It’s well known that poems don’t get a lot of views on Triond, because poetry is a type of writing that only a few people are interested in.  Although I can’t prove it, I’d venture to say that ten thousand page views is a lot for a poem on Triond.

My poem Do You Really Want To Network With Me? has gotten more than ten thousand views since it was published on March 30. In fact, it had almost five thousand views in the first month alone.

How did I do it? Well, um, if you were expecting a secret formula that you can use to boost the page views for your own poems, I’m sorry. That’s because I haven’t a clue why that poem got so many views.

I have a theory, though. I think it’s because of two things.

One, the poem is topical. It’s about social networking, which is all the rage these days. In fact, I mentioned the names Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter in the poem.

Two, and this is the main reason, in my opinion: it’s funny. I took a completely contrary view to the accepted, “If you don’t have a Facebook page, you’re a loser,” attitude that everyone seems to have these days. The poem is about the dark side of social networking, which is that people are putting their personal lives on display for the world to see in these networking sites, and sometimes there are people you’d rather not have looking at your life. Like the guy or girl who rejected you in high school. Or the boss who fired you twenty years ago. Or, basically anybody from your past whom you don’t want to see ever again.

I got a lot of comments on this poem, and many people said they heartily agreed with the sentiments I expressed. Maybe people are starting to have some second thoughts about social networking.

Or maybe they just liked the way I put the words together.

Or maybe they just needed a good laugh.

Those are my thoughts on how I got ten thousand page views on Triond for my poem.