ListenLikeURBlind: A Follow-Up Report

So, some stuff happened after I posted this entry about ListenLikeURBlind. I decided I should take the time to chronicle the rest of the tale. A buddy of mine pointed out that by talking about this little episode, I am giving these people the attention they obviously want. This is true, and it's a bit of a downside. However, I'm convinced this is attention they'd prefer not to have. Therefore, we soldier on.

The most important thing to know is that on September 10, 2013, I was added to the ListenLikeURBlind Facebook fan page without permission yet again. That marks at least the fifth time this has happened, and it did not go unnoticed for long. Well, in truth, the timestamp for 1:24 PM local time was bogus anyway - it wasn't there at that time. However, after popping back up unbidden, I knew I could not let this go unchallenged.

I went to their page. I left the same comment, with a link to my previous blog post on this subject, on every one of their stories I could. The only thing that stopped me was that I went too quickly and was temporarily blocked by Facebook from leaving comments. Still, I left the comment and the link on 18 separate stories. And guess what? They stayed there until Friday!

On Friday, I suppose that the person (or one of the people) responsible for ListenLikeURBlind's fan page logged in and saw my handiwork. It appears they hid the comments rather than deleting them, but I can't say I care since the message was primarily aimed at them. One would assume they got it, since I am now blocked on their page. Now we wait and see if this action prevents me from being added to their page without my consent. Because really, that's all I want from them - to be left alone.

Since I was looking into things about ListenLikeURBlind, I decided to go back to the beginning for them. That's really not that far - seems it was begun in May 2012. Their results were somewhat modest at the outset, but they got quality feedback for a brand-new page - shares, likes, comments. What's fascinating is that these results have dropped off precipitously even though they are adding fans at a surprising rate. Consider this - even though their "Likes" now number in five figures, they only have approximately 38 "Shares" of their postings for the entire YEAR, and no story was shared more than twice. That doesn't seem particularly viral to me.

I decided to conduct an experiment wherein I compared ListenLikeURBlind's fan growth with other Facebook fan pages. After some trial and error, I settled on three pages to use for comparison. They were chosen because all three of the pages are dedicated to people certainly better known to the general public than ListenLikeURBlind, but not so high profile that they might roll up "Likes" at an astronomical pace. All of the pages are either run by or are directly tied to their subject. And most importantly for our purposes, I trust these three pages to not be gaming the system in some manner. My belief is that all of their fan activity is completely legitimate.

(I should also note for the record that I do not know any of these women personally, and they are not directly involved in this blog entry. Similarly, they do not endorse any conclusions reached by the present author.)

I have freely given "Likes" to all three of these pages, and recommend you do the same. Our three comparison fan pages are:

Amy Jo Johnson - Actor/singer/director, perhaps best known for her roles on MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS and FELICITY

Angela Ryan - Model/burlesque dancer

Morgan Smith - Actor/singer, currently appearing in an ad campaign for Wendy's.

I began my experiment at 6:30 PM on Friday night. Here are the Likes for each page at that time (plus or minus a minute):

Amy Jo Johnson - 12,032
Angela Ryan - 12,516
Morgan Smith - 8,511
ListenLikeURBlind - 32,512

The most striking thing right off the bat is that ListenLikeURBlind has almost as many Likes as ALL THREE WOMEN PUT TOGETHER. Seriously, I would wager all three of them are more "famous" than ListenLikeURBlind, and yet we see that a "Community" that basically posts music videos and does not leave a space for users to write on their wall has outpaced all of them. Huh.

At 11:30 PM Friday night, I found the following results:

Amy Jo Johnson - 12,040 (+8)
Angela Ryan - 12,535 (+19)
Morgan Smith - 8,524 (+13)
ListenLikeURBlind - 32,552 (+40)

Here's a footnote to these numbers - I actually watched ListenLikeURBlind go down by one fan in real time. Wonder what that was about?

Since you are surely wondering, it is currently 10:05 PM as I am typing this. Here is how the numbers stand at this moment.

Amy Jo Johnson - 12,079 (+39)
Angela Ryan - 12,667 (+132)
Morgan Smith - 8,566 (+42)
ListenLikeURBlind - 32,663 (+111)

Another footnote - I watched ListenLikeURBlind lose another fan in real time. Kinda spooky. But Angela beat them out in the last 22 and a half hours. I would expect that to "correct" itself in the next 90 minutes.

Please notice the vibrant and robust activity on the pages of Amy Jo, Angela, and Morgan compared to the relative silence of ListenLikeURBlind. They say numbers don't lie, but where are the voices of those 32,000+ fans? They have barely made a peep this year!

We've mostly been talking about Facebook, since that's how this all began. But all three of these women have Twitter accounts, too, and so does ListenLikeURBlind. When you take a look at them, the numbers are...interesting.

Amy Jo Johnson - 29,635 followers
Angela Ryan - 14,044 followers
Morgan Smith - 2,858 followers
ListenLikeURBlind - 77 followers

What do you make of that?

Do I have a point to all of this? Well, kinda. I'm putting facts out there, and letting people who find this entry reach their own conclusions. The main point is that my previous entry on this topic has already been propelled up the search engine results for ListenLikeURBlind. Since I know exactly how many hits that post has received, I find this hilarious.

And where do we go from here? My profound hope is that this is the end. I would likely never have even heard of ListenLikeURBlind if it hadn't been added repeatedly to my Facebook. I would have shrugged off once or even twice, but five times? C'mon son. I really have better things to do with my time and energy than pursuing this, as much fun as it might be.

Here is the deal, ListenLikeURBlind. You have blocked me from your Facebook fan page. Does this mean I will never "Like" it without my consent again? Does this mean you will stop spamming and harassing me to watch your page when I have already made clear I have no interest? Because if you leave me alone, I'm willing to let this drop. Oh, I still intend to document how much your "Likes" increase at a surprising rate, but I'm not interested in going after you if you'll just let me be.

But? If I see you in my "Likes" again, ListenLikeURBlind, well, I make no guarantees of who I contact with regards to your activities. Word to the wise and all that. Your choice, mates.