Here's Why BUMPzee and MyBlogLog Are My Top Choice For Social Networks.

BUMPzee and MyBlogLog are definitely way out in front on my list of great Social networking sites. There are actually several reasons for this in each case, not the least of which are that they target areas in which I have a strong interest.

The strongest reason to recomend them to my mind though, is this; Each of these networks allows me to bring some of the most powerful mojo that social networking sites offer to my own blog pages.

And that mojo is social proof.

When you think about it, the real power behind social networking sites, and social bookmarking sites in particular is the social proof they offer.

"Wow, that site got 100 votes in a couple hours! I better get over there and check it out!"

"Hey this guy has 500 (followers / friends / community members)! I wonder what he has to say that they all want to read?"

That's power.

BUMPzee and MyBlogLog, of course offer this social proof among their pages just like all of the others do, but they both take it a step further. They both let me put little pictures of all of the community members that come read my blog right there on my blog.

"Hey look at all these people who actually come read this guys blog! I wonder what that post there is about?"

And this happens both subtlety, and without the readers actually having to post a comment. Though I believe there is a tendency to get more comments too, related to the social proof of others actually visiting the blog. Nothing concrete there, just a suspicion.

I've just increased the number of readers displayed in my BUMPzee widget to 20, and if it seems like this shows an improvement, I'll bump it further. I'm heading over to MyBlogLog to see about showing more users from that network as well. And I may, if there is the possibility, set up pages with copies of the codes that show a hundred or so recent readers. Not in the side bar, but in an actual page linked from below the widget inviting you to see "who else reads Home business Blogging".

I know the initial reaction is to limit the number of recent readers (and I like that term better than recent visitors, can we change that or make it configurable, Jangro?), but I would encourage you to experiment with showing more. My bet is that the social proof you gain far outweighs any clicks through to other network members, and even if it does, eventually they lead back to you. That's what community is all about.