Three Strategies To Improve Reader Interaction
January 26, 2009 by Jason
Ever visited a blog and noticed the author never responds to comments? Ever emailed a blogger and never received a reply? It’s frustrating, isn’t it? Well, in the defense of non-communicating bloggers everywhere I will tell you that blogging is a lot of work, particularly if you are doing it as a side hustle. But as a reader of several dozen other blogs, I am sensitive to how important it is to interact with readers.
There are a variety of ways to interact with readers, but here are three that I try to use with some consistency. I admit up front to not always taking my own advice and have on occasion failed to respond to comments in an article, let an email go by, or spent a couple days away from Twitter. Still, I think these three tools are critical in developing a relationship between bloggers and their readers.
Three Strategies To Improve Reader Interaction
Respond to comments. The easiest way to respond to readers is to simply leave a comment in response to something they said in response to one of your posts. I like to start out the comment with something like “@Frugal Dad:” so readers will know to whom my response is directed. It isn’t necessary to respond to every single comment, but try to respond to those who make the best point, or disagree with you, etc. Don’t be overly defensive in your response, and even if you disagree in principle thank the reader for taking the time to leave a comment.
If you are a WordPress user, you may want to consider installing the “Highlight Author Comments” plug-in. With a simple CSS line you can make your comments standout by modifying the background color, and/or surrounding your comments with a border.
Answer email messages promptly. over time, this gets harder and harder to do as your readership grows and so does the number of messages you receive. I try to respond to all emails in time, but based on my workload and the number in my inbox it might take a while. Still, answering emails with a personal message to readers is a great way to build reader loyalty. And I’ve discovered that most of my readers are much smarter than I am and quite often I learn something from them!
Invite readers to follow you on Twitter. I love Twitter because it does two things well. It allows you to easily respond to others who have directed a comment or question your way, and it forces you to keep the message short (140 characters or less). This helps both bloggers and readers stay on point with messages. I use Twitter for sharing things of more of a personal nature–sort of a behind the scenes look at what’s going on in the Frugal Dad household. I also seed blog post ideas in Twitter by asking questions of followers for informal survey results, or to gauge interest in a particular topic.
Again, there is more to blogging than simply writing great content. If you want to be successful at blogging you have to go beyond that, and work to build your personal brand. Responding to readers with a willingness to help them with a problem, or thank them for an encouraging message, will go a long way towards building your online reputation in a positive way.
Photo by edans
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What should I put in the comments options on the highlighter plugin? I’m not to good with CSS so any input would be appreciated!
Great, simple thoughts.
Really enjoying this new blog for those of us dabbling in the blogging world. Also, really enjoy your work over at FrugalDad.com.
Thanks for all you do!
I have a question about the Blackberry! I am considering getting one, and am wondering if that is a picture of yours and what model it is. I am researching them currently and looking at the 8330 Curve and the Storm. Do you love yours?
I’m really enjoying your new site. I’ve been a Frugal Dad reader for several months. This is a nice addition to the blog roll!
Thanks for the insight – I’ve followed FrugalDad for quite a while, it’s nice to see you practice what you preach!
@Adam: You can use something like, “background-color:palegoldenrod” to change the colors, or “border-style: dotted” to add a dotted line border around your comments.
@Yana: That’s not my personal BlackBerry, but I do have one–a Curve. For my puposes it works quite well. I primarily check email and occasionally surf the web (the web surfing is a little sluggish, and I’m told a 3G enabled device would be much faster).
@Grant, Joy, Jeff: Thanks for your comments, and for following me over here at SHB!
Great points. I would also say that sometimes if you get some reader interaction in the comments, it can also be good to just step back and let them go – instead of entering your own comment. Comments from the blog owner can sometimes cut off or stifle further comments. But for the most part commenting and interacting is awesome…
I’ll have to check out that “highlight author comments” plugin.
Cool! I need to get set up with Twitter.
Merci, again, for simple, easy to do ideas.
[...] Do not engage readers. Most bloggers will admit that they could do a better job of interacting with readers–via email or comments. So could I. But I do try to make an effort to respond to those who [...]
Have you ever tried hitting the pavement, so to speak, in trying to bring readers to your blog or is all of your “advertising” done online? I want to try to promote my blog on the street as well as on the net and am wondering if anyone has tried this approach and how it worked out for them.
@Steven: Actually, I did early on. I had business cards printed up, put up a few flyers at my gym, local university, etc. I don’t think these things really converted well, but at the time I knew nothing about online guerrilla marketing techniques. I don’t think it would hurt, but I’m not sure I’d invest to much time and money on offline marketing.