Should you invest more in increasing blog engagement or blog followers?
When I was growing my blog, all I thought about was having a long list of followers who would read my blog posts. All this while I worked so hard trying to increase my blog followers that I overlooked the importance of blog engagement.
Your blog followers are people who are devoted readers of your blog. Most times they are the ones who subscribe to your email list to get notified when you have a new blog post.
While blog followers are those who look out for your next blog post, blog engagement is how your readers engage with your blog post. There are many ways your readers can engage with your blog. The most prominent way is when they drop a comment on your blog post. Another way is when they share your blog post on social media.
Both blog followers and blog engagement are important for the growth of your blog. In fact, they work hand-in-hand to help you achieve this goal. You can’t have blog engagement without blog followers and if you don’t have blog followers then you won’t be able to get engagement on your blog.
But which is more important?
As a blogger, we’re made to think that having more blog followers is what will make you a successful blogger. And that’s a wrong way of looking at your blogging journey.
It’s the power of the influence you have over your readers that makes you a successful blogger. Building that strong connection with your audience is what makes your blogging efforts worth your while.
That is why I believe that every blogger should focus on building blog engagement over blog following. Shifting my energy to creating quality blog engagement helped me immensely as a blogger. Here’s why:
- Focusing on blog engagement help me create a strong bond with my audience
While a lot of bloggers see their followers as a number in their vanity metrics, I see them as friends I can have a lovely chat with at a coffee shop. That’s why I ensure that I inspire conversation with my audience. That helps me get to know them more as they get to learn about me from my blog posts.
- Brands look at blog engagement and not exactly your following
You may have a large reader base but if no one even wants to interact with you, then what’s the point of such a large following? Brands have caught on to the sneaky tricks of some bloggers who try to increase their blog followers without investing in creating quality engagement in their blog post. Brands know that the power of one’s influence is how they’re able to get their audience engaged. And that’s where they’ve got their eyes on.
- Engagement helps me know exactly what my audience wants
You want to keep creating quality content for your readers. What better way to know what they want than to actually ask them!
When my readers engage with my blog posts, I know right off the bat their problems, pain points and struggles. This helps me come back with a blog post that will help them with just that.
What do you think? Which is more important? Blog engagement or blog followers? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.
Thanks for reading.