Richard and I disagreed about what to title the post I put up yesterday, now titled Three Principles of Social Software Creation From Andy Baio. That’s pretty much the title he wanted and I changed it to that after just a few hours of seeing it go absolutely nowhere with the title “Andy Baio & Three Principles of Social Software.” I wanted to lead with the subject’s name, as the post is largely about him, and I think readers have been enjoying my profiles of individuals lately. Richard wanted me to lead with the key concepts, instead of with a name that relatively few people know. (Even Andy admits that!) I told him that if the post got less than 2k pageviews my way, I would admit he was right and I was wrong. I didn’t even give it more than a few hours before conceding defeat. The poor little thing is at around 600 pageviews after 18 hours right now. I should probably just let it go.

It’s also possible that it just wasn’t a very good post. Very few people shared it and that’s the key to getting traction, of course. It’s a shame because Andy Baio is a really interesting guy. You should go check out his blog and shared links.

We have found, though, that posts with titles that focus on people tend not to do very well with readers. Interviews, profiles, etc. Leading with company and concept names (How Urban Airship Saved Tapulous’s Bacon on iPhone 3.0 Day or How One iPhone App Could Save Public Radio) allows for some people profiling to go on and for readers to be receptive. I now concede that.