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I often wonder how people keep track of all their conversations when they have 5,000 connections on Twitter. When does it just become noise?
I always start my comments out with (name of person), thanks so much for sharing your thoughts/commenting/posting on my blog. Even if I don't agree with their POV, I'm glad they've shared their thoughts. I also answer all of my email, which can take some time, but I think it is worth it.
I'm interested in finding out more about getting guest posters though. I'd like to have some people guest post, but not exactly sure how to get people willing to share on my blogs.
Any tips?
As for avoiding broadcasting, I try not to stray from the topic of the comment. If I answer their question or post with my own POV, I'm not going to be sales pitching anything. I think that my blog does a good enough job of broadcasting its purpose on its own and twitter feed does help by broadcasting when I post on twitter (as do many of the other social media outlets). Beyond that, I try not to scream at people too much about reading my blog unless the topic is so very important to me.
In my case I try not to follow everyone. I mean it's great that I have almost 800 followers but there's just no way for me to keep up with the "stream" if I follow all of them. I do respond to every @ and dm that I get and every once in a while I mix up the group of people that I am following. thanks for the comment
@Maria
thank you for the kind words, im glad you enjoyed it. i consider broadcasting synonymous with traditional media and conversations synonymous with social media. when people start treating social media like traditional media- you are correct- it kills! thanks for the comment
@Dominick
I would suggest adding a little more than just a thank you. It's great that you are receiving all these comments and I know it's tough to respond to all of them, but if there is another little tidbit or piece of value you can add while responding to comments, then you should add it.
To encourage guest posts, just ask. write a post on your blog offering the guest post opportunity, tell people about it on twitter. etc. Even if you get one (which is what I started with) go for it, eventually you will get two, then 4. In fact, since you're running promotions, why not create a contest around guest posts on your blog? You'd be surprised how much people want to share...just ask :)
thanks for commenting kim and glad you have such a positive impression of me, means a lot! thanks for stopping by :)
my twitter:
http://www.twitter.com/jacobm
Elizabeth Hannan
@Elizabethhannan
Great post! These are excellent tribe building tactics. Tighten up an inner circle of your tribe using these tactics and you're on your way to scaling your conversations.
don't forget the additional 'seeding' conversations when you introduce two people who start from a position of talking with you - and they go off and have their own conversation. Started by you.
The indirect conversation. A new category?
Rebecca Caroe
Very wise advice and so darn practical. In social media relationships (as in life) it really is about the little things that mean a lot.
Thanks for the great post.
Dawn
@decart
Brilliant post, one that speaks greatly to the "social" aspect of "social" media.
I simply have one point for clarification. Blogs do facilitate conversation, but, from where I am sitting, that conversation occurs elsewhere, and frequently not on the actual blog. It causes responses from other blogs, retweets, and renewed conversation.
This is even in bloggeries that receive multitudes of comments, they a) only represent a small percentage of the actual readership and b) by the time it gets past a certain number (x), the comments cease being a followable conversation.
Broadcasts are important as they become fodder, or a lingua franca, for everyone to discuss. That is important as well, I would imagine.
I realize that I *am* nitpicking, but some modicum of broadcasting is necessary to enlarge your target audience. Additionally, if the broadcast is well-thought out, it can provide data for other people to engage separately ABOUT the broadcast.
You focus on the terminology of dialogue, while I am trying to focus on that of social.
An interesting companion piece for this bloggery would be, therefore, "how to turn your broadcasts into conversations (with or without you)".
Again, amazing piece, well written and analyzed. Please do not take this response as indication of anything else.
ez
@ezrabutler
I like to send thank you @ tweets to peeps who comment on my blog posts, &/or write on their Facebook wall, for example.
And, asking simple "you" written questions on Twitter is often a great way to spark engagement.
It's all about the relationship!
Cheers,
Mari
@marismith
Great job!
Karen
@karenMhurd
Bentley Tolk
Respect and you'll be respected.
Thank you for the article.
By comparison, imagine if every on-air radio contest that received 100 phone calls enabled the person to leave a 30 second voicemail message and that the DJ or a member of the staff either responded by subsequent call or an on-air shout out to the callers by name? That would help build brand loyalty much more than having contests.
This is a super valuable and informative blog post.
Another way to avoid sounding like you are broadcasting is to edify and promote other friends' stuff.
I also like to share super informative blog posts - like this one. Deserves to be transmitted on ping.fm :-)
I appreciate you, Jacob. I look forward to following your work.
Dali Burgado
Social media has changed my field as well in the best way possible.As a speaking and presentations skills coach I say virtually the same things to people who need to be authentic, transparent and present with groups of people they are having a conversation with and engaging with from the stage. The speaking days of talking heads are long gone and this is such great news for coaches , authors, and healing/helping professionals who now can create a meaningful experience and market and grow thier business in a new way. Thaks for the great distinctions!
ya it can be difficult but let's be honest, in order for social media to work you have to spend the time and effort it takes to interact and talk with everyone. You really need to work hard, you can;t just create a twitter account or a facebook profile and expect that everyone is going to flock to you. you MUST provide value and YOU must interact with everyone that is willing to interact with you. some people arent willing to put in the time, and they fail.
@Laura
oh absolutely, I mean I can tell you who the top commenters are on my blog and I can tell you what they do. I have visited their sites, left them feedback and have always encouraged more interaction. I just spent 15 mins thanking all my new twitter followers and I am going to spend however long it takes to respond to all these comments and hopefully i will get to know you too. Knowing my audience also benefits the audience because in my line of work i come across people who are looking for different things all the time, i just recommended a designer to a new company because i knew the designer. if i dont know the audience i cant interact with them and i can help promote them.
@Elizabeth
ya the broadcast world is easy to get lost in. social media and in fact conversations in general can be overwhelming, it's a good thing I like to talk a lot :)
@Ed
Yep, you can;t build a tribe if you don't know who you're tribe is. Of course there are always going to be some people who dont interact or who remain on the sidelines and that's fine. However there are always going to be people who have something to say, and you have to get to know them!
@Rebecca
great point. acting as a fascilitor and "connector" is also key. I just introduced one of twitter followers "a designer" to another twitter follower "who runs a company." I made the introduction and now they are off chatting about working together. The indirect conversation is also very important. As I have been monitoring the feedback on this post I have noticed a lot of the conversation spread, which is fantastic! great point rebecca!
@Dawn
yes the little things to mean quite a lot. the big things are easy to take care of but in order for social media to really work in your favor you have to look at the little things as well.
@Rob
I agree with you and I wish schools taught the importance of online brand building and creating a presence. instead educators scoff at platforms like twitter and many even condemn their use saying it's a waste of time. I would love to see a social media program in schools!
@Ezra
Good points, essentially your social media platforms, your posts, tweets, etc, starts out as broadcasts BUT they turn into conversations as people begin to respond to you. neglecting these conversations is not a smart thing to do. A broadcast does reach a large audience but is also easily ignored. think of television, car flyers, spam advertising. it takes 1 second for me to switch channels or hit the back button. blogs do facilitate conversation indeed but if YOU as the creator of the work are unaware of these conversations then that is a big oversight. that is why it is important to foster/create/grow conversations/communities whenever possible.
thanks for the kind words!
@Mari
the relationship is where it's at. It's funny because when we take them for granted. for example companies think of ways to squeeze money out of social media, well what if nobody ever talked about their brand or product? all of a sudden the perspective changes and it becomes "how can we get our users to talk to us" instead of "how can we make money from our users."
@Sarah
I agree, the whole "celebrity" issues is far too overrated. there are plenty of contacts I have that I would pick over the "marketing or twitter celebs" any day. by building a relationship you are selling yourself and selling yourself is more important then selling any type of product
@Karen
good point, the first things that comes to mind are the people that have their business cards flying at you out of a holster, i hate those guys. you might as well walk around with a megaphone!!
@Internet marketing for attorneys
oh absolutely. it is a lot of hard work and people don't realize it. i mean i just responded to every single comment i received on here right? now you can also run through a self filtering process, whereby you encourage people who post stuff like "great post thanks" to dive deeper into what it is they liked about it. this is the best source of data/information/feedback you can get and to neglect it is probably not the best idea. if you are receiving dozens of comments it will only take you an hour or so to respond. sure attorneys are busy, but then again so are the people who are commenting on your blog, and if they have taken the time to comment on your blog then you should reciprocate by commenting back to them.
@jbrotherlove
it will never work without the conversations, we're not build that way. humans desire contact/interaction/feedback. if we didn't care about this stuff then we would still be creating static sites in web 1.0
@Toma
you're very welcome. it's all about respect. you can't expect to succeed if you don't show respect, you are dealing with people not with dollar signs.
@Ari
hey great to see you on here as well :) that is a good point that you made. great idea for dj's and radio stations...anyone know any disk jokeys?
@Dali
thank you the kind words. i;m all about promoting people (and the content they write) when there is value in it. I'm more interested in connecting people together though and forming business relationships as that is usually more meaningful (for most people). For me, the best way to promote myself is to build relationships and to pump out valuable content.
@Dianne
you are very welcome. as a coach you are in a very powerful position to build relationships and connections. you are also on the forefront of helping educate businesses and individuals on social media. coaches are usually very relationship oriented people so social media provides a new unique outlet for them to connect.
PHEW!!!! THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR YOUR COMMENTS, THEY MEAN A LOT. I HOPE TO CONNECT WITH ALL OF YOU AND GET TO KNOW YOU. IF I CAN HELP YOU PLEASE LET ME KNOW!!
Jacob
It's all about pull. Gone with the shotgun approach of marketing where all that matters is critical mass and reaching as many eyeballs as possible (even if those eyes are all rolling!)
At YellowstonePark.com, which won the Webby Award for best tourism site 2 times, our entire site redesign started by closing reviewing over 6,000 extensive surveys our customers completed. We drilled down on what they told us and worked with our information architect to build/create a user experience, and content, that our customers indicated they wanted and needed when they filled out our surveys. Although this isn't an example of a real-time conversation, it's a case of asking our customers for input, and then listening and responding.
Your post is SPOT-ON. Great work and thanks for the terrific resource your blog, etc., provides for people like me who choose to live out in the middle of the frontier surrounded by as few people as possible. : >
Thanks again
@yellowstoneshel
I must say, I'm impressed with the quality of this post. spot on, my friend. Additionally, you seem to live it by responding to your reader's comments.
You are now on my googl reader :o)
- Scott from http://venturedig.com
Judy
wow congrats on the awards, i have yet to go to yellowstone! im glad that you acted on the feedback that you received. a lot of people believe that listening is the key, but if you only listen and don't respond, then what's the point?
thanks for the comment!
glad i am now on your reader. i absolutely have to live up to everything i talk about. it's the practice what you preach approach and it's the only way to do business. glad you found the post valuable!
@Judy
you are very welcome and I look forward to connecting with you on all of the places you mentioned!
thanks again everyone!
Chris ... thanks for bringing in other people to share their insight.
All the pointers are very useful .. but on that sticks out to me is:
"Participate in other discussions and communities that are outside of your blog"
The reason I like this is coming from the 'visitor' perspective. The people who's blogs i read most are those that participate in conversation with me in other places (mainly Twitter for me personally) ... meaning the blogger comes and talks to me on sites like Twitter just because ... not only because i'm talking to them through their blog.
To me ... this show's they are going the extra mile and connecting with me on a more personal & human level.
--
http://twitter.com/franswaa
The people reading are an awesome mix of techies, out-of-touch business folks, fellow social media geeks and - my favorites - friends of my mom who have never read a blog before. Because of that, part of my initial posts are a bit of an initiation into blogging for some folks, so I want them to feel comfortable engaging in the conversation.
Overall, I've set the expectations for a blog that ROCKs - one that's tone is:
* Respectful
* Open
* Collaborative (also Community/Conversation)
* Kind
I linked to this post for the third bullet. Thanks again for an excellent read!
Best,
Faryl
thanks so much for the kinds words, im glad you found the post valuable. it's very important to go outside of your community to comment and interact with people on other blogs, that's how you grow. i think a lot of folks are focusing all of their efforts on their own blog when in fact outreach is crucial.
@Faryl
thanks for the kind words! just checked out your blog, love the little graphic of you (or whoever it is) parachuting down, you should give her a laptop! or a "twitter gun" :)
You set out some great expectations and im sure your readers appreciate that. i like that you mentioned respect, which of course is very important. respecting your audience is what makes them come back and tell their friends, kudos to you!
thanks for reading and for commenting Frank and Faryl!
LuluMom
Tweet...http://twitter.com/lulugo
glad you found the information useful.
thanks for reading and commenting!
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