How to Build Your Blog Community

Written by Katrina van Oudheusden on May 11, 2010 3:53 pm

First, of all there is a really big difference between audience and community. An audience is one-way. Not interactive. Not social. An audience passively watches or reads. An audience doesn’t participate. Or share with others.

On the other hand, a community is a two-way conversation. A living, breathing thing. Extremely interactive. Social. Sure, some people just watch or read, but many also participate and share with their friends.

Here are 12 Key points I am going to share with you today.

1. Consistency/Content

It all starts with great content. Content that isn’t about you, but about the community. Whether it be bunny lovers, football fans or 16-year-old band geeks. Content that is educational, inspirational and/or entertaining. Your unique spin.

There is a lot of content out there. You have to find a way to stick out and be different. Perhaps nobody in your niche does video. That sounds like an opportunity. Perhaps nobody in your niche interviews people. Sounds like an opportunity. Perhaps everyone does really long text posts. What if you did a tip of the day? Fitting in was never popular, right?

Consistently is also huge. How often are you posting? Do you disappear for weeks on end with no updates and then create the ole “sorry I haven’t posted!” post? Sure, it is OK to go on vacation or something like that (send me a postcard), but why not give a quick heads up?

Think about the traditional media consistency model. TV, radio, print. There are seasons and schedules. We new media types play by our own rules, but consistency never goes out of style.

The really cool thing about new media (blogging, video blogging, online magazine, content creating, whatever you want to call it) is you can use different mediums on your channel. For example, it would be really hard for a TV show to suddenly focus on text the next day…awkward and not really possible.

A final note on consistency is narrowing your topic to something replicable. Meaning there is plenty of content that can be created and not a finite amount. You don’t want to run out!

2. Designed To Share

The content that gets shared the most online is like peanut butter…easily spreadable. Good content is spread by your community. On Facebook, Twitter, etc. Perhaps posted to their blog or sent to a social bookmarking site.

How do you make it sharable?

For one thing, and I wish it didn’t matter, but headlines matter. Is it complicated? Trying to be too clever? Too boring? There isn’t an exact formula here; however, the shorter and more relevant gets shared. Think of it like one of those tabloid-terrible magazines. “Zombie Baby Eats Britney Spears!” If gets your attention.

The other HUGE component, is adding the right plugins to your blog to enable one (or two maximum) click sharing. If you have to put on a safari coat and go hunt for the button to send it to Facebook, people won’t do it.

Make it easy to send to at the very least the most popular sites.

3. Schmoozing On Social Media

If you are creating online content and looking to build a community, you have to get active on social media in your niche. Sharing the content of others. Sharing your content. Answering questions. Asking questions. Connecting with relevant people. Listening.

It isn’t rocket science, it is human. Your community is made up humans and not Google Robots. The more one-on-one connections you make and offer value to, the better off you will be.

And this doesn’t mean you have to be active on every site. For example, I spend most of my social media time on Twitter and Facebook. Some people spend more time on LinkedIn. Or wherever. The bottom line is you get to choose based on your comfort level, what works and of course where your niche hangs out online.

4. Engaging/Caring

When someone leaves a comment on your site, you have two choices. Respond or not. It is up to you. Some people never respond. Some people respond to every comment no matter what.

Of course, over time, it will be difficult to respond to everything as your community grows. However, I’ve noticed success when you make it a priority. Give every comment a hug. Someone took a bit out of their busy schedule to leave it.

Same goes for social media. Are you a robot or a person? If someone asks you a question do you respond? Now, of course, there are limitations to this. You can’t sit there all day and answer questions or say hi to everyone; however, I bet we can all block out a little time to do so, can’t we? Small talk and caring goes a long way.

And you can’t fake it or outsource it.

5. Enabling Others To Promote Your Work:

You can’t go out this alone. If all you do is talk about yourself and how neat your business is, it will be impossible to gain long term traction (unless you are some sort of magical wizard or something).

The best way to enable others is to give credit. People like a little love especially if it is genuine and useful.

For example: 35 Unique Entrepreneurs That Are Changing The Business World

Notice, on that post, it was shared MANY times. Reason? It was about others and not just me.

6. Interviews

An incredible way to build your brand. It is sort of the perfect storm. You are creating valuable content for your community, promoting someone else and making a new connection (the person you interview). As long as the content of the interview is useful and amazing, you can create your own interview machine.

Click to Discover 6 other community building secrets

Cheers to Your Optimal Success!

Katrina van Oudheusden