It’s great to be busy – but it does mean the blog takes a back seat.
I’m currently in the midst of a fantastic project drawing on MBTI, FIRO-B, HDS and 16PF with a leadership team seeking to integrate new members after yet another reorganisation (this sounds like ‘psychometric overload’ but for most of the team these inputs have been staggered over a number of months). I’m also embarking on an exciting new collaboration designing training programmes related to the procurement and implementation of banking technology systems – a project which on the surface seems as far removed from Franklin Whybrow core business as training gets (fortunately, my contribution focuses on the ‘people’ aspects which frequently de-rail such projects, whilst the other party brings all the industry and technology know-how). And it’s Easter school holidays – so I need to find plenty of Dad time too.
So with paid work and parenting the top priorities, how do I serve up an interesting blog post without taking up too much time or leaving it too long? Cheating sounds like the best bet – or rather drawing on a concept or two much beloved by TV producers with budgets to cut and schedules to fill. I’m thinking a hybrid of those ‘best bits’ compilations, ‘100 best’ countdowns and the budget-price series-filler where clips from earlier episodes are strung together around a new narrative (I’m tempted to use the example of Zack, Pansy and Drum reminiscing about their favourite ‘Big Zings’ – but I’m not sure how much of a cross-over there is between readers of this blog and the CBeebies/Zingzillas demographic).
Basically, the Franklin Whybrow web-site and blog have been up and running for just over a year – which gives me a timely excuse to review my site stats and see which search terms and posts have proved most popular.
Over the course of the last year this blog has speculated on the HDS ‘dark side’ of football managers, Apprentice candidates and politicians; the FIRO-B profiles of rock bands and the MBTI types of TV chefs, comedians and even Santa Claus. So who and what have visitors to this site most often been searching for?
Unsurprisingly, ‘Franklin Whybrow’ has been the search engine term which has brought by far the most traffic. Bizarrely ‘Paprika’ and ‘E-coli’ rank in the top ten, too – presumably thanks to Google Image searches picking up on a couple of the more random photos I’ve used to illustrate posts. But which of the subjects of my psychometric speculations have attracted most visitors? The MBTI type of Eddie Izzard, Delia Smith or Jonathan Ross, perhaps? Johnny Marr’s FIRO-B profile? Fabio Capello or David Cameron’s HDS ‘Dark Side’ maybe? Nope – they barely register in comparison to the ‘top three’.
In third place is the eponymous anti-hero of ‘Sexist, Ageist and Misogynistic – that’s the Stuart Baggs Brand’ (also the subject of several other Apprentice/HDS posts last autumn). Baggs brilliantly proclaimed at the ‘interview’ stage of the show that he wasn’t ‘just a one trick pony but a whole field of ponies’ and that he was ‘the only person who can pull Lord Sugar out of a recession’. In second spot – actually some distance ahead of Baggs – was early Apprentice casualty Melissa Cohen. Searches using her name, in a ratio of roughly 2:1, were predominantly about her hairstyle/makeover for ‘The Apprentice – You’re Fired’ and her propensity for using made-up words (which inspired my ‘The Dysfunctionability of Melissa Cohen’ post). But ‘top of the pops’ for bringing visitors to this site, every one of them Googling his Myers Briggs/MBTI type, was the two-hearted Time Lord in the Tardis – Doctor Who.
At the other end of the hit-parade, I was amused by a few of the very specific search engine terms which brought people to this site. ‘Is FIRO-B Rubbish?‘ was a recent one. ‘Cats drilling for oil behind the sofa’ was another (one which might mystify anyone unfamiliar with old Eddie Izzard material). ‘Virgin Media Failed to Turn Up’ caught my eye for reasons which will be self-evident to anyone who read my ‘Customer Service Case Study (and Richard Branson in a Tutu)’ post last May. But my favourite – actually searched for on several occasions – is Melissa Cohen’s quote, as she sat in the back of the Apprentice black cab fuming about her fellow candidates after being fired: ‘kharmically, they will be retributed’.
Top Five posts of the past year, then:
1. Doctor Who and the Myers Briggs Type Indicator https://franklinwhybrow.wordpress.com/2010/05/17/doctor-who-and-the-myers-briggs-type-indicator-colin-baker-was-number-six/
2. The Dysfunctionability of Melissa Cohen https://franklinwhybrow.wordpress.com/2010/10/29/the-dysfunctionability-of-melissa-cohen-dictionary-corner-comes-to-the-apprentice/
3. Sexist, Ageist and Misogynistic – that’s the Stuart Baggs Brand https://franklinwhybrow.wordpress.com/2010/11/18/sexist-ageist-and-misogynistic-thats-the-stuart-baggs-brand-apprentice-week-7/
4. Stilton and Paprika Crisps, Herr Baggs? https://franklinwhybrow.wordpress.com/2010/11/25/stilton-and-paprika-crisps-herr-baggs-to-hamburg-with-chips-on-the-apprentice/
5. Another MBTI Post? You’re Havin’ A Laugh https://franklinwhybrow.wordpress.com/2010/07/01/another-mbti-post-youre-havin-a-laugh/
Well written but definitely get the impression the author is being pulled in several directions at once, all of which require his total attention.
It is an interesting, factual, concise blog and I look forward to see what the second year brings