How to Utilize the Blogging Community to Grow Your Blog

Blogging and social networking go hand in hand. If you want views to your blog, you have to promote it on social media. Networking becomes a job all on its own, and it can be a daunting task. As a result, bloggers have created a barter system of “If you support me, I’ll support you.” As a dedicated member of this community, I do my best to follow these rules and to make sure that I am giving as much as I am taking from the community. Below is an overview of why it’s important to follow the rules of the blogging community in order to grow your blog.

A diverse blogging community

Though networking takes time away from actually creating new content, it’s beneficial in introducing you to a tight-knit writing community that supports each other and leads to positive exposure. It reminds you that writers are also readers, and it’s important to connect with your own kind, even if you write about different topics.

I’m not a travel expert, but I like to read travel blog posts. I’m not a mother, but I like to read mommy blog posts. Connecting with different types of bloggers gives me a variety of posts to read, to comment on, and to learn from. This give and take makes for a great method of support and exposure.

Breaking the rules

However, the system isn’t perfect. Every blogger’s number one priority is gaining views for their blog and followers on their various accounts to ensure that those numbers continue to climb. As a result, some bloggers exploit the system. Some common complaints from the blogging community include:

• Following and then unfollowing social media accounts
• Creating posts promising to retweet and follow every account and then never fulfilling their promise
• Bullying or guilt-tripping bloggers to reciprocate if they comment or share their post. 
• Frequently complaining about how slow their blog is growing without making changes or improvements to their process and content
• Constantly bombarding the blogging community with promotional posts without promoting others

These practices can hurt your blogging reputation and make fellow bloggers shy away from your account. 

Blog follow trains

Several Twitter accounts put out regular posts calling for bloggers to post links to their blogs, social media accounts, or most recent blog posts. In return, they have rules for commenting. Those rules usually involve:

• retweeting the post
• following the account that created the post
• reading the other blogs that are posted
• leaving a comment on a post
• following social media accounts

This is a great way to get exposure for your blog, but it’s also time consuming, especially when there are dozens of replies to sort through. They also tend to be poorly monitored. So, many do not reciprocate based on the rules. 

Also, many bloggers post on the same follow train accounts. So, you’re likely to see the same bloggers posting over and over again. You’re probably also likely to see my same posts on multiple threads and social media accounts.

My rule is to do my part on the follow and comment trains no matter what. Some days it leads to engagement. Other days, it doesn’t. If the group or thread is consistently not producing results, I leave it and focus on those that are more beneficial to me. But you have to come to play if you want any hope of engagement. 

Follow trains

The longer I post on the follow trains, the fewer new bloggers I find, but there’s always at least a handful of new ones in the bunch. Also, you have to be careful not to follow too many bloggers at one time. Twitter, especially, will cut you off when you’ve followed 5,000 accounts, and they won’t let you follow again until you reach 5,000 followers. 

When I find a new blogger to follow, I like to visit their site and look for their social media icons so that I can follow them on as many platforms as possible. 

Tip: Check to make sure that your social media links open in a new tab. That way, bloggers can go back to your page to keep reading posts or click on another social media link. It’s frustrating when the social media icon directs me away from your blog. 

Commenting

Most bloggers, including myself, love to receive comments on their posts. It shows that not only are people reading, but they have something nice to say about the post (thank God for moderating posts to keep the spammers and trolls away). However, sometimes the comments can feel really generic, and I’m pretty sure that they haven’t read the post. They just write “Great post!” or “Really interesting!” or “Great information!” 

As much as I love to return the favor with comments, I don’t want to post something that isn’t unique or genuine. So, if I comment on a blog post, it’s because I have something to add to the conversation, or I truly did like the post. And I only want genuine comments in return. 

Pinterest

I’ll also pin my favorite articles on a Pinterest on a board I made titled “Posts from Other Bloggers.” This board is filled with subcategories that pertain to my interests. This allows me to add pins on a variety of topics without creating a bunch of unrelated boards. 

Pinterest is a crucial search engine tool to help others find and read your blog posts. However, I’m surprised by how many bloggers do not utilize it. So, sometimes I can’t promote a good post as much as I’d like to. 

Creating my own threads

Once a week, usually on Tuesdays, I put out my own calls for blog posts on Twitter. Unlike other threads that require you to share a certain number of posts or follow everyone who comments, I simply guarantee that I will read every post at some point during the week. In my call for blog posts, I try to provide a theme or let bloggers know what types of blogs I like to read. Some common topics include:

• personal essays
• travel
• art
• writing
• mommy blogs
• tips and tutorials
• older posts that need more views
• brand new posts that need a boost in traffic

I also try to promote the best posts that I read as much as possible, usually by retweeting, pinning, or commenting. After reading each post, I then like their comment on my thread. 

Unlike follow threads with rules, I sometimes see a ton of engagement among other bloggers in the thread. Not having any rules and restrictions actually makes them more collaborative. They follow and compliment each other on their work. It’s really nice to see. 

I also include one of my posts in the thread, either new or old, and I find that at least a handful of people will read and share it. And I also get a lot of material to pin to my Pinterest boards to help that account grow. So, it’s a win-win situation for all of us, even if it does take up a lot of time to read all of those posts.

Lessons learned

The biggest lesson that I have learned from social media networking is to be genuine. Support everyone, but give extra attention to those who deserve it. Don’t comment or like just to get a comment or like back. After all, I want to put out the best work possible to earn my success and receive genuine praise. The people who I support should want the same for their blog. And they should do their best to support their fellow bloggers in the same way that they want to be supported.

What is your social networking process/etiquette like? Leave your answers in the comments below!

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