As you can see I’m relatively new to blogging, this being my 17th post. But I’ve celebrated a couple of milestones like achieving 100 twitter followers and 300 page views and I’m happy knowing that there are a few people reading everyday. And this was enough to keep me going. Until recently… …What happened recently to change my mind?... I received a bunch of e-blogs in my inbox which put my numbers into perspective and gave me a bit of a wake up call.
First up was one on social proofing. Offline this is the idea that the more people you have queuing to get in the better the place is, or the more customers you have seated in window tables the busier you look. Basically it’s the idea of looking popular and the herd mentality that the crowd will follow like sheep. The social media version is to show your numbers; be it number of followers, a page view counter, facebook likes, a retweet count or a bucket full of comments.
With only 1 blog follower and 1 commenter I’m not too successful on the blog popularity front. I know 300 page views total isn’t really anything to shout about when a lot of blogs get more hits than this on one post, so I definitely have some work to do here. But I thought I was doing quite well with twitter slowly building up a following, then today I received e-mail inviting me to join a social media retweeting club (via stevescottsite) which I think is a fabulous idea, unfortunately you can only join if you have over 1000 followers. I still have a long way to go!
With only 1 blog follower and 1 commenter I’m not too successful on the blog popularity front. I know 300 page views total isn’t really anything to shout about when a lot of blogs get more hits than this on one post, so I definitely have some work to do here. But I thought I was doing quite well with twitter slowly building up a following, then today I received e-mail inviting me to join a social media retweeting club (via stevescottsite) which I think is a fabulous idea, unfortunately you can only join if you have over 1000 followers. I still have a long way to go!
Q. So how do I improve my social proof?
A. By getting more comments
Q. But how do I get more comments?
A. How about with a blog buddy!
The idea of a blog buddy comes from Annabel Candy and I think it’s a great idea and I definitely need one. The concept is so simple, basically you buddy up with a fellow blogger and comment on each others posts. Magic!
Your buddy can be a friend or family member, they don’t have to be a blogger, but if you don’t have that resource then why not find a buddy online. With all the bloggers out there, there is plenty of choice! You agree to make a comment on every new blog post and they respond in kind with a comment on each of yours. It helps if your buddy is interested in the topics you are writing about and vice versa. Having a blog buddy can be motivational because you know that that person is going to be reading and commenting on what you’ve written, spurs you on to make it a good post!
But it also acts as your first sheep. A lot of people are reluctant to be the first one to comment, but once they see that someone else considers your post to be worthy of comment then they will join in the conversation.
What are you waiting for get out there and share the comment love!
Keep up the good work.
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