I have said before that I don’t wish to be a popular blog. It has never been my intention to gain vast number of followers. Instead I just want to be able to blog about what I want and be able to talk to people who are interested in things I say and who say interesting things back. I just want to fangirl about books to people, is that too much to ask?
As such, I have never gone out of my way on social media to shove my blog in people’s faces, mostly because I fail epically in knowing how to use most popular social media things. I am not a fan of Facebook, I browse twitter most days, but forget to push my own posts and am still scared to interact with others, then there is Instagram, which I love, but I can’t take pictures. I am just happy to post away and comment on the blogs I like and respond to comments here and attempt to visit those who loyally visit my blog (I’m not the best, I know).
I’ve seen a few posts lately about various parts of blogging (there are always a few posts like that, and I do enjoy reading people’s thoughts on how to blog) but the one which inspired this post was from Ashley at Nose Graze about getting blog followers from the right places and I couldn’t help agreeing with it. I don’t want people to follow my blog for the sake of a giveaway, or to carelessly follow to glance at my blog when they see an interesting post but then not really interact. What I want is to have followers who are interested in what I’m saying and who make the effort to comment when they have something to say. I do notice the same names in my comments on posts, and I love that, because it’s nice to see the same people coming back, that’s how you truly get to know other people in the blogging world.
I think the best ways to get loyal followers and to encourage people to keep coming back is to interact! To speak to people on Twitter, comment on Instagram posts and read their blog posts and say something interesting.
I like to visit those who visit my blog and try and find something to say. I like to comment on people’s pictures or reply to them on Twitter and generally demonstrate that I am an actual real person too. The only problem with this is I am actually quite a shy person who is a little intimidated speaking to new people. I will join different social media sites but I just am terrible and speaking to new people, even over the internet. But the intent is there for me to interact, even if I do get a bit nervous before actually committing to the act.
I think you can tell when people are being genuine when commenting or visiting based on what they say, the short comments people leave to encourage people to visit their blog are all well and good (they are appreciated too, but I will always prefer the longer comments) but the people who leave essay long comments and have things to say, everyone will always like those comments best because someone has had to put the time in to type that comment in the first place. I try to be the person to leave those comments on other blogs and to keep leaving them on the blogs I love because it demonstrates I’m interested in what people have to say. It’s the same in other places, leave a good comment on a photo on Instagram or reply to a Twitter comment that interests you and keep doing that and people are far more likely to be interested in what you have to say as well.
Basically, be nice to other people and they’ll be nice back. I was reading an article the other day which said the best way to get people to like you was to like other people (this made me laugh because I am continually saying I hate people when faced with large crowds… or at work), but it is true. You are far more likely to like someone who is generally happier and makes the effort to be nice to you, that translates well to blogging. You are far more likely to visit someone’s blog who is nice, who comments and speaks to you online (without being annoying or a creepy stalker) because that is just how people work, we respond to people being nice to us.
How do you think it best to get loyal followers? And do you do anything to try and encourage others to keep coming back, or are you just merrily blogging in your own little world and content with how things are going?
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