Curatti

How Do You Get Readers To Engage And Why Everyone Should

  • Andy Capaloff

    • There are plenty of posts that purport to give the secrets of getting reader engagement with your content, not a small number of which themselves have few shares and no comments.

    Similarly, we’ve all seen plenty of dynamite blog posts, perhaps with a large number of shares, but with little to no engagement

    Engagement: The Door Opener in Content Marketing.

    Check out the image on the left. It’s a screen shot from my phone. The Search Argument was “How to get blog comments”. The first 5 of the many articles returned were:

    1. 31 Proven Ways To Get More Comments On Your Blog
    2. How to Get More Blog Comments Quickly – Thesis
    3. 14 Devious Tactics for Getting More Comments on Your Blog
    4. 40 Dead Simple Ways to Get More Comments on Your Blog …
    5. Six Easy Ways to Get More Comments on Your Blog Now …

    A little further in my search, problogger offered: How to Get 80+ Comments on Your Next Blog Post …

    Do you think this is a Hot Topic? Because I certainly do!

    You will find no answers here (but you will find a great Infographic showing why you should comment), as from what I’ve seen, even the definitive answers don’t work.

    What makes you engage? We really want to know? I’d be surprised if there really is a secret formula or a checklist that would fit neatly into list.ly, but I’ll be oh so happy to be proven wrong.

    It’s obvious to say that the first element to get you reading is to grab your attention with a great headline, and then follow it with a first paragraph that will keep you reading, as opposed to being one of the multitude who will click off a given article within the fist few seconds, but what comes next?

    Can we Crowdsource our own guide?

    How about we start with this great Infographic – The Ultimate Guide To Blog Comments.

    Some of the things it shows us are:

    o   You get seen

    o   You get to know other bloggers

    o   It drives traffic to your Blog

    o   Profile Builder who Delivers Value

    o   Value Provider who gets NO Value Back

    o   Self-Promoter

    o   Spammer

    And obviously, beyond the Infographic, it helps the blog you are commenting on!

    What Makes You Comment?

    So now that we’ve established why it’s mutually beneficial to leave comments, why don’t we try to figure out what might encourage such reader interaction?

    Maybe directly asking people to comment, as I’m doing here?

    Perhaps promising that some comments will be directly quoted and attributed in a follow-up article (which I’m also doing here)!

    Do you feel that this approach is all wrong? If so, what would you do?

    I’d really like to compile enough thoughts that everyone who reads blogs like this one, can see what makes its readers engage. No, you will not see a bold follow up article trying to tell everyone that this is what he or she has to do on their blog. Different niches have their own unique ways, so the findings here may only work for this general audience.

    Wouldn’t you be curious though?

    Please tell us what spurs you into commenting on a blog.

     

    Featured Image Attribution: http://www.exacttarget.com/blog/the-importance-of-engagement-in-email-marketing/

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    Andy Capaloff

    Andy Capaloff is the COO of Curatti. Prior to moving into the world of Content Marketing, Social Media Management and the day-to-day running of a Digital Marketing company, Andy spent over 3 decades in various aspects of IT. It is here that he honed his writing and technical skills, and his ability to ask uncommon questions.