Ever came to a blog that was so quiet you were sure it was even alive? No comments, no tweets; just sitting there, lonely and forgotten…
Yes, I know, I am sad for the blogger as well.
But you know what? It does not have to be that way.
People are sheep; where one goes, all follow. Don’t be too upset about me comparing you to a sheep; I am right there with you as well.
The moral of the post is this: if you want for people to listen to you and buy from you, you need to provide evidence of existing engagement on your blog.
Existing engagement encourages more engagement. And that, my friend, is what social scientists call Social Proof.
I do understand your dilemma though.
You have a new or fairly new blog that hasn’t quite developed a following yet.
So how are you to prove to your visitors that you are worthy of their attention? How do you get that initial push, that first comment, first tweet?
That’s where I come to the rescue. On a white horse and all.
My 10 Rules of Social Engagement to Follow:
1. Have Enough Posts
This one is rudimentary, but worth starting with, especially if you are running a brand new blog.
Make sure you have ENOUGH and QUALITY content on your blog first.
If I come to your blog to find just 2-3 blog posts, chances are I won’t stick around.
So make sure you have at least 10-15 posts before you open your blog for business.
2. Launch Without Comments
Don’t you think it’s very sad to come to a blog with 0 comments? It feels dead and unpopular.
And considering that the quantity of comments is what many newcomers will judge your blog by, this is an important issue to pay attention to.
If you blog is not getting much traffic or comments, post without comments first. As your traffic grows, you can always open the posts for discussion later.
How do you know when your blog has grown enough? As a guidance, I would wait till you get 200-300 unique visitors per day or 100 RSS subscribers.
OR
3. Create Commenting Tribe
That’s right: take the matter of no comments into your own hands.
Create a group of like-minded peer blogs and start commenting on each other’s posts.
Everyone wins: every blog will get some traffic, social sharing, and comments right off the bat. As an added bonus, you will also learn from each other and create wonderful friendships and a strong support system.
Read more on how to create a tribe of your own:
4. Create More Retweets
Yes, we want to have social media sharing buttons on our blogs; otherwise, if the buttons are not there, no one will ever share your post, right?
However, once again 0 or even 1 retweet is a sad, sad number.
Here’s an easy way to create Twitter social proof though: have more than 1 Twitter account! Or more than 2, or even more than 3.
When I first started, I had (well, still technically do) 6 Twitter accounts.
Yes, Twitter will let you register as many account as you want as long as you use different email addresses for each. With free email platforms like Gmail, Yahoo, and Hotmail that’s an easy thing to set up.
So all you do after you publish a new post is retweet it once (= 6 retweets show up in your Twitter share button) or twice ( = 12 Retweets) - I am sure you get the point.
Of course, if you want to use Twitter for more than just a platform for your blog post retweets, like driving quality targeted traffic to your blog, you should space your tweets by 3-4 hours and retweet other people’s content as well.
More great reading on the topic:
5. Create More Facebook Shares
It’s even easier to get more Facebook shares.
All you do here is find some existing niche tribes on Facebook (just search for “your keyword” plus the word “tribe”), join the fan pages, and start posting your links.
Of course, it’s good etiquette to not just spam the pages, but check out other posts as well. Who knows, you might actually learn a tip or two or even make a friend.
If you are to find 10 fan pages that will allow you to post your own link, that’s 10 automatic shares that will show up on your blog Facebook Share counter.
6. Join Niche Social Bookmarking Site
I am not talking about Digg or Reddit here. Join a smaller site where you have a chance to stand out, gain an audience, and make your way to become a power player.
Check out sites like BlogEngage.com, BizSugar.com, Blokube.com. There are many more, but these are the ones that come to my mind and that I use.
Add the site social share button after you feel you have established yourself in the community enough and your submissions are getting votes/shares.
7. Limit Choice of Social Sharing Buttons
Don’t ever display buttons that your readers aren’t using.
For instance, I noticed on my blog that I rarely get any Diggs. Since I am not an active Digg member and will never become anything close to a power player on that site, I simply removed that button from my blog.
Now I display 4 sharing buttons only: Twitter, Facebook, SERPd, and Blokube. (which reminds me I need to add BlogEngage button as well or Brian will soon have me for lunch).
8. Twitter Followers
I used to be impressed by the number of Twitter followers some bloggers have. Now I focus more on quality over quantity, but that’s another post altogether.
However, 200 Twitter followers would never impress me or your readers. So if your number is low (under 1000 I would say), don’t display any Twitter widgets in your sidebar.
As you may or may not know, increasing your Twitter followers is a very easy thing to do, as long as you know what you are doing. For instance, I can create a new Twitter account and have close to 2000 followers (conservatively speaking) within a week or so.
You might not gain a whole lot of Twitter traffic or loyal followers this way, but it will surely show some positive social proof in favor of you and your blog.
To learn more about using Twitter for your traffic generation, read this post:
9. Avoid Feedburner Counters
Once again, this very logical statement escapes the mind of many bloggers.
Why would you display your Feedburner counter if you have 10 readers? Or even a hundred?
I would personally wait till 1000.
Also, your RSS subscribers are not the only social proof you can display on your blog.
Take a look at how Naomi at IttyBiz.com is doing it:
Why is she displaying her monthly readers number in her header?
Because 24,002 sounds awfully impressive, probably more so than your RSS subscriber number.
10. Avoid Displaying Trackbacks
Spam trackbacks, that is.
In our day and age of overwhelming spam and autoblogs, almost all blogs receive their fair share of spam trackbacks.
However, displaying spam trackbacks (the ones that lead to autoblogs, affiliate blogs, link wheels, etc) for the sake of social proof alone might not be such a good idea, considering how much long-term damage for your search engine rankings you can create.
So just because it looks like a comment, a spam trackback should have no place on your blog.
Read more on the issue here:
Marketing Takeaway:
Well, there you have it: 10 Rules of Social Engagement that will guarantee to increase your blog stickiness.
All that is left for you to do now is… well, take them or leave them. I hope you choose the former.
QUESTION: what other lack of social engagement issues will send you running away from a blog? What do you think a blogger can do to build that initial trust with their readers?
Hey Ana, great post as usual 😉
I think a great deal of trust comes from vulnerability. Sharing with your readers your shortcomings and mistakes you’ve made demonstrates that you’ve been in your reader’s shoes a time or two, it helps them connect.
Of course it’s important to share how you overcame those obstacles so your reader can also learn a few things.
Thanks for sharing your strategies 🙂
Very true, Liz - exposing shortcomings is one thing, but offering solutions is where the true power is.
People look at some top bloggers and think that things are so easy for them. They forget that all those bloggers went through their share of failures before their success. Talking about that and opening ourselves to our readers definitely makes a huge difference.
Hi Ana!
Love your rules for social engagement. You reminded me that I still need to dive into serpd more and get a button on my blog. I held off until I finished my updates, but that’s not doing me any good now, is it? LOL I just looked at blokube yesterday as well. Looks interesting.
I love the facebook shares suggestion you gave. I hadn’t thought of that but it really would be an easy way to increase my shares as well as get more exposure and traffic.
I feel like I’m running out of new ways to say, thanks for sharing the great content as usual, but as usual your content is great! 🙂
Happy New Year!
Hello Heather,
Happy New Year to you too. Serpd and Blokube are really great and are very useful for me. I share post everyday in these sites.
You don’t need to say thank you all the time Heather. I love what I’m doing. 🙂
Ana
Wow, I’m amazed the you have built up such a huge following sofast. You’ve hit on a great combination of valuable content, effective relationship building, and effective use of blog audience building strategies. Congrats.
Thanks, Randy. Sometimes, I am amazed it worked as well. 🙂
Ana
Hi Ana,
Killer tips as usual! The other thing I would mention is widgets like NetworkedBlogs - if you have 5 followers, it’s better to leave it out. You are basically telling your readers that you haven’t got a huge audience and why should the follow you.
I have ticked most of the boxes here… yay! 🙂
All the best,
Mavis
Hello Mavis,
Thanks for the additional info. I appreciate it.
Have a great time,
Ana
Hector Cuevas says
This is an awesome addition to the BlogStars series Ana. I gotta say that having enough blog posts is probably the #1 thing startup bloggers get wrong and then wonder why no one stuck around.
You made some really great points about getting people to socially engage with your blog - I’m gonna look into that trackback thing, even though SEO is not my strong suit. :0)
Thanks for being part of the series Ana.. take care
Hector
Hello Hector,
Glad to see you again. About the spam trackback, you really have to take note of that to avoid future problem.
Thanks for coming,
Ana
A value packed post as usual Ana - thank you. I am tempted to take a week off from everything and just read your blog from A-Z so that I can make sure I have implemented all your wonderful advice. 🙂
I do already do a lot of what you suggest in this post but like the multi Twitter account approach and also the niche social bookmarking idea.
Personally I find it highly frustrating when I can’t find ANY social sharing buttons on sites but I also don’t particularly enjoy seeing the whole supermarket shopping aisle of choices either. To me this just seems to smack of “desperate”.
~Marcus
Hi Marcus,
Wow, I didn’t know that you value my blog that much that you are willing to take the week off just to read all my posts. That is very flattering. Anyway, I’m glad you always find my tips useful and that you actually apply them in your own site.
All the best,
Ana
I was ther around 8 months in Blogging But still struggling to get some traffic.I think time is an important factor if we are looking for promotional methods.Any way thanks for the article !
Hello Madav,
Promoting your blog is very important to increase traffic to your site. 8 months is quite a long time already. You can also read my other blogs for more tips.
All the best,
Ana
Makes sense to you and me, Oliver, but it’s amazing how many bloggers never think twice about it.
Hi Ana
I visit lots of blogs daily and comment, which has resulted in my small niche blog getting known and the traffic and comments I am getting are very encouraging.
An active conversation usually gets going when I publish a post and I believe networking is very important to successfully getting a blog recognised.
I like to only follow people whom I can interact with on Twitter. There are different views on this and I notice there are some people who follow people regardless, just for the numbers. I’m more interested in growing my numbers more naturally than through automated systems.
We all have our own methods and for each of us it’s what works for our situation. Thanks for sharing your experience and what you do wih your blog Ana. Much appreciated.
Definitely, Patricia.
These tips will not work for every situation and every blog. However, these are always good general guidelines to adopt for every personal situation.
I partially agree with you about Twitter.
There is no reason you can’t do both.
As you know, I have one account @WebTrafficCafe, which I only use for meaningful interactions. The other ones are purely to numbers and to gain access to audience I otherwise wouldn’t get connected with. Both ways work and serve their purposes.
Hi Ana,
What a great addition to the series! When I visit a blog, if I’m already to follow the person on Twitter and I look all over the blog and can’t find a “Follow Me” icon, I’m just about ready to split. Also, tied to that, it drives me crazy when I go to retweet a post and it has been configured - still has @addme popping up. I see those as a way of connecting with the blogger and if the blogger fails to provide a way to connect through Twitter, I usually end up forgetting all about them and their blog.
Very good point, Kiesha.
Some bloggers make it impossible to share their posts - some of my friends do it, and it’s incredibly frustrating!
It’s like committing blog suicide…
When I first started my blog, I began with a 30 day challenge and developed a friendship with manyl other participants. We commented on each others posts and tweeted each other… and it gave my new blog the boost it needed. I spend a fair amount of time each day commenting on other blogs. It also has paid off. The boomerang effect works… what you put out there comes back.
I like your IttyBiz example.. Good idea. Thanks.
I’ve never done a 30-day challenge myself, Kathryn, but always thought it’s a great idea to create some noise about your blog - particularly if your blog is worth creating noise about, of course. 🙂
Yes, giving without expectations goes against our nature, but it does work in online business.
Ana
Hey Ana,
Some really good tips here :). Thanks for sharing.
There are 2 that especially struck me for I haven’t considered them much. But I think it’s time I should.
Have more than 1 Twitter account - At the moment I only use my nittyGriddyBlog account although I do have one registered with my actual name. It’s inactive at the moment and I simply registered it to keep my name.
When it comes to Twitter I’ll admit that I usually wait for someone to connect to me and then go through their profile to see whether I want to follow them back or not - depending on their tweets and interests and so forth. Do you suggest I start connecting to folks myself with my IngridAbboud account and start tweeting from it?
Create more Facebook shares - I haven’t thought of this really but I will start looking for related tribes today! This is a fantastic idea and I can see how beneficial it can turn out to be.
I’ve also been meaning to add the SERP’d button for some time but wasn’t able to figure out how to add it to my share menu along with the others and not as a standalone.
Anyhow, thanks for pointing these out. I’ll be implementing a few ASAP :).
Wishing you and your family a wonderful Christmas.
Cheers Tzarina
Good evening to you, Ingrid:
1. Twitter: I would suggest to keep one account on Twitter for meaningful connections, like what you are doing right now; and then create some for pure quantity growth for retweeting purposes.
With so much automated software, it’s a breeze. I use software to add followers, to send out messages, tweets - everything; of course, only for those accounts. 🙂 I never really visit them, so my time isn’t wasted in any way, yet I still get a good amount of traffic from them.
2. Check out this post to see if you can figure out how to add SERPd button: How to add Social Media Buttons in WordPress.
Have a great night, ma’ dear.
Ana thanks so much for your prompt reply and advice. I really appreciate it.
I was able to figure out how to add the SERP’d button to my floating piece YaY :). I also took your advice and removed one that I never use - Google Buzz.
Spaciba Ana 🙂
Great Post Ana!
And a fantastic way to continue the series.
I think you touch on some very good aspects to social engagement and creating the proof that comes with it. I especially like your Blog comment Tribe point, because something that I found worked when I started my blog was to engage and comment on other quiet blogs, this way I was noticed and they came and commented back - kind of in line with what you had in mind.
I used blog commenting and guest posting to build my presence online, but regardless of how you do it - I think you have covered the where and more importantly, the why really well!
Thanks again for bringing your awesomeness to the table Ana, have a fantastic Christmas.
Oh btw - I have to say that your Christmas Gravatar scares me LOL. Isn’t Christmas supposed to be about cheer? You look like you are ready to open a can of whoop ass. I guess you do kick some SEO butt so….
Peace 🙂
Commenting and guest posting - especially the latter - can do wonders for a new blog, especially when you know what you are doing. 🙂
Heard my new nickname? SEO Tzarina - perfect match for the avatar.
Merry Christmas to you as well!
Ana
Impressive 10 simple tips there Ana, no wonder your site is doing great when it comes to social engagement, oh with traffic as well (impressive alexa rank as well, I wonder what you’ve done in the previous year to boost your traffic).
Just noticed your author info, made me think about getting scribe. I wonder how magical can it be with Thesis.
Thanks, Jason - welcome.
By the “previous year” you mean 2010? My blog just started in July of 2010. 🙂 Everything I’ve done for traffic generation, I wrote about here - just read.
Thesis + Scribe is all I use for my on-page SEO.
Ana
Social engagement is really the key Jason. That is very important for me and it’s working really for my blog. In a matter of few months I was able to increase my traffic greatly by using all the methods I share here.
All the best,
Ana