I have talked a good deal about how beneficial the tumblr activity log as been for me in my research. I would like to elaborate on that and talk about how I have chosen when and how to come out as a researcher on my blog, with the help of the information tumblr tracks itself. I think this is interestingly and vaguely related to our recent focus on surveillance; the activity log is a form of semi-transparent, internal surveillance of tumble usage of the account holder and the account holder’s followers. This kind of surveillance is very conducive to research, so hats off to tracking methods in this regard!
Moving on to the specifics. Based on the information tracked by tumblr, the times my blog gets the most follower attention is in between 12:00am and 2:00am EST on weeknights. Having access to this information is invaluable to me, because it tells me that I should be posting my big reveal status in between those hours to catch the most follower traffic.
Currently, I have 23 followers and have published 140 posts to my blog. 20 our 0f 23 of those followers are not individuals I know in the tactile world. My goal was 100 followers, but I am still pleased with this outcome. It is very difficult to create a tumblr brand in two months, especially when creating a brand in an underdeveloped market, like “real body positivity” in the fitlbr sphere. As I said previously, I have found that the real tumblr market for my content is closely connected with eating disorder recovery and prevention; there is no real defined market space for “real body positivity” without the caveat of eating disorders among fitblrs...at least not that I have found in my two month journey.
I am going to be posting my big reveal around 12:30am EST Friday, May 1st! So, really that’s late Thursday night Before the I publish the post on tumblr, I would like to share it with you all here. Please, please give me some feedback!!! I am keeping it short and sweet so that people will be more likely to read it in its entirety.
Also feel free to tweet about the reveal, if you happen to be interested in watching it unfold on tumblr next Thursday around midnight!!! Hopefully there will be some good stuff to watch but if not, I will just keep reposting the material and reminding myself that this project is all about the process...and an interesting and informative process it has been!
Let me know your thoughts and how I might be able to improve the post and get more feedback on my research! As a reminder, Zoe’s (my) URL is http://find-your-body-peace.tumblr.com/
Here is the post I intend on publishing May 1st:
Dear Beautiful Followers,
I know you might be familiar with me as Zoe Ellis, the body positivity blogger, but it is important that I tell you all what I have been up to...
My name is Ryan and I am a 21 year old college student in New York. I created this blog to as an experiment, to see if I could successfully create a false identity and brand within the tumblr fitblr world. My aim was to create a blog that supported real, honest body positivity and self confidence, and I hope I have had some success in influencing how some of you feel about your bodies and your personal strength.
I would love to start a dialogue with you all about how you feel about my research and how you may or may not have been effected by my creating a false identity. Below you will find some questions. I would be so grateful if you could answer one or two of them in a private message, or even on my blog. If you are interested, you are also more than welcome to visit ryanblaire.net and read about my ethnographic process. Feel free to comment on posts there as well with any comments or questions you might have.
Here are a few questions to get you started:
What about my blog was appealing to you?
What are your thoughts about me using a false identity in this experiment?
Did you find this blog helpful?
How involved are you in the tumblr fitblr community?
I hope to hear from you soon!
With Respect,
Ryan