I like a good mystery

On Friday, I introduced some new-to-me MS blogs, the first of which is coming from Joyce Nelson, President & CEO of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Upon reading that post steve said:

"Did you notice that there are actually three team members named "Joyce" on the NMSS blog? Sounds like someone's being paid to be Joyce Nelson's internet presence." on May 2, 2009 1:03 PM

Interesting observation. So I sent Joyce a direct message on Twitter:

LisaEmrich (DM) Glad you had a great Walk event. ? abt ur blog. There are 4 Joyces listed as authors. See comment here http://tinyurl.com/cbukfv respond? 1:56 PM May 2nd

I had been reading Joyce Nelson's tweets leading up to the MS Walk in Colorado which was discussed on her blog in Please Don't Snow on May 1st at 6:16pm. Now we all know that the time stamp of a post is when you began writing that post, or the date/time you choose to be shown so this is on slightly relevant.

joycenelson1 Getting ready for the Colorado walk tomorrow. Hope the rain will wait until afternoon for once. Doesn't matter, great event, great cause. 6:07 PM May 1st

joycenelson1 Just finished another great walk event. Music, hope and people united for a world free of MS. Babiesn puppies, media stars what a movement! 12:54 PM May 2nd

My response to Steve's comment above was:

Steve, I wondered the same thing. However, I've also witnessed some clumsy Twitter presence where I suspect she started an acct with one email, then probably decided to create or use a different one which would be separate from personal contacts.

I suspect that she is NOT the admin on the blog but has been added as an additional "author." Maybe she was added thru her many email addys. Or, maybe, there really are a number of "joyces" who contribute.

I think it's probably just some inexperience and clumsiness showing through. It's an interesting endeavor either way. on May 2, 2009 1:51 PM

So on May 3, 2009, I receive two visits to the blog from an unknown visitor.

First visit to blog was at 1:22:31 pm - 1:22:48 pm and came from Twitter
- 17 seconds, 1 page view, outclick to National MS Society Blog

Immediately afterwards I received the following message:

joycenelson1 (DM) Not sure why 4 Joyces show- I often feel like I'm in 4 places at once though. Thanks for passing along my blog to your friends.
1:28PM May 3rd

Then....

Second visit to blog was at 1:58:31 pm - 2:16:18 pm, direct traffic
- 17 minutes, 47 seconds, 2 page views, outclick to The Onion

I read Joyce's direct message upon returning home after seeing a movie. I'll have to tell you all about that another time.

LisaEmrich (DM) LOL. 4 Joyce's. Sometimes I wish that I were 3-4 Lisa's to get everything done. Thanks for visiting the blog. Love to see you more.
~ 5:30PM May 3rd

And finally, today another visit to the blog.

May 4, 2009, blog visit from National MS Society computer in Denver
10:13:27 am - 10:39:19 am, direct traffic
- 25 minutes, 52 seconds, 2 page views, outclick to "Post a Comment"
- exit page was comment page (reader left no comment)

Now I was looking for Joyce's profile to see who her blog Team Members are on the NMSS Blog. I wondered if she (or whomever) would have cleaned up the multiple profiles which I had tried to presume were a mistake from her various email addys.

Where previously (on May 3) there had been Joyce, plus three other Joyce's, plus two other members (who I didn't think to make note of, darn), there is now only Joyce, plus two other Joyce's. See her profile here.

The profiles of the other two Joyce's are set to private. It was interesting that one had been established in March 2009 and another in April 2009, in addition to the "main" one which is now visible.

How do I see this? maybe I'll leave that for the experts in Denver to figure out. They've cleaned it up somewhat but there's still more which could be done.

If you're still reading, then you might be curious to know how I even discovered that the NMSS CEO blog exists. In the Twitter world, everything is about following folks and being followed. I came across a new Twitter account designed as being the NMSS in New York, presumably from the main office.

mssociety Following the National MS Society CEO's blog about her new Challenge Walk journey - check it out and follow! 5:45 PM Apr 9th

mssociety Thanks to all who walk the Walk MS events! Anyone training for the Challenge Walk MS events? @joycenelson1 is NMSS Blog 6:11 PM Apr 27th

mssociety's first tweet was on March 6, 2009 and the first person they followed was Phil Keoghan, whose first tweet on his account was also on March 6.

PhilKeoghan Just arrived back from NYC after doing the MS event in Times Square. Left NY on 6am flight still early here & heading out for a 6 hr ride. 3:39 PM Mar 6th

There's no problem with this at all. It is obvious that the PhilKeoghan Twitter account was developed to track his bike ride across America which is supporting fundraising for the NMSS.

So why do I suspect that Joyce Nelson has two accounts on Twitter with one being a clumsy social media mistake? Well, again looking at who is following whom, I found a Joyce Nelson who is followed by only two people. The account has only one tweet (a silly one at that) and the two followers are also connected to MS people.

One of those followers is Annabelle:

Annabelle MY 15 seconds of fame - link works finally - http://bit.ly/zBl6
9:31 AM Mar 3rd

Annabelle's profile says: "wanderlust addict, social media geek, ball o' energy, huge smile, redhead, works for Hachette Filipacchi Media, plays broomball"

Following the link provided in her profile I found this:

"...Annie currently does digital marketing and interactive publicity for some of the top magazines in the US."

In conclusion, I can't answer the question Steve raised as to whether this is the "real" Joyce Nelson who is posting to her blog. There are freelancers called "ghost bloggers" who can do a wonderful job creating content and perhaps PR.

But I do find the above information very interesting.

Update:

May 4, 2009, additional visit from NMSS computer in Denver
6:32:13 pm - 6:33:40 pm, direct traffic to May 1 post
- 1 minute, 27 seconds, 2 page views, may or may not have read this post

And:

May 5, 2009, Burrelles Luce http://www.burrellesluce.com/
6:59:27 am - 6:59:27 am
- directly to this post

May 5, 2009, Hachette Filipacchi Magazines http://hfmus.com/
8:46:24 am - 8:46:24 am
- directly to this post

May 5, 2009, another NMSS visit to the original post
11:07:06 pm - 1:07:18 pm
- 12 seconds, 2 page views (post/comments)

May 5, 2009, another NMSS visit to the original post
1:02:53 pm - 1:04:38 pm
- 1 minute, 45 seconds, 2 page views (post/comments)

May 5, 2009, another NMSS visit to the original post
5:41:43 pm - 5:42:17 pm
- 34 seconds, 2 page views (post/comments)