Moderator: Allison Tait from Life In A Pink Fibro
Catherine Oehlman: Squiggle Mum
Christie BUrnett: Childhood 101
Leigh Sundstrom: Absolute Leigh
Mrs Woog – Woogsworld
Where do you start?
- Get out there, make comments, meet people.
- Make meaningful comments on other people’s blogs is the best way to connect with other bloggers.
- Know where
- Christie: Facebook is a great way to connect with non-bloggers. It’s her #1 referrer bringing ppl to her blog. Lots of ppl comment on her FB page rather than on the blog which means engaging ppl on FB and creating conversation on FB as well as on the blog.
- Catherine – very hard to respond to all commenters now that she has a bigger community. She priorities people who haven’t commented before. Community is all about relationships and relationships are a two way relationship so it’s important to say hi to people who say hi to you esp the first time.
- Do you reply to the comment on your blog or on their blog? There are a range of way to do this. COmmenting on someone else’s blog can be a really nice compliment to a new blogger who is just starting out.
- Catherine only replies to comments on her blog if she can add to the conversation.
- You can reply on facebook or twitter.
- Building a community is going to require engaging with social media – twitter & Facebook
- Mrs Woog is going to start a facebook page – be ready everyone!
- Twitter is a place to talk to other bloggers and ppl she has more of a relationship with (Christie)
- Leigh: you need to communicate back with those who are communicating with you. It’s a two way street.
- Christie: be kind to yourself, you can’t do it all all the time.
- Catherine: know where your readers are and so put your energy there.
What is the place of meme’s/blog hops for building a community?
Christie runs one of the most successful – we play. The idea was to create a resource space for other mums & teachers to find great ideas.
Knowing that people are active in the blog hop is crucial – that people are engaged and will check out other posts. There are a lot of blog hops that aren’t like that. Another great one is the Weekend Rewind run by Alli from Life In A Pink Fibro.
If you are going to start one then go with one that you are keen on and participate in the ones that are relevant to you. Be choosy about the ones you are going to participate in – don’t link up if it’s not relevant.
There is a difference between building a community and a follower account.
Christie: My community is people who interact with me, my follower numbers are not the same thing.
What is the role of stumbleupon in building community?
Leigh, it’s not going to build your community, it may just bring you some traffic.
What about blogrolls?
Mrs Woog: “I don’t care what social media experts think I use my blogroll to keep up with my favourite readers.”
Leigh, people seem to link less ot others in their actual posts but now that doesnt’ happen so much and so a blogroll is a good way to show off some great other blogs that you might not show off in another way.
Allison – Blogrolls are a way of networking with other bloggers.
