Do you feel like you are speaking in a vacuum? That you work so hard to put content out there and no one seems to be paying attention?
Do you wish you could figure out how to get people to engage and interact with your content by leaving comments, sharing your content, telling others about you, contacting you through social media, and sending you emails?
Here’s my number one tip to get more people to comment on your blog and interact with your content more:
Be Interesting
Seriously! Stop being boring! If you want people to be interested in what you have to say, you need to start by being an interesting person.
Now, please know, I’m not referring to changing who you are inside or trying to create a persona that is not authentic to who you truly are. What I am referring to is letting all of your amazing personality that’s inside of you out.
I know this can be scary. I know that we often want to hold back and hide and put on a shiny exterior or try to be more poised or less opinionated or more “normal” than we are.
But here’s the thing: there is only one YOU in existence. Bring that you to your blog — all of it. The quirky parts. The sarcastic parts. The less-than-perfect parts.
Whatever makes you unique, don’t hold back. Maybe you tend to be a really bold person, then be bold. Maybe you tend to have really dry humor, then have really dry humor.
Does your blog and your presence on social media truly reflect who you are at the core? Step back and look at it objectively. Ask your closest friends and family for their gut-honest opinion.
Are you bringing your boldest and bravest self to your blog? If not, why not? What’s holding you back?
Really ask yourself who you love following online the most. Why do you love following them? What is it about them that attracts you to them?
Then, think about who you’ve followed and decided to unfollow. Why have you unfollowed those people? Why did you find yourself no longer attracted to them?
It’s taken me a long time to get brave enough to really use my true authentic voice, to get on camera and bring my quirkiness, to use voice inflections and funny faces in videos. I’ve found, though, that the more that I do it, the easier it gets. And it feels so good to know that I’m being me. Not a version of me that I think people will like, but unashamedly and wholeheartedly me.
Does this mean that some people aren’t going to like me? Absolutely! I know that my quirky personality and raw honesty is not for everyone. That’s okay. I want to attract the people who love me for me, not the people who love the shiny version of me I’ve created because I think that’s what people want on the internet.
A Practical Example
Recently, I’ve been posting my outfits of the day everyday on the MoneySavingMom.com Facebook and my personal Instagram Stories as part of a Summer Style Challenge I’m participating in.
One day recently, I wore a dress — which is something I don’t do often. Instead of just posting the dress and saying, “Outfit of the day”, I posted it and shared how I was really feeling: “I rarely wear dresses… so I am excited to be pushed out of my clothing comfort zone with the Get Your Pretty On challenge. I’m not sure what I think of this dress, but it might be growing on me!”
That simple additional information, caused a lot more people to weigh in with their thoughts then if I had just posted it without any commentary. You can see some of the comments here — and I got a slew of comments via direct message on Instagram.
Everyone wanted to share their opinion on the dress, whether I should wear dresses, what kind of dresses I should wear, and whether they thought the color looked good on me.
Now here’s the thing: I’ve built up an audience who cares and who is invested in my life and wants to share their thoughts on what I wear because of months and years of me sharing tidbits like this and them following me.
If you are a new blogger and you posted something similar, you might not get 200 comments/messages on the dress, but if you continue to put yourself out there and share interesting parts of your life, people will feel invested in your life and will want to share their thoughts and input on what you put out on the internet.
A few more quick tips:
- Have Opinions — You don’t need to to be offensive and I’m not advocating that you try to “kick
the hornet’s nest”, but do stand for some things. Just pick those things carefully. For instance, on MoneySavingMom.com, while I will never, ever talk about politics, I will most definitely state that I don’t use credit cards, can’t endorse the use of credit cards, and am a big believer in using cash. - Share Vulnerably — People love real and honest. It’s refreshing to hear that other people struggle, that they have rough days, and that they don’t have it all figured out. Now, this doesn’t mean you need to make your blog or social media one big pity-party, but be honest about your successes and challenges. I recently shared about a mistake I made on a Facebook Live and I heard from multiple people telling me thank you so much for sharing that even though I’ve been blogging for 12+ years, I still make mistakes!
- Ask for Responses — When you ask for input, it lets people know that you care about what they have to say. Pay attention to what kind of input you are asking for, though, because you might be making it too complicated if you’re asking an in-depth question or giving people multiple choices. I’ve found that simple works best — especially on social media. Giving only two choices seems to be one of the most successful ways to get people to interact and I know it’s because it’s easy to pick between two options. But give people more than two options, and they are often going to feel overwhelmed and just not engage at all.
- Interact Regularly — As much as you can, comment back to people (on your blog and on social media). This lets people know that you’ve seen their comment and you appreciate what they have to share. People are much more apt to interact and leave comments if they know that the original poster is going to read (and possibly respond!) to what they took the time to write.
What are YOUR best tips for getting people to comment on your blog? I’d love to hear!
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Thanks Crystal. This is great advice. I’ve been trying to play around with these ideas, allowing my genuine thoughts to come through in my writing. It is like one big experiment, especially in the beginning discovering what people will respond to online, whether by commenting or visiting my site.
This week, I has some good responses to a silly FB post about my city girl version of a cattle round up. And the other one people responded to was a blog post on when your kids grow-up and leave home. It was hard for me to write that post because it was so personal. But so many of my friends are going through this stage this year, and I didn’t want anyone to feel as alone as I did last year.
I’m so proud of you for stepping out and getting brave in your writing like that! Way to go!
You’ve always done a great job with engaging and responding to comments across your platforms as well as being honest about the content and process of blogging. Great tip, Crystal!
Thanks so much for your kind encouragement!
I love Lisa’s blog! And I found her because you ran a guest post from her. Thank you for sharing her with us!
I love your advice to limit responses to two options. I’ve never considered that leaving a question open-ended might limit responses, but it makes perfect sense.
It’s so easy to want to ask open-ended questions (and I definitely do sometimes!), but it’s much more effective to get people to comment and interact when you keep their options limited!
I love your tip, thank you! It’s taken me years to feel comfortable being myself online, and I still have a ways to go. Thank you for providing some practical examples of ways to be ourselves.
We are each our own special sauce!
Yes! We truly are our own special sauce! 😉
You are so right! The posts that have the most comments are ones where I take a controversial stance and or tell a personal story. I think where I get hung up is trying to be helpful/useful. It’s a hard balance and hard to know how much to share personally versus just teach.
I think you can do both and do them well! I try to weave in my personality and personal thoughts when I write a post that is more teaching in nature (such as this one) and then I try to weave in some lessons/teaching in posts where I’m sharing more of a personal story.
This is so perfect. It is one of the reason I follow you. Your personality shines in everything you do and you feel like someone I would be friends with. That’s what I look for in a blogger that I want to follow. Just this week I started unfollowing some bloggers that just didn’t fit my personality. It wasn’t anything against them, I just needed to clean up my inbox and keep the ones who mattered and were blogging about things I was interested in.
Now, I need to practice this myself, in my own blog. It is scary putting yourself out here. Thanks for the push to share my struggles as well. You just have a me a fantastic idea for my next blog post!
Thanks so much for your kind encouragement! When I post, I want people to feel like I’m someone who could be their next door neighbor so it makes me so happy that you feel like that!
And yes, it’s scary to put yourself out there… but it’s SO worth it!
It’s interesting to see the way people use the different social media platforms. Several times I’ve created a FB page to share my weekly blog posts. The response is dead silence, for the most part, with plenty of views and likes, but no comments. However, I find that people on IG are much more apt to comment and interact.
I’m glad you wrote this post, about being authentic, even if that means showing your boldness or opinions. I am, by nature, an opinionated person and very matter-of-fact in my tone, but the times that I’ve written like this on my blog, I always question myself and sometimes have even gone back and deleted those posts that may have sounded too bold.
It’s just a tricky balance because you never know who’s toes you’re going to step on and what kind of response you’ll get.
Being social is hard work 🙂
One thing that helps me is to ask a friend (or my husband) to read my post before I post it and let me know if my tone comes across correctly. Sometimes, just a few simple changes of wording can make a huge difference in how something is received!
This is exactly what I needed to hear right now! For months I’ve felt like no one cared, no one even read my posts and I couldn’t figure out why. Then I posted about how I choose what books I read. I haven’t gotten more than one comment yet, but someone linked to my post, and others liked it. Looking back, I think I was more myself in that post then I was previously. Thanks for the encouragement to be myself!
I’m so glad that it inspired you! One thing that has worked well for me on social media was to ask people what I should read next and give them a few options. I don’t do this really often, but this might be something you could try sometime. It’s worked especially well for me on Facebook or Instagram.
Crystal,
Today’s post is so helpful! When I was developing my blog, I read an article by another blogger who basically said, “Nobody cares what you’re wearing or what you ate for supper last night.” She encouraged people not to write much about themselves. But the personal approach certainly seems to be working well for you, Crystal. I’m going to try to add more of my personality to my posts in the future.
A special challenge I’m facing as I write for my blog is the fact that I’ve been a nurse for so many years. When we chart, we need to be very brief, objective, and factual. I’m finding it hard to open up and share personal thoughts and feelings. (Are there any other nurses out there who can relate??)
Thanks again for a great post!
I think that as blogging evolves, the more that bloggers can connect with people on a personal level, the better the chance is that they will have longterm, loyal readers who will follow them wherever they go!
I’m not a blogger yet, but I always think it’s fun when bloggers ask their audience to help pick out a new dress (top, slacks, etc.). “Which looks better on me? Option 1 or 2, and why?” It seems like those types of posts get lots of response & it’s interesting to hear people’s opinions.
Yes! People love to give their opinions and thoughts — especially if it’s a simple question! I asked about a romper I had gotten from Stitch Fix on Instagram Stories recently — whether it looked like something you could wear or whether it looked like PJs — I got more response on that story than on anything I’ve ever posted before on stories!
This is great! The trick then, I believe, is to figure out the best balance between being raw and “real”, and creating content that will be encouraging, informative and attractive.
I’m still trying to figure this out, and appreciate your tried and true suggestions! You are correct, Crystal, that we respond to your authentic, sometimes imperfect ideas and stories (that remind us that you’re real). I think it causes people to respect and trust you more.
Thanks for sharing the best of yourself!
Thanks so much for your kind encouragement! Yes, figuring out the balance is SO important. I try to break things up and vary things when posting and sharing on social media and that seems to work well so that the really personal and imperfect is broken up with helpful ideas and practical encouragement, too.
Thanks, that’s good advice.
The bigger problem is getting the spammers to stop commenting. I moderate my comments so nobody ever sees stupid generic comments like “I don’t see how to contact you” (didn’t see the tab for the Contact Me page?) or “I see you don’t monetize this blog” (how did you miss the ads in the sidebar?) that serve mostly to provide a link back to whatever scam they’re flogging. And then my all time favorite spammer who left a comment complaining about all the spelling errors and demanding to know what spell check I use, with a back link to auto parts he’s flogging in Europe. Spelling errors irk me so I’m careful. But really, even if you found a blog full of spelling errors, why leave a comment? Just move along and find a blog you like better.
Putting your personality into a blog is a great way to bring back readers. I remember reading somewhere that most readers don’t leave comments. Maybe not even as high as 1% of readership will comment.
You are so right that most people don’t leave comments! I am trying to do better about leaving more comments myself instead of just thinking about what I would response in my head! 🙂
As far as spam comments go, most of them are left by robots or by people from other countries who are hired for SEO purposes for almost nothing so they aren’t even looking at your blog, they are just leaving the same comment on every single blog. I’ve found that having a spam plugin helps to catch a lot of them and then I just delete the rest and see it as just one of the necessary emails of blogging (we often get 500 spam comments per day over on MoneySavingMom.com!)
Wow, that is a lot of SPAM. It’s so much you could cook it up with eggs and enjoy a good breakfast. 😉
Where can we find a good SPAM Plugin? I use WordPress.
Have you checked out Askimet? That’s what we use.
Great article and just what I needed to day. I’ve been trying to do right the opposite. Thanks for giving me the push I need to go.
I’m so glad that it inspired you! Thank you for letting me know!
This is going I’d advice and something I’m not necessarily good at. I blog under an assumed name and have only told a few friends and family that I blog, even fewer know my blog name. Part of the reason for the “secrecy” is my husband’s job (he works for the DOC) and the other part is fear. Although I’m a pretty confident person, sharing my true self and showing vulnerability is tough. I don’t know why, it just is. I will definitely need to be more open and let the try me shine out :). Thanks for the good advice.
You can do it! I know you can! I’m cheering for you!
I love this tip. My blog is solely based on raw emotions and truth. I always share honestly what I am dealing with (without rambling on too long with all my health mess) but I always pull it around to truth in God’s word or what God is teaching me in the midst of it. I find that I get a greater response at odd times. Sometimes I am just as real but it strikes a cord with people. Sometimes it is the drama of a new therapy I am trying. I feel like I need to be a little lighter sometimes but find that others are going through their own darkness and though they are not going through exactly what I am going through , they are seriously touched and made to not feel so alone. I am currently under 250 people reading my blog via FB or subscribed to my blog but I am always encouraged if at least one person is touched or encouraged by what I write.
I love this! Thank you so much for sharing!
Great article! It makes me confirm inside myself that I think I am off to a good start. I am in the beginning stages still and am actually getting ready today to work on the Blog 101 course I purchased last week from you. I still have a long way to go also took your advice in the live webinar you gave about just doing at least 30 minutes a day and to Focus and Finish! That mantra has helped me soooo much!
Yay! Yay! Yay! I’m so proud of you!
I find this really hard to do, and I don’t know why! In person, I find it very easy to talk to others and get them to open up. I’m genuinely interested in hearing their stories and sharing mine. No matter how hard I try to put this voice into my writing, it just comes out kind of plain and not at all like I want it to. Nothing like how it goes in real life. That being said- I have really noticed your voice coming through your writing and I have been inspired. I just wish I could get my thoughts to flow into the keyboard!
Have you tried doing live video? I’ve found that that really has been key in helping me to define and refine my voice. When I first started doing live video, I would re-watch it everyday and critique myself paying attention to what worked, what didn’t work, and how I could improve. This has helped me to better determine what my voice is online and get braver with sharing it!
I am just joining and finding it all so very interesting. I would love to build a business ‘blogging’. To let my personality shine through, that would be the most difficult part, shed all layers and let the lots of strangers know me…I will try, it will take some practice. Where to begin??
You can do it! I’m cheering for you!
I started blogging about a year ago, and it has been a learning experience. Thank you for sharing your ideas with me. I am always looking for good ideas and suggestions to make my blog better.