Five Mistakes Bloggers Make When it Comes to Being Social

Social media has made everything a much more open and level playing field. People who would have never even had a chance at connecting before are now regularly interacting with one another, and marketing your website has become a cinch. This is especially helpful for bloggers, whether you run a largely success blog or one that’s still in its humble beginnings. However, that doesn’t mean that everyone has mastered the art of being social; make sure you aren’t making these mistakes on the social scene:

1. Only responding to blogging friends in the comments. The blogging community is a tight-knit one, and it’s usually not hard to discern which bloggers are friends among different blogging circles. However, it can be a turn-off for new readers to come to a blog, leave a thoughtful comment, and then come back to see that the blogger has only responded to those comments left by people who are clearly friends. When new people visit your site and take the time to leave comments its good etiquette to respond, especially if you want to entice people to stay.
2. Not having a contact page on the blog. A lot of readers and businesses enjoy reaching out to bloggers on a more intimate level, and prefer to contact the blogger through email rather than leaving a comment. However, if you don’t have a contact page or something that clearly indicates how people can reach you via email, then you’re doing your blog a disservice.
3. Not having a Twitter or Facebook page for the blog. Social media sites like Twitter and Facebook are essential for increasing your readership and exposure. These types of social media make it easy for readers to share posts that they liked with their followers, and they allow you to connect with other bloggers and readers on a different level.
4. Only posting blog links on social media sites. If you do have social media sites set up for your blog then it’s important to do more than just send out links to new blog posts on them. You have to establish a solid online presence and provide your followers with a good reason to follow you; this includes linking to new posts, but also means you should send out links to other well-written articles and interact with your followers.
5. Ignoring tweets from followers. When followers get up the courage to finally comment on a Facebook page or tweet something to you, you should acknowledge these efforts. Like responding to blog comments, you want your readers to feel like they matter to you – after all, without them your blog would have no traffic. Don’t make the mistake of ignoring them.

Social media is one of the best tools available to bloggers when it’s used correctly. So get out there and interact with the community! Use social media exactly how it was intended: to be social.