Building a Chinese medicine community – survey results, and winners!
We conducted a survey a short while ago, trying to ascertain what it is that people want out of a site like Deepest Health. We feel a great responsibility to the site and its community, so asking folks what they’d like to see seems like a good idea. What’s interesting is that there’s quite a disparity between what people say they want versus that to which they actually respond.
The survey indicates that people want to see more basic information – more stuff about acupuncture and herbs – more digging into patho-physiology. To be fair, plenty of people also wanted to hear more about the history of Chinese medicine and popular debates within the field.
But, those wanting the basic, practical information outweighed everybody else 2 to 1.
But here’s the interesting thing – when we offer that sort of information we don’t get much back. Few, if any, comments. No emails. No surges of traffic. No increase in sharing across social networks. The information is posted to the blog (or elsewhere) and simply seems to disappear into the ether. So, while people consciously desire that type of information, it doesn’t seem to be what MOVES them.
That movement is what energizes us, as content creators, and also what helps create interesting conversations and continue to build our community.
Things are different when we offer a podcast or blog post that really digs into what it means to practice Chinese medicine. We get comments, emails, bumps on social media and enthusiastic conversations among people we see in person here in Portland. The same goes when we discuss how to use technology in Chinese medicine, self-cultivation for Chinese medicine practitioners, business tools and tricks, reviews of materials and so on. But, ostensibly, that’s not what the readers want to see.
What gives?
Are the readers of Deepest Health confused about what you want? Or is it that the content that is asked for, but not responded to, is valuable but not worthy of interaction? Or something else? I’m interested to know your take on this seeming contradiction. If what we want is to build a thriving, interactive, engaged community discussing classical Chinese medicine online – what should we do? How should we interpret these various signs, whether survey results or blog comments? Please, even if you’ve never commented before, scroll down to the bottom of the screen and give your two cents.
Anyway – it was valuable information
From the basic demographics (we’re an international community) to understanding more about the types of practice you’re in (most of you use acu-moxa and herbs equally, but there are a LOT of bodyworkers out there, too) it was a very valuable experience.
And there were winners!
We promised a drawing, and a drawing we did – we used a random drawing service and drew two names. Each of these folks will receive a Deepest Health course of their choice and a Chinese medicine themed grab bag of various things we have accumulated over the years. Fun, right? If you’re interested in learning more about the drawing methodology – please contact us. If you didn’t win, do not despair. There will be more opportunities.
Tara Danloe and Alexis Goldstein are our winners of the DH 2012 Annual Survey Drawing!
Congratulations from the whole Deepest Health team! Oh, and don’t forget to comment to let us know what you think about the contradiction discussed in this post… it’s easy to comment and no registration is required.
About Eric Grey
Hi - I'm the founder of Deepest Health. When I'm not writing here, you can find me reaching out to the Chinese Medicine community across the web and in my own backyard. I currently teach Chinese herbs at my alma mater, the National College of Natural Medicine. Additionally, I'm the founder of Watershed Community Wellness, a thriving local clinic in Southeast Portland in Oregon. No matter where I'm working, you'll find my focus on the Classical approach to Chinese medicine laced throughout everything I do.
Onward!