Book Blogger Confessions: Memes
May 21st, 2012 | 
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Book Blogger Confessions is a meme that posts the 1st and 3rd Monday of every month, where book bloggers "confess" and vent about topics that are unique to us. Feel free to share, vent and offer solutions. Just keep it respectful – no bashing authors or other bloggers!
If you want to participate just grab our button and include it in your post with a link to either Tiger's All Consuming Media or For What It's Worth. We will be providing a linky at the end of our posts so people can "hop" to see all the participants answers.
Memes. Love em' or hate em'? How many do you participate in? Which kinds do you like best? Do you feel like there are too many?.
I love memes that encourage discussion, community and sharing our love of books. Some of my favourites are Book Blogger Confessions, What I Love Wednesdays (I always visit and comment, but for some reason don’t actually participate) and It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? The reason I follow and participate in these memes is because I always find great bloggers and a wonderful sense of community (BBC especially) and of course lovely new books.
I used to participate in the Friday hop memes but found there was a lot of “great answer, follow me back” kind of comments and it felt like it was more about the page counts and follower numbers than actually engaging in a discussion, which is why I stopped. I have occasionally joined in on WOW and In My Mailbox but found that they got to be a lot of the same and there are only so many different ways to say “Looks like a great book, I’m excited too” or “awesome haul!”. If there is a book that I am truly dying for I had an incredibly special book week I will still participate but not on a regular basis.
I guess for me the big thing is if I’m going to participate in a meme I want that post to be just as interesting as original content. So if I have something to say about that topic then I will participate but if it is a topic that is not interesting to me, or if I don’t really have anything to add to the conversation I will stay away. It has to be about more than just linking up and hoping for those page views to add up! I personally like a blog that balances original content with memes for fun. I tend to get turned off when a blog contains more memes than original content. Yes, it is absolutely their choice but it is just not enough to keep me coming back.
What about you? What are your thoughts on memes?
Posted in Memes
I totally agree with what you said about that if you're going to participate in a meme, that it has to be as interesting as original content. I guess that's why I like Book Blogger Confessions, and TGIF (usually). I've never been a huge fan of the "just follow me" memes — I'd rather have a few comments on my content, and people who actually read my posts, instead of a number that doesn't really mean that anyone's reading my blog.
I think meme participation really depends on what a person wants their blog to be like. For mine, I like a mix of reviews and discussion memes, along with my weekly photo for Wordless Wednesday.
Absolutely! I would much rather some discussion and real comments on my blog, rather than going for follower numbers. Having a bunch of followers doesn’t mean much if they are not interacting with you!
I agree. I've stopped doing a lot of the memes that do get you a lot of hits and comments but more of the "great books – love your blog – foollow me back" variety.
There's nothing wrong with them, I've found great blogs/books that way but I want to learn about the blogger not cram 30 blogs & comments in an hour.
Exactly, I just dont have time these days to spend hours commenting back on those “follow me back” type memes/comments. If I’m going to take time away to read blogs I really enjoy reading something thought provoking. I do enjoy the occasional WOW but I make sure to do those only when I have time to visit back.
Great answer! I'm definitely a fan of the discussion memes as they're fun to read and to respond to.
I used to do the Follow Friday meme as I thought it was the only way to get people to follow my blog but I don't do it any more and instead focus on my content. The last 100 followers or so have just been people stopping by and deciding to follow and they actually stick around and comment regularly which is awesome! I prefer people following because they like my content and not just because they want me to follow them.
Nicola, the exact same thing happened to me with the Follow Friday meme. I mostly stopped doing it becasue I started working Thursday nights and but the time I was able to post my link everyone had pretty much already linked up. But when I stopped and focused more on reviews and discussion posts my follower numbers kept increasing, and I was getting more comments.
I always had trouble commenting on "Books I Want" or "Books I Got" posts. All I could come up with to say was "I want that, too!" I just turned into this huge swirl of reinforced book-longing.
Discussion memes are always fun. Like you say, anything can be interesting so long as a blogger is really sharing their individual opinion on a subject.
Well said! I really love that you guys started this meme – especially since one of my goals for 2012 was to have more book related discussion posts instead of just reviews!
i have similar thoughts about the friday memes, but i do like waiting on wednesday a lot.
I also enjoy WOW, I haven’t participated in the last few weeks because I haven’t had the time to really visit people back and see what they are waiting on. Hopefully in the next few weeks!