The Magic of Social Media

facebook-iconJust wanted to take a second to thank all of you who shared yesterday’s post through social media, specifically on your Facebook pages. My decision to share an anonymous NPS employee’s response to some of the most irresponsible accusations re: park closings clearly resonated with many people. I can state unequivocally that yesterday’s post is now the most popular entry ever posted on this blog, which has been running for close to eight years.

Popularity can be measured in any number of ways. Some look for comments, which I think is a big mistake. Yes, it looks good to new readers to know that others are taking an interest, but most comments are written by the same small group of people. If it’s a controversial post than those threads tend to go on for a bit longer, but they still revolve around the same core group. 

I look at the share numbers at the end of the posts. I’ve had a few over the years that have racked up a some decent numbers for a history blog, especially the Facebook Like/Share count. For me a popular post might earn 50 fb shares and up; a few have garnered around 200.

But yesterday was markedly different. Within the first hour, the post hit 100 shares and from there it was off to the races. The sharing continued through the afternoon and that translated into an impressive number of visitors. At one point in the afternoon I had around 750 people reading the blog. As it stands the post has received close to 1,400 fb shares and that continues to bring in a large number of readers close to 36 hours later.

I couldn’t be happier that it happened with this particular post. Once again, thanks to everyone in the National Park Service for all that they do for this country. Hope you and all federal employees can soon return to your jobs.

2 responses... add one

National Park Service employees did not create the shutdown and should not be held accountable for park closings. It is wrong to berate an employee for matters that are beyond his or her concern. All NPS employees that I have met are fine dedicated employees. Having said that, it has been the policy of this administration in Washington to try to make the government shutdown as painful as possible and this philosophy has been transmitted to NPS leadership at the highest levels. Many of the park closings were not necessary at all. Areas near my home in a federal recreation area, where one would seldom if ever encounter an NPS employee were closed and huge boulders were pushed in the middle of roads to block entry. NPS employees worked harder in getting these areas closed than they ever did in maintaining the areas when they were open. Yes, NPS employees are good folks, but they are led and directed by politicians with the idea of making a bad situation worse. Not what we should expect from public employees.

Having said that, it has been the policy of this administration in Washington to try to make the government shutdown as painful as possible and this philosophy has been transmitted to NPS leadership at the highest levels.

Where exactly is the evidence for this claim. Apart from a couple of stories of people not being happy with their visits to parks that are officially closed, where can I find this policy? I assume you are privy to the regular procedures of the NPS during federal shutdowns. I mean no disrespect, but these kinds of comments come off as if the author is already well versed with NPS policy and chain of command.

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