Started a blog some months ago and are yet to receive a comment? That is a bad situation indeed and I can tell from experience that it is very frustrating.
Join Scoop.it for Free
Share ideas that matter on the social web and experience
the benefits of curating the world's best content.
I don't have a Facebook, a Twitter or a LinkedIn account
Already have an account: Login
A collection of top tips to boost your social media effectiveness
Curated by
Dave Pinnington
|
Scooped by Dave Pinnington onto Social media influence tips |
Scoop.it!
No comment yet.
Sign up to comment
Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
 Your new post is loading...
Scoop.it!
Below is a great article from Brad Friedman on Social Media Tips to do in the New Year (click on headline for full article). There are quite a few good points. The one I would like to highlight in particular is "including a call to action". Influencing and changing behaviour via marketing is all about encouraging a call to action, whatever the channel or communication. Social media should include a “call to action” but can be the perfect call to action for other marketing activities. Let us consider why…
Social media being digital is measurable and can provide an insight into your customers by how they interact. Driving customers into social media as a call to action not only enables your next engagement with your customer but provides a means of measurement. To understand what call to action you should get your customers to take then you need to answer two questions:
1. What is the desired behaviour I want from the customer? 2. Why would the customer want to do those behaviours?
Marketing is being reshaped with the rise of behavioural economics and psychology, as they can help us provide answers to the second question. Traditionally marketing has answered question 2 by market research, asking the customer. While still important, what is surprising is that customers do not really know why they make their decisions or have distorted view on why they do. Marketing research often only identifies customer assumptions rather than looking at the real behavioural drivers.
This blog will reveal over time some of the behavioural factors within society that you can use within your communication. Our lives are influenced by a series of cognitive biases that when understood can become a powerful tool to any marketer or communicator.
The article by Brad Friedman....
2011 was a big year for social media. The “Big Three,” Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn got bigger. Hundreds, maybe thousands of other social networks flourished. One would be hard-pressed to make the case that social media is still just a fad. Instead, it’s become clear social media is here to stay. It has fundamentally changed the way we do business and the way we document our everyday lives. One in every nine people on Earth are on Facebook and people spend over 700 billion minutes a month sharing photos and status updates. As 2011 comes to a close, I thought I’d share a few tips for you to implement in 2012.
Google+ Business Pages
Google+ is still in its infancy. Now is a great time to get in while the playing field is still level. Many companies have thousands of followers on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn while it appears Google+ has plenty of room to grow.
Include A Picture
This is a pet peeve of mine. You absolutely must upload a photo on every one of your social media sites. When your site is missing a photo it looks like you don’t care. Social media is supposed to be social. It’s personal and including a photo makes your profile come to life. If you don’t believe me, think about this: Twitter accounts with photos have ten times more followers than those that don’t.
Post With Links
If you don’t include a link with your tweets, updates and other posts, you’re missing an opportunity to drive traffic to your website and blog.
Social Media Buttons
Make it easy for people to find you on your social media sites. Add social media buttons to your website, your blog, even your email address. This is just Marketing 101 and the results are measurable.
Include A Call To Action
Don’t be shy about asking people to follow you, retweet your tweet or otherwise engage in your content. Give this a try. People respond to these types of requests and you’ll never know unless you ask.
Content Is King Content still rules social media sites. Posts that don’t just include a link, but contain some content about the link result in more interaction. The more characters in your tweets (at least 130) and your Facebook updates (up to 450) the more interaction. A Few Final Tips If you opened a social media account, use it. When I visit an account and the last post was a month ago, I run. Grab your company name while you can. Twitter handles are going fast. Secure your name while you can. Separate your personal and business accounts. Trust me, your customers/clients don’t care where you’re having lunch and they don’t want to see your vacation photos. Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
|
Started a blog some months ago and are yet to receive a comment? That is a bad situation indeed and I can tell from experience that it is very frustrating. Getting comments on your articles is a sure sign that you are going in the right direction, since it indicates that you have made an impression on your readers. While it is always great to see positive feedback on your work, even criticism is far better than not getting a single remark.
So let’s get to the point – what to do in order to encourage comments? Aside from quality content, which is a must here and in every aspect of blogging, there are some guidelines to follow if you want to get more feedback on your work. Below I will try to explain some effective techniques for doing just that, so be sure to stick with me!
Let People Know you Want CommentsInstead of being shy and just waiting for comments to start rolling, why not ask for them? Although it is exactly as simple as it sounds, many bloggers never care to apply that approach. Adding a few lines at the end of your article, asking your readers to share their thoughts, is just enough to get you a boost in the number of comments. It works for me, it should work for you as well. Combining that technique with the one below can do miracles.
Engage by Posing a QuestionAnother similar way for getting more comments is to pose a question in your closing paragraph. That is a method, which has proved its effectiveness over time. After starting to utilize it, I definitely saw a lot more interaction. So be sure to leave one or two thought-provoking questions, of course making sure that they are well related to the topic.
Read more on how to end your blog posts: “The End: 4 Solid Strategies for Concluding Your Next Blog Post”
Always Reply to CommentsThe feeling of writing a 200 word long comment and not getting a reply is definitely not a pleasant one. Even though getting interaction is among the main goals in blogging, these days a lot of bloggers don’t have the habit of adding a follow-up. Leaving unanswered questions is unprofessional and a sure sign that you don’t really care about your readers. Remember that by responding, you are building relationships as well. Those can prove a turning stone for the success of your blog, therefore I advice you to take five minutes of your time (it is not that time-consuming, is it?) and write a reply. Check out Tristan Higbee’s point of view on why you should reply to comments!
Give Something in ReturnYou might get kinda confused here – you are giving value, what else there is to reward commentators with? A straight-forward answer – backlinks. Everyone is trying to get their hands on those nowadays. By turning your blog into a dofollow one, search engines will count links in the comments section as backlinks, resulting in higher rankings in search results for commentators’ websites.
In order to go dofollow, you need to scan through the blog’s template and remove rel=’nofollow’ code snippets. Check out a tutorial for doing it in Blogspot – “ How to Make Blogger Blog Do-Follow”. Fortunately for WordPress users, a simple plug-in is all that’s needed – Dofollow Plug-in. Turning your blog dofollow is undoubtedly one of the most effective ways for drawing in more commentators. You also get the chance of submitting your blog to dofollow only directories. The one I’m using isFollowlist and it is a good traffic source.
Consider installing the CommentLuv plug-in, which gives commentators another link, pointing to their latest article. This blog is both dofollow and has CommentLuv enabled, so you get maximum benefit from commenting here. Be sure to do so!
Make Commenting EasyAlways make sure that leaving comments on your blog can be done by a five-year old. That is the area of your blog where simplicity counts the most. No matter how compelling your content and how good your widgets are, don’t expect seeing any comments if finding the comment box, filling in the required information and posting it takes like half an hour. Blogspot blogs have a lot of problems in that aspect, but luckily there’s a solution. IntenseDebate is a great comment system and installing it is real ease.
Give Commentators Higher ExposureUsing widgets can help you improve a lot of aspects on your blog and things aren’t much different when it comes to getting more comments. Top commentators widget for example is a great tool that can be a good motivator for visitors to leave a comment. I will also be implementing it on this blog soon. Adding a widget, showing the latest comments is yet another good idea, getting implemented by more and more blogs.
Applying those techniques is almost sure to get you more comments. They are not time-consuming so I advice you to start working on them right away. If you have more effective techniques, feel free to share them below!