I will let you in on a little secret about effective web marketing. Come closer so I can whisper it to you. Okay, that is better. It is all about the community. Yes, writing blog posts with search engine optimization in mind is important. Yes, participating on Twitter is valuable. Yes, participating in social networking sites is important. However, the common denominator for all of web marketing is building and maintaining a community.
Building A Community Using Your Blog
Building a community is pretty obvious for social networking sites (i.e. Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn). What may not be as obvious is how to create a community around your blog. Obviously, writing consistent blog posts is the start of building your community. If you are not writing consistent, freshly updated content you are not giving your community a reason to stay involved and come back. Therefore, this should be your first priority. (Note: If you are not writing frequent blog posts then stop reading, go back to your blog, write a quick and thoughtful post, and then hit the publish button. Come back whenever you are ready; I will be happy to wait.)
Respond To Your Commenters
So, now we know you are writing frequent posts for you blog, well what now? It is time to connect with your readers. First, respond to the people who comment on your blog. We can be honest with ourselves. Almost all of us are not the Seth Godins and Chris Brogans of the world. (Chris has so many people trying to contact him that he hired a personal assistant just to handle the email… wow!) Therefore, you are not getting so overwhelmed with comments that you cannot take the time to respond. If possible, respond to every comment that someone leaves on your blog. Sometimes, you may only need to leave a little “thanks for commenting” message. Other times, a more thoughtful response is better. It all depends on what the commenter writes. Regardless, always stay mindful of engaging with the people who are choosing to participate with you.
Ask Some Questions
Ask questions in your blog. Instead of only preaching and teaching to your audience, engage with them. Your audience looks to you as a thought leader in your given area. That is one of the reasons they read your blog; however, that does not set you up to just stand on your box and tell everyone how things should be. Engage with your audience by asking them questions. Can they add anything to what you wrote? Do they have differing opinions? Have they experienced anything like what you just wrote? Find out, and in the process empower them to get involved with the discussion.
Enhance Your Discussions
Use a commenting system plug-in to enhance the discussion. As you can see, I use Intense Debate as my WordPress plug-in of choice. If Intense Debate members comment on my blog they will see any responses I make to their comment. As a result, there is a higher probability of them continuing to stay in the discussion and come back to leave more thoughts. I have seen this process happen many times on quite a few blogs. There are many other benefits of using Intense Debate and I recommend this as one of the top three plug-ins you need to add to your blog.
Visit Their Website
Your commenters have taken the time to read your blog and add a comment to your website. You have responded to their comment on your blog. Now for an added touch of community-building take the time to look at their blog. Read a few of their posts and if you can, make a comment or two. It will only take you a few minutes to do this, but it may be one of the best (and underutilized) ways to develop loyal readers. People love to receive comments so reward them with some comment love. The one-way street now becomes two directional and it shows that you are interested in them. Giving back to them can pay huge dividends for you in the end.
I like to think of blogs as group discussions instead of keynote speeches. The blogger is the moderator of the group and will work to initiate the discussion instead of merely talking to the nameless, faceless crowd. So get out there and engage your audience.
2¢’s – Your Two Cents
Do you engage your audience? What other methods of audience engagement do you use? What commenting system do you use, if at all? What other metaphors can you create for blogs as discussion starters? Have any of these techniques worked for you? I would love to hear your two cents.
Photo courtesy of striatic
You hit most of the main points Leo. Blogging is about sharing one's expertise, but you are correct in focusing on developing community. Community engages people. It helps people move from passive observers to active participants. Sure, not everyone will regularly comment but by implementing the strategies you outline above, it will certainly pull anyone out of their shell and make them feel like they are a valued member and contributor of a meaningful and vibrant community. The challenge…it does take a little effort and time, but the payoff is definitely worth it!
Great points. I think you are so right how you can move passive observers to developing community. That is so valuable.
I agree that not everyone will regularly comment. It probably breaks down into a certain number of people will come across an article. A few less will scan the article without reading the entire post. A few less people will read the whole post. A few less will read the posts on a consistent basis. A few less will add the blog to their feed reader/email subscription. A few less will people will comment. A few less will comment on a regular basis. Those last few are the truly engaged community. Others are part of the community, but are not quite as invested. Those people you really make feel valued (like you said above).
The neat thing is that over time and with proper effort, you can help that community grow from seven people to hundreds or more.
Thanks for the insightful comment!
I am glad you found the blog.