How to Build Community around Your Blog with #MyBlogU

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A blog cannot exist without community: There should be repeat visitors who are looking forward to your articles, share, comment, give you feedback, etc.

A blogger without community can quickly burn out. Your community helps you promote your content, inspires you, helps with all your endeavors.

But how to get people become part of your community in our era of too many communities? How to get them stick to yours where there’s such a variety of social media networks and blogs to spend time at?

Commonality of purpose – leads to commitment #myblogu

— Phil Turner (@EP_pturner) June 18, 2015

One of the most effective solutions is to start building your community outside of your blog and then keep in touch with your readers via email list and possibly Twitter chats and events.

MyBlogU is a perfect place to find people willing to spend time on your site thanks to the collaboration atmosphere we are building there: People contributing to your articles are much more likely to comment on the final piece and share it on social media.

The only times I see a HUGE spike of comments on my blog are when I have MyBlogU users helping! http://t.co/ZAFD9aHQsi #myblogu

— Anna Fox (@manifestcon) June 18, 2015

MyBlogU users report a much more engagements with their MyBlogU-powered content than with their regular articles.

Some great people on #myblogu willing to help out and offer valuable insight

— Kari (AKA Bellaisa) (@RelationshipCir) June 18, 2015

Use @MyBlogU to Find Your Collaborators

• Create a “Brainstorm” project to collect useful resources, stats, case studies and unique angles for your future article
• Use Expert Interviews feature to collect expert quotes on any specific question you are discussing in your article
• Use “Articles” section to let our users edit, tweak and improve your article and come up with a catchy title

MyBlogU has a very useful auto-notifying email system that keeps your contributors updated on the whole process:

• Your collaborators will receive email once you approve their ideas in the Brainstorms
• Your collaborators will receive email once you mark any of the ideas as published (by providing a URL). That also increases your MBU rank!
• Your collaborators will receive email once you publish their answers from MBU Interviews section
• Your collaborators will receive email once you approve their edits to your article
• Your collaborators will receive email once you publish an article from “Articles” section or have another blogger publish it

Each email notification will drive your collaborators back to you or your site encouraging them to engage with you and your comment.

I love seeing a notification that someone used MY idea or insight in their article. #myblogu

— Kari (AKA Bellaisa) (@RelationshipCir) June 18, 2015

Make sure to use MyBlogU WordPress plugin to keep an eye on MyBlogU notifications from within your WordPress dashboard.

Invite Your Collaborators to Comment and Share

While auto-notifications are useful, talking to your collaborators is essential for actually building those relationships.

• Make sure to thank all of your contributors and collaborators right in your article: That’s how you draw them to your site!
• Connect to your collaborators on social media prior to publishing your article and tag them immediately after you hit “Publish”. Here’s more on building your Twitter following using @MyBlogU by the way.
• Use bulk email feature to talk to your contributors in “Interviews” section

Make sure you actually invite your contributors to comment and install “Subscribe to comment” plugin to give them an option to subscribe to your newsletter once they leave a comment. I am using Mailchimp plugin to collect those leads but there are more options depending on your email marketing solution.

You're right, Ann @SEOSmarty I really MUST make time somehow to be active on #myblogu

— Gail Gardner (@GrowMap) June 18, 2015

@GrowMap I've seen amazingly fast results in terms of community interactions each time I used MyBlogU! #myblogu

— Anna Fox (@manifestcon) June 18, 2015

Create Content that Encourages Discussion

Last but not least, your content matters. People love discussing trends and MyBlogU is an awesome resource for crowdsourcing content around trends. Here’s one of the many examples of MyBlogU-powered expert interview around a currently hot trend.

Use MyBlogU to collect different and even contradicting opinions to spur discussion on your blog. Make sure you select good questions which you know most of contributors have different opinions on.

Building a community is a long-term difficult process but it’s nice to have a platform that can form the core of your own blog community. How are you building your blog community? Please share your community growth hacks!

Community is a LONG-term project – MyBlogU helps #myblogu

— Phil Turner (@EP_pturner) June 18, 2015

Yes, you need to be your community most active member, otherwise it won't work! cc @GrowMap #myblogu

— Ann Smarty (@seosmarty) June 18, 2015

[To get featured in the next Twitter chat, please contribute to this Interview project: Thank fellow MyBlogU members and tell us why!]