What makes a blog engaging?
We know that blogs and blogging outreach to community members–those who have subscribed as well as those using various search engines to find a topical response.
Do the various forms of accessing the blog make a difference in whether the reader is engaged?
This is not a casual question, dear Readers. I will be presenting a poster at the Engagement Scholarship Consortium in October (which will be held in Edmonton, Alberta). I want to know. I want to be able to present to the various audiences at that meeting what my readers think. I realize that reading evaluation blogs may yield a response that is different from reading blogs related to food, or sustainability, or food sustainability, or climate chaos, or parenthood, or some other topic. There are enough evaluation blogs populating the internet that I think that there is some interest. I think my readers are engaged.
Only you, dear Readers, can tell me.
So are you engaged in reading my blog (even if you don’t comment).
Does the definition of engagement need to be broadened to be more inclusive? (see here for a definition used by the Consortium)
What exactly does collaboration mean in the context of blogs?
An Example:
Chris Lysy in this week’s post talks about the why, what, who, how, and what next of blogging AND the post is peppered with cartoons. Using Chris as an example, I found his post engaging–I’m not sure it is collaborative. That is where I redefine collaborative…without his post, I doubt I would be writing this part of this blog…
So Readers–what DO you think? What makes a blog engaging?
My 
.
molly.
I like tangible call to action blog posts that show me how to do something or allow me to respond to a question/issue that I can relate to. “Look what I can do” blogs aren’t on the top of my list to read.
Blogs that include snippets of the writer’s life to help me to get to know them are engaging for me. Building rapport with your audience is key, in my opinion, to engagement.
The interdisciplinary nature of evaluation makes it challenging at times for me to be engaged with some evaluation blogs. I enjoy the data viz and of course cartooning from Chris Lysy because I can learn and/or use materials quickly from those sites. The content also covers all disciplines.
I was wondering about engagement myself recently and AEA has 7700 members…I’d have to look up the number in the profession in general, but how much engagement are we expecting and should we expect the majority to come from this AEA pool of people? (I could go on and on!)
In short, I need something short, sweet, and to the point preferably in a personaly tone, that I can learn from, respond, and move on, lol.
-Karen
Hi Molly, yes, I believe blogs can be engaging. There might not be direct engagement between an author and readers, there are better ways to do that, but they can still engage readers by making them ponder and take action.
When most people talk about engagement, it usually means some type of back and forth communication between two or more people, but online, things can be more murky. I’m engaging with you here by leaving my comment, but what if I didn’t leave a comment? What if because of something I read from your blog I discuss your post with someone else and engage with them, with YOUR information, would that be considered engagement via proxy?
Most people online are “lurkers”. They mostly read and don’t comment, but they will click a link, “like” a page or share a post with others. I’d call that engagement, at some level, and it’s how most people “engage” online.
Bottom line, if your post makes someone think or compels them to some sort of action, however small that may be, that is engagement. Even if they don’t engage with you directly. They are engaging with you content and ideas.
On collaborating via blogs, there are many online communities that depend on the spread of ideas, information and news via blogs. Individual blog authors don’t have to necessarily work directly with one another or their readers to collaborate, their blogs are part of the collective and add to the knowledge base of their community. For example, I am an avid radio control pilot and interested in UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), so I read several blogs related to UAVs, drones, etc. I and others in the UAV community learn from these blogs and share that information with others. We also post news and research that we find and some of those same blogs pick up our information and re-post it so that the whole community benefits from it. In this way, more information reaches a much larger audience and faster than any one individual could ever disseminate on their own. This is known as crowd sourcing, collaboration on a massive scale!
So there you go. Is blogging engagement? Can blogs be engaging? Are blogs collaborative? Yes, yes, and yes…they can be. But, just like people…some are engaging, while others are just plain boring. I responded to this post, so I guess you are the former vs. the latter. đ
Create an engaging blog for a product is easy and here is why….
If you’re launching a company or product you’re now also a content creatorâor you should be.
It’s not enough to simply launch something, you need to also showcase why it’s launched, how it will help (not just via a sales page), why you and/or your team are experts enough to create it in the first place and most importantly, what the story is. This typically takes the place of articles on your product blog.
As a web designer, a side-project enthusiast and a creator of countless products (from tech startups to self-published books), I’ve spent years working on products and their associated blogs. Too often I’ve focused on the wrong things, or seen others do the same. Here are a few things I’ve learned, mostly the hard way, about what it takes to create a successful product blog. There’s a direct correlation between good content and product sales. And thankfully, the writing doesnât have to be all SELL, SELL, SELL to be effective (itâs actually better if itâs not).
What comes first?
Should you start blogging first or creating your product first? The answer, most confusingly, is both. Here’s why: If you create an outline and soft goals for what the product is, and don’t let anything become too concrete, it can evolve or change based on audience interaction and feedback. This then helps laser focus writing content, so every blog post ties in or relates to the product. Doing it as an idea, then blog posts about that idea allows you to pivot or tweak the feature-set if there isn’t any response or even negative interaction.
I always embed a mailing list subscription box at the end of every blog post, with a call to action to subscribe that defines what the product will be. I then switch up the wording every few weeks at the start to see what works best (or A/B test). This lets me know what the audience is interested in and use that to guide the product development. If I get 20 signups for one blog post but 200 for another, I immediately know what is more interesting to my audience.
Find your voice
Often if youâre starting a company or building a product, you may not have ever had to write publicly before. It could be something thatâs hard for you to do, or even scary. The good thing is that, in order to become a writer or a better writer the solution is easy: you just have to write more.
Before I became a âwriterâ, I spent every single day writing at least 500 words. Most of it was garbage, but that was fine, I wasnât writing these words for blog posts, I was writing them to learn how to write better and to figure out how I expressed what I had to say in writing. Every writer I know has said the same thing: the more you write, the easier it is to write more.
Most people call writing authentically âfinding your voiceâ. Really, itâs a matter figuring out how you say what you have to say, using your own unique perspective. Thatâs what makes writing enjoyable to readâif itâs written using real examples and stories, in a voice thatâs uniquely yours.
Good writing take risks with what you have to say, takes a stand about something and have an opinion. Especially if itâs a product blog, your product is your opinion on how something should work. Your blog should be written in a way that expresses your opinion on the product, the industry or how you think itâll make your users liveâs better.
Tell stories
If you’re building a product, there’s an assumption that you’re an expert in whatever niche that product will exist in. If it’s a book on marketing, you’re a marketing expert. If it’s a web design app, then you know a whole lot about web design and app development.
All the blogging you do, at it’s core, should both relate to your expertise and share that knowledge in a way that non-experts understand.
How has what you’re writing about worked for you, in your first-hand experience? Is there a case study or example you can use to tell the story? This leads your audience to believe that you’re credible (which is hopefully true!).
Weave stories into everything you write, because that’s the mark of a good writer. We remember stories, it’s part of our cultural DNA. Don’t just tell people something, use examples and metaphors to make a point about your product or expertise around it.
Look at how Mike Monteiro writes: he uses stories of his dad buying a car to talk about web design budgets or chair companies to describe the importance of design.
Find your audience
Since your product will serve a specific audience (no great product is made for everyone), your blog should do the same. The content doesn’t have to be for a specific industry, it can be for a certain type of person (regardless of their profession) that would benefit from what you’ve made.
Who does your product help? Those will be the type of people thatâll benefit form your writing on the blog. Write specifically for those people, or even for a single person in that group. What do they value? Where are they stuck, troubled or frustrated? What matters to them? What do they truly desire, not just from a product like yours, but in general?
If you don’t know the answers to these types of questions, ask and then listen. A few months ago I spent 10 days talking to 30+ people from my mailing list on the phone. I offered 15 minute free consults with my readers to help solve problems they were having with web design, writing, creativity and entrepreneurialism. While my intent was to help them, it also helped focus how I created my latest product (a book on those subjects). I now have a much better idea of how to build out whatâs next, because I listened to the people who will hopefully be first in line to buy it.
At first your product blog may not have many readers, because your audience doesnât know about it yet. The best way to remedy that is to figure out where they currently spend their time and meet them there. Message boards, Facebook groups, Google+ Communities, even comment threads on industry articles (like this one!).
Tease
People are intrigued by a little mystery and if it’s done right, they can’t wait to learn more. Show your readers what you’re working on with your product, before it’s ready. Not the whole shebang, but bits and pieces, screenshots, excerpts, features, etc.
Make sure your audience knows some of what they’ll be getting when your product is ready to be purchased. Then it’s not a guessing game (which can lead to a lack of sales), but instead a knowledge of what it is and a desire to get it as soon as it’s ready.
Danielle LaPorte teases perfectly. She routinely posts screenshots of new projects on her Instagram. She also replaces the header on her website with new offerings before they’re ready, teasing the date and that change is coming. The anticipation drives her followers crazy, who are all eager to buy the day something comes out. Build your mailing list
Blog readers might never come back. RSS readers may not check their feed for a while or just may not click over to read what you’ve written. Social media followers will miss what you say unless they’re tuning in at the exact time you’re talking about a blog post.
Mailing lists are different because they show up where your audience lives, their inbox. This is why there’s a higher engagement rate for mailing list send-outs versus tweets, RSS feeds or blog posts. Because most people check their email often (sometimes every few minutes).
Send your articles as full text pieces to your list. Ask for feedback through replies at the end of each email to show that youâre interested in a two-way communication, because you should actually be interested in hearing from your audience.
Context
If you’ve got a product blog, a mailing list for the product launch, or a pre-order button, you’ve got to give a valid reason for people to do what you want them to. “Read Now” or “Sign Up!” or “Buy!” aren’t valid reasons.
Tell your audience why they should do those things with concrete benefits. Make the pitch about them and how what youâd like them to do will actually help.
Nathan Barry doesn’t just ask you to sign up for his newsletter. He gives an example of how signing up will help you grow your audience, promote your next product or sell more of what you’ve made. Grow your list? Write a book? Design an app? Heâs got you covered and lets you know.
Be consistent
The biggest thing I learned while being a creative director and working on large campaigns, was the importance of brand consistency. Not just in how things look, but in how products are described and how companies speak to their audience. If itâs done right, itâs in one unified voice.
That means your product blog should be consistent in the language, terms used and voice. The sales page should seem written by the same person as the blog posts, and every blog post should be in the same voice/tone, spreading the same overall message that the product has.
This makes your brand sound like it all makes sense together and gives people a clear idea of what it stands for, regardless of what theyâre reading or doing on your website.
Start now
Stop listening. Stop reading this article and get to work.
Both on the product and on the content creation that goes with it. It’s all well and good to learn from others, but nothing takes the place of first-hand experimenting.
There really aren’t any hard and fast rules either, just ideas and observing what’s worked for others. Almost every successful product and its blog has broken a few rules.
Try things. Find your voice. Listen to your audience (or don’t). Change direction if something’s not working. It’s your product, it’s your blog, and you get to make the calls.
What we might think matters for a blog typically doesn’t. SEO, good design, social media share buttons are important, but they’re very much secondary to the real core: the product and the actual content. We can sometimes get far too caught up in those things and forget to focus on the core.
I always come back to the same two questions if I feel like I’m losing my focus: How can my writing be more valuable to the audience it serves? and How can my product be more valuable to the audience it serves?
The blog for your product is as important as the product itself. Ensure you have enough time to dedicate to creating content around what youâve made, even after your product has launched. This is what differentiates a decent product with a product thatâs talked about everywhere you look.
Such a long post for not saying much…Since my “product” is only ideas, blogging about ideas is what I do. Everyone has ideas; not everyone shares them. Since I do not make anything for which I am blogging, I’m not sure how your comment applies. My content is my “product” and that content is about evaluation–and evaluation is an everyday activity–it is something you do daily whether you recognize it or not, from the first moment you awake to the last moment before sleep (possibly even in your sleep…although I won’t speak to that because I do not have evidence). To evaluate, you need evidence (sometimes called data); data are not a product. Try being more specific and less wordy…please.