During a meeting to launch the University’s blogging trial (I also need to write an up date on that as well!) one of the attendees raised a good question about how to market/promote their blog and didn’t feel we answered it fully at the time. So how do you get people to read your blog?
There is quite a bit of information in the blogosphere on promoting business orientated blogs but not necessarily related to ones created in an educational environment.Warwick University has done some work to market the blogging concept to students, which Tom Coates highlights in his blog post More on the Warwick Blogs marketing, which might be of interest.
In addition to this, here are some ideas I’ve cribbed from others on encouraging readers to your blog. These are probably more appropriate for personal, support area and departmental blogs than teaching focussed ones where the clear motivation for students is assessment and acreditation.
If you can think of any more or want to add to this please contribute with a comment.
You can never have enough links – An obvious one I know but advertise URL links to your blog where ever you can i.e. on University web pages, at the end of email signatures, in comments on other blogs (possibly popular student ones) and in printed promotional literature. The ability to create a network through linking with comments is one of the key advantages of blogging as a social tool and should help you reach an extended audience.
Offer an incentive – What will keep your readers coming back or want to find your blog in the first place! Offer something that they cannot find elsewhere more easily or post information and announcements on the blog before it is ‘officially’ released elsewhere.
Write for a niche – Blogs are more successful if they are written on specific topics rather than writing a single general blog. Sharply focussed blogs should develop a loyal readership because you are offering content on exactly what they want to know or are interested in.
Be distinctive – People will be reasonably familiar with blogs if they regularly surf the Internet, even if they don’t write their own and with so much information out there it’s important to offer a distinctive and well focussed blog with a strong individual personal voice to stand out from the crowd.
Make regular contributions – If readers know that the blog will be kept up to date with regular contributions they are more likely to keep visiting the blog.
Know your audience – If you are writing for a particular group of people, use the means and language most appropriate to reach them to advertise your blog. Whether its beer mats in the student bar or a formal letter in the post.
Encourage readers to use RSS – RSS offers a simple and practical way for readers to know when you have published a new post to a blog or when someone has made a comment on a post without having to visit the blog itself. RSS feed readers are now incorporated into widely used browsers (IE7 and Firefox 2.0) and free web based readers are also available (such as Bloglines and Google Reader.) for your readers to use.
Gradual growth & word of mouth – Blogs tend to grow readership on a steady basis over time, so it is important to keep up your blogging momentum so that your initial readers can spread the word.
Encourage comment – Let your audience know that they can actively make comments and respond to your blog postings and author your postings in a way that is likely to draw out a response. Some topics and content will be more appropriate than others for this but readers will appreciate the opportunity, even if it is just to read other people’s comments.
