A Few Observations On Engagement And Blogging

As my nine month work anniversary approaches marking the day I changed my career from a project manager to becoming an engagement lead.

I realised a few of the things I’ve been doing can be applied to blogging. Here are a few observations I want to share…

Are your channels promoting to the appropriate audience?

“If you want to grow your blog, use social media”

Was one of the first pieces of advice I heard when signing up to WordPress – some bloggers take this to extremes joining every social media channel going hoping it will find that magic audience hungry to read blog posts.

Doing this will spread your efforts too thin – you’re better to just use one or two, put more time and effort to build the audience of people who are interested in reading what you like to talk about.

Some platforms have advantages to reach certain audiences, so it’s a good idea to do a bit of research before you decide where you want to focus your energies.

Therefore I push back on requests from the team to expand beyond Twitter and LinkedIn. Instagram is good if you’re looking for females 20-25 and have a visual product to sell, but not so good if you’re a writer and are now under pressure to create videos and images!

Avoid doing too much

Avoid overcommitting with your content – a Twitter growth guide might tell you to tweet eight times a day and post two threads a week, but if you have other responsibilities this can soon become overwhelming, and quality will drop.

That is why I now just post two tweets a day – avoid content for contents sake.

Build your networks

One way of increasing engagement is to build your networks.

In my role I email people with connections, or who it’s useful to develop a mutual beneficial relationship with

This starts with setting up a call, telling them who I am, what I do, and what I can do for them.

I don’t approach these calls expecting anything, but when I need support, it’s easier to ask a favour, and their more likely to oblige when they know you.

Talk to people, ask them questions, – whatever you do, don’t start off an introduction by asking them to do something for you whether it’s to read your blog or retweet a post.

Make your audience feel involved

If you want to increase engagement you need to make people feel part of your movement. You don’t do this by ignoring comments on your latest post (responde to your damn comments!).

You can build connections by asking questions, solving their problems, or observing something you liked about their own work.

It doesn’t seem like much, but two way communication helps the need of people to be acknowledged.

Everyone starts of as a passive reader – it’s what you do next that will establish if they continue.

Share their success

You can increase the connection of your audience to you, by sharing their hardwork without having to be asked.

It’s always nice when someone likes your content so much that they want to share it within their own networks.

When doing this approach with the attitude not to expect anything in return.

Start with ‘why’ in mind

When I first joined as engagement lead I had several requests for blog articles and tweets to promote our work.

The question I asked was “Why?”

Like the Simon Sinek famous TED Talk starting with why, looking at why will help you think about the reason you’re approach your engagement a certain way.

• Why do you need to engage?
• What message are we wanting to say?
• What are we asking people to do?
• What do you want to achieve?

Asking these questions is of relevance to my line of work because jumping straight to the sexy stuff like splurging out a load of social media content isn’t always the answer.

Putting together a strategy will help you think who you need to reach. Sometimes the best answer could just be something as simple as an email or a QR code printed off on a staff notice board.

It wouldn’t hurt bloggers to ask these questions – by establishing the why you can start to develop the how (we’re going to do it) and the what (specific actions do we need to take).

Conclusion

I’m still new to my role, I’m enjoying it, but recognise I have so much to learn.

It’s a challenge, but every day I remind myself how blessed I am that I have been able to expand a hobby into a career where I get to put in strategies, plan, and think about communications and engagement (and yes I also get to write a few blog posts too!)

What do you think about my observations?  How do you engage with your audience?

---

• Twitter
• Pinterest
• Link

Copyright © 2023 James M.Lane perfectmanifesto.com