Maintaining a blog is almost like exercising, you have to make it a routine and stick with it in order to ensure you are maintaining high standards and keep your audience engaged. The most successful blogs are ones that continue to be updated daily with multiple posts being published a week, this gives the audience something to hang onto and look forward to in the next post. The key is to make them as interactive as possible and to engage with your audience to make them feel like a member of a community and an important part of your blog. As the leader(s) of a blog, it is imperative to build and retain a social atmosphere.
But what is the best way to build an audience and make your blog’s presence known?
Table of Contents
Establish Genre:
Focusing on a particular subject is the first step towards creating an audience or following. Whether it is a blog on political satire, health and fitness, art, music, video games, film directing, business marketing or screenwriting, there are people who want to see a fresh voice in these types of media.
Once you choose the genre that best suits your interests then you can begin writing quality content that focuses on these areas on a daily basis.
Use Video Content:
When looking at the evidence of subscribers and followers on YouTube, it is evidently clear that the video content and the person who produces it is what viewers return to see on a weekly basis.
An example of successful utilization of video content to establish a strong presence in social media is YouTuber Markiplier. What he does is record himself playing through terrifying video games. His reactions to frightening situations are what keep people coming back for more in the next video, for example one video is of him playing through a horror game called Five Nights at Freddy’s went viral and now sits at nearly 13 million views. His focus is entirely on video content and it has given him a presence that pushes beyond the boundaries of social media. This approach definitely wouldn’t work if it had been simple, written reactions.
Blend Written And Visual Content:
What better way to better engage with your audience than mixing your blog’s written content with visual content? This puts a face and personality for them to build a relationship with.
Screenwriter Max Landis maintains a blog on his website, “Max Landis Writes” where he does just that. He will upload posts of his own ideas that never quite made sense, opinions on established properties, and his daily thoughts that he thinks his fans will find fascinating.
Landis uploaded a script online of what Super Mario World would be like as a feature length film. It was revealed to be 436 pages long, far beyond the realism of being made into an actual film and talks about the humour of creating something that made no practical sense. He explains his inexperience in the film industry in the foreword, which includes foolish mistakes that make it impractical in it’s current form.
While Landis posts written pieces such as this, he also uploads videos of himself making conversation with his audience. What this does is give them a better understanding of Landis as an individual and possibly what makes this up-and-coming screenwriter tick. His video, Flip the Premise, presents Landis taking Star Wars and flipping the premise so that Darth Vader was the main character, making him a sympathetic character as opposed to Luke Skywalker. Following this he asks viewers to play this game and comment on their attempts at “flipping the premise.”
What he does is synergize the importance of written and video content to interact with his readers/viewers. This is an essential piece of knowledge that will allow for the establishment of your presence on a digital blog.
Raising Awareness:
By utilizing the mixing of these two forms of content, your audience will find the content you product engaging and interesting, always coming back for more. The important thing to remember is that building an audience takes time and they’ll come if you express your voice and produce quality content for long enough. To gather awareness on the web about your blog, being social and active on the most popular social media platforms and remaining consistent in your posts are an absolute must.
Keep blogging about your interests and passion, people who share in the same love will take notice. Stay confident in what you’re doing and keep creating engaging content!
About the Author:Robert Benoit is an intern at Phink TV who is currently studying English Writing and Mass Communication at Assumption College. He was born in Worcester, Massachusetts and is currently studying abroad in London. His future aspirations include film production and professional scriptwriting, as well as a passion for developing creative works.
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