Relationship Advice for Bloggers: 7 Ways to Engage Your Audience
Ever noticed the best pick-up lines are about the person you’re trying to pursue and not about yourself?
The same is true in the blogosphere; just talking about yourself or your company can be a turnoff. Remember: Blogging is a two-way conversation between you and your readers. The end result of your blog post should be for your audience to do something, whether it’s thinking deeper about a topic, buying a product or initiating a conversation.
Blogging also allows you the freedom to let go, within reason, and really show off your personality and passion. You want to build trust and loyalty through interaction, and you can do this by encouraging intimacy and influence – essential factors of marketing’s key metric “engagement,” according to Forrester analyst Sean Corcoran’s research on the meaning of “engagement.”
Here are a few more tips for winning your readers over into a long-term relationship:
- Pay attention to site design. Some say beauty is only skin-deep. However, your site’s appearance is crucial - you want it to be as visually appealing as possible. Your blog’s aesthetics should also showcase your personality, as it helps set mood and tone.
- Incorporate pictures and multimedia. Infographics, for example, are a great way to engage readers, especially interactive ones that allow users to experiment with data. Here’s a great example from CNN depicting employment statistics based on location.
- Write frequently. Just like one phone call isn’t enough to get somebody to notice you, you’ll need to maintain a schedule of regular posts. To keep ideas flowing, consider brainstorming an editorial calendar on topics and trends that can be covered once a week or month, depending on how active you want to be.
- Open the blog up for comments. Start a conversation in order to develop a relationship with your audience. And make sure to respond to comments to keep interaction alive.
- Make it about your community. Deliver value to your readers by giving advice, connecting your point to relatable experiences, presenting opportunities and more. Point out research or industry trends, and add your own opinion to start the discussion.
- Include call to actions. Even experienced bloggers forget to do this sometimes. Encourage a response by asking questions and discussing hot-button topics to bring your readers into the conversation. Other ideas include holding contests, polls or voting.
- Establish a consistent tonality and voice. The Gunning Fog Index helps measure the readability and level of your writing to ensure your audience can understand you. Leading publications, such as Time and The Wall Street Journal, average around 11 on the index.
For more ways to engage your audience, read PR Daily’s article listing 41 ideas for posts here.
What are your favorite blogging tips and ways to interact with your readers?
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These tips are very relevant for the bloggers. Some people ignore a blog because he/she don't find the blog informative or entertaining.
Posted by: Ecommerce Software | October 29, 2011 at 05:34 AM
Useful tips for bloggers...
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Posted by: saha | November 16, 2011 at 10:07 PM
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