I took my kids to their first Philadelphia Phillies game yesterday. The weather forecast was for scattered thunderstorms so I made a facebook post about it. Along with that message, I also predicted that Cliff Lee, the scheduled starting pitcher for the Phillies, would pitch a complete game.
The important thing was that we had a great time. However, it did not rain and Cliff Lee pitched his personal best: a two-hit complete game! So what does this have to do with blogging?
Well, my post solicited comments. You can learn a lot about blogging by observing how people react by looking at facebook/myspace postings. People who post things like “I’m going to work again.” or “Zzzzzzz.” are not going to get many reactions. Posting something about the Phillies game and a performance prediction, on the other hand, begged for people to comment, even it wasn’t my intent.
In almost all cases, the prediction itself does not have to come true. The practice of making the prediction will generate interest, not the outcome. So go ahead, test it out. Post a message today on your social network of choice and make a prediction on whatever your interest is. Whether it is the score of a sporting event, the number of songs a band will play at a concert, how many times an actor says a certain word on a show…it doesn’t matter! You’ll find that it works. Then go ahead and do the same thing for your blog.