Published On: Sun, Oct 5th, 2014

Social Web Thing is 5 Years Old Today

Birthday CakeToday, is a huge milestone for Social Web Thing — it signifies five years of blogging. This is an achievement I’m immensely proud of, especially as many bloggers (who are more talented than I am) have ceased blogging or greatly reduced the frequency in which they write.

Although, five whole years have passed, if truth be told, so much has happened, both professionally and personally, that sometimes it feels like considerably more than five years since I first hit the ‘publish’ button back in 2009.

To celebrate this momentous occasion I’ve decided to list five years of blogging at SWT and working in numbers. And over the next five days I’ll be publishing a post each day, looking at each of the last five years, reflecting on what was happening during that period and most importantly, what I learnt.

I like experimenting with content in this way — but I won’t lie, it has been an undertaking to create a series of six posts. It’s also been an interesting and refreshing challenge to go from writing in what I hope is an analytical and insightful style to something more reflective and inward-looking. But above all else, it has been a whole lot of fun. I’ll also be writing about blogging, how it’s helped me in my career and why in the age of character-limited content, there will always be a place for longer, more considered content.

Without further ado, here’s five years of blogging and working in numbers:

  • 251 posts
  • 758 comments
  • 100,000+ web visits (I’ve had some Google Analytics issues over the years, so don’t have a precise figures)
  • From 89 countries
  • Won 1 blog award (and had 3 nominations along the way)
  • 4 different layouts (I quite like the new design, but who knows what 2015 will bring?)
  • 1 argument
  • Lived in 2 countries (England and Ireland)
  • Under 4 governments (Labour, Conservative/Lib Dem, Fianna Fáil/Green Party and Labour/Fine Gael)
  • Had 4 jobs (Leeds Met, Edelman, Chill Insurance and Indeed)
  • 1 engagement (I’m getting married at the end of the month)

And if you’re wondering what my first post was on, here you go. I think it was a good first attempt, and not bad for someone fresh out of university that was trying to carve out a name for themselves. I still stand by the points I made, and in actual fact some of the discussions are still being had today — although, thankfully we never really saw the emergence of ‘IT people who are communicators.’

If you’ve taken the time to visit SWT, read, comment or share a post during these five years, I’d just like to say how much I appreciate it — thank you!

Visit Social Web Thing over the next five days to hear more about the start of my career at Leeds Met Beckett before moving to Edelman and then the Emerald Isle.

About the Author

- Marketing Manager with a passion for inbound at HubSpot, Founder of Growth Hack Talks, Blogger at Ben-Cotton.com and Chief Quaffer at CraftySwine.org .

Displaying 1 Comments
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  1. Happy Birthday Social Web Thing! Also, congratulations on your engagement Ben. Often I get so lost reading your articles, that it’s easy to forget that a human with his own life sits behind the keyboard. Here is to the next 5 years, and to all that life is still to bring. Children?!

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