If you want to grow your organization’s website, Mack Collier of The Viral Garden says you have to spend time away from the site:
But please remember that so much of the growth of your blog is dependent on the amount of time you spend OFF your blog! Your ability to create a vibrant community is dependent on you being a good community member yourself. If visitors become regular readers and commenters at your blog, then you should return the favor by spending time on THEIR blog reading and leaving comments! I advise the companies I discuss blogging with to invest at least half of their ‘blogging time’ to reading and commenting on other blogs.
The end of his post also includes a good discussion of Return on Investment, and I know a lot of you are facing those kinds of questions from your bosses when you push for more investment of time or money online.
Technorati Tags: nptech, blogging, Mack_Collier,
David thanks for the mention! We sometimes forget the ‘social’ part of social media. These are tools for us to communicate and not just in a vacuum. I think this is a bit harder for companies to wrap their heads around at first, as spending time on other blogs can seem counterintuitive at first.
But when the comments and links start coming in from commenting on other blogs, then the light-bulbs start to go off!
Mack, the fact that you’d find your way to this blog makes the point better than I did. I’ve got a fairly small blog, and the guy from The Viral Garden just left a comment, just because I left my own blog to communicate!
Mack is the BEST at making this point David – getting away from “home” always results in growth. Problem I have is a tendency toward getting lost along the way
Its like the old question around “creativity”. You know, you need to feed your creative mind by engaging with the world and with the ideas of others. Only then can you bring that creativity back to your job/project. And while it feels like you are being unproductive, you are actually adding a lot of value.
Now, you just need to convince your boss
Blog reading & commenting definitely builds community. I’ve found that participating in groups in Facebook have a similar effect. (I was fortunate to meet Mack there wandering around.
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“Problem I have is a tendency toward getting lost along the way
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LOL! But you always have fun, right Bob?
Connie you have been doing the exact same thing on Facebook, and your blog! It’s all about participation!