In recent years, going online has become a must for all businesses, in response to the rise of online shopping and people going straight to the internet when looking for a service. Setting up a website is not enough. You must establish your presence and create an online community helping to ensure you have loyal customers while attracting new ones. One of the best ways to establish and build your online community is through blogging, and you can find out how here.

What is blogging?

A blog is self-published content online. While it started as diary-entry style content, many businesses now utilize it to bring traffic to their websites. Blog entries often allow readers to comment and interact with the writer and others, leading to the creation of their community. Blogs have marketing potential to businesses; that’s why blogging has become popular, producing countless bloggers and improving a website’s traffic.

How To Use Blogging To Increase Your Community

Now that we understand the basics of blogging and how it is beneficial to businesses, let’s find out how you can improve your online presence and increase your online community.

Blog about a single idea

If your business is about event planning, then blog about topics that centre around event planning. Generally, blogs are focused on a specific topic. There are two benefits to this. First, you can write about things that you are passionate about. Second, your audience, who has the same passion as you, can connect with all of your blog posts. It won’t do to talk about event planning on your first blog, then post a second blog about sports, which is an entirely different topic.

Blogging consistently about a topic that you are passionate about will connect you to the right audience. This connection will help you build and increase your online community.

For instance, Event Birdie. It’s a website dedicated to helping people plan an event like a pro. Inside its blog page, you’ll find countless entries dedicated only to event planning.

Create approachable and personal blogs

To connect with your audience, you must create a personal and approachable blog, so they will feel comfortable interacting through comments. They must feel comfortable enough to support blog entries that follow. Otherwise, your blog page will just die out or will not do well in improving your online community.

Create blog post entries that address your audience directly. Use words such as we, you, and me to include them in the narrative. Another way to do this is to encourage your subscribers or audience to reach out to you whenever they want, making them feel heard. You can encourage this action by giving them your email or socials to connect with you directly.

Take a look at this recent blog by Eventbrite, for example. It has a personal touch with words such as you and us. It relates to employees tasked to host a festive virtual office Christmas party, which is challenging.

Make your audience feel included

We already mentioned this in the previous section, but other than a set of words, there are also different ways that you can make your audience feel included in your blog posts. First, you can encourage them to leave a comment. For instance, if the blog is about Christmas party ideas, you can ask them to comment on their ideas to add to the blog. People love it when they become a source of inspiration or knowledge. Commenting on their ideas is an excellent chance to do it.

Quizzing your audience is also another way to get them hooked to your blog and encourage others to join the community. Quiz content is also more likely to be shared to your audience’s socials and, therefore, increase your website traffic.

The most well-known quick content today is the Buzzfeed Quizzes, with celebrities even taking the quiz during their interviews. Buzzfeed Quizzes also easily circulate online with how popular and trending they make the content to be.

Blogging is more than just word content. Instead, it can be a video, photos, or even quizzes, as we’ve highlighted above. It is an effective tool in gaining traffic and building your online community. Blogging about your passion is the best way to create a connection with your audience. Stick to one powerful topic and create content with approachable and personal language. Ensuring that your audience is comfortable interacting with you through the comments, sending you an email, or sharing your blog on their socials.

This blog is just part one of our’ blogging to increase online community series. Keep an eye out for Part 2.