How to make a successful blog? This is one of the most crucial questions in the minds 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.
Note: This post is republished after I have added some relevant and more useful information to update this post!
“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 little 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 exists.
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 the earth would you expect blogging success while you are isolated? That will never happen. Let me tell you my personal story. I started blogging since 2007. But I was 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 all 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 in 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 and participate in discussions and vote/promote other’s content.
Don’t be logged in to Twitter 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 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 in 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 socialising you can build your brand and also be helpful to people by commenting on other blogs.
There are a lot of options to socialise 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 “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 :).
I totally agree with you on this. Blogging is more and more about networking than SEO. I think it is more challenging this way and more fun than just optimizing your code, building links and try to make Google to like you. At least in this niche, networking and interacting with your competition, building win-win partnerships is on top of the “To do” list.
Nice article Jane.
“more fun than just optimizing your code” - well said. At least we are dealing with real people and not bots
Hi Jane,
I am totally agree with “Having an account in all social media sites doesn’t mean that you are being social.” because I know when I was created my accounts in social networks and update our status then after day to day it was only shared by me. No one shared it! and trying to participate in discussions and finding the friends related to my niche… and now we got daily visitors from facebook, reddit, stumbleupon, twitter and daily I got friend request, followers to my accounts. I am sure that is the power of discussion with the question of your related niche.
With networking, promotion comes automatically as a by product. The more we give the more we will receive.
I strongly agree with your idea Jane. Blogging itself is already been social! I think blogging is part of a social networking category.
I was the same way when I started blogging (2007, also). Being social online was something new to me, and I didn’t really understand how it worked.
For me, I learned by slowly using one of the social networks at a time. It takes time to understand how to use them properly, but once you do it will greatly help increase your readership. Once you learn the basics of interacting with one network, those same basic principles can be applied to other networks.
Hey Paul,
What you say is very reasonable. It indeed takes a lot of time just to “understand” how some social networks work in the first place. I mean, even now I am not totally 100% sure about the functionalities of Facebook!
Jane.
Blogging is talking - talking to others. If you talk to yourself, you are ‘crazy’. That’s like wasting time and efforts. Every work has a purpose and aim and blogging has some aim. And I’m sure this aim is not writing for yourself.
“If you talk to yourself, you are ‘crazy’” - Haha Anna, that’s a punch on the face.
Consistency, or lack there of, is why I didn’t make it with twitter the first time around. I was all gung-ho for s month or two, then flat-lined.
Hey Jane! Very true it takes more than good articles and fancy flashware on your site. It takes a lot of outside work comments on others sites that pertain to yours but most importantly it takes major drive to want to get it done.
A true drive and quite a bi of organization are certainly necessary
Great article Jane! I agree with you. I believe social media will be the key to success in the following years. We also must build credibility in both blogs and in social places. Thanks for the great information!
That’s right John. Becoming social is an easy way to build credibility online, provided you supply quality everywhere.
It is really a must to socialize when you want your blog to be recognized. I 100% agree with your post. Commenting and post some reviews can really help a lot. Thanks Jane for sharing!
Hi Jane,
One of my flaws that I use to do was I was very inconsistent with staying connected with people online. I have owned up to that flaw and now I am holding myself accountable to staying connected with people. This was a great reminder. Thanks!
Tisha
Oh yes Tisha, consistency is a key. Even if you are consistent it will take a while to see the results
Hi Jane,
Love this, “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.”
As you point out, you have to wave consistently and I think it’s worth saying that one must wave in a few different directions too, not in too many though or else you will find yourself literally going around in circles and feeling overwhelmed since it can be very time consuming too if you don’t keep an eye on your time.
Great post with excellent tips to be implemented.
~Marcus
Yes Marcus, consistency is important. Trying different strategies consistently is very important to make sure that we don’t get bored
Hi Jane,
You provide a rock solid case for why we must interact on social media to really succeed at blogging! I’ve been more of a self promoter on FB lately so I really needed the reminder to promote and tag others there.
Thanks!
Stacy
Self promotion does not work stand alone. Indeed sharing 60% of others content and 40% of our own works great, as far as I have experimented
Jane:
Yes! Here’s another tip. The best way to build a community around your blog is to help others build a community around their blog, tweets or Facebook posts.
If you have less than 100 readers per day, I recommend you get out there and comment on at least seven blogs per day. Be encouraging. Then tweet about it. For example: “I commented on @JaneSheeba’s blog post about blogging.”
It shouldn’t take you more than two hours per day to read and comment on seven different blogs per day. Do this three to six days per week for six months and measure your results. You will be amazed by the outcome.
Hey Stan,
That’s a wonderful tip. And I saw that tweet of yours. Thanks for adding value to the conversation
Cheers,
Jane.
Jane,
You’ve made a great point about engaging on social networks and these are fantastic tips.
We should try to engage with other bloggers on social networks instead of just sharing links !
Thanks for sharing this great article with us.
Yes Jane you have to be social and interact with others online. If not your blog will fail. Sometimes it’s a lot of work, but it’s worth it.
Hi Jane,
thanks for relating your advice to your personal experience. It’s so true: How many people think than having social media accounts alone is the key to success ? It’s about interaction, conversation and engagement, as you note. One of the most important rules is consistency. Less is more when we are able to follow through for a longer period of time.
Take care
Oliver
Bibistrocelul@Placa Video, Placi Video says
Of course we must get social. That’s like advertising yourself. If nobody heard about you, chances are that you will not have too many visitors
Hi Jane,
For me, what you’re talking about is the “fun part’. After all, aren’t we social animals. When the socializatioin is over, then you sit in your lonely spot, writing on your computer…getting the “work” done. This has been true for me in any business I was in. The harder the work, the more I enjoyed the chit chatting.
Maybe that’s just me, I don’t know.
Lou
Jane - This is sooooooo true! You and I started online around the same time, and I agree - it really is amazing how much more open people are these days.
I have to admit, though, I do struggle with the consistency thing sometimes. It’s certainly less work to shut yourself off and hide behind the computer!
Great post, and I love the cartoon
Hey Jane,
I agree that being social is very important to being a successful blogger. Just as in the business world, networking is crucial. I have found it helpful to get my name out there and communicate with other bloggers in my niche. As you put so well, “You must climb to the top of some mountain to let people see you waving at them.” Thanks for the encouraging post!
Richard C. says
I am very excited to have found this post. I have been looking for ways to drive targeted traffic to my new blog using this method. I will try to implement and see how it works on my blog. Thanks.
Social media networking is very hard. For one, all social sites don’t work the same. Twitter would take way to much time to turn into a valuable source for networking. It’s cluttered with spam. Using Facebook in a natural way, and having your content on your wall can turn into conversions though.
Consistency is the key,and I don’t think only being social will help. You need to write helpful stuff ,thats it.
You’re so right - social media and networking is more about the quality of communication than the quantity of connections. I could have memberships on all of the social networking platforms on the internet and still not be doing anything with them, whereas if I am highly active on say Facebook and Twitter but not as much on the other sites, I’ll still have better luck. Thanks for the tips!!
Laurie
Let’s be honest, you can’t do anything online these days if you don’t get involved into social networking. The more, the better.
Couldn’t agree more to what you just wrote Jane!
It is very similar to what I also experienced! It was only till late that I realized I needed to move out of my cave and socialize, without which nothing is going to move. And I do see great results now once I started joining social networks and socializing more than earlier. However, I still need to learn the art of time-management so that I don’t overspend the time at such places also, and I am aiming towards that now.
Thanks for sharing
You can also earn cash through blogging and social media and you can also use this strategy to help you start an internet business .
Thanks for sharing your personal experience on your blogging side, it’s really an interesting story to read and it keeps better when you mentioned how social media influence the appearance and exposure of your blog in the online world.
I do strongly believe that social media and various social sites are powerful platform of gaining more exposure and popularity in your write ups. As you’ve said even if you created quality article when people can’t find your blog post then its certainly dead and useless, no sharing, commenting on your post, exchanging thoughts and the like. Glad you’ve cited how important social media is.
Bill says
Great post and so true. Being social is what social media is all about. Even if you are only on social media to learn and not marketing a product or service you must be willing to engage. I believe that when a person makes a comment on your blog, website, social media that are looking for engagement and I must reciprocate. Or I will fall into the dark hole of the social web, where I simply lurk around in the shadows never engaging and never growing!!
Thanks Jane. This is great post, but I don’t expect to be popularly known in the world. I’m just small ordinary man, and tomorow I’ll go at wild nature, with my dog, because I have to take the
rest from people. Thanks anyway, I shared it…
Hi Jane,
Really good post from my point of view. When I started reading your e-mail, it appears like you are talking about my blog. I realised the importance of social media engagement a little bit late even though I am engaged in most of the social media sites but not that active. Hoping to read more post from you.
Glad to find out that this post resonates
Thanks for stopping by Reji.
You are most welcome.
Hi Jane,
I agree. It can be overwhelming indeed, that’s why I started with just connecting with a few people. This way I didn’t spend that much time just being social, but I started making a few friends, and I expanded as soon as I felt the time was right.
To me, commenting on blog posts has been the most successful part of my marketing strategy. I learn a lot from reading posts, and I’m doing my best to add some value via my comments, and in the end connecting with people is an extra bonus.
Doing SEO and publishing content and just waiting for people to arrive doesn’t work as well anymore, I’m hardly doing any SEO. Things are changing rapidly and it’s hard to keep up with everything.
What I find a bit hard is the balance between push and pull. I don’t publish my content «everywhere» «all the time», I do more retweets and share other content instead. On the other hand, I’d like to be more pushy, I’m just afraid that it’ll drive people away.
Jens, you are just like me. I learn a lot from commenting as well. With blog commenting there are at least 3 birds that are killed with one stone - you establish new connections, you get to keep up with the news/strategies in your industry, you build your brand/authority by voicing your opinion consistently.
And don’t be shy about being pushy. It is OK unless you are not pushing ONLY your own stuff
a very good insight for a newbie, much taken always like to read ur articles, keep coming up with great content
Hi Jane, this is a great post. So many bloggers seem not to understand just how important social networking actually is. I totally agree with you on your points about blogging communities and on blog commenting. These are both a big help for me.
Jane, I think you hit on a big problem here and that is, some people getting into all the different social media sites and getting overwhelmed. You are so right that we should pick just 2 or 3 and get really good in those. In fact, I recommend even majoring on ONE to start with and then adding in another one - so that you can indeed be consistent at engagement. Thanks again, Amy
ONE is far better Amy. Master with one and then you may choose to move on or even stick to it. Thanks for your comment!
This was good advice and honest. Too many people bite off more than they could possibly chew and they just quit. Success requires work, but it’s also a good deal of wisdom.
The idea of sharing the content of other bloggers is good.It would actually build a faith among the readers that our shares are not just intended to earn some profits rather they are actually useful to the readers.
The whole article was very informative and is focussed in the things which normally people do not take care of.
Thank you Jane.
Bewus says
Agree with an author, some realy good advice here!
Hi Jane, A very useful Post. This is definitely one of the most valuable sites with information that I have seen. Thanks my friend keep of the good work..