How Do Blogs Create A Community?

how-do-blogs-create-a-community6 Ways To Create A Community On Your Blog

When you create a community on your blog, it helps to build a connection with your audience. And connecting with your audience is the path to online business success. Your blog, website or online store will be more successful when your readers, prospects and customers develop a real, quality connection with you.

So what’s so special about a community? Working as an online entrepreneur, whether part-time or full time, can be lonely sometimes.  But when you create a community of like-minded individuals, where they can share ideas, motivate each other, ask questions and provide help to others, it makes you feel like you are part of something special. We all like to be a part of something bigger than ourselves and people naturally tend to group together. After all, this is how the first towns and cities developed.

Here are 6 methods that will help you to create a community on your blog.

1. Create a Forum

Even if you don’t like the technical side of blogging, forum software and plugins make this simple. If you have a forum on your blog and your competitor doesn’t, you improve your chances of appealing to your target audience.

2. Create a Facebook Group

OK, so this isn’t technically on your blog. However, you can link to your Facebook group, and from your group back to your blog. You don’t need me to tell you that Facebook is far and away the biggest and most powerful social media platform on the web, so you may as well take advantage of its free availability and popularity.

3. Be a Human Being

We have all come across those websites or blogs that seem robotic and look like they’ve been written by a computer. Ensure that your blog feels and looks like it’s a real human being that is behind it. Inject your personality, use more video and be yourself.

4. Host a Challenge

People love challenges. Challenging your readers is a simple and effective way to create a community on your blog. For example, a 30 day weight loss challenge works great on a health blog as your readers update each other, via your blog, on how they are achieving (or not, as the case may be) their goals.

5. Live Hangouts and Webinars

Inviting your audience onto Google Hangouts or webinars encourages them to have an interaction with you. There are lots of free apps and software available for hosting a live get-together with your audience. They get to speak their minds, tell you their opinions and ask questions. When they connect with you, they feel like they are making a contribution to the group and it gives them a sense of belonging.

6. Ask Questions

Your blog should be about your audience and not about you. When you concentrate on the needs of your audience, rather than your own needs, it’s a win-win situation. Because your audience sees that you care about them, they will end up satisfying your needs, despite the fact that your ongoing focus is about them. Regularly ask your readers what their current problems are or what they think about something new in your niche. When you do this on social media websites like Twitter and Facebook, your audience will start connecting with each other, which will create a community feeling of ‘we’re all in this together’.

 

Jon Allo
 

Jon has over 30 years experience working within the advertising and marketing communications industry. He has practical knowledge, understanding and experience in a wide range of online and offline business disciplines including the financial services, legal, commercial services, retail, charitable and civil service sectors.