regulars who are not likely to have opportunity to fly to Toronto or Vancouver any time soon to meet you in person. Google hangouts are fun in that its 2 way visual. The only down side of it is that's its 'space limited' (done by invite) and anyone wanting to attend needs to rsvp on the link prior to event.
By the way: Views of your first Season 2 Periscope continue to steadily rise since my re posting of it at twitter, G+ and here on the blog.
It's now up to 3,054! And yeah! That's all "YOU" folks are responding to!
xoxo Never doubt We Love You Joe!! xoxo
That is a pretty awesome acomplishment. You should do something for the 10 year mark. Perhaps another blog chat. I have truly enjoyed the blog. It has been a much needed distraction in times a great stress for me. So thank you. And you are on way more social media then I, in fact I first heard about Riddit on this blog. Still haven’t gone to check it out yet. All the behind the scenes on the shows have been fantastic. Especially Dark Matter, seeing it go from concept, to comic, to show has been amazing. Thanks for letting us be apart of it.
What everybody else said. About the only thing I’ve done regularly for the past 10 years is go to the bathroom, and at my age even that’s questionable.
As for social media, you and I feel exactly the same way about all those platforms with the exception of Reddit. Back when Usenet was all the rage I spent a lot of time chatting in various newsgroups. Since the format is so similar you’d think I’d be all over Reddit, but I’ve gone no further than sparse interaction.
I guess I’ve just gotten spoiled to the relative immediacy of Twitter in spite of the character limit. Reddit has the advantage of getting more information out to potentially more people since it’s subject-based rather than follower-based, so I hope this opens up a huge, new path to even more fans.
Hi Joe
Hard to believe, I’ve read your blog daily (except for the 1 week stay in the hospital) for 8 of your 10 years!
Elminster
Your blog is the only one I look for and read – comments too on a daily basis.
THANK you for continuing to do it and I hope you are able to continue into the future. Equiring minds want to know what you, Akemi, the babies and your projects are up to. In other words….LOVE IT!
Hugs n Thanks so much to everyone who helped with RTs and shares for Dr Jo’s fundraiser! 🙂
It’s now reached $5,200 and the organizer is now gonna try to raise a little more to help her out.
Here’s the link again if you’d like to help out with a few more RTs. xo
https://www.youcaring.com/dr-jo-cochran-551263
@Maggiemayday Sending much love and warm happy positive energy your way for quick healing this week after surgery. <3 <3 <3
I test out a lot of social media platforms, for work or personal reasons. I find a lot of businesses, extend themselves too much, being everywhere instead of doing a few things well. Each platform has their strength and it depends where your audience or potential audience is and what content you’ll be sharing.
You do an incredible job Joe. Your blog gives amazing insight into the behind-the-scenes of the shows and the people who make them. The strengths are the content you share and the personal interactions. I am forever amazed at the time you take out of your day for social media.
I have very similar feelings about the social media platforms. I never really connected with Google+ but adore Twitter. I keep up-to-date with news and chat to those who share common interests or who work on shows I like.
I have a natural curiosity and a desire to entertain. I wish others would understand that and wouldn’t see my tweets as an intrusion or an annoyance or whatever. I see it as a “social” network. I’ve met some lovely people because of my interactions in social media.
One thing I’ve noticed Joe. Currently when you’re tweeting the link for your blog entries you do 2 tweets – one for followers and one with SyFy accounts. Your followers get them both. Do you find one gets RT’d more than the other? Perhaps consider consolidating and doing it manually. When you go to the blog entry and tweet link, copy it and go to Twitter. Add the photo from the entry that you feel would get the most clicks and then paste the post title/link. Underneath the photo you’ll see “who’s in this photo”. Tag the SyFy accounts (you can tag up to 10). They will receive the tweets in their notifications. You could try this as an A/B test to see if you get more RTs and faves.
The direct links to the polls have been great. I like the anticipation of what are the options when I see it. I’m wondering if the addition of a graphic would attract more attention – actor with caption “Choose our next Dark Matter title”, or “Fan’s Choice”. When competing for attention in a feed images win.
Have SyFy thought of having a small fan screening of the S2 premiere for promotion?
Cheers, Chev
Like others, your blog is the only one I read. There are some I follow on facebook (The Bloggist… hm that may be it).. but you have 10 yrs of not just blogging… it’s a community. Yeah we invade your privacy and it’s work, but I hope you feel how much we all obviously appreciate it.
It is funny.. I think I came here because I was so distressed over Daniel Jackson being Ori-sized. And you said “trust me” and I thought, yeah right. But you were right.
Hopefully you had a slow day today to rest, relax and revitalize for the next round of hectic Dark Matter days. Congrats on the upcoming 10 year mark! I honestly don’t know how you do it & still have a life outside of work.
I enjoy FB in that I can keep up with my friends from high school between the reunions that I no longer go to, the family that I may see two or three times a year, and when my book club meets each month. I enjoy Twitter as a way to give a shout out to people that I might not otherwise have an opportunity to talk to. I really enjoy the Tweets during The Walking Dead. Have a good laugh or two. I occasionally check out Instgram but rarely post. Never heard of Reddit or Goole+ and ignore Linked. I find that as I get older I get on FB less & less especially during an election year.
I’m actually slightly addicted to your blog. I want to know what’s happening on DM, what’s going on with Akemi & the pugs, what terrific food you’ve been eating and the various trials and tribulations being a writer, producer & candlestick maker brings.
Thank you for bringing us this small joy.
I read your blog every day and you are one of 10 I follow on Twitter. (Three I follow are zoos 🙂 ) And it was your dogs that got me on Twitter in the first place. JellyBubMaxLu Those crazy kids of yours. What other TV producer gives to the fans as much as you do? …… I thought so…..
I read through my Facebook feed way more than I should. I used to have a small enough list to keep up with everything, but now that my list is bigger it feels like the relevance filters eliminate too much such as actual news about my friends.
Social Media’ing Facebook is my main game plan for “marketing” the app I’m about to release. I’ve witnessed that approach fail before. There’s a slight peak in usage just after the Facebook sharing starts, then it goes to zero and the app is buried in the store forever. I used the Facebook SDK for a feature in the app and it was lovely to work with. Facebook has some strict rules but they were sensible and the SDK provided the tools to work within them. …And I just tried to talk about marketing and ended up talking about programming so that demonstrates better where my head is at than anything I could craft intentionally.
I have subscribed to some folks on Twitter, but I’m not on there enough to consider it “following”.
I’ve barely ever even read Reddit. I hear it’s where a lot of viral things start on the web so it’s clearly relevant (to a person who cares about where new creations come from). It just doesn’t cross the deep ruts I’ve worn in my paths through the web and relevance filters are threatening to make my on-line world even smaller.
I also keep up daily with this blog by this guy who used to write for Stargate.
Congrats on 10 years. No wonder you are a successful writer. You are very persistent.
10 years of daily blogging without missing a day is pretty impressive. I’m not aware of anyone else that has done it!
Facebook . . . meh . . . I login maybe 3 times a year when someone sends me a link to something that I need to know and the information is only available on Facebook.
Your attitude to LinkedIn does explain why you ignored my link request, though. 😛 LinkedIn is basically only useful if you’re looking for a job.
We use Google+ a little bit at work for internal communications but most of that has switched to Slack now.
I follow a couple of things on Instagram but don’t post anything myself. @instachaaz @sadtopographies
I look at Twitter quite a bit and occasionally tweet.
I’m not much of a Reditter. I don’t seem to have the time anymore. 🙁
I used to run bulletin board systems in the early ’90s. First with dial-up modems and then on the Internet. I was also an administrator on ISCABBS, one of the largest Internet BBSes at the time. I was using social media before the term had even been invented!
Drea: Thanks so much for your help on Dr Jo’s fundraiser. She said the money will give her “huge” breathing room. The daily radiation/chemo started last week but the cancer is still growing. Her Dr.’s upped the radiation to twice a day. It’s a rough road. 🙁
scifigirl2016: Condolences on your BIL’s passing. How is your sister doing? Sending prayers….
PBmom: You and Patrick are in my prayers, also. How is Patrick feeling?
DP & Ponytail: I’m on twitter a little. Just look me up under “Jertam”.
Congrats Mr. M: Your blog is the only one I consistently read. Aren’t you the lucky one? 😉 A big THANK YOU from me!!!!!
Thank you. Yours is the only blog that I read. I do belong to a few Yahoo email fan groups. I use Facebook and Twitter only, as I have limited time. I read 24 hrs worth of Twitter feed in about an hour, once per day. I don’t participate in live Tweeting during a show because I would miss too much of the show. Pet the babies from me, please. <3
This blog, your blog is the only one I ready on a daily basis. I frequent Facebook, but am getting so tired of all political garbage on it. The primary reason I continue with FB is to follow my grandniece & grandnephew’s soccer and baseball exploits. They’re still young (9 & 7) and so amazing.
And the occasional, few other FB bright spots, e.g. Mike Rowe’s page and his recent foray into podcasts called “The Way I Heard It”. I recommend both, very good.
Also, I recently discovered the “Bangor Maine Police Dept” FB page. it is a wonderfully written piece of American life, foibles and humor from the viewpoint of those that serve, protect and police us. Check it out after reading this bog.
I have a Twitter account and look at it once in a while, meh. Also have a Google+ account but rarely do anything with it. Has anyone else noticed just how pervasive Google is on our lives?
I’ve nothing on Pinterest, Reddit, or Instagram, just not interested. I do maintain an account on LinkedIn for business & professional reasons and connections.
Throughout the almost 10 years (egad!) of this blog, I have so enjoyed all of the insights into writing, creating, developing and running a TV production. All very informative and interesting. The behind the scenes images and stories are valued and cherished. I do realize the time investment and your dedication to maintaining this blog Joe and am very, very grateful. You’ve done a really good job with it.
Congratulations on 10 years of vigilant blogging and as Drea said, here’s to 10 more years (at least)!
2cats (Carol)
and Basil and Stash =^-^= =^-^=
I’m not on facebook… here’s why:
http://waitbutwhy.com/2013/07/7-ways-to-be-insufferable-on-facebook.html
Do you have something in mind, Joe to celebrate your fab blog’s tenth anniversary? 😎
I pretty much only use Facebook & Twitter. Facebook is for family & friends…I post pictures and play games. Twitter is for my fandoms, news and other assorted things. I have two blogs, one I don’t update anymore since I quit teaching, but leave it open as I get tons of hits. My other blog, the one connected to this account, I only update when I think about it. I tend to forget it’s there. LOL
This is the only blog I read daily. 😀
As part of your Ten Year anniversary I wish to offer you a toast of this to mark the auspicious occasion. Your blog has been a joy to read and participate as exampled of my increased whiskey collection. I have enjoyed the recipes, movies and reviews, books and your insights.
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Wow! Ten years. What a milestone. I do read every entry, but as it seems I have to do binge reading. I keep hoping that I will become the blog regular again, but I appreciate all you do.