Blogs touch tens of millions of people in the U.S. and this number continues to grow daily. In fact, according to an eMarketer report from 2009, approximately 96.6 million U.S. Internet users read a blog at least once a month, representing 48.5 percent of the Internet population. The same report predicts by 2013, this number will grow to 128.2 million, or 58 percent of all U.S. users.
Additionally, the frequency of blog updates is growing at a rapid pace. By 2013, nearly 37.6 percent of U.S. Internet users who have a blog are expected to update their blogs at least monthly.
Clearly, blogs are here to stay and will continue to be a great tool to establish thought leadership, provide relevant news, and highlight reviews of products and services. If you currently have a blog, it’s important to engage with your audience to build a strong following in order to be perceived as an expert and leader in your field.
However, if you are a novice blogger or have not yet developed a blog for your business, it will become increasingly important to leverage this medium in order to emerge as an influencer. If you’re still weary about the impact of corporate blogs and engaging with consumers online, consider this:
- Razor Fish survey of digitally connected customers found that 97 percent say their online experience influenced their purchasing decisions.
Once you’ve created a blog, you should think about how you can garner conversations with your key audience. In other words, how are you going to encourage your followers to comment and provide feedback to your content?
As many you bloggers may know, it is often difficult to get people to comment on each blog post. Here are a few tips on how to spark conversations and reach your key audience:
- Choose compelling topics. It’s no surprise the more interesting your topic, the more readers and conversations you’ll garner. Choose topics that are relevant to your audience and provides value. We recently wrote about Help A Reporter Out (HARO) on the Communiqué PR blog. This blog post garnered significant interest from readers because HARO is highly relevant to our audiences.
Another blogger who is good at driving conversation through blog comments is Angie Cox. She chooses topics such as “Fashion at the 2010 Academy Awards,” “The Power in your Wardrobe,” and “How to Wear Denim Shirts,” which have a wide appeal to people interested in fashion; and because of this, she drives lots of conversation on her site.
- Ask your readers questions and solicit their feedback. By asking questions, you are more likely to spark up meaningful conversations. Some bloggers suggest including a question in the heading. In general, you should make sure your heading is enticing and encourages people to visit your blog. While your blog may have an obvious comment section, sometimes people just need the extra encouragement.
- Respond to comments in a timely manner and interact with your readers. When a reader leaves a comment, it is important to reply back. In December 2009, Dr. Elaine Young of Champlain College commented on our blog post titled “Teaching the Facebook Generation.” Melissa, the author of the blog post, responded quickly to Elaine’s comment and began relationship building with her.
- Make it easy to leave a comment. If your comment section is hard to find or difficult to navigate, your reader is less likely to post a comment.
We hope you find these four tips helpful. We welcome any additional tips or insight on this topic. We are always looking to build followers and meaningful relationships with our key audience.