Recently from this ranking chart I came across Xavier Lur (TechXav.com), a 15 year old from Singapore and Stanley Tang (Stanleytang.com), a 16 year old from Hong Kong.
These are their Twitter profiles. Note the amount of followers.
What exactly is their appeal? Good original content? Good commentary on latest issues?
From my limited observation of their entries on the home pages, Stanley seems to have substantial guest content on his blog, that could be a draw. Xavier also has an apparent focus on latest technologies. The rest is up to intepretation. I would advise any critics to second-think engaging them in reactionary public debate. Social Media often works in a way that big boys have more to lose.
Also, it is noteworthy that both teens make it a point to highlight their youth on their Twitter profiles. Refer to above image, again.
Why is this so? Is this a remarkable draw?
Yes, actually it is quite remarkable; It is worthy of a visitor passing a remark about it:
“Hey look at this amazing
kiddoteen blogger! If I didn’t see his About page, I would’ve thought he’s as old as John Chow! Ha-ha ha..”
It is quite an achievement for these teens to be involved and apparently successfully involved in Social Media at the prime of their sweet sixteens.
On one hand however, I would think that successful Social Media presence and influence requires a certain degree of Public Relations, and People Relations maturity and sensitivity, which should not yet have appeared in their school curriculumn.
On the other hand, The relative lack of worldly experience could be their springboard to creative realms beyond the mind of the seasoned professional who knows and abides by the Do’s and Dont’s.
“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s mind there are few.” - Shunryu Suzuki, Japanese Zen Priest.
Stanley is also the author of a book, eMillions: Behind-The-Scenes Stories of 14 Successful Internet Millionaires. I regret that I’m not inspired enough to purchase the book to appreciate the teen blogger’s creative inputs. Must be all the recent negative people around me.
These teens bloggers have taken big strides into the Social Media arena, with substantial visitor traffic and Twitter followers. What will be interesting to see in time, is if they can engage the professionals and veterans in meaningful discourse, providing insight and feedback on issues from their unique perspective, and that the professionals and veterans would give them due credit when they deserve it.
btw, when Junde was 15,
He made his first website with Microsoft Publisher 97 (Academic copy), and then later went on to do a series of sites on www.geocities.com/junde2, which he no longer updates because he lost the account and Geocities did not bother to entertain the kiddo who wrote in to complain in kiddo language.
