Engage in the Conversations Taking Place (Day 5-31 Kick Butt)

engage in conversation.jpg Today’s task in the 31-Days to Kick Your Blog in the Butt focuses on what you can do to to Egage in the conversations taking place in your niche or target market. Not only should you be engaging in conversations taking place on blogs, you should be engaging in the conversations taking place on social media outlets. Mainly twitter as you will see below.

Today’s teaching moment

Here is what I said in the first post in our series where we are talking about F.L.E.E.

Engage in the conversations taking place out there in the blogging world and twitterverse. This is where you have to get off your butt and do something. You should be reading blogs and you should be commenting on a minimum of 4 or 5 blogs a week. Leave a comment that adds something to the conversation. Engage in the conversation happening on twitter too. And I know this next one is going to shock you, post on your blog. You should be adding to the conversations taking place on other blogs and on twitter by engaging in those conversations by posting your own thoughts and input on your blog.

Commenting on other blogs…Something you just have to do!

However, don’t just comment for the sake of commenting. There are certain things you need to do and certain things you need to consider when commenting.

Leaving Better Comments:

Read the full post
Read all the comments
Add a new perspective
Add value to the original post
Continue the thought of the original post
Do not linkbait
Come back and see if others have commented after you. (You can subscribe to comments now on many blogs)

While all of them are important and are things we all need to think about when leaving comments. There is one that I want to spend just a brief amount of time on, “do not linkbait”. Too many times I get comments on Blog For Profit which are nothing more than an attempt to get linkbaiting. The commenter is simply looking for a way to leave a comment so they can get a link to their own blog on another blog. You have all seen them. They go like this, “Great blog post, I completely agree.” Not only do they waste the other good commenters time, they waste the bloggers time. If you can’t leave more of a comment than that, don’t leave one at all.

What is great about this step in engaging in the conversations and commenting on other blogs is the fact you don’t have to have your own blog first to do so. A great reason to comment on other blogs before and after you have your blog launched is so you get noticed. Believe it or not, we bloggers notice when people comment. And we notice when someone is a repeat commenter. Getting noticed by other bloggers in your niche will gain you readers too.

And don’t forget that other commenters notice you too when you comment on a post. This is why it is especially important to add to the conversation when you comment. By doing so, the other commenters will notice and you have a better chance they will in turn click on the link leading to your blog and may even become your reader too.

Engaging in the conversation also includes posting on your own blog

Another way we engage in the conversations taking place in the blog world is by posting our own blog post which may be our own take on a particular topic. Especially if we are adding to the conversations taking place on other blogs. It is even better if you quote these other blogs who are discussing this issue and link to them. Linking to other blogs will get you noticed. But, that is for our discussion another day.

Adding your own opinion on a particular topic will also help to establish you as a source of information and a “thought leader” or “opinion shaper” in your niche or market. In other words, post, post and post again.

Engaging in the conversation also includes conversations on twitter

Don’t stop with engaging in the conversations at commenting and posting. Take advantage of one of the best networking and marketing tools available and that is social media. Specifically twitter. Twitter has become one of the greatest sources for readers to this blog and for a channel to the conversations we have going on here too. You should be doing the same thing on twitter you are doing blogging.

Commenting on conversations on twitter
Adding to and initiating conversations on twitter

In other words, get involved in the conversations on twitter. Become a source of information not only on your blog, but also on twitter. We will discuss twitter and how to use it in the very near future. In fact, be watching for an upcoming ebook I am working on for using twitter.

Today’s consumers expect you to be engaged

This last point is key. No longer can we hide in our dusty stock rooms or in our musty offices. The internet has created consumers of products and services who are expecting us to engage them. Engage them in a conversation about our products, us and even them. Yes, the internet has opened up a tremendous wealth of possibilities. It has also brought with it challenges. And those business or firms who are not willing to engage are not going to last. Our consumers will quickly become someone else’s. Someone other than our own. They will go to those who are willing to engage in the conversations taking place.

Today’s Homework

This may be the longest homework assignment I suggest during this entire 31-Days. But I also think it is one of the most important.

Visit, read and comment on a minimum of 4 blogs this week using the suggestions mentioned above
Write 2 blog post this week that add to and continue a conversation you found on the blogs you left comments on. And make sure you link back to them in the blog post.
Leave a link to 5 other blog post you find might interest those who follow you on twitter this week. I personally try to do this 4 or 5 times a day. So I know you can do 5 times in one week.
Jump in and add to 3 different conversations on twitter. You can find these conversations by using Twitter Search, which we discussed the other day.

Make sure you all report back here in the comments on how this went for you and what the results were. We all want to know and we all learn from each too.

Also don’t forget to subscribe to the RSS feed for Blog For Profit. That way you won’t miss a single installment of 31-Days to Kick Your blog in the Butt.

Mrs Green

Thanks for outlining the 4 steps at the end; I found that particularly useful.

Number 1, 3 and 4 I'm reasonably good at, but when you talk about number 3; do you mean ReTweeting a good blog post that someone else is talking about?

I can definitely look in to number 2; it's a great way to share the link love and I probably do nowhere near enough of it. Off to write something now!

Grant Griffiths

Yes, number 3 is using twitter to leave links to blog post you are reading on twitter. This is something I try to do daily as I read the blogs I read. Doing this is a great way to not only pay it forward to those blogs you read. But your followers will appreciate the fact you are a source of information too.

Mrs Green

Thanks Grant - do you have a particular tool you like for sharing what you are reading on twitter?

I recently started using Shareholic (it's a firefox adon) and find that to be really easy, straight foward and quick to use:

http://www.shareaholic.com/

Grant Griffiths

I use and highly recommend http://easytweets.com The free version is plenty for most people.

Julia

does easytweets post blogs from your RSS feed automaticly for your blogs and ones you subscribe to? I couldnt find the free version and was trying to figure out if it is worth the money. I love hootsuite but I am always looking for a more efficient way.

Grant Griffiths

Yes, you can feed your blog's feed to twitter with easytweets. You can also feed other blogs. I am feeding over 300 legal blogs to twitter who are also on twitter for a project I am working on. More on that to come.

Donna Seyle

Thanks!

Elizabeth

Well I am a bit behind on the daily routine of going through your classes. I do enjoy and am learning much about what you post. I am a regular on #1 and #2 yet must work in #4 and #5.

Thank you much.

Wayan

Thanks for finnaly getting to some meat. After the first few begginer posts, I was about to unsubscribe because you seemed to be targeting those just starting out.

Now on to this topic:

I like the action points at the end with numeric targets (still too low IMHO). #4 is particularly usefull to get your voice beyond your circle of friends.

I find iPhone + TweetDeck w/ keyword search (more comprehensive than just hashtag) as one column to be the best way to do this - reply when you are on break from other tasks. You can also use EasyTweet on a computer to schedule tweets to give you an even update schedule.

By the way, where is the "tweet this comment" button? A great way to spread meme and get readers tweeting.

Michael Martine

I think the real key to this engagement strategy is that you must do these actions consistently. There are times I get really busy, but I always have a moment or two to take a break and engage with my audience. If you don't keep that connection open, it dries up, and the opportunities and blog traffic dry up with it.

Demond

I wanted to start by saying I am getting a lot from this challenge. Michael, in my blog, I know I am guilty of not being consistent with my postings, which does hurt overall visitors to my site. If I don't have the time to commit to everything necessary to build a strong blog, do you think it would be a good idea to outsource some of the work?

Michael Martine

Demond, your blog is the headwater from which everything else flows. You don't want that to dry up. If that means you hire writers or VAs to help out, go for it.

Christine Livingston

It has never crossed my mind to write posts that carry on a conversation that's gone on somewhere else and link back to it. That's a really useful one.

Grant Griffiths

Doing that one activity was one of the reasons my own blog took off like it did. Of course when I started blogging almost 5 years ago, there were not nearly as many blogs. While the number of blogs is growing, there is always room for good ones that "get it."

Mitchell Goldstein

I tried starting a blog, but without traffic, there are no comments. I never thought about taking the conversations from other blogs back to my own (I am taking time now to reassess before I relaunch). By taking the conversation back to my own blog, I see that if I can't get the comments coming to it, I can bring the comments there myself.

Great idea.

Laura L. Thatcher

Thank you for posting this series, your timing could not have been better. After starting out my blog with gusto I actually got busy with work -- the thing the blog was designed to bring in -- and neglected posting to my blog. Your series is giving me the added motivation that I needed to make it happen! I also like the action items at the end. Spoon feeding is a good thing!

Grant Griffiths

Glad you are finding it all useful and that it is giving you the boast you need to get back to posting.

Lori

Hi Grant,
I'm with Christine, I hadn't considered #2 prior to your post today. What a great idea!
I am also happy to see less "getting started" coaching and more "improve what you have" ideas.
It is great to meeting everyone here in the comments, too.
Cheers!
Lori

LoneWolf

As Michael and Demond were talking about,, consistency is my biggest hurdle. I'm trying to get more focused to get consistent with all aspects of blogging -- writing posts, visiting and commenting on other blogs and forums, engaging in Twitter and Facebook (that is mostly for friends and family for me).

I'm balancing that with spending time off line with my family and friends as well and finding it hard to get the time that I need online. I'm sure that I'll get there eventually.

I do find that when I'm on Twitter I tend to engage in topics that don't really relate to my blogs. This brings visitors but while they often like what they see it isn't an area of interest for them. I need to spend more time in my niche(s).

Donna Seyle

Hey, Grant: Good stuff. I often feel like my comments just go out into never-never land without being able to use them in another way. So my question is: is there a way to aggregate comments you make on other blog posts, other than copy and paste them as word docs on your own computer? (time consuming). Thanks!