Building Your Audience through Comments and Conversations

by Kayla Lords · Published February 20, 2019 · Updated July 23, 2020

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 30:38 — 21.5MB)

So many things are involved in building an audience for your blog or brand. You have to create interesting content, get found by a potential audience, and then keep them interested enough to come back for more. I don’t believe responding to comments or commenting on other blogs and websites is the only way to build an engaged audience, but I do think it helps. If you want a more active and engaged audience, responding to (most of) the people who talk to is a good start, and I’ve got a few tips to help you manage it all.

In this episode:

This week’s episode is sponsored by QuickBooks Self Employed.
Announcement: Next week is episode 50 which is a milestone. I’m taking a podcast hiatus for a while after that publishes — and not just for Eroticon in London, but that’s a good reason, too.
Commenting on blogs and even on social media isn’t what it used to be. People do it less because we’re all so busy.
Add in mental illness, burn out, and us being busy, and it can feel impossible to keep up conversations.
But the truth is that talking to your audience is a way to build loyalty, increase your engagement, and build a business.
Tips to help you engage with more people:
- Comment on other people’s content. If you’re participating in a community event or you happen to see something you like — comment!
- Set a time each day or week to go through comments. Trying to keep up with them every day can be overwhelming. Adding it as something on your to-do list may make it feel manageable.
- Ignore, delete, block anything that feels inappropriate. Girl on the Net has a great post about being the dictator of her blog — you’re not required to respond to everything OR approve all comments.