January Social Media Round Up

Looking at where the most activity has occurred over the past month, it’s hard to miss how little engagement there was apart from numerous “likes” that appeared for nearly all the discussions launched over that period. And yet, on the other hand, December is the holiday season for many members of the NonStop community so it’s not entirely unexpected.

However, there are a couple of items worth bringing to everyone’s attention.

Firstly, the mere fact that so many discussions continue to attract “likes” seem to indicate the growing trend whereby most social media users have a preference to “like” on LinkedIn versus adding a comment to a blog posting. Whether it is because responding with a comment to a blog post appears to be more formal, with often a time delay before appearing on the blog site and therefore is subject to scrutiny and perhaps attracting further comments from the author of the blog, versus the immediacy of a “like!” Or not!

Scrolling through the LinkedIn groups Connect HP User Group, Tandem User Group, Real Time View, TCM NonStop Experts – HPE NonStop / Tandem Services and Solutions, etc. you will find very few discussions initiated this past month that didn’t have at least one like. And that’s a good sign that the NonStop community continues to read the material published but it would be good to see greater engagement by the community as prospects and others associated with IT would be more impressed to see lively interaction between all stakeholders in the NonStop community.

Secondly, the popularity of some of the biggest solutions vendors active in the NonStop marketplace appears to be tapering off – looking at the multiple LinkedIn groups devoted to ACI and BASE24, there’s now very little activity. Not even a simple “like” has appeared for several months. Groups such as BASE24 & BASE24EPS COMMUNITY (2,625 members), BASE24 BASE24-eps – HP NonStop Tandem IBM SUN – Open System Services OSS RealTime – Experts Users (1,416 members) and Base 24 Classic/EPS Consultants (1,200 members), that were set up for what appears mostly to be talent recruiting sites, are showing very little activity.

On the other hand, post to more general financial industry sites like ATMmarketplace and Banking Technology continue to attract readership and so more posts and articles featuring NonStop will be appearing that will be of interest even to a broader cross section of the NonStop community. My post of December 8, 2016, Time has proved good for HPE and NonStop; banks everywhere can run networks, 24×7! Proved controversial in that it was a blatant promotion of the continuing value proposition of NonStop systems, but in the end, the editorial review board relented and it generated numerous email responses.

Finally, blogs are continuing to grow in popularity and the numbers this month for pageviews of the NonStop community blog, Real Time View, pushed upwards to numbers not seen for a couple of years topping out at 11,000 plus for December. Likewise, posts on NonStop to the LinkedIn Pulse blog did generate comments with the post There is always an audience for news on NonStop …. highlighting the increased page views of Real Time View generating the most comments. So yes, turning to blogs for sharing information about NonStop remains as relevant today as it always has been and that’s an encouraging sign for just how active the NonStop community continues to be.

January is now upon us and the industry is returning to more normal operations following the holiday season. So take a look at all that’s happening in social media and join the discussions. Become an active participant! And yes, continue to “like” everything you see related to NonStop as you never know who else may be paying attention – there’s nothing that attracts a crowd more than a crowd, so be in the front row for all that is happening around NonStop!