This guest post was written by Thomas E. Hanna, whom I watched go from zero to a recognized expert in a couple of short months. It was like watching a piece of engagement art created in front of your very eyes. And in this post, he’ll share one key aspect of human interaction.
Real, actionable engagement does not come from cutesy guilt-infused graphics.
It comes from conversation. It builds off relationships. It grows into trust.
And it stops trying to build an audience.
The Problem With Audiences
Within the blogging and social media industry, we talk a lot about audiences.
We teach people to know their ideal audience, to write for their target audience, and to go where their audience is.
Yet, as a blogger, the last thing you want is an audience.
Audiences are passive. They are consumers of information, but little else.
The concept draws from a time when communication was a one-way street: writers published books, designers published images, and marketers published ads.
The goal was consumption, not engagement.
You need engagement. Engagement is the only metric that really matters.
An audience is not what you need.
What you need is a community.
Here are three ways that the audience mentality will block your blogging success, and how to fix it.
1. “Audiences” Fail To Cultivate Relationships
The heart of a thriving online community is built around relationships. Your marketing relies on trust, and trust is shaped through consistent, personal interaction.
When we cling to the audience mentality, the value of relationships is overlooked or ignored altogether.
People become follower counts and are then viewed in terms of purchasing power or broadcasting power.
Consider the recent debacle still hammering the newly-rebranded Hawke and Company clothing line.
This past weekend, Christian Conti made a purchase and the company would not honor their discounts, even canceling his order. He commented about it on Twitter, and the company responded with “We’re sure your 320 followers will understand.”
And they did understand.
In fact, they understood so well that the company’s dismissive retort went viral, being retweeted by celebrities, authors, and getting picked up by news publications.
The clothing company began a series of increasingly awkward backpedaling strategies, including statements that “bad publicity is better than no publicity,” trying to pass it off as a “social experiment,” then offering a public apology and substantial discount (which was then deleted and ended a few hours later), eventually deleting the entire interaction from their Twitter timeline, and now they have an official statement offered as an apology.
The power behind this reaction did not come from Christian’s social media power. It was due to how deeply people today value relationships.
So what can we learn from this?
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Honor the person.
Remember that we engage with people, not metrics. Take the time to know your readers and value them. Invest your time into relationships. It is that investment that will grow brand evangelists, which is a huge payoff.
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Go deep rather than wide.
The initial temptation of social media is to try to be everywhere at once. This dilutes your presence and prevents you from being able to foster valuable relationships. Start with one focus, build a presence there, and develop connections. Then, let these relationships become the bridge as you expand into new social platforms.
Grow your community one person at a time.
Additional Resources:
- Be Memorable: 10 Practical Ways to Successfully Get Influencers’ Attention by Ana Hoffman
- How To Build Awesome Relationships On Social Media with Eric Enge and Peg Fitzpatrick
2. “Audiences” Treat Social Networks As Distribution Channels
It amazes me how many people attempt to fully automate their social presence.
- They tap into RSS feeds to push curated content to their timelines.
- They set up their blogs to auto-share any new material the moment it goes live.
- They set up auto responders to greet new followers and market their current product.
When you view your readers as an audience rather than as a community, the goals change.
Instead of fostering connections, you strive to push content in front of eyeballs. You look for opportunities to drive consumption, and rarely discover the avenues which drive engagement.
This is almost always a recipe for failure.
It was Dale Carnegie that said,
“You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in people than you can in two years by trying to get people interested in you.”
This is absolutely the case when it comes to blogging and social media.
Rather than seeing social networks as distribution hubs, view them as networking opportunities.
Go deep.
How do you do this?
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Show up.
Perhaps the most important piece of social media advice that anyone can give is this: be present. There are few things more frustrating than an individual that pushes a lot of content to their social profile, but never responds to any activity on it. This is a sure way to kill engagement. Instead, be present and be active.
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Find engagement nodes.
On any social network, there are places where those people in your niche gather and interact. On Google Plus, it is in communities. On Twitter, it is in social chats. On Pinterest, it is on community boards. Find out where your people are, and go meet them.
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Be helpful.
Do you have a particular expertise? Unleash that pent-up knowledge on unsuspecting individuals. When someone has a question that you can help with, don’t just be helpful — be overwhelmingly helpful. Put the time in to become an asset. People see this. That visibility builds trust. Trust drives clients.
They are social networks, not social broadcasts. So network.
Additional Resources:
- How To Build Powerful Alliances On Google Plus by Martin Shervington
- Grow Your Social Media Audience Through Communities by Rebekah Radice
3. “Audiences” Kill Engagement
Here’s a little-known secret to blogging: you train your readers how you want them to respond.
In broad terms, that is called building a culture.
The culture of a website shapes the way that people interact with you, with your content, and with each other.
Part of this naturally follows your personality, and part of it is directly tied to your chosen field.
The most important piece, however, is tied to the way you lead.
If you want a community filled with people that share your content, that buy your products, and that tell their friends about you, then start by crafting a blog experience that focuses on engagement rather than consumption.
Here are some tips to get moving in the right direction.
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Position your articles as conversation pieces.
One of the most amazing things about a community is in the collaborative power of ideas. When you publish an article, invite feedback and offer clear direction on the way you want that feedback to go. The easiest way to do this is to simply ask a question or include a clear call to action. View your article as the entry point rather than the destination, and draw a clear link to the next stage in the journey.
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Respond to your comments.
Look, this should be blogging 101, but a mind-boggling number of content creators fail to respond to comments. If you want people to engage with your material — which includes social shares and conversions — then you need to create that culture by engaging with them. A comment is engagement kindling. When you fail to respond, you let that initial spark flicker and die.
Don’t kill the fire. Help it burn.
Additional Resources:
- Why Being Human On Social Media Is The Best Strategy You’ll Ever Have by Jackie Johnstone
- Is It Worth Responding To Blog Comments by Neil Patel
So Get Off The Street
Facebook Likes, Google Plusses, or Twitter Favorites are about as beneficial as cars honking at the “Honk To Support Candidate X” sign.
They may be motivating, but they do very little to actually help your cause.
If you want genuine engagement, start genuinely engaging.
Move away from the audience mentality. Focus on building communities.
Start investing in people, not tactics.
Now share this if you agree.
[share]No, seriously – don’t forget to share the post; thank you![/share]
How do you improve interaction on your site? I’d love to hear from you. Share some of your tips for cultivating community here in the comments.
Thomas E. Hanna
Thomas E. Hanna is on a mission to rescue remarkable individuals from the pit of internet obscurity. He is the founder of BlogPhoto.tv, which provides content creators with the resources, tools, and training they need to stand out online. Looking to get your own site heading in the right direction? Check out his Launch Your Blog course.
Hey Thomas,
Really amazing post. The points you’ve raised here are worth to read. Having a good community of bloggers brings more people attention towards your site. I agree community is what every blogger needed. To get engage your readers respond to their comments having a little question in it. Make your comment more worthy and then wait to get extra comments from your readers.
Thanks for sharing great tips!
-Mustafa
Came across this from jimdo, and this made me think again about communities vs just numbers in audience. What you say is true… “they are social networks, not social broadcasts. “.. I have been fed up with seeing content myself that’s been auto-published. And when I see that, I am much more likely to unfollow or dislike it. It would be a huge improvement in the internet world if there was a feeling of communities rather than aggressive tactics used by publishers. I guess many will choose “oh auto publishing, less work for me” and with so many tools nowadays that encourage auto publishing blog posts.. but it’s almost much better if you build a community which is more sustainable anyway.
Auto-published content is like filling a leaking bucket; it’s not sustainable. Thanks for coming by, Atul!
Ish. I agree with a lot of the sentiments in the post. But it all depends on the purpose of the blog. If it’s a blog aimed at creating a connection to make a sale you need good, targeted traffic and not a community.
As a buyer, for a one off low cost purchase, you are not going to join a community on the product, you’ll do a little research, ask around and then specifically search for that product. After purchase, you may find a community, but prior to purchase? Not if you’re spending less than a $100. How many products have you purchased that come with a Facebook community that’s thriving? Okay, how many products come with a community? Quite a lot, but customers don’t always want to be part of the community or the conversation, and they certainly don’t think of themselves as “the audience”.
I think there needs to be some separation of the types of blogs out there, and how they work, and that community and audience are just one model. You absolutely don’t have to go with that option if it does not suit you or your business; what’s right is what works for you.
And that’s why I’m in the “ish” camp and agreeing with a lot of your sentiments.
I think there is a difference, Sarah.
If I am purchasing a product, I go to one of two places: to an ecommerce site (such as Amazon) or to the product page. I don’t go to blogs.
Blogs come in during the research and referral stage. Consumer behavior at that stage consists of reading numerous reviews, then going to the aforementioned locations to make their purchase. So they may read the blog, but that “targeted traffic” rarely converts to sales.
There are three exceptions:
1. When you, as an affiliate, add substantial value to them purchasing through you. Pat Flynn does a great job of this, adding a host of extras that he creates which enhance the product he is selling. This way, there is a good reason to purchase through him.
2. If you are not an affiliate, but are instead the producer of the product itself. Even here, conversion rates dramatically increase when there is a process in place to build a relationship with your target consumer (which is why email lists are so important).
3. When people choose to purchase on the basis of your referral. This happens as the result of trust, and that trust is earned through the relationship you have built with that consumer.
So for blogs, even blogs marketing a product, I would argue that relationships are still the crucible of success. And really, that’s what we’re talking about when we say community: relationships which drive engagement.
I don’t agree with a lot of things of this post but it is an interesting perspective. And the reason why I don’t agree it’s because I am pretty sure that a lot of my mentors always mention the importance of cultivating an audience to build great businesses but I understand your point of view!
Thanks for stopping by Manuel!
I think you would want to ask your mentors what they mean by “audience” and how that applies to an online medium such as blogging and social media.
Offline, the term still fits well. When you advertise in commercials, billboards, and magazines you are operating on the basis of consumption. You publish; your audience reads. Ideally, this raises awareness of your brand so that when they are considering a purchase, your brand is top-of-mind.
Things change when we enter the online sphere. When we publish a blog, we want people to share, to comment, to subscribe. The very fact that you were able to express your disagreement and that became a conversation means that you are interacting with this article very differently than you would a magazine. You are taking immediate action on the basis of the post; in this case, by leaving a comment.
And that is exactly what we want. We want to cultivate a community of people that actively engage, not an audience that simply reads and moves on.
Awesome article! You have truly given me some insight on the difference between an audience and a community. I would much rather build a community of sure. Engagement is so vital to what we do as bloggers but I realize we have to put ourselves and our blogs in a position to be engaging. I love your viewpoints on how to accomplish this. Thanks for sharing.
Glad you found it helpful Nathaniel!
ANA! Thanks for having an insightful guest blogger post here. It wasn’t you, but somehow it was still awesome.
THOMAS! Sorry to shout at ya, but that was a good reminder for me. You don’t know me, but in my blog I teach lessons I’ve learned about marketing over a nearly 30-year career of teaching martial arts and founding a few other businesses.
I will NEVER forget the day that I was complaining to my senior instructor that the enrollment in my martial arts classes had reached a plateau that I just couldn’t seem to surpass. No matter what advertising or promotional techniques I was using, my little martial arts club just couldn’t seem to move off the 40-member mark.
He said, “Stop worry about how MANY you are teaching and just focus in on teaching who you do have. Teach and serve THEM the best you can.”
I did, and pretty much forgot about promotions and advertising.
Funny thing; my enrollment more than DOUBLED when I quit trying to get more, get more, get more Students.
I don’t know if it was God knowing He could trust me with more little kids to beat up (KIDDING) or if my members started spreading the word about my school, but it worked a charm. Focusing on the relationships I ALREADY HAD within my little school was way, way more important than increasing enrollment. And funny thing… when I put my efforts in the Students I had, new ones started busting down the door.
“Focus on DEPTH, not width.” You are my master Yoda, sir.
Keep Stepping,
Kurt
Great story Kurt, and it illustrates the principle well. Certainly we have to market, but the perceptions embedded within the communities we create can make or break us.
By focusing in on your community, you were able to develop evangelists that love what you do and want to tell others about it. That’s powerful.
Hi Ana,
Very well written post but I would like to add that understanding your audience plays a key role to the success of your marketing campaign.
Best Regards
Miraj Gazi
Really nice post! I bookmarked this post!
Plus, If i can add something, focusing on your audience will make you have less fun with your blog. It has to be for you first, second, your audience!
It’s certainly an interesting balance, Jean. If you don’t have a passion for your blog, you’ll burn out pretty quick. The level of emphasis on your target community is going to depend on the goals of your site, though. A business blog needs to be completely focused on their target market, tapping into the needs that their business model is uniquely positioned to fill, and demonstrating their expertise in the industry.
A personal blog is going to be entirely focused on the writer, chronicling their own individual musings.
Topical blogs are somewhere in between: connecting personally with your community while also addressing their pain points and the needs that you can meet.
So figuring out that balance is important, but it will vary from blog to blog.
Obviously your content is most important and every one wants people appreciating it or criticizing it in true sense, and that can only be done by building relations not audience.
Not only that, but the art of blogging itself is so much more rewarding when you walk away with genuine connections with other people. One of the surprising rewards of this industry was when I discovered that I found friends that I never would have found otherwise.
As we are finding each other 🙂
I’m bookmarking this for reference later too.
Hi Thomas and Anna,
Awesome! Some forget that communities are business builders.
Communities grow if members speak, and are spoken to, with engagement being the great connecting glue.
Fab tips here!
I end posts with questions, and use images to evoke emotion, and to evoke comments, too. Treat people with respect, listen to their viewpoint, be kind, be engaging, and you’ll have few issues growing a community.
As the quality and depth of your content improves, and you keep the engagement train going, you’ll make the intimate 1 on 1 connections with grow your blog’s reach, and which helps you grow your business.
Thanks guys!
Tweeting from Bali.
Ryan
Ending posts with questions is a great way to increase engagement. It is an invitation to others to add their wisdom to the conversation.
Hi Thomas,
This was truly an awesome topic.
As I started reading this post, I had to log into my site and really analyze some of the blog posts I’m in the process of writing and think about the message I’m trying to convey. I used “audience” in a few of them but you’re right, as bloggers we DON’T want an audience, we want a community.
This post single handedly changed my mentality towards that and I’ll be making modifications.
“Remember that we engage with people, not metrics. Take the time to know your readers and value them. Invest your time into relationships. It is that investment that will grow brand evangelists, which is a huge payoff.”
This is very true.
I love the points you made in “Audiences” Kill Engagement. I agree with all of it. Once again, truly great post here.
I never truly knew of you that much before, but I’m paying attention now and checking out more of your posts … definitely.
– Andrew
Great thoughts Andrew!
And I feel you. It is strangely difficult to adjust the language that we are so used to. ‘Audience’ has been so ingrained into our thinking that it comes out even when we know better.
Confession: I still say ‘Audience’ all the time, and have to go back and correct myself. It’s tough. But the mental transition from audience to community is an important one, and I’m glad you found it meaningful.
For me, the word ‘audience’ is always connected with an idea of a stage, mostly in theatre, of course, where people are being talked at, but not conversed with.
I think that image goes very well with what you are talking about in the post, Thomas – we don’t want to preach to our audience from a pulpit, rather be one of them, have a conversation, shake a hand, share a smile.
That’s what helps me to remember the idea of a ‘community’ over an ‘audience’.
Exactly, Ana. You nailed it.
Absolutely spot on, Thomas! This article is powerful. We must change the way we engage with the people we interact with.
Exactly, Carrie-Anne. It’s all about that engagement.
This is an excellent post and it raises some very important points. I think for me the key word is always ‘relationships’. I don’t just want a passive audience, I want relationships with people who I can interact with,
Nailed it, Kostas.
The greatest pivot in my development as a blogger was when I made the shift from trying to get everyone to notice me and instead tried to develop relationships with people.
At that point, I discovered that relationships are really what it is all about.