Posts tagged blog community management
What do I write about?
Apr 12th
In our information-dense world, I know how hard it is to keep coming up with consistent, compelling, original content. And sometimes you just get STUCK.
The problem is, many folks think they need to have all the answers to write a great, original blog post but most of the time, quite the opposite is true. You don’t need to have the right answer. You need to find the right question.
The most relevant, interesting and timely blog posts often are created in response to relevant, interesting and timely questions. If you can find a great question, and answer it, you are likely on your way to a dynamite blog post! So how do find the right question? Here are four ideas:
Look to your peer groups. There are so many great places on the web to find questions. My favorite place is a LinkedIn forum. Did you know there are 800,000 different groups on LinkedIn? There is bound to be one that fits your interests. Go there. Look in the community forums. Find an interesting question. Answer it. Voila! Blog post. Other possible sources are Quora, Focus and Yahoo chat groups.
Look in your comments. I would say 25% of my posts come form comments from my readers. If it is relevant to them, it wold probably be relevant to other readers too, right? Ironically, this post was inspired by a comment about writer’s block from my friend Jon Buscall.
Look in your key words. Many people post questions as their search terms. Go to Google Analytics for your website and see what questions people might be using to find your blog. Recently one of the search terms used to find this blog was “how do I start blogging?” I thought it was probably time to write about some blogging basics.
Google it. If you are really, really stuck, go to Google and type in “what do I write about?” You’ll be amazed at what you find. People have planted lots of seeds of ideas and prompts for you out there.
How do you get unstuck? Where do you find the best questions to blog about?
An inside view of the blogging process
Apr 8th
Mitch Joel recently threw down the the gauntlet and challenged a number of bloggers to blog about how they blog (does that make sense?) I highly recommend you read his original article called “Watching me Blog.” I only caution you about trying to match Mitch’s pace. There is Mitch, and then there is the rest of us!
Here is an insight into my typical blogging process:
THE BIRTH OF A BLOG POST
I am constantly bombarded with ideas so collecting inspiration for topics is a continuous process. I may have an idea from something I see on TV, something I read, or a question from a student in class. The trick is to have the discipline to capture these ideas when they occur. As soon as I can, I record these topics as a headline in WordPress, nothing more. That way, when it is time to blog, I have a wide selection of potential topics.
I currently have about 70 ideas in the hopper. Some of them will never see the light of day. Maybe some of them will be combined or trashed. Some of them you will see this week!
TIME TO WRITE
I usually do all of my blogging for the week in about a 3-4 hour period on a weekend morning. It has to be quiet with no distractions. In this period my goal is to write at least two blog posts for the upcoming week. Usually I can write though an idea quickly but sometimes it takes adding and massaging over a couple of weeks to flesh out a big new idea.
During this quiet time I JUST WRITE. I don’t necessarily spend a lot of time trying to be perfect right off the bat. Editing and refining can come later.
I also try to write ahead if I can so I have a few completed posts in case something happens and I can’t blog for some personal reason. I have about 10 posts in reserve. I rarely write during the week unless there is a short-term topical opportunity.
FINAL FLOURISHES
On Sunday night I’ll figure out what posts I’m going to publish for the week. I’ll take a last look at these pieces, do a final edit, and then “decorate” them with illustrations or graphics as needed. I don’t often get feedback on the funny illustrations I come up with, but in my mind this is one of the fun reasons to come to the {grow} blog and it is a creative challenge for me to come up with something that will make you snicker. My rule is that if I can’t execute an illustration idea in 10 minutes, I move on to something else. I have to be very disciplined about the time I spend on blogging.
At this point I’ll also spend some more time on the headline. Headlines are so important — more important than the actual blog copy because if you don’t grab your reader’s attention, they’ll never even get to the copy. I find headlines very difficult to write. They must be accurate, descriptive, interesting and most of all, “tweetable!” You have to make your posts easy to share!
PUBLISH
I have never posted an article that I have been completely happy with, and many times I’m a little nervous about what the reaction might be. Ultimately it takes courage to be an effective blogger, to put yourself out there, to be confident enough to be imperfect, and to take your licks.
My decision on what to publish is often determined by my work schedule. If I think a post will generate a lot of comments, I won’t publish that on a day that I can’t pay attention to the comment section. I post from one of the amazing {grow} contributing columnists on Wednesdays and a cartoon on Friday so I know I will have at least those days completely free to do client work.
COMMENTS
The best part of the blog is the community commentary. Here is my philosophy on comments:
- Comments are an opportunity to celebrate the people in your community.
- When people offer you a gift of their precious time to provide a comment, it only makes sense to give them a gift back and at least say “thank you.” I try to acknowledge most comments.
- Comments build community. This is where you create meaningful connections. I have written a lot about power and influence on the social web. In my estimation, the blog comment section is where the action is (and ironically it is not considered in a Klout score!).
- If you put yourself out there, you’re not going to connect with every person, every time, even in a community of well-intentioned professionals. Don’t be thrown off-center by criticism. It’s a sign that you took risks. Take the high rode, stay positive.
How to turn blog readers into brand advocates
Mar 7th
By Srinivas Rao, Contributing {grow} Columnist
If you have been blogging for more than a few months than you have super fans whether you know it or not. You just have to keep an eye out for them. Fortunately there some key indicators.
- They comment regularly
- They send you personalized emails
- They share EVERYTHING you write
But simply knowing who they are is not enough. The same way you water seeds for a plant, you must cultivate your super fans.
Approachability
One of the things that will immediately set you apart from other bloggers is how approachable you are. As people become more well known online they seem to become less approachable. Approachability may not scale, but it doesn’t have to since it leads to raving fans. My two rising stars who are extremely approachable are Leo Widrich and Marcus Sheridan.
- Leo’s startup Buffer has been wildly successful in the last several months. It was recognized by the Wall Street journal as twitter app of the the year. I’m a huge fan of the Buffer team because they are some of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet. Success hasn’t gone to their head.
- If you read GROW, then there’s a good chance you know Marcus Sheridan. In the last year Marcus has really made a name for himself and his career is taking off. If you go to The Sales Lion, you’ll see that he responds to every single comment and he’s extremely down to earth. Despite starting to become “famous” online he’s still very approachable.
Vulnerability
In the book Click Ori Braffman analyzes the factors that lead to instant connections between people. One of those factors is vulnerability. When you allow yourself to be vulnerable with your content, you become human. You put yourself on the same level as your audience. You end up talking to them instead of at them.
A few weeks ago I thought about emailing Mark and giving up my contributor position here at {grow} because I couldn’t meet his quality standards — I was having trouble coming up with anything original to say. I thought most of what I had been writing lately was garbage. When I told him this, he said I should write about the fact I have nothing to write about! Looking back I realize that anytime I’ve been stuck, Mark encourages me to be vulnerable because people are able to relate to it. Chances are, other people are having this problem too.
It’s easy to create this picture of success online. But when you let your guard down, and expose your imperfections, people click with you and start to become super fans. Vulnerability makes you human.
Go far down the social media rabbit hole
When somebody comments on your blog or tweets one of your posts, if all you do is respond in those mediums, then you’re missing out on an opportunity to cultivate a super fan. When somebody you’ve never heard of shares your content or mentions your name on twitter for the first time, make it to point to check out who they are.
- Find out what their real name is
- Visit their blog
- Add them as a friend on Facebook or other social network
- Get a more in-depth view into who that person is beyond their twitter handle
You never know who you’re talking to.
Setup a Circle, List, or Group of Super Fans
In Tribes Seth Godin talks about the importance of enabling the members of your Tribe to communicate with each other, but usually the communication ends up being limited from member to leader in the form of comments. I think a fantastic example of somebody who has managed to cause communication between the members of her Tribe is Gini Dietrich. If you look at the comments on her blog that becomes immediately obvious.
You’ve probably also heard before that it’s easier to sell something to people who are already your customers than it is to sell to new ones. Anytime somebody buys something for you or is extremely supportive of your work, you should create a list, group or circle specifically for them. These are the people who will cause your tribe to reach 1000 true fans. Treat them accordingly.
One on One Conversations
In his book Little Bets, Peter Sims highlights the work of Muhammad Yunus, the founder of the Grameen Bank. Yunus was actually a professor of economics, but what resulted in the idea for the Grameen Bank, was going out into the trenches and talking to people. Yunus won a nobel prize for his work on the Grameen Bank.
You’ll learn more from 20 minutes of talking to one of your readers or customers on Skype then you ever will from surveys and market research. If somebody sends you an email raving about your work, setup a conversation with them. These lose informal conversations allow for a much deeper and more rapid diffusion of valuable information.
Create Content Specifically For Them
One of the greatest things about the technology that we have at our disposal is an ability to customize somebody’s experience with our content or business. Once you’ve identified a group of super fans, one of the best ways to ensure that they will stay super fans is to create content specifically for them. Here are a few ways to do that
- Ask them to send in Questions and record a podcast/video in which you answer all there questions
- Write an report or free e-book specifically for your super fans
Highlight Them in Your Content
One of the nice things about creating content specifically for your super fans is that it naturally results in you highlighting them in your content. When you mention one of your fans, they automatically feel a stronger connection to you. You can do this in a few different ways
- If you have a blog, link bank to something they wrote
- If you have a podcast, mention them in an episode
- If you’re doing video, mention their name on camera
Cultivating super fans really comes down to one thing: listening to your audience. If you look back at everything above you’ll notice that all of these ideas are about becoming a better listener.
Srinivas Rao writes about the things you should have learned in school, but never did and his the host-co founder of BlogcastFM. You can follow him on twitter @skooloflife
My five biggest blogging mistakes
Mar 4th
I am creeping up on 1,000 blog posts — I’ve probably blogged “a bible!” So I’ve been reflecting on what I would have done differently if I had to start all over. Here are some mistakes I’ve made, and sadly, in some cases, continue to make …
1) Pre-occupation with numbers. It takes time, patience and hard work to find your voice and build a successful blog. I am not good at the patience part. I thought I was writing some good stuff and was frustrated that nobody was reading it. I became pre-occupied with adding my blog to directories and other schemes to drive “traffic.” What a waste of time. There are no shortcuts. If you really want to build community, you have to do it one reader at a time. Give people a good reason to be there and then love them for it.
2) Trying to copy success. When I arrived on the blogging scene I looked around and found a few people “doing it right.” Basically, all paths lead to Chris Brogan, right? So I tried to be Chris, who was posting like 3-4 times a day. I nearly killed myself. trying to be somebody else. It was a rookie mistake. You have to find your own path, your own voice, your own wisdom and path. Trying to be somebody else is precisely the wrong way to be original!
3) Being a marketer instead of a blogger. I grew up in traditional big American companies. Marketing was about developing a “message” to the “target.” And that’s the way I started to blog. I was trying to fashion a “message” for an “audience.” This bored me and the blog was going nowhere. So I started to relax and write about things that interested me, to show a little more of my personality, and to take risks creatively and intellectually. Something magical happened. Instead of me finding my audience, my audience found me. And that’s a big difference.
4) The posts that don’t work. Here are the characteristics of posts that really work: short, direct, timely, useful, with an element of humor or entertainment. After much trial and error, the posts that don’t do as well are cerebral, long (over 1,500 words), and video posts. I’m not saying that I’m going to discontinue doing cerebral posts or video blogs, but they seem to fall flat compared to my usual blog posts.
5) Not being active on the blogging scene. I love blogs and bloggers. I love the fun, exchange of ideas, debate, and friendships that form. And really, that is how I built my blog in the first place — by being active in this global blog community. Regrettably, I have been largely absent for the past nine months. The new book was an ambitious project because it covers an entirely new subject — social influence as a commodity — and it took a lot of research.
The result is, I have basically had two full-time jobs for the past year. One of the casualties has been my blog reader, which is now swollen with untapped wisdom. I know this has made a difference because many of the {grow} community regulars don’t come by my blog like they used to … because I don’t visit them. These lively blog community debates are happening without me and I miss being part of it.
The other contributing factor is that my social media presence has just kind of gone whacko. Blog readership grew 400% between 2009 to 2010 and another 300% from 2010 to the end of 2011. How do I give personal attention to all of these readers and their blogs?
The cruel irony is that the more successful you become on the social web, the less social you can be. All the best practices that bring success in the first place go out the window. I am fortunate to have you as a reader and I never take that for granted. I just can’t repay the favor like I used to. Arrrgh.
Any way, those are some of my lessons learned. What mistakes have you made, or what would you have done differently? Please share your contribution to the discussion in the comment section!
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-Mark SchaeferFollow Mark
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