Did you know that ‘blog’ came into existence from the word ‘weblog’?
Yes, it was initially made popular as a ‘journal’ or a ‘diary’, written and posted online.
If you look at the blogs of today, they sure have evolved from their modest past of ‘personal musings and stories of the author’, to highly focused content, measured, tracked and optimised to market, and attracting a sizeable following of audiences through disruptive ‘digital strategies’ - all in the pursuit of establishing a brand and making big money!!!
And only a few bloggers, solopreneurs and digital businesses have been able to ‘make it big’ when it comes to creating, good content, huge fan base and massive revenue, through this ‘art’ called blogging.
If you do a quick search for such big earners and authority figures in the Blogosphere, names such as; Michael Arrington, Brian Clark, Neil Patel, Joe Pulizzi, Rand Fishkin, Darren Rowse, Pete Cashmore, Yaro Starak, Gary Vaynerchuk… would immediately jump to your screen.
Now, let’s not assume even for a second that these folks simply churned out some creative thoughts and articles on topics they preferred, and just breezed to the top - to amass huge ‘following’ and sustainable ‘revenue streams’ under their names, in a short period of time.
Blogging can be as easy as writing daily journals about your personal stories without any motive whatsoever, other than to publish one’s thoughts and ideas on the web….
OR it can be a challenging, lengthy process, exceptionally strategic and scientific - as accomplished through relentless efforts by the big names (mentioned above) in the industry – who have managed to deliver remarkable results producing ‘valuable content’ and attracting a massive flow of audiences - almost to the point of having a ‘cult following’ for some highly influential blog portals.
But, as aptly put by the ‘Influencer’ whom we have chosen for this BLOGSpeaK Post;
Darren Rowse – "Blogging is more than creating ‘good content’. A blog really comes alive when their is ‘reader engagement’, or some level of ‘community’ built on or around it!"
So for today, let's take a look into some of the useful tips, which Darren suggests we should be integrating, if we're to build a ‘community’ around our blogs:
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1. The ‘Conversational’ Voice
Darren resonates with many other influencers on this tip, where he implies you should not fall into the trap of talking ‘at’ readers but rather blog in a ‘conversational’ voice.
A good conversation, as Darren describes stands on the grounds of being ‘interested’ as well as being ‘interesting’. Just like good conversationalists ask questions, pause to listen and keep their counterparts engaged, bloggers can also bring about that conversational style into their writing, in a way where the readers find opportunities to reflect and respond.
Though the influencer insists that every blogger find their unique ‘style’ and ‘voice’ to bring the ‘conversational’ essence in their writing – Darren suggests trying a few ways, as explained below, which has helped him in his writing;
- Write like you speak: The trick is to imagine you’re talking with someone, which brings a more personal approach to the content.
- Tell stories: Similarly, weaving in little nuggets of personal stories can stimulate the readers to reminisce and relate their own personal stories that relate to the topic under discussion. The stories need not be long, but just enough to produce that personal ‘tilt’ to invoke the readers’ thought process.
- Sharing opinions: If you speak your mind, or give your opinion, readers either resonate or differ with you – it will trigger readers to think about their opinions and interact with you. Darren also suggests that one needs to be careful when dealing with sensitive issues, as it might evolve into heated conversation, because if you ‘hit a nerve’, you could do more harm than good.
2. Call for Interaction
With a conversational tone, it does engage some readers to interact with you, but Darren says you may want to make a ‘call for interaction’, to see more enthusiasts on board. Here are a few tips to catalyse that ‘interaction’;
- Ask readers to comment: The Influencer suggests you can declare you’re interested
in people’s opinion, even at the beginning of the blog, rather than waiting to ask at the end. - Ask specific questions: A specific question revolving around the topic will generate a more ‘thought out’ responses, rather than posing a general question such as ‘what do you think?’
- Short ‘Question Posts’ to incite discussion: Question posts written for the sole purpose to invoke interaction and discussion can work wonders in boosting readers’ engagement. Here’s an example from Darren’s ProBlogger; What progress have you made on Pinterest?
- Put up a Challenge: It's mainly about getting readers involved in some activities by challenging them on a weekly basis. Darren challenges his readers weekly to take a photo on a theme (for example ‘nature’) and then share with the community to collect more responses and engagement.
- Run a Poll: This could be an icebreaker for those reluctant and passive readers. You could simply run a poll on your blog and ask them to choose from multiple choice questions and click ‘vote’. This sends a signal to the readers that their opinions are valued.
- Share poll results: An innovative way, prescribed by Darren is to share the poll results with every member. It's an opportunity for everyone to see where they fit into the community - an opportunity to ‘belong’ and ‘engage’ with other members who feel the same way about the polls.
- Off the blog interactions: A nifty way to expand your readers’ engagement is to invite them to other platforms (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.), to engage in discussions.
As these social media platforms are based on an interactive model, readers find it much easier to strike a conversation, or give their opinion.
3. Dedicated Community Forums
Blogposts these days are quite interactive in the sense they not only allow comments to be posted below the post, but it's also possible to post ‘threaded’ comments, allowing for even more intricate ‘mini conversations’ as Darren puts it, which enhances the engagement experiences.
Darren says, "Blog posts buzzing with such constant conversations can actually be taken to the next level – which is to create a dedicated community area for the members to start their own threads of new conversations through a ‘forum’."
Forums do cater to the interests of diverse readers and increases engagement and page views, but the influencer suggests that one has to face challenges with moderation when fending off spammers and sustaining a ‘critical mass’ to make the forum active and attractive.
4. Leveraging other Interactive digital platforms
With this tip, the influencer is implying that, besides Social Media you can utilise other tools to help build community around your blog. He suggests trying Ustream and Google Hangouts to interact and converse with readers ‘live’.
Similarly, another platform which Darren suggests is to run Webinars with popular tools like GoToWebinar, where you can engage with larger number of people at one time.
5. Running ‘Challenges’ for readers
Darren Rowse admits the ‘tipping point’ for his blog was due to a challenge called ‘31 Days to Build a Better Blog (31DBBB)’ that he ran for his readers. The idea was to give readers, lessons on blogging every day for 31 days, along with a challenge to complete.
This brought in huge traffic to his blog-site with equally exited readers jumping up to take his challenge and engage in a much deeper level. He believes that by engaging readers to work on a common task for an lengthy period of time, provides them with a shared experience and brings them closer together.
6. Live Events
When it comes to building and nurturing a community around your blog, nothing beats meeting your readers in person through live events. It does come with its own logistic challenges, but as Darren puts it, face-to-face interactions and real life shared experiences speed up your community building process.
In the live events such as, the Inbound 2017, Content Marketing World 2017, or Darren’s own ProBlogger Training Events, each event presents an opportunity to meet and build a relationship with your readers and for them to network with each other, providing immense value in learning and coming together as a close-knit community, to engage and share common goals.
An added bonus with such events, which Darren points out, is that of running a parallel virtual event with enthusiasts who cannot join the event in person. He believes meeting people at such events actually fosters an even greater involvement with them in the aftermath of the event, as people would engage more with the blogger through Social Media and the blog portal.
That brings us to the end of this Blogpost. We'll return with more insights and tips on blogging, with yet another Influencer in our next BLOGSpeaK post.
In the meantime, if you'd like more assistance with your content or would like to discuss anything covered today, we'd love to hear from you.
Call Andy Fox (me) on (03) 5249 5570 or email andy@element7digital.com.au
Our Website is element7digital.com.au
