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Image Credit: Brian Solis
If I had to state the most significant difference between blogs and other CMS’s (Content Management Systems), I’d probably say that the biggest difference is that blogs are more humane. Aren’t they? For one reason or the other, blog is not just a cold and lonely web site. When you’re reading a blog, you tend to hear and feel the personality of the blogger. You tend to personify the wordplay and tend to engage in a conversation in your mind with the person responsible for the wordplay – the blogger.
Engaging in a conversation with your reader-base can be very powerful in making your blog more sticky. It will silently motivate the masses to follow your blog, since it’s not just a blog they are following. It’s you – a person.
So, how can you exactly engage in a conversation with your readers? Well, from what I’ve learnt…
If you’ve been following me around for a bit, you might be knowing that my writing style involves in asking my readers a lot of questions. Right? (There – I did it again). This is a method that speakers utilize in keeping their audience’s attention undivided. Why not see whether it can work for your blog? If you want to effectively engage in a discussion with your readers, the first rule is to keep their attention undivided.
This is something that I borrowed from Steve Pavlina – one of my all time favorite bloggers. He says in one of his posts that whenever he blogs, he imagines that he’s talking to a real person at the other end. If you read his posts, you can see the effect created by this method. He reaches the masses with his blog but one can genuinely feel as if Steve is building up a strong conversation, that one MUST be engaged in.
A good sense of humor can really brighten up your content. But, do not be Eric-Cartman-offensive in your humor. The whole point of using humor in a post is to brighten up your audience and take them to the lighter side of the things. You don’t have to be Pablo Francisco to come up with something simple, right? Bottom line – Humor, makes your blog more humane.
Your personal experiences might be completely irrelevant to someone else. And you might not be eliciting them through your blog since you think that other people will not give a damn about it. Well, if you’re trying to write a 400 word post and 300 of it fills some random personal experience, this might be true. But, for the sake of making your point, if you cite a short personal experience, it’d undoubtedly bring your readers much closer to you. It’s give a positive testimonial to your genuine nature as a blogger.
So, this is where the literal conversation builds up. Encourage your readers to comment and give their opinion. After all, you’ve been engaged in a conversation with them throughout the post and until the end, it’s been a one-sided conversation. If you’ve effectively engaged in a conversation with your reader, then chances are likely that they want you to listen to their side of the story too. In fact, useful content + interactive language = lots of comments.
Blogs depend more on the sticky subscriber rather than the here and now Sitehopper. Engaging in a conversation with your audience means that you will keep the stick subscriber sticky, and convert more Sitehoppers to be sticky. Try it out. After all, it takes two to Tango, right?
Very good post. I already do some of what you mentioned.
I have also found that if you say things that will “directly benefit the reader,” you will find that they will be more engaged and more likely to comment.
-VideoBloggingTips
Thanks, Taylor. Yes, I agree with you. The more the post benefits the reader, the more likely they are to comment.
Your entire post makes a lot of sense, especially the section on using your imagination. I do the same thing when writing posts (write like it’s a conversation). Not only do I get great comments, but I think it gives the blog a more personal “feel”, which is what I think most people are looking for when they read blogs. When people know that their opinion will be heard (commenting), they’re more likely to come back or subscribe to your feed.
Can’t agree with you more Mikey. For a blog to grow, you should give your readers a reason to stick around.
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These tips of yours will keep bloggers to focus more on blogging.
People make a great blog if they can keep readers coming back for more readings and takes time to comment.
Very well said. Blogging is providing a conversation and not just plain giving information. Of all the above, I like the imagination part. We must put ourselves in the shoes of our readers to know that we are really making good communication with them.
By the way, I am also an avid follower of Steve Pavlina. I even made a post about him last Feb this year.
Thanks
That’s the whole point yeah?
True enough. Glad to know that there are more hardcore Steve Pavlina followers around.