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.
I dont bother with blogs who dont engage with you. I might read an odd post of something that turns up in my inbox/social media that looks interesting otherwise I dont bother. Yours is the only blog i have stuck with from the first time i came on some years ago. I like your style of covering a broad range of topics and interacting.
Glad you do Carol. Thanks for reading all these years 😊
Thank you for this article! 🙂 More posts.
Thanks for reading.
Still blog followers.. Once you hit their spot, then engagement happens
Very true. As long as the blog followers are real.
🙂 A large following is meaningless if they do not engage with your blog. Therefore, the greater emphasis would be on blog engagement.
I agree Renard 😊
this is really interesting, I think if you have built your following the right way, the engagement will always follow. It’s interesting when the two don’t correlate!
Yes it is interesting when they don’t but it does happen. Some people just follow but never engage.
Blog engagement is far more important than blog followers. What’s the point of having a lot of blog followers who never comment on your posts?
Blog engagement is very important. Thanks Lori.
Interesting, I am of course always aiming for both but I never truly focused on engagement. I will have to start looking into it more.
Glad you found the post interesting Tiffany.
For brands who are all after immediately results, they always look for number of followers. But if you are aiming for long term goal, blog engagement is our focus.
Yes blog engagement is very important.
Having a huge blog follower reach is great but having a great content is what will make you go big. Cheers to more years of blogging!
Thanks Thet.
This is a good distinction you made. I have often been discouraged about NOT having many followers, but find that it means more to me to have the engagement with a good number of comments left. When I don’t get many comments, either, that is a bit discouraging and makes me wonder what I need to do differently.
Not getting comments can be very discouraging.
Great topic! I would pick more engagement since it shows how closely you and your audience is connected. I think both are important for a brand to grow.
Yes they are both important.
Yes sure the engagement with your followers is the best. Your blog look really nice to me and I will follow you.
Thank you.
You need both but if your followers/readers don’t engage at all, then it seems pointless. All blogs have silent visitors who read and split. They add to the overall numbers but an actual comment makes a difference.
Very true.
This is such a useful post! I believe engagement is slightly more significant than the number of followers 🙂
Thanks Corina.
Great article. I love hearing from my readers. It’s way more valuable than a like because I know they actually read the content.
Thanks Heidi.
Defo engagement. Getting a comment or a like is way more exciting for me than a follow
Engagement is really important.