In a comment on my blog post, ‘How can I serve you better?’, kevin jones wrote:

"(…) why do you care what experience people have with your blog? what do you want out of this exchange? (…)"

Kevin, thank you for popping this great question! It really compelled me to think: okay, well, what do I want out of this exchange?

From an egocentric perspective, the promise of the Internet is to explore and enjoy the online experience. To learn and to be entertained.

Socially, the promise of the Internet is to expand the possibilities for having meaningful relationships into the online world. Moreover, some online relationships will be more relevant than some offline ones. Perhaps increasingly so.

On the other hand, some online relationships may be very short-lived. The conversations (i.e. the content of the exchange) generated by many superficial relationships combined, are often more meaningful than the relationships themselves.

My 24/7 online presence

My blog offers the richest expression of my online presence. It is the closest thing to "me" represented online, in a time-shift manner. Available 24/7, people can engage in conversation with me even when I’m not there at the same time. My blog tells them what I am interested in conversing about online.

What I hope is that my blog helps me engage in relevant conversations and meaningful relationships.

Most of my visitors come to my blog via Google. I have very little idea of who they are, what they are looking for (egocentrically or socially), if what they find is of any value to them, and how I could have offered them a better experience.

One possible key to offering them a better experience, I figured, was to ask them. Not just within the context of specific blog posts, as the comment feature on every post does. But in a separate place, free of context. Hence the entry: ‘How can I serve you better?‘

Why do I care?

The egocentric answer: because of the learning experience. It was an idea that I wanted to test.

The social answer: because I would like to improve the chances of my visitors engaging in relevant conversations and meaningful relationships with me, through my blog.

What if there was a tipping point here, whereby, with relatively small adjustments to the content, the style, the design, the structure, the navigation, the searchability or findability of my blog, a relatively larger improvement could be achieved?

Now, back to you, Kevin: Does any of the above make any sense to you? Why are you interested in this topic? And what’s your take on it?