Blog memes – Thursday’s Children and #MondayBlogs
Posted: August 22, 2013 Filed under: On social media, On Twitter | Tags: Thursdays Children, Twitter 20 CommentsThis is my last Thursday’s Children post. Not because I have decided to take my bat and ball and go home (no bat, and also — no home!), but because the organisers, Rhiann and Kristina, have decided that after organising it for a full year it’s time they moved on to a new project. I respect that, although I will miss the meme, which is about sharing the things that inspire you.
The meme has been a great thing to get me blogging. Since I joined in April I’ve posted Thursday’s Children blog posts at least once a fortnight — depending on other blogging and real life commitments. And it’s also drawn some extra traffic to my blog that I otherwise might not have had, because each Thursday’s Children blog post is registered at a central list and the participants often drop in on other blogs to say hi and see what’s inspiring them.
And Thursday’s Children inspired me. Talk about the snake eating its own tail … in a nice way, obviously.
#MondayBlogs
If you’re a blogger and also on Twitter, there’s another meme you should be aware of: #MondayBlogs.
This was created by social media guru Rachel Thompson as a way for people to share their blog posts once a week, and to find and retweet others. It is, unsurprisingly, held every Monday — although given the various timezones around the world, Monday goes for way more than 24 hours.
Here are a few tips for participating in #MondayBlogs.
* Write a blog post that others will want to read.
* Tweet about it on Monday. Make sure you include the #MondayBlogs hashtag, and that your tweet actually reveals something about the post.
* If you also include the account name @MondayBlogs, they will retweet your post as well. (DON’T include the account name as the very first thing in the tweet, because that prevents your followers who don’t also follow @MondayBlogs from seeing it. Include a character — even a “.” will do — before the “@”.)
* You can find other blogs to read and retweet by either checking the hashtag contents or the @MondayBlog tweets. I prefer the latter because each tweet only appears once instead of dozens of times as it is retweeted.
* Try and retweet at least a few other people’s blog posts. (I try not to retweet too many links at once, which means I spread it out. And I always read the blog post first, to make sure I’m not inadvertently sharing something offensive — which is why I only manage to share a few each week.)
If you want to learn more, I recommend this post by Rachel Thompson.
Anway, to close, I’ll leave you with the children’s poem that inspired Thursday’s Children in the first place:
Monday’s child is fair of face,
Tuesday’s child is full of grace,
Wednesday’s child is full of woe,
Thursday’s child has far to go,
Friday’s child is loving and giving,
Saturday’s child works hard for a living,
But the child who is born on the Sabbath Day
Is bonny and blithe and good and gay.
Click here to see this week’s other Thursday’s Children blog posts.
Cassandra Page 
We’ve really loved having you be part of TC, and thanks for sharing about MondayBlogs! See you in cyberspace 🙂
Thanks for organising Thursday’s Children, Rhiann! It’s been fun. 🙂
Cassandra, it’s been fun!! We need to stay in touch for sure 🙂 ❤ you lots!
Yay! If you hear about a new blogging meme let me know. I will probably continue to need the kick up the bum to blog, otherwise!
I wasn’t aware of #MondayBlogs. Thanks for the heads up. It certainly makes blogging more fun when there’s a group reading and writing them. And thank goodness for Twitter!
Definitely – on both counts!
Thanks for sharing. I’ve believe I met you on Thursday’s Children first and enjoyed your blog. Connecting with other writers has been the best part for sure. See you around Twitter or #MondayBlogs!
I think that’s right, yes! 🙂
Thanks for sharing the info on #MondayBlogs this is my first time hearing about it!
It’s a great one! There are thousands of retweets a week so you’ll never get through them all, but it’s nice to sample what’s out there!
What a lovely poem! Totally got all verklempt just now.
And thanks for turning me on to #MondayBlogs. I’ve really enjoyed being part of a blog hop, and was hyperventilating a little about losing my little community! I hope you’ll stay in touch!
It doesn’t have the same neighbourhood feel that Thursday’s Children has, but it’s still a good way to find new things.
So great meeting you through TC! I’ll definitely check out the MondayBlogs – thanks for the tip!
No worries! It’s pretty huge!
Wow, honored to be mentioned, Cassandra! Love your recommendations. Couldn’t have said it better myself.
My only addition: some people seem to want to post pictures of their various naked body parts (ewww) with the hashtag. Not sure WHAT about #MondayBlogs makes them think that’s appropriate, but it does happen.
I recommend people look first to make sure there’s nothing objectionable before RTing — it doesn’t happen often and I chase them away LOL. Just a thought.
Thanks again. You so rock.
Thanks for dropping by, Rachel. (I love your stuff so I’m geeking out a little right now!) That is very eww about the naked body parts. This is why I always read the link first!!
That’s an awesome poem!
I always liked it as a kid because I was born on a Sunday, and clearly those are the best children of all. 😉
Thank you so much for joining us these past few months. We’ll miss you, too! Hope to see you at the CriTiki Lounge!
I will swing by once I have something ready to critique. 🙂 Maybe beforehand, if you’re after group feedback.