How to create a successful blog? This is one of the most crucial questions in the mind of every blogger. The answer is not so complicated but it takes a few things. One of them is getting social and that’s the focus of this post.
Whether you like it or not, you must socially engage with others if you want to attain blogging success. I hate to put the word “must” over there but what can I do if it really is a must? Yes, it is indeed a MUST.
You cannot dwell in caves and expect to be popularly known in the world. You must climb to the top of some mountain to let people see you waving at them. Nowadays, people don’t necessarily come when you just build quality content.
“Build it and they will come” no longer works; I’m not sure if it ever worked!
It used to work once when there were very few blogs and a term called “blogosphere” didn’t even exist. I mean there was no sphere but only a handful of blogs on the internet. And when those blogs produced quality content people did find them. And not to mention, blogs were a new different kind of media providing valuable content; something new to try out and to be interested in.
Nowadays, you must get out there and let others know that you and your awesome content exist.
Well, the good old days are no more. There are millions of blogs in the so-called blogosphere with thousands of blogs being started every day. This is the scenario.
So far with me on how to make a successful blog?
So how on earth would you expect blogging success while you are isolated? That will never happen. Let me tell you my personal story. I started blogging in 2007. But I was a newbie and ignorant about stuff at that time, learned a lot through hard ways, and was a lonely blogger.
I was simply writing and publishing post after post. They were good-quality posts, but there was silence in my blog. Nobody seemed to find my blog and read it. No one commented on my posts and no one shared it. At that time, poor me was always expecting others to come to my blog but I didn’t think of visiting theirs.
I used to read a lot about social engagement and its importance for bloggers. Later on, I started implementing what I learned (yes that was a huge gap between learning and implementing!) and that’s when I started to see the results. I wish I had implemented those secrets earlier.
There was no blogging success until I really came out of the cave and partied crazily. Even though I had accounts on all social media sites already, I was not engaging properly!
What is being social then?
It is about interactions and engagement. Yes, it is. And, it is one of those little blogging secrets for blogging success.
- If you just post your own blog’s updates to social media sites, you are not interacting with anyone but you are self-promoting yourself. Share useful links from outside your blog. The proportion should be 80% of other’s content and 20% of your own content.
- Let other bloggers know that you have shared their content. You can do this using an @ mention on Twitter and tagging them on Facebook (use sparingly and in relevance).
- Ask questions to your followers and friends and take active participation in their discussions.
- Quite often, talk about something that is outside your blog and business.
- Help people by providing value.
- Be consistent and brand yourself.
- Learn about social media optimization.
- Join blogging communities participate in discussions and vote/promote other’s content.
Don’t be logged in to Twitter for one full day and then abandon it totally for one full month. With social networking, consistency alone will get you success. It is just like blogging.
You cannot expect traffic, or expect people to respond to you in one day. If you are consistent with social media engagement, you will surely start seeing results within a week’s time. But don’t be in a hurry. The more consistent you are, the more attention you will grab.
A word of caution about getting overwhelmed!
I know social media can be overwhelming. You already have a lot of blogging tasks to handle, and now, on top of it, you have to “be social”. That sounds overwhelming, right?
Moreover, when it comes to social media, we have a LOT of options, right? There’s Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and so on and so forth.
So where do you go? Do you create accounts on all social media platforms and start getting insane? Nope!
You don’t have to be everywhere at the same time (sorry Pat!) in order to make a successful blog using social media.
In other words, to be more precise …
So here’s a social media strategy so you don’t feel overwhelmed!
Try out all the popular social media platforms. And pick 2 or 3 of them that work best for you. Stick to them. Be consistent with those 2-3 social media platforms.
Have a social media strategy in place. Rather than simply promoting your own blog posts, promote other’s content a lot. Engage by sharing other’s content and participating in other’s social media updates.
The more you engage, the more traction you can get on any social media platform.
Once you build a strong base on 1-3 social media platforms you can either move out and try out some more. Or you can simply stick to those 1-3 platforms and get stronger and stronger.
How to make a successful blog by getting social outside of social media?
Now, to “get social” doesn’t mean you should only think about social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. Here are a few ways to get social even without social media!
Now, getting social is just about virtually meeting people. And, social media is not the only place where you can socialise. There are a lot of options online.
Blogging communities
They are communities, right? So blogging communities are naturally a great place to socialise. Personally, I find blogging communities to be of greater help than social media. When compared to social media, blogging communities are less noisier.
You can connect with people more personally. And even more, you can identify influencers in your niche and reach out to them.
Commenting on other blogs
Comments are a sign of interaction. Comments not only help voice your opinion but also help initiate conversations. And conversations are great ways to get social.
Apart from socializing you can build your brand and also be helpful to people by commenting on other blogs.
There are a lot of options to socialize on the internet apart from blogging communities and commenting on other blogs. I will write a separate post on the topic.
Meanwhile, here’s the message of this post –
I might be repeating this! But don’t believe in the “build it and they will come” theory. You have to get out there and connect with people. You also have to treat your visitors (the people who find you and come to you) nicely and connect with them.
That’s how you can succeed with blogging. That’s the answer to this very question that we started this post with: How to make a successful blog?
Is that a too-bold statement? It could be. But that’s true. If you are hesitating to accept that statement, you will feel the delay in your blogging success. That is inevitable. So you better start believing that and get social. You can achieve blogging success faster that way :).
