In this post (a continuation of my Principles of Successful Blogs) series I explore the topic of being relational with readers.

Back in 2002 when I stumbled upon my first ever blog I was immediately inspired to start my own blog based on two things that I witnessed in that first blog.

1. It gave the blogger a voice and amplified that voice around the world
2. It gave the blogger the ability to build a community around what he was exploring and enabled him to have personal (yet public) interactions with many people to further explore his topics.

The community and relational aspect of that first blog was a big part of why I decided to start my own first blog. I’d not seen anything on the web that allowed a person to grow a community around their ideas before and wanted to experience it for myself.

So I started my first blog – a personal blog about life, spirituality and culture – and began to experiment with my voice but also with engaging with those who read what I was writing each day.

I quickly discovered the power of building a blog that not only had interesting content but which drew readers into a conversation.

In those early days I spent at least as much time building relationships with readers as I did writing posts (I’ll share some of what I did early in my blog below).

As I look back on the early days of my own blogging I’d attribute a significant part of the early growth of my blogs to this type of relational activity. Content might be King but community was its Queen for me.

Things have Changed…. But….

Of course the blogosphere and wider web has changed somewhat since those days in 2002.

• Twitter and Facebook have emerged to take over some of the community interactions that blogs once had
• Social media is also a space where much of the sharing of links we once did on blogs happens
• Blogging has become quite competitive and bloggers in niches don’t always work together

Things have changed – however…. a relational approach and community are still one central aspect of many successful blogs.

Note: I’m not just talking about building your blog into a community (we discussed community earlier in our series) – instead what I’m talking about in this post is being relational with your readers – the blogger/reader relationship and not necessarily relationships between your readers.

So how does a blogger grow relationships with their readers? I’d actually like to tackle this question by making some suggestions for newer/smaller blogs and then for more established blogs where the challenge of scaling a relational approach is a challenge.

How to Be a Relational Blogger – For New Blogs

When starting out with a new blog there are many tasks that will confront you. Creating great content is of course your primary concern, getting your blog looking attractive and inviting is also important, thinking about branding, networking with other blogs in your niche, setting up with some good SEO…. the list of things you could fill your time with goes on.

However putting some concerted effort into building relationship with those who do come to your blog is something well worth putting time into. If you can build a loyal group of regular readers in your early days you’re well on the way to growing a blog that is read by many. Each loyal reader you have has their own network that they can spread word of you to.

Following are some of the things I spent a lot of time doing in the early days of my own first blogs:

• Reading and responding to every comment left – particularly any with questions
• Visiting the blogs of those who were leaving comments and interacting with those bloggers on their own blogs
• Engaging on other blogs that were linking to mine
• Emailing new readers to thank them for commenting
• Linking to other blogs in my niche – promoting those who were reading my blog
• Responding to email queries

These types of activities are very basic yet they have an impact and will draw those who read your blog in the early days to take a second look and come back again.

Tips for Established Blogs Trying to Scale Rationality

The above basics for newer blogs do work – but when your blog starts to grow the challenge for bloggers is to how to stay relational in their approach without burning themselves out. You see responding to every comment left on your blog becomes incredibly challenging when you have hundreds of comments left each day. Personal and in depth responses to every email from a reader takes over your whole day when you have tens of thousands of readers…. Scaling relationally is definitely a challenge.

So what’s a blogger to do?

I actually grapple with this one on a daily basis and would love to hear how other bloggers approach the challenge however thought I’d jot down some starting points (it should also be noted that much of this can be put into practice by new blogs too):

1. Write in a Relational Voice

One of the things that can help is to simply write in a relational or conversational style. Tell your own story, share your experiences, write about your failures, be personal. While you might not be able to respond to every reader personally all of these things make you more relatable.

2. Invite Participation

One part of writing in a relational style is to invite interaction with readers. Asking questions of readers and giving spaces in posts for discussion and interaction may not be fully relational if you yourself don’t participate – but it at least opens up opportunities for readers to interact with one another and get a feeling of being heard and valued as a reader.

3. Set Up Opportunities for Intentional Interaction

Another strategy that I find a win/win for bloggers and their readers is to set up specific times and places for interaction between blogger and reader. Put aside time for this intentional community time, publicise them with readers and then make yourself available to interact.

For me one of the ways that I try to do this every now and again is by doing a live Ustreaming video session where I simply do Q&A with readers. I’m amazed at the response from readers who join these chats – while I do feel a little ‘odd’ sitting there talking to my laptop answering basic questions about blogging readers really do seem to value the times and feel much more involved.

Note: Another way that I try to give readers another avenue for interaction is by promoting Twitter as a place for conversation. The key is to name where and when you’re going to interact and then make sure you do.

4. Answer Reader Questions with Posts

A further technique I try to do is to try to answer questions from readers with posts rather than just in comments or via email. When I get a reader asking a question I could respond with an email or comment and help that particular reader – but to maximise the benefits across the full community I try to take some questions and turn my responses into a more public answer in a post – thereby answering the person but also hopefully sharing some solutions with others who might have the same question. I find that the added bonus of this is that you highlight a reader interaction publicly which shows that while I might not respond to everyone that you are attempting to be interactive.

5. Manage Expectations

Without going over the top and becoming boastful or arrogant – try to communicate with your readership what they can expect from you as a blogger. Readers all come with their own expectations of what they should and shouldn’t be able to expect from you as a blogger. The emails I get from readers at times illustrate that some readers come with pretty good expectations while others come with unrealistic ones.

Side Note: interestingly these unrealistic expectations can swing both ways. For example today I had one email from a reader demanding I answer a list of 20 questions for them while another reader emailed saying that they didn’t really expect I’d even read their email and didn’t expect any kind of acknowledgment of their problem. The reality is somewhere between the two emails – I can’t give readers hours of my attention each – but I do read emails and try to respond to as many as I can.

One way to manage expectations is to have a system in place around your contact form. Communicating what you’re able to help with, whether you are able to respond personally etc on a contact form helps readers to gauge what sort of response (if any) they’ll get. Some bloggers also put systems in place to send auto response emails back when contact is made to help with this.

6. Build Community

Another way to help readers get help from your blog is to set up systems and areas on your blog where people can help one another. This is one of the reasons that both ProBlogger and Digital Photography School have community areas. The hope is that while I can’t possibly respond to every reader that there is always someone in the wider community that does have the expertise and resources to help. I also find that in time as a blog grows that this reader interaction between readers extends naturally into a comments section – a larger blog tends to have readers who love to help one another.

7. Get Help – Outsource

One of the hardest things I’ve done in the last couple of years is to get help to manage this aspect of my blogging. Outsourcing community is not something I ever wanted to do but getting help from someone to assist in the moderation of comments was actually something that helped me to be more responsive to readers. If you do end up hiring someone to help with moderation try to get them to alert you to threads of conversations that need your attention rather than just hiring someone to delete spam.

How do You Do It?

As I say above – I’m no expert in being a relational blogger. It’s one aspect of what I do that I do grapple with and have good days and bad days with. I’d love to hear your thoughts on how you approach being a relational blogger and what impact it’s had on your blogging.

PS: One last bonus tip – Stay True to Yourself and Your Personality

I say this because as people we all have different styles and personalities that will leave us able to interact with readers differently. I’ve been critiqued a few times over the years about not being interactive enough with readers but in the last 12 months or so have also come to realise that my approach in this area is not just about being too busy to interact but that it is partly about who I am as a person.

As a pretty extreme introvert I do enjoy personal interaction but also find that I’m not able to sustain as much of it as some others who are more extroverted and get energy from such interactions.

Those of you who’ve met me will know that I’m actually someone who tends to sit at the edge of groups watching and listening more than those who might enjoy being the life of the party. While I do enjoy conversation I’m someone who is a little slower paced and more laid back and who enjoys chiming in from time to time with my insights and thoughts – but who also enjoys listening.

On the flip side of this I know that one impact of being this type of person is that I can come across as being a little uninterested in those around me – it’s something I do have to work on (I could quite easily retreat to my introverts cave and never come out for weeks at a time). So for me it’s about being true to myself and not forcing myself to be the extrovert but also knowing that my introversion can also be an excuse and something that limits me.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

How to Be a More Relational Blogger [Tips for New and Established Bloggers]

Share This

Although the new decade is already in full swing, everyone still wants to know what to can expect in the coming year. Eli Goodman, the Search Evangelist for comScore, talked to WebProNews and shared a few of the top trends that he sees in the future.

First of all, he predicts that a lot of offline branding dollars will shift into online spending. He said, “There is simply too much money being spent offline on branding and too little of that being spent online.”

Secondly, Goodman expects an increased amount of technology opportunities for in-text search advertising. As he explained, it is the idea that relevant terms could be hyperlinked or underlined within a publisher’s content. As a result, if users scrolled over the relevant term, a search results page could pop up or something more specific, such as a recipe.

Thirdly, he sees a rise in social search and opportunities for marketers in social search. Currently, the search engines on social networks like Facebook and MySpace are powered by Bing and Google, respectively. That said, the search results from both the traditional search engines and the social networks are primarily the same. Because the social networks have access to so much personal information, Goodman believes the social sites need to better leverage their data to deliver more relevant results.

In looking beyond 2010, Goodman said search would be integrated into marketing at a much higher level. He even foresees it eventually taking a large share of the overall marketing strategy.

In addition, he anticipates a crossover between screens in regards to television, phones, and computer screens. If the NBC/Comcast deal gets approved, he believes many more similar mergers will come about to allow users to connect their experiences.

What trends do you foresee for 2010 and beyond?

One of my new years resolutions in 2010 is to interview one blogger per week as a podcast. I’ll post most of these for members of the community at ProBlogger.com but from time to time will share some of them here on ProBlogger.net for all to hear.

Yesterday morning I had the privileged of speaking with Richard MacManus – Founder and Editor of the successful ReadWriteWeb blog.

Richard started ReadWriteWeb back in 2003 and has since grown it into one of the world’s largest blogs in terms of traffic, subscribers and most importantly influence. Richard has also taken RWW from a single author blog into one with at least 13 writers.

In this 45 minute audio podcast Richard shares the story of RWW and its beginnings, talks about the transition to a multi-author blog, shares some tips for new bloggers, talks openly about how RWW is monetized (including through advertising, publishing premium reports and running events) and looks forward at the future of publishing.

The interview also briefly features my 18 month old son who decided that Richard was someone he really wanted to speak with

Richard’s one of the most thoughtful and insightful bloggers I’ve interacted with and has built a blog that reflects this. He majors on being constructive, insightful and useful and this podcast reflects that.

You can listen to this 45 minute podcast here or right click and save it to listen to it at your leisure.

While you listen be sure to surf over to ReadWriteWeb and follow Richard on Twitter and Facebook.

PS: apologies if there is an initial slowness in downloading but as you’d expect, there will be a bit of action on this podcast in the first little while after this post goes live.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Lesson from ReadWriteWeb: An Interview with Richard MacManus

Share This

Site Logic’s Matt Bailey isn’t sick of Twitter, he’s just tired of marketers telling their clients they HAVE to be there.  Same with Facebook and whatever other ‘next big thing’ comes down the road.

At the 2009 Chicago SES, Abby Johnson caught up with Matt Bailey who shared his perspective on social media marketing and it’s relative importance to the overall marketing mix.

Bailey feels like businesses feel an unwarranted pressure to ‘get someone on Facebook or Twitter’ without fully understand why they are doing it – aside from the fact that some marketing expert told them they needed to.

In this age of Facebook and Twitter, how do you feel about blogs? Some reports say that blogging is dead, but is it? According to Stoney deGeyter, the President of Pole Position Marketing, it is anything but dead.

He said, “It’s [Facebooking and Twittering] not going to overtake and kill blogging by any means because blogging is a way to tell a full and complete story.”

He compares updating Facebook statuses and Twittering in 140 characters or less to watching a movie in short clips. Through these channels, followers and friends can only receive choppy snippets. Blogs, however, provide comprehensive information.

The best solution is to use Facebook, Twitter, and blogs in a joint effort. He suggests using Facebook and Twitter to promote blog content.

As deGeyter points out, it is especially important for small businesses to utilize blogs. Since businesses sometimes make the mistake of using their blogs only for promotional purposes, deGeyter suggests they create personalized content in order to draw readers back again and again. Not only do blogs break down the corporate barrier, but they also open up new doors of communication.

So, is the age of blogging is over, or is it simply being enhanced by new platforms?

Although news outlets continually bring reports about new features on social sites such as Facebook and Twitter, there is actually a lot happening with social aggregation sites as well. To catch us up to speed, Brent Csutoras gave WebProNews a rundown of the latest news from both Digg and StumbleUpon.

First of all, Digg has a new trending feature that allows users to be more involved in the actual voting process. Since people are always complaining about the items that reach the front page, Digg is incorporating this new feature to give users more of an opportunity to vote on a particular item.

On Digg’s homepage, the feature will display an item that is close to being moved to the front page and give users 10 minutes to vote to move it or not. After the 10 minutes are up, the feature will show whether or not the item was moved.

StumbleUpon has also seen some drastic changes over the last several months. Earlier this year, the company broke away from eBay and is currently being run by its original founders. Since becoming independent again, StumbleUpon revamped its design, added more content to its homepage, and essentially, tried to become more like the other social sites.

Most recently, the site has made an attempt to focus on the social profile. Csutoras however, does not welcome this change. For him, StumbleUpon was different from the other social sites. He relied on StumbleUpon for finding really unbiased and good content from anyone. But now, the content is heavily dependent upon the social group that recommended it, much like Facebook and Twitter.

“It does put an extra click or two between you and content,” he said.

All these changes are currently in beta and Csutoras is quick to point out that StumbleUpon is very good about listening to user feedback.

What are your thoughts on the new features from Digg and StumbleUpon?

According to Chris Brogan, the President of New Marketing Labs, we have all been playing around with social media for far too long. It is his hope that users stop being amateurs and really get serious and take it to the next level.

Looking at the last Presidential election, Obama reached out through social networks to spread his message. On the contrary, McCain stuck with traditional methods and called home telephones with his recorded message. Obama’s message was distributed across Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and more, and he won as a result.

Brogan believes all users should apply that model to get the message out since there is so much good that can be done. For example, actor Anthony Edwards is utilizing social media to raise awareness and funds for a children’s hospital in Africa. Social networks are powerful tools to get needed messages out.

Up to this point, the use of social networks has been sloppy. However, Brogan believes that now is the time to use these tools to get the message to the right people. He says: “It’s time to get over being a tourist. It’s time to put a claim down and do something with it and really tend it.”

Back in June, Steve Rubel, the SVP and Director of Insights for Edelman Digital, decided to shutter his much-acclaimed blog Micro Persuasion. According to Rubel, “blogging was getting old.” He realized that people do not have time to go to a website and read a 500 word essay. This trend can be partially credited to the extreme popularity of social networking and microblogging.

Nielsen Online found that the average American visits 111 domains and 2,554 web pages each month. Based upon those statistics, it is very important that content publishers have visibility everywhere that people are spending time.

As a result, Rubel found a new publishing platform that he believes is more efficient. The platform is called Posterous and it allows users to syndicate content out to the social networks they are personally involved with. It makes it a lot easier to publish to centralized places such as Facebook and Twitter, since people are already on those social networks.

Fortunately, Rubel is not abandoning blogging but is simply modernizing his approach. His posts are shorter and are more visually enhanced. Micro Persuasion now serves as his archived content and his new site is called The Steve Rubel Lifestream.

According to well-known actor/director Anthony Edwards, his role as a doctor on NBC’s hit drama E.R. impacted his life much more than he initially thought. As a result, he is advocating the construction of the first public children’s hospital in Kenya, which would be the largest children’s hospital in Africa. And he is raising awareness through none other than new media outlets.

The actor told WebProNews that he avoided new media for a long time. After he became involved with the charity Shoe4Africa and saw the need to raise awareness, he realized how powerful new media could be for communication. In reference to the blogosphere and twittersphere, Edwards said:

“There’s a transparency here that, if your message is real and good, people are gonna get it.”

He views these forms of social media as valuable tools for not only his charity, but for any cause. In addition to getting the message out, new media provides a sense of urgency that other outlets do not offer. Because pediatric health has been overlooked in Africa for too long, Edwards sees the need to act now.  He even began tweeting for the cause at this year’s BlogWorld Expo. The actor believes new media will raise the awareness and support his charity desperately needs.

Incidentally, Edwards will be running in the ING New York City Marathon on November 1 to raise funds for Shoe4Africa. If you would like to learn more and even contribute to this cause, visit Shoe4Africa or the organization’s Facebook Causes page.

According to well-known actor/director Anthony Edwards, his role as a doctor on NBC’s hit drama E.R. impacted his life much more than he initially thought. As a result, he is advocating the construction of the first public children’s hospital in Kenya, which would be the largest children’s hospital in Africa. And he is raising awareness through none other than new media outlets.

The actor told WebProNews that he avoided new media for a long time. After he became involved with the charity Shoe4Africa and saw the need to raise awareness, he realized how powerful new media could be for communication. In reference to the blogosphere and twittersphere, Edwards said:

“There’s a transparency here that, if your message is real and good, people are gonna get it.”

He views these forms of social media as valuable tools for not only his charity, but for any cause. In addition to getting the message out, new media provides a sense of urgency that other outlets do not offer. Because pediatric health has been overlooked in Africa for too long, Edwards sees the need to act now.  He even began tweeting for the cause at this year’s BlogWorld Expo. The actor believes new media will raise the awareness and support his charity desperately needs.

Incidentally, Edwards will be running in the ING New York City Marathon on November 1 to raise funds for Shoe4Africa. If you would like to learn more and even contribute to this cause, visit Shoe4Africa or the organization’s Facebook Causes page.

Newer Posts »