The measure of any good blog is how much it engages its viewers. Good engagement means lively conversation and the ability for people to voice their opinions, regardless of how varied they are. This type of interaction is every online content creator’s dream, but how do you get there?
Equal parts patience and effort, to be sure.
Moreover, you will never get comments if people don’t know about your blog. This is where self-promotion and active marketing come into play. Feel free to shout from the rooftops – or your social networks – about your blog and make people aware that it exists. Even with a few people, you can have a captive audience and get a conversation going. And make sure that you post regularly and write posts which are compelling enough to elicit feedback.
Here are a few other strategies for increasing the comments in your social media world:
End with a question. Rather than just concluding a blog post with your closing thoughts, try leaving readers with something to ponder, or a question that forces them to express their opinions. How would you have handled this situation? or What do you think? are common conversation starters that prompt your readers to jump in with their thoughts.
Reply all. When people leave comments, write your own response to keep the conversation going. If people have taken the time to respond to your post, you should take the time to respond to them. You can set your blog up to email you when anyone leaves a comment, so you can respond in a timely fashion.
Link to others. An active community begets an active community — and thoughtful comments that you leave on someone else’s blog will likely bring new visitors to your site. Visit blogs that have overlapping content or similar audiences and leave insightful comments on their posts. And don’t be shy about including a link to your recent blog post along with your comment.
Spread the word. If there’s a heated battle, idea sharing, or lots of opinions flying around, spread the word and invite others to join in. Use Twitter and Facebook to tell people, “Lots of ideas being shared here, what’s yours?” Nothing is more intriguing than a conversation that’s
happening without you!
Remember that by inviting this kind of interaction, not all comments will be warm and fuzzy. But taking the good with the bad and keeping the conversation lively and relevant, you will create a forum for engaging conversation and leave your audience wanting more.
