As the Internet has seized a stronger grip and command of
modern business, media, and culture, the way marketers approach it has to
evolve. While SEO is still important, blog consumers are often specializing
their searches and chasing after community and home sites to regularly check
and read.
Consequently, building a community with your readership is
now an essential part of Internet marketing. Here are three ways to achieve the
kind of community that will draw long-term readers and a blog built to last:
1) Consistent, quality content
While people often use the web for quick searches and
information, there is a higher concentration on seeking out expert or more
meaningful content. People are looking for writers who have authority and
Google is incorporating Google profiles to help searchers find them.
Therefore, the keys to a strong community on your site is
having authoritative and quality content that keeps people coming back, and
consistent enough content to reward returning readers with fresh takes.
2) Invite reader interaction
There are numerous ways to accomplish this on your blog. A
primary way is through a comments section. Many bloggers don’t take on the
burden and time expenditures of having a comments thread on their articles. The
time costs are high, as you need to police the comments for spam, inappropriate
content, and trolls.
However, readers love to interact with the writer and the
time investment in policing the comments and promoting the better commentators
can reap tremendous rewards in building community.
Instead of inviting people to read your blog just for your writings, you invite
them to read your writings and offer their own responses. Commenters love to be
affirmed by a response from the blogger and get the sense that they are in a
community with the writer and other commenters.
From there, you can invite further interaction by asking
questions for the readership to answer in your article, posting polls, or using
other creative measures such as “choose your own story” articles.
3) Empower the reader
If you have active commenters on your blog you can empower
them with their own responsibilities within the article. Do you run a sports or
political blog? Create an article to serve as a live thread for a sports event
or political speech. Have some great, frequent commenters on your blog? Invite
them to post an article, perhaps even bring them aboard as a regular writer on
the blog to help the site grow in scope and content.
An essential part of a community is the possibility for
people within the community to rise up in stature and rank in accordance with
merit.
4) Be active on other blogs and in other communities
Your blog doesn’t have a strong community yet, but there may
be a strong and similar online community on another site. Don’t be afraid to
promote that blog and be active within its community. As a result, you will
attract readers and links back to the community you are looking to establish on
your own site.
If you have consistent and quality content up, there’s a good
chance you will steal or share readers with the other site in the long-term. In
the meantime, their community has created for you a perfect place to promote
your own site and community by being active in theirs and demonstrating what
you offer to the types of people who will be interested in your blog.
Practically you can accomplish this by linking readers to
those blogs and directing traffic their way, engaging in their interactive
features, and pointing back to your own content in a reasonable and controlled
manner. If you can generate return links you will really grow your audience.
5) Make it easy for your blog to be shared
Social Media is a mega-haven for online community that has
to be taken advantage of in order to create a specific community on your blog.
It’s important that you are active in social media and make it easy for your
articles and site to be shared through social media.
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