Ideas About How to Build Community At Blogs

Some nice 'heat' building at the site, how lovely...

By my tracker, just shy of 100 people (93) have clicked through my newsletter to BlogSquadLive.com since yesterday.  That's kinda cool.  How are the traffic stats going Patsi and Denise?  Just curious.

I had a question today from a visitor to this site:

'Andrea, another blog! I like them but I see for example that this one has a LOT of bloggers and very few commenters.  Can you comment (erghm) about that?'

So, what say, all?  Any comments from our blogging expert midst?  When it comes to encouraging comments and building community at blogs, there is one basic thing I can say works...that is:

Comments and activity are usually 'event' driven. So for example, if BlogSquadLive.com were to hold a pre-ICF conference call, and ask the question...what is the one big thing you want to 'get' out of the conference? And then direct everyone to come here and post, you would find a nice number of people would.  That done, they seem more likely to post another comment because they've broken the 'seal of silence' as it were.

As part of the same thing, I find it very effective if when I'm asked a question, I say, I'll post the answer at the blog...that creates some nice fabric of community in the blogspace.  (Which of course, tehe, is why I'm blogging this, quite like this. :-) )

What other feedback might we have for the questioner on this? I'd love to hear our best tips!

As for ICF related commentary...well, blogs for me, still have yet to cross the chasm from 'rogue ' to 'establishment' although that is probably getting less true as I finish typing this sentence. So it doesn't surprise me that there hasn't been official support from the ICF for your efforts Denise, Patsi. 

Perhaps one way to help is to generate some ongoing stats like visitors, clicks, google ranking for ICF, etc.  (Wouldn't it be a kick if when you Google ICF, BlogSquadLive.com comes up first or third? ;-) Someone would notice then, I'd bet.) 

Comments

[Molly Gordon]

As a veteran of numerous online community efforts, from being a bulletin board host at WomenConnect.com to being a guest on AOL chats, not to mention umpteen newsgroups in the olden days, I know that reaching ciritical mass in an online community is a daunting task.

First, numbers. As Denise points out, the blog needs to be promoted in order to attract traffic, and it needs to be promoted early and often. It takes 17 exposures to a new product or service for the average person to decide to check it out; I imagine that it may take a similar number of repetitions to persuade a busy coach to come to the blog.

Secondly, as Patsi points out, people need to have a reason to comment. I don't know that they are shy, per se (some are, but not all), but people who have been active in a listserv or forum have likely been trained to refrain from making casual posts along the lines of "I agree," or "Thank you," or "Good point!"

I agree that controversy might bring folks here and encourage them to post. Shall we start a category on regulating coaching? Increasing the number of coaching contact hours required for certification? Raising dues or conference fees?

But, and this is a big but for me, I suspect there is something else missing not only from the blog (and granted, it is early days so the lack of this is not to be attributed to the current participants) but also from many of the discourses in our profession. That is, reality testing.

Maybe I'm just an old crank, but it seems to me that there is a tendency for coaches as a group to sugar coat reality. Sometimes that looks like cheerleading a client who could better use a kick in the pants. It can look like a subtle blaming of the client who is stuck for not seeing a bigger picture, for not engaging a higher purpose, for not accepting responsibility for "creating" their reality.

From my perspective, we don't create our reality, at least, we do not create it solo. Real events, constraints, and circumstances affect what we can and cannot do in a given situation. To pretend that we can simply change our minds to change our lives is to miss the point that people have varying capacities for mind change, varying resources for responding to change, varying contexts in which to explore change.

This is but one of several coaching myths that we might invite readers to take on.

[Denise Wakeman]

I agree with Patsi. It takes time to build up a community that is willing to comment, and this is a very new blog. That being said, we are doing as much as we can to get the word out about the blog and to encourage people to subscribe to get updates. That will help drive traffic and comments.

Take note guest bloggers: the more you help drive traffic to this blog, the more awareness there is for your own blogs. Make sure to announce to your networks that you're participating and that will encourage visitors and by extension, commentors.

[Patsi Krakoff]

You raise some very good points, Andrea. Thanks for addressing the "comments" situation. In my experience, people are generally shy about commenting, unless the topic is controversial. You have to stir people up and connect to their emotions, before they will speak up. While this blog isn't exactly about religion, politics or sex, there is still plenty to comment about. Of course, I could write a post expressly urging comments and participation, but I hate to beg. Oh, okay, I'm not above begging.