My 7 Blogging Strategies
Got inspired by The Hoffington Post
Browsing my favourite blogs is one of my must-do of a day. Normally I spend about 5 minutes choosing several interesting new articles from Google reader and then read through and sometimes leave my comments. Recently I started to follow some bloggers on The HuffingtonPost since the viewpoints they share and illustrate often hit, and somehow inspire and encourage me to think and respond.
The Huffington Post was founded by Arianna Huffington in May 2005 as a left-leaning commentary blog. It has successfully built up an active community which includes a core group of bloggers from celebrities, scholars, politicians and numerous specialists, interacting and co-creating the contents with huge amounts of readers, contributing more than one million comments made every month.
What interests me most
is the concept of curation.
Web 2.0 results in the vast amount of information and contents generated by users while the trend in web3.0 would be the data-content curation, the process of gathering, selecting and extracting huge amount of information contents on the Internet, and presenting in a useful and organized manner.
The Huffington Post fully utilizes the advantage of user-generated contents through applying reliable curation process to produce SEO-friendly outcomes which not only attract huge amount of readers but also facilitate building up the interactive community.
Everyone wants to tell a story
The idea of Off-the-bus reporter is another interesting success of The Huffington Post, by which the concept of Web2.0 is perfectly practiced through the fact that every audience can participate in the process of knowledge/information creation and dissemination. The contribution and interaction between users and curators thus reveal a fact that, users not only like to read stories, they want to tell stories as well. How to build up and maintain the active community is the key to a successful blog.
So now…the strategies
The purpose of my blog is to practice content curation through the research of enterprise 2.0 related materials, and further experiment on building up an active community which encourage co-contribute to this blog. Inspired by The Huffington Post and other successful blogs, I would like to apply following strategies on blogging:
1. Choose Target Audience
Clarifying the target audience is very important since it helps to determine the blog contents and build up specific readership. Once the target audience is chosen, make sure the articles and contents are in accordance with the expectation and requirement of target audience.
2. Curation
Through wide reading and research, then combine with my personal opinions to generate and extract interesting and meaningful contents which can invite further discussion or reflection.
3. Short & Concise Content
Effectively convey the idea with short and concise sentences, together with charts or pictures clearly expressed and presented in the manner which makes it easier for reader to comprehend.
4. Utilize Social Media
In Web3.0, user-generated contents could be synchronously updated and disseminated through different platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Plurk, Digg, etc. Through the integration of sharing function it allows the content to be seen through numerous channels.
5. Listen to my Audience
Applying web analytics tools such as Google Analytics, Site Meter to help me understand what exactly interests the audience and further emphasis on the specific content which is more SEO friendly and at the meanwhile invites readers to comment.
6. Monitor Blogosphere
An active blogging community can be achieved through establishing connection with similar blogs and groups. Regularly and actively share or comment on related blogs will facilitate exposing your blog, building up blog traffic, and further creating an blogging community.
7. Encourage Call-to-Action
The exact call to action that I would like the users to respond can be simply defined as commenting or sharing the contents of my blog. So how to write inspiring and interesting articles with my curation from other readings is very essential for building up and maintaining readership.
It can also be an opportunity for me to practice my critical and independent thinking upon materials related to Enterprise 2.0.What I would like to focus on is the trend and interesting idea related to Web3.0 and Enterprise 2.0, and I will adjust my blogging strategies in responding to the outcomes with time.
Please feel free to leave your comments which I believe will actively inspire both of us. 🙂
References:
1. 5 Social Media Marketing Myths: Busted!
edie cheng 
Nice post Edie.
Honestly, I have never used the term “Curation” before. My developer background almost forces me to be using the term “Compilation” rather than “Curation” :). But, in the end the important idea is the process: “data gathering”->”data filtering and processing”->”data analysis”. In my understanding that’s what Curation is about. And I agree that should consired while blogging.
Cheers,
Charles
Hi Edie, i really enjoyed reading this. I liked your idea of taking a few minutes to find what is interests you and reading about other bloggers. Sounds like a smart little strategy to establishing your network with others. You have certainly challenged me to find that ‘valuable time’. 🙂
Do take some time to read my post via this address http://thadreina.wordpress.com/
and you can also follow me on twitter using this hastag @takujoo.
Thanks
Thadreina
Hi Eddie,
Like your way of presenting your post ! Very clair and fresh ! Sure I will come back to see your future posts !
Hi there! Great minds think alike, and I think both our blogging strategies have much in common. Listening to what the audience want is very important to building up and maintaining a good readership. All the best for your blog!