Every week, as part of my job at b5media, I get to organise a network-wide chat. Of course, not everyone can show up every time (what with issues regarding timezones, workload, commitments, etc). But, no matter what, we do end up having a good group every time. And, other than talking about gardens, Harry Potter, chocolates, music, etc. , we often find ourselves exchanging ideas that help us become better bloggers. Or at least, that’s the plan anyway!
During today’s chat, for example, we had a great brainstorming session about Engaging Blog Readers. A topic that’s very close to my heart. Through our chat, we came up with 6 Ways to Engage Your Readers:
1) To engage readers, you must ask questions. Lots and lots of questions. I absolutely agree. And, it shouldn’t be just any old question. There should be real curiosity – an honest desire to know the answers. Otherwise, the questions will fall flat. Learning the art of asking the right questions is always a good thing. Not just in blogging.
2) When someone comments in your blog entry, respond immediately. It helps encourage conversations. It might even prompt readers to comment again on the same blog entry. This is something that I’m trying hard to work on. It’s definitely a challenge worth taking.
3) Other than responding to the comment within your blog entry, it’s good to visit the link of the commenters and comment on their blogs too. Again, my intention is to do this more.
4) Use polls. And, when using polls, make sure to highlight the new poll in a blog entry (not just post them in a sidebar). And, remind folks to vote again just before you close the poll. Then, write a ‘report’/results blog entry. I use this approach regularly in my Just Make Money Online blog. I run a poll there about once a month. And, the results are getting better. That’s why I’m hoping I could start using more polls here at ShaiCoggins.com too.
5) Create galleries of user submissions. Or a page to highlight readers’ submissions. There are different ways to do this, depending on each blog. Here at ShaiCoggins.com, one way I do this is through the “Tell Me About You” project, where I highlight folks through Readers Meet My Readers. Running similar “reader projects” is definitely great when it comes to engaging readers. It can be tough to run and/or to maintain them, but I think they’re worth it.
6) Answer reader comment questions in blog entries. It helps foster interactivity. And, it may encourage folks to ask more questions too. This is another winner. I love doing this. I enjoy receiving and answering questions. In fact, I have an ongoing project that says readers can Ask Me Anything. And, true to form, I answer these questions in blog entries AND even have a gallery to highlight these Q and As.
Someone also came up with this idea: Express a negative idea, if you have one. Being snarky, doing a “bad review”, attacking an idea/person, being controversial, etc… Yes, I agree that ranting and/or raising a controversial issue can definitely engage readers. And, if that’s your “real voice”, no one can tell you to “play nice” right? 
But, if this isn’t your style, then it’s not worth using this idea.
Oh, and writing of engaging readers, I added two new features here to help readers/visitors. You’ll find them on my sidebar. One is the ‘Since You Last Visited’ plugin, where you can see how many new posts and new comments have been posted in this blog since you last visited. The other feature is the ‘Top Commenters’ plugin. Top 10 commenters get showed, with their name, a link to their respective URLs (one they used when commenting), and the number of comments they have left here. As you can see, I get the Top position (plus a couple of others, argh). Showing that I DO respond to comments left here.
What about you? Are you a writer/blogger? What do you do to engage your readers?
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As much as I can, I provide my target readers what they need, say job opening posts, this gets them asking for more details or the current status of the job openings. I also try to inject as much personality as I can so they don’t get intimidated to leave their two cents. Although that tactic can backfire some times because many find my personality actually intimidating.
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Great list Shai. Is there an option to identify how many comments one has posted? I love the Top 10 commenters idea and would love further info on how I could add the widget to my blog.
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Shai, while reading this, it kind of came to my mind that these are tips for blogs that are also forums? (fora).
I can’t seem to get myself to practice these tips, because I believe I blog for me and not really for comments and the like.
Anyway just thinking out loud, that these tips may not apply to very perosnal blogs…
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Hello, Shai! Thank you for the comment to my rendering of your post on engaging blog readers, even if my post was in Spanish. I found the suggestions in your post are useful, maybe I’ll try to put them in practice with my own blog.
Actually, what I try to do in my blog is to offer my view of what happens around my world. Sometimes, the things I see affect me in a very personal way (like the time last year when 95 thousand public servants — including myself, a Biologist and Environmental Planner — were laid off two weeks due to a budget dispute), but at least I try to look for the lessons to be learned from such things.
Anyway, in recent posts of my blog I have been expressing my interest in that my friends and other people I know (especially those working in the local environmental profession) start their own blogs, since I know they would benefit greatly from doing so (like sharing their knowledge of endangered plants or animals or their environmental concerns, just to cite two examples). Every now and then I come across postings like this, which I think they would find very useful if they decided to start their blogs.
Again, thank you for the comment. I feel very honored! Take care! And good luck in all of your endeavours.
P.S. Don’t worry if your Spanish is “very limited and rusty” in order to need the Google Translator. I mean, you should see what it does when I try to translate from English to Spanish… (not that I need that, as you can see my English is OK, thank you very much!)
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Alfa: Including useful things for readers is definitely great. But, what do you mean by ‘backfiring’ when you inject your personality. Has this ever happened before?
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Robin: Yes, in the Top Commenters plugin I have the number of comments can be seen. Not sure how to run this plugin using other blog platforms. Mine’s EE. If you’re using WP, I believe there’s one for that too.
notsquare: No, I believe that these tips not necessarily for blogs that run as forums. But yes, it depends on what you want for your blog. Personal blogs can still benefit in interactivity, for sure. But, it might be different for a private blog. Personal and private are two different things.
Luis: Nice to see you here again. And, I’m glad you didn’t mind my lack of Spanish.
No worries about the comments. I’m happy to have ‘met’ you through this blog ad yours. Thanks again!
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Thanks for the link to the “tragedy of commons” posting. I’ll be checking it soon. Take very good care, OK? Bye!
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