3 ways of reconnecting with blog readers through comments

There are many ways that a blogger can promote a blog, oneself, and attract readers as I shared in page 46 of the book Blogging from Home. Perhaps one of the most time-consuming yet very important is commenting on blogs. Used the term time-consuming as one has to read the blog first and then start participating in the discussion or simply comment.

Connecting with bloggers

For new bloggers, one will usually reach out to blogs that covers the same topic as they do or those that complement your niche. You can use Google Blog Search and Technorati for this purpose. On a simpler level, you can visit the blog of your social networking friends who regularly promotes them from time to time.

You can also subscribe to a blog and monitor on a regular basis using your Google Reader.

Once you have an established set of blogs, reconnecting with your past readers is important whether they are active in commenting or not in your blog. This is the present situation with my old blogs. Some approaches I have taken:

1. Look at past comments
   Visit the blog of those who commented at your blog in the past just to drop by and reconnect.
   
   If they are not active in blogging, connect through other means like re-tweeting something they posted on Twitter. Or respond to their Facebook activity such as giving a thumbs up, leave a comment, and share.
   
2. Visit past contest, events, writing project, or promotion participants
   If you have ran or sponsored a contest or promotion in your blog before, then visiting those who joined is also a practical thing to do.
   
   I find this easier said than done though. Had a writing project at Influential Blogger for the past 3 years and reconnecting would meant consistently communicating with past winners and reach out to past participants (around 400 bloggers).
   
3. Visit your members
   Whether you have an informal community, club blog, MyBlogLog, Blog Catalog, or NetworkedBlogs, you can scan through your community members, visit their blog, and leave a comment.
   
   For this blog specifically, that would meant visiting the blog of past book buyers and owners to keep in touch.

If you have additional inputs on this topic, hope you can share them.

Planning a Summit using Gloo

In preparing for the Blog4Reviews Christmas Party last December 17, I used Gloo as one way to keep in touch with blogger friends to get their thoughts about the upcoming event. Now that the event is over, I updated our space and using it to get inputs for the upcoming ProBlogging Summit that will happen this 2010.

What I like about Gloo is its feeling of being part of a private network. For planners like me, this is important as there are project developments that I felt can be best shared in a closed network and engage those who are really active in the community.

Some of the things I was able to do so far includes:

• Send an SMS to those who are using a Globe phone and give updates directly to a specific space member.
• Chat with space members online.
• Add sticky notes and post details on them.
• Add a to-do-list to serve as a reminder.

Later on, I will also try adding pictures and videos for reference. Other areas of improvement I would like to suggest to maximize its utilization and effectiveness are:

• Pictures to be added to the site directly rather than point to 3rd party sites.
• Have the ability to update space members automatically through email or SMS.
• Ability to add multiple network cellphone numbers.

I will be using the space as well to encourage folks to share contests and other activities happening online.

One doesn't have to be a Globe Broadband subscriber to be able to access the service although I'm sure there are more features available to them exclusively. If you are a subscriber, inquire about Gloo and find out what perks you can enjoy with it.

Mindanao Bloggers Summit 3 at Cagayan De Oro

IMG_0309, originally uploaded by Juned I.

Last October 24, I was in Cagayan De Oro for the 3rd Mindanao Bloggers Summit (MBS3) and Philippine Blog Awards Mindanao leg. Been very supportive of this community since its inception but this was my first time to attend.

Congratulations CDO Bloggers and Mindanao Bloggers for this successful event. Thank you Chiq Montes and the rest of the team for inviting me as a resource person to your event. More so to DigitalFilipino Club member Syntactics' Honey Caragos for taking care of me.

I have seen signs as to how this community is maturing. Will continuously observe its growth and support as needed.

It also feels great to deliver a talk that connects with people. Hope to see Malaybalay and Kevin again in future events and chat.

Look forward joining next year to support the 4th Mindanao Bloggers Summit in Zamboanga City!

Buzz Blogging on Yahoo Meme, Tumblr, Twitter, & Plurk

The new Google Real Time results makes me wonder on how blogging and search engine marketing will now change in order to be effective and attain a certain level of viral-ness.

If social media and the response of users to your content will heavily influence search engine rankings in the future, then it means the more one must invest in building profiles and blog actively in sites like Tumblr and Yahoo! Meme.

Of course this includes having a highly interactive account profile in Twitter and Plurk.

To be effective in these sites, I notice that one must be willing to:

• Share or post great content (without violating copyright)
• Reblog or repost the content of others to show appreciation
• Leave a comment or click on like to give a thumbs up to the content.

The above actions can increase your followers from the community who are also as active.

These sites are ideal for the following use:

• Post content that is meant to be passed on or to be discussed.
  It should be outstanding enough in order to merit such a response.
  
• Spread the word about new blog post from your site.
  You can use a photo from your blog post as an anchor and give a link to your blog post article. This applies to Tumblr and Yahoo Meme.

Do you have a Tumblr, Twitter, Plurk, or a Yahoo Meme account? Share the url and will follow you. It will also be great if you can share how has it change the way you blog or share content.

Thanks!

Connect with me:

• Janette Toral in Tumblr
• Janette Toral in Yahoo! Meme
• Janette Toral in Twitter
• Janette Toral in Plurk