"Peace, Love, and Pearl Jam" circa 1995
Social Media. Web 2.0. Facebook. MySpace. Tumblr. Digg. Blah, blah, blah, the list goes on.
When we launched Two Feet Thick on April 5, 2003, do you know how many of those internet terms and websites were in our vocabulary? Zero!
The internet today is almost unrecognizable compared to its early millenium incarnation, but the internet is not reality – we think.
Pearl Jam and its fans managed just fine back in the day when typing “www” was actually a typo. How has the landscape changed since 2003? Are we – the flesh and bones of JR, Jessica and Kathy – unrecognizable? Are you? Is Music? Is Pearl Jam?
That Was Then
If you “followed” Pearl Jam in 1993, it meant you probably owned a van, showered infrequently, and saw the band in one of its most charged periods in their history. If you “liked” Pearl Jam in 1993, you most certainly watched their videos on MTV, owned their music on CD, vinyl, or cassette, and tried to see them live if they came around (if you were lucky enough to get tickets). And if you “loved” Pearl Jam, you bought their Japanese imports, waited months to hear live concerts on cassette, and – if you were lucky – started reading Kathy’s seminal print fanzine Footsteps. “Follow” and “Like” certainly have different meanings now. Even “Become A Fan” doesn’t just mean hearing Pearl Jam for the first time and saying “Hey, these guys are cool” … and that phrase’s meaning is changing still.
If you are reading this, you don’t just like Pearl Jam, you love Pearl Jam. We know. And we’ve got the numbers to prove it! Read on and we’ll give you an idea where we are as writers, where you are as readers, and mathematically prove your fan love.
We Are the Whirled
Things have changed fast. In the past year we’ve gotten our geek on by upgrading the website and establishing our presence (the current internet buzzword-of-the-month) on Twitter, Facebook, et al. But all this is circumstance, only because Pearl Jam is alive and well now, in the information age.
As we write this, Two Feet Thick reached two interesting milestones. The first is our aforementioned seventh anniversary of writing original articles about yours and our favorite band, Pearl Jam. The second milestone is the mark of 1,000 followers on both Twitter and Facebook – something we’ve managed to do in a very non-stylish, organic way (sorry Ashton Kutcher). Common to both of these achievement is you, our loyal readers, and we’d like to thank you for your readership, your patience, your contributions, and your compliments for the past seven years.
State of the You-nion
We have 1,000 followers, but that doesn’t mean we only have 1,000 readers. Since last April, Google tells us that we’ve had 169,868 unique visitors and that you’ve visited 514,097 times – so thanks for visiting more than once! But we know that of the 169,868 unique visitors, not all were Pearl Jam fans. We did some attention grabbing articles on Bruce Springsteen, and a Britney Spears mention by Ed in Australia got us a short boost in visitors with some “toxic” opinions. Ed is certainly not Britney’s BFF, like OMG!
We also know you find us on Google using obvious searches like “Pearl Jam” and “Two Feet Thick”. We have seen some strange searches though. Check these out: “pearl jam hunt”, “five feet thick pearl jam”, “two feet chicks” and even “lionel richie tour rumors”. What the…?
Yo yo yo … where you at? They may be a Seattle band, but we all know their fanbase is global. Our geographic readership reflects that, with the top four countries spanning three continents! Where’s South America? Ah, maybe we’re the ones not thinking global. We should offer our articles in Spanish, and set up DosMetrosDeEspesor.com. Anyone want to help us translate our site?
The Big Finale
It’s tough to say “I Love You”. With all the ways we can prove our fanhood these days, let’s get our fan priorities straight.
The music, it has be about the music. If you’re not buying Pearl Jam’s music, you’re not even on our radar. If you’ve seen Pearl Jam once live, it probably then turned into twice, thrice and so on. Ten Club membership is where the heart-o-meter starts to flash with blinking red lights. Do you check Pearl Jam setlists before your morning coffee? Com’over here for a bro-hug, yo.
With this overwhelming evidence and warehouse of data, let’s come up with a scientific conclusion of the exact number of people who love Pearl Jam.
Hail, Hail, the LOVE-ly Ones
| Source | Total | Affection |
| All That’s Sacred Twitter Followers | 500 | Love |
| The Sky I Scrape‘s Twitter Followers | 900 | Love |
| TwoFeetThick Twitter and Facebook Followers | 1000 | Love |
| Dirty Frank Dahmer‘s Twitter Followers | 1700 | Love |
| PJVault‘s Twitter Followers | 3800 | Love |
| Two Feet Thick 2009 visitors | 168,000 | Love |
| Ten Club members | 175,381 ** | Love |
| Pearl Jam 2009 U.S. & Australia Ticket Sales | 490,000 ** | Like / Love |
| Pearl Jam Twitter Followers | 500,000 | Like / Love |
| Pearl Jam Facebook Friends | 780,000 | Like |
| Worldwide Backspacer Sales | Over 1 million ** | Like |
** – conjectured figures
Ok, ok, so maybe it’s not so scientific, but it’s fun! Are we boasting that we have more followers than All That’s Sacred and The Sky I Scrape? No way! This isn’t the internet of 1997 where PJ fan sites crashed and burned trying to one-up each other. Behind the scenes, we’re often working together fact-checking and rumor-following and we’re always trying to help boost each other’s readership. Good times…
The Fun Doesn’t End Here
One thing we’ve proven here is that you don’t need to be a techie hipster to love Pearl Jam. But do you find yourself more and more intrigued by Twitter, Facebook and the 2K10 web? Read on as we dig deep into the state of Pearl Jam Social Media.
