Ever since 2009, when Blogger introduced the Stats visitor activity counter, blog owners have been reporting inconsistencies between Stats and other visitor activity counters.
Recently, Google+ changed their +1 counter. Now, we wait for Blogger Engineering to update their +1 per post display counters, which use the +1 counts from Google+.
Blog owners continue to report various Stats inaccuracies - such as discrepancies between Stats pageview counts, and the various social sharing counters. They fail to observe the functional differences between the various activity counters - and similarly, between Stats counts and social sharing metrics, such as Google+ +1 counts.
Stats pageview counts and Google+ +1 counts compare no better, than Stats and various other visitor activity counters.
Social sharing contributes to your blog reputation, in a number of ways. Some social sharing relationships, compared with blog activity counters, may lead to confusion.
Social networking activity counts will resemble blog visitor activity counts - with the activity mentioning the blog.
There will be differences, between the two, however. The differences will contribute to perceived blog visitor activity count inaccuracy.
You will have Followers - in asymmetrical and symmetrical relationships.
Social sharing helps to connect people, through their interests.
You may read some posts in your Google+ stream, which will interest you. Some people will contribute many posts that interest you - and you will decide to Follow them. Those people may observe your activity, and decide to Follow you, in a symmetrical relationship.
You won't Follow everybody, symmetrically. Nobody can Follow everybody - or even everybody who Follows them.
Some people will share few interests with you, and have many interests that you don't have. You won't Follow those people.
Similarly, some people who you Follow won't Follow you, because you don't interest them.
You will have Followers - in direct, and indirect relationships.
If you use FaceBook or Google+ enough, you will see random posts in your stream - and decide to Follow some authors. Similarly, some of the people who see your posts, in their streams, will decide to Follow you.
You will +1 / Like / re share some posts from your Followers - and some of your Followers will do the same, with your posts, directly. Some folks who Follow your Followers - not you, directly - will +1 / Like / re share your posts, indirectly.
Not all Followers will read your blog posts.
If you spend time reading your activity notifications, you may observe that some Followers may +1, like, and / or re share, your various stream posts - including some stream posts which reference your blog posts. You may also observe that some activity takes place seconds, or minutes, after you share or re share a stream post.
Your ability to observe, and to react, will depend upon your relationship with each Follower - direct vs indirect, and asymmetrical vs symmetrical.
When a stream post is liked or re shared shortly after you share it, it's possible that your Follower did not spend a lot of time reading the content of the post. If your share included a reference to your blog post, it's likely that they did not read your blog post - even though they contributed a +1 / like / re share of your stream post.
Even though your direct Followers may not all read your blog posts, their Followers (your indirect followers) may do so. These followers will contribute to your reputation, indirectly, with a +1 / like / re share of your stream post.
Some blog owners, not aware of, or interested by, these details, may believe the +1 counters to be 100% accurate - and this contributes to perceived Stats pageview counts inaccuracy - with Stats counts seen as "lower than reality".
Some who do read your blog posts will be invisible, to you.
Nobody who uses Google+ will Follow - or be Followed by - everybody.
Most Google+ publishers will have direct Followers, who they know - and indirect followers who they don't know. Google+ will protect indirect followers identities, by not displaying their activity to people who don't know them (you, for instance).
Since Google+ protects everybody's activity and identity, from people who they don't know, Likes and +1s against your posts will include people who you don't know. People who Follow your Followers will contribute likes and +1s against your posts, indirectly - even though you will not see their activity in your stream, directly.
In the 8 hours since I published this post, I've seen one Google+ notification about a "+1", from a Follower. Yet Blogger shows a "+4".
The first "+1" came when I shared this post, to my Google+ stream. Where did the other 2 "+1"s come from?
These people will contribute to your reputation, even though they may be invisible to you. This is one of the reasons why the +1 counters are thought to be inaccurate.
Some of these invisible people, encouraged by your Followers, will read your blog posts - and contribute to your Stats activity counts. Some may decide to Follow you directly - and / or to subscribe to your blog, even though you don't see them, in your stream.
This, too, contributes to perceived Stats pageview counts inaccuracy - with Stats counts seen as "higher than reality".
The bottom line is reputation, for you and for your blog.
Higher or lower than "reality", it's all good - even when you don't always see the details, in FaceBook or Google+.
People who use social sharing, such as FaceBook and Google+, with their #Blogger blogs, will find discrepancies between social sharing activity counters, and blog visitor activity counters. These discrepancies will be as intriguing as the differences between the many activity counters.
Recently, Google+ changed their +1 counter. Now, we wait for Blogger Engineering to update their +1 per post display counters, which use the +1 counts from Google+.
Blog owners continue to report various Stats inaccuracies - such as discrepancies between Stats pageview counts, and the various social sharing counters. They fail to observe the functional differences between the various activity counters - and similarly, between Stats counts and social sharing metrics, such as Google+ +1 counts.
Stats pageview counts and Google+ +1 counts compare no better, than Stats and various other visitor activity counters.
Social sharing contributes to your blog reputation, in a number of ways. Some social sharing relationships, compared with blog activity counters, may lead to confusion.
There will be differences, between the two, however. The differences will contribute to perceived blog visitor activity count inaccuracy.
- You will have Followers - in asymmetrical and symmetrical relationships.
- You will have Followers - in direct, and indirect relationships.
- Not all Followers will read your blog posts.
- Some folks who do read your blog posts will be invisible, to you.
- The bottom line is reputation, for you and for your blog.
You will have Followers - in asymmetrical and symmetrical relationships.
Social sharing helps to connect people, through their interests.
You may read some posts in your Google+ stream, which will interest you. Some people will contribute many posts that interest you - and you will decide to Follow them. Those people may observe your activity, and decide to Follow you, in a symmetrical relationship.
You won't Follow everybody, symmetrically. Nobody can Follow everybody - or even everybody who Follows them.
Some people will share few interests with you, and have many interests that you don't have. You won't Follow those people.
Similarly, some people who you Follow won't Follow you, because you don't interest them.
You will have Followers - in direct, and indirect relationships.
If you use FaceBook or Google+ enough, you will see random posts in your stream - and decide to Follow some authors. Similarly, some of the people who see your posts, in their streams, will decide to Follow you.
You will +1 / Like / re share some posts from your Followers - and some of your Followers will do the same, with your posts, directly. Some folks who Follow your Followers - not you, directly - will +1 / Like / re share your posts, indirectly.
Not all Followers will read your blog posts.
If you spend time reading your activity notifications, you may observe that some Followers may +1, like, and / or re share, your various stream posts - including some stream posts which reference your blog posts. You may also observe that some activity takes place seconds, or minutes, after you share or re share a stream post.
Your ability to observe, and to react, will depend upon your relationship with each Follower - direct vs indirect, and asymmetrical vs symmetrical.
When a stream post is liked or re shared shortly after you share it, it's possible that your Follower did not spend a lot of time reading the content of the post. If your share included a reference to your blog post, it's likely that they did not read your blog post - even though they contributed a +1 / like / re share of your stream post.
Even though your direct Followers may not all read your blog posts, their Followers (your indirect followers) may do so. These followers will contribute to your reputation, indirectly, with a +1 / like / re share of your stream post.
Some blog owners, not aware of, or interested by, these details, may believe the +1 counters to be 100% accurate - and this contributes to perceived Stats pageview counts inaccuracy - with Stats counts seen as "lower than reality".
Some who do read your blog posts will be invisible, to you.
Nobody who uses Google+ will Follow - or be Followed by - everybody.
Most Google+ publishers will have direct Followers, who they know - and indirect followers who they don't know. Google+ will protect indirect followers identities, by not displaying their activity to people who don't know them (you, for instance).
Since Google+ protects everybody's activity and identity, from people who they don't know, Likes and +1s against your posts will include people who you don't know. People who Follow your Followers will contribute likes and +1s against your posts, indirectly - even though you will not see their activity in your stream, directly.
The first "+1" came when I shared this post, to my Google+ stream. Where did the other 2 "+1"s come from?
These people will contribute to your reputation, even though they may be invisible to you. This is one of the reasons why the +1 counters are thought to be inaccurate.
Some of these invisible people, encouraged by your Followers, will read your blog posts - and contribute to your Stats activity counts. Some may decide to Follow you directly - and / or to subscribe to your blog, even though you don't see them, in your stream.
This, too, contributes to perceived Stats pageview counts inaccuracy - with Stats counts seen as "higher than reality".
The bottom line is reputation, for you and for your blog.
Higher or lower than "reality", it's all good - even when you don't always see the details, in FaceBook or Google+.
People who use social sharing, such as FaceBook and Google+, with their #Blogger blogs, will find discrepancies between social sharing activity counters, and blog visitor activity counters. These discrepancies will be as intriguing as the differences between the many activity counters.
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