Hi Everyone

I thought I would take this opportunity to blog post about The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.  This book is life changing for many and was definitely a moving book for me.  There has been much talk about the novel, comparing it to others, meaning behind text and what situations symbolized for certain people.  I have graded each conversation out of 10 with 10 being the most engaging.  Socialmention allows you to see conversations, social media posts and statistics on key words.  For the purpose of this blog post i typed in, “The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho”.

Facebook Post – “If someone isn’t what others want them to be, the others become angry. Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own.” ― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist – Grade 8/10 This post got 10 people sharing and a long conversation however, the conversation was between just 3 people and not multiples.  The conversation was about agreeing on the post and how others felt about their purpose in life with others.

Twitter Post – “The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times.” ― Paulo Coelho, Alchemist – Grade 6/10 No conversation took place on this post but retweets and favourites were relatively high.

Photo Share on Flickr – Grade 9/10 This photo accumulated 52 comments.  However the comments were mainly on the picture.  The photographer put a quote under the photo from the alchemist.  The 52 that commented have now become aware of this book and quote.  Excellent.

Photo Share on Photobucket – Grade 4/10 – I wanted to include a lower ranking post for comparison.  This photo has 700+ views but not one comment.  Content is everything. Perhaps the comment didn’t touch others or the photo wasn’t appealing.  Again content is key.

You Tube Video on Recommended Readings – Grade 8/10 A youtube video with over 2000 views and comments from multiple viewers on thoughts on the video generating more conversation.

You Tube Video from Paulo Coelho – Grade 10/10 A 2 minute video on the authors thoughts on luck, faith and coincidence.  This video has over 200,000 views and over 200 user generated comments.

You Tube video on The Alchemist Quotes – Grade 9/10 A series of quotes put on a youtube video with pictures.  Again content is key but so is perception.  You need to make sure the photos are appealing.  A bunch of text online doesn’t grab someones attention

What are you enthusiastic about? Grade 8/10 An article that asks people what they are enthusiastic about with one commenting on the Paulo Coelho.  Lots of conversation but not much to do with this particular post on the author.  Many are comments on the other posts.  However, it is the first post of the article which enables every person landing on this page to view it with meaning too.

Considering most of the social mentions are on twitter, photo bucket, flickr or youtube i thought my last 2 posts would be on statistics.

The Alchemist gets mentioned on average every ten minutes on social mention which is not great but pretty good considering the book has been out since 1988 and a top seller for the past year.  Twitter and Photobucket are the number one sources for these keywords and each post on these sources are mainly sentiment based.

Have you read The Alchemist?  What are some of your favourite quotes or thoughts on the novel?