Recently on Twitter I ran a fun contest to come up with the best SQL blog post title link bait. Link baiting is a controversial approach to blogging. The term itself is controversial actually. In some contexts it just means using a great title. But this contest was looking for the the best example of a different use of the term, one that’s a little bit more on the dark side of blogging:
Linkbait Definition #2 – “Attracting Link Attention with Controversy”
A lot of folks seem to suggest that certain things people write on the web or create on their sites are “just for the linkbait” – these can include negative or derogatory pieces, inflammatory material, and anything else that designed to incite or provoke a reaction from one or many online communities or blogs.
That’s the definition I was going for in this contest. An snark we did receive. I think this means that the SQL & Twitter communities have seen a lot of linkbaiting. This was a short contest, with just under 300 posts and about 100 people participating in the conversation, but it reached more than 1 million potential impressions. That’s the power of social media.
(click to enlarge this chart)
The full report on this hashtag can be found at http://keyhole.co/realtime/zA3oKj/
Some honourable (dishonourable?) mentions:
Save Money: Replace your MSDN Subscription with MegaUpload Today! #SQLLinkBait
— Matt Velic (@mvelic) September 12, 2013
. @datachick Top 5 reasons Netflix is moving to SQL Server. #SQLLinkbait
— Patrick McFadin (@PatrickMcFadin) September 12, 2013
Don't Upgrade: You'll Just Get Better Stuff #SQLLinkBait
— Karen Lopez (@datachick) September 12, 2013
#sqllinkbait 10 Ways Your DBA Calls You An Idiot Without You Knowing and What You Can Do About It
— SQLRockstar (@SQLRockstar) September 11, 2013
Goodbye DBA, Hello Developer-Admin. #SQLLinkBait
— Doug Lane (@thedouglane) September 11, 2013
Run SQL Server faster with the /FASTER switch. #SQLLinkBait
— Shahryar G. Hashemi (@dsfnet) September 11, 2013
How I doubled my consulting rate by growing a beard and not washing my jeans. #sqllinkbait
— John MacIntyre (@JohnMacIntyre) September 11, 2013
. @datachick The one performance tweak nobody at Microsoft wants you to know about. #SQLLinkbait
— Patrick McFadin (@PatrickMcFadin) September 12, 2013
@datachick Watch Me Demonstrate How Twerking Can Improve Your Query Tuning Skills #SQLLinkBait
— Real SQL Guy (@RealSQLGuy) September 12, 2013
101 ways to replace your PMs and managers with Powershell scripts. #PoshLinkBait #SQLLinkBait
— Dev Nambi (@DevNambi) September 12, 2013
#sqllinkbait How the NSA Uses NULL Values to Spy On You
— SQLRockstar (@SQLRockstar) September 11, 2013
Follow This 1 Weird Trick for Faster Database Performance #SQLLinkBait
— Matt Velic (@mvelic) September 12, 2013
#Analytics Users, Here's What Your Corporate IT Team Really Thinks About You #SQLLinkBait
— Timo Elliott (@timoelliott) September 12, 2013
#sqllinkbait 10 Ways Your DBA Calls You An Idiot Without You Knowing and What You Can Do About It
— SQLRockstar (@SQLRockstar) September 11, 2013
Using SSAS to Find Out what The Fox Says #SQLLinkBait
— Josh Fennessy (@joshuafennessy) September 12, 2013
Our crack team of judges – Allen Kinsel ( blog | @AllenKinsel ), Thomas LaRock ( blog | @SQLRockstar ) and I picked Tracy McKibben’s ( blog | @RealSQLGuy ) entry. I’ll be DMing you, Tracy, with info for collecting your prize pack. I sure hope you are following me (hint, hint).
@datachick How I Launched A Successful BI Project Using 12 Monkeys Stolen From The Zoo #sqllinkbait
— Real SQL Guy (@RealSQLGuy) September 12, 2013
I’d love to see some of you take this challenge to heart and write those blog posts. Hmmm. Maybe a new contest idea?
Update: It seems that Twitter or WP is having a bit of an issue rendering some of the tweets. Perhaps they will fix this data quality problem soon. Anyway, congrats Tracy.