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Time for Some Strategery

Getting more comments is often important to achieving your blog's objectives. (You already know your objectives, right? If not, stop right here. Come back to us when you have a clear picture of what you're trying to accomplish. We'll wait.) Most of us want our audience to be more vocal, but it's not something that happens overnight. It takes a lot of hard work and dedication to build an audience that cares enough to speak up. Here are five qualities common to many blogs with a vocal audience.

1. Voice. The biggest mistake we've seen on association blogs is sterile, over-edited writing. Blog posts are not press releases. Choose a blog author who is not afraid to constructively show his or her true colors. Resist the urge to edit out all personality. Whether the author is your executive director, chief elected officer, or a member with a passion for the blog topic, let the blogger set a tone and be genuine.

When multiple blog authors are involved, defining a voice can be extra challenging. Make sure it's clear who is posting, and make it easy to find additional posts from each author.

The 1:9:90 rule

"In most online communities, 90% of users are lurkers who never contribute, 9% of users contribute a little, and 1% of users account for almost all the action." —Jakob Nielsen, web usability guru and principal, Nielsen Norman Group What does this mean for you? It means that most of your audience is reading, not commenting—and that's normal. Many of those readers think about commenting, but something stops them. Help them conquer that fear. Strive to write content that is more than just relevant. Dare to be unique, to stir the pot sometimes, to write in a way that resonates.

2. Open and easy. If you really want to build comments, you have to be open and make commenting easy. Limiting your blog content or commenting features to members also limits what you can achieve with your blog. A members-only strategy may be appropriate in some cases, but not if your goal is to engage a vocal audience. In fact, to truly be open, try setting up a blog with

• No login;

• Easy to find comment links;

• No captchas—those annoying things that make people spell out letters to prove they are human;

• No moderation. (You can always be notified of new posts and moderate after the comments are posted.) The instant gratification a new commenter feels when they see their name and content post to your site is not to be underestimated.

3. Challenge readers. You have to be writing something that makes people care enough to comment. That might mean sharing an unpopular opinion or stirring the pot.

4. Active. Posting regularly is important. You cannot build and sustain a vocal audience on a stagnant blog. But being active is about more than posting frequency. Commit the staff time and energy to

• Reach out to other bloggers by commenting on their blog and linking to their posts on your blog. If you comment on their stuff, they will return the favor.

• Connect your blog author face to face with the audience. Putting a photo of your blogger is a good start. Organizing an event where your blogger can meet the audience face to face is even better. The more your audience can feel connected with the author, the more they will feel comfortable sharing their ideas and opinions.

• Share the best posts with your membership. Don't overdo it, but when you have a great post that parallels the interests of your members, use your existing marketing channels, especially e-mail newsletters and listservers, to share the link.

5. Listen and reward. When someone makes a comment, they want to be a part of a conversation. That's why it's so important to build listening into your strategy.

• When someone comments, reply quickly. Ideally, your blog author will be the one replying, but knowledgeable staff can get in on the conversation, too.

• Give commenters credit. It can be a small thing, like publishing their web address, or a big thing, like choosing an outstanding comment and highlighting it in a follow-up post.

• Be prepared to act. Some comments might require an organizational response—a new session topic at your conference, a response to a criticism of how you're handling an advocacy campaign, or thanks for words of praise. If people who comment feel like they can affect change, you're doing something really right.

10 Types of Blog Posts That Associations Can Rock …

Nothing draws blog readers and commenters like meaningful, engaging posts. Here are some ideas to get you thinking and planning:

1. Insight or opinion. If your blogger can be honest and open enough to share an opinion, you'll build rapport and attract readers. If you're brave enough to express an unpopular opinion, you'll get even more comments.
2. Conference. You have a backstage pass. Why not use it to bring a whole new side of the conference experience to your members, and hear what they think about it?
3. Interview. Find out what the experts really think and share it with your readers.
4. Lists. Hey, you're reading this list, right? People love lists because they're easy to digest.
5. Live. What if you live blogged the congressional hearing on the most important issue affecting your members?
6. Announcement. This is about using your position in the industry to let people know about the most important stuff they have to know—even if it's from a competitor.
7. Survey. We sure do enough of them, right? Whether you're surveying just your blog readers or sharing the results of a broader survey, it will get people talking.
8. Response. If you're not getting called out by another blogger once in awhile, you're not doing it right. Debate draws audience, and a good rebuttal might even change some opinions.
9. Meme. When you're trying to build awareness about an important topic, starting a meme (something like an online chain letter, but with substance) is a great way to get lots of bloggers talking all at the same time.
10. Guest. Hand over the stage to one of your celebrity members for a day.

… And 2 to Avoid

1. Announcement. I know—we said this was a good one. But it will backfire if you only announce your own new products and conference dates.
2. Rant. Stirring the pot is one thing, going on a negative rant is something different. This works great for some bloggers, but for associations, it's a losing proposition.

Adapted from Rohit Bhargava and Jesse Thomas's SlideShare presentation on "25 Basic Styles of Blogging."

Maybe the Technology is To Blame

Think about your blog template. Words like subscribe, trackback, and permalink are standard fare on most blog templates, but meaningless to a new user. Instead, replace "subscribe" with "get updates," "trackback" with "blogs that link to this post," and "permalink" with a social bookmarking tool like ShareThis.

More, more, more!

Check out the social media bibliography for this article at www.socialfish.org/blogtips.

Lindy Dreyer is an association marketing and social media consultant. She blogs at http://associationmarketing.blogspot.com. Email: mjdreyer@gmail.com

Maddie Grant is administrative director at the Washington Center for Psychoanalysis. She blogs at www.diaryofareluctantblogger.com. Email: maddiegrant@washpsa.org

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  GW Network Supplement: Improve Your Workplace by Learning From the Best

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