How to Partially Model Your Blog After Social Media

• Read original article here

Social media gets a bad rap for the ills of humanity.

I pile on from time to time. In truth, social media sites like Facebook and Twitter reflect the ego’s fear back to itself. Each site amplifies fear in your mind which then acts itself out through social media. Twitter particularly embodies this shadow of humanity via political movements, social justice warriors of other humans who secretly hate themselves. The self-rage reflects back, being acted out by Twitter and other characters who use Twitter.

However, when websites attract billions of users and those website owners become some of the richest and most powerful people on earth, at least on a worldly level, you’d be a fool not to pay attention to some of what they do.

Paying particularly close attention to specific strategies gives you a good idea of how you might want to run your blog. But of course please blog from love and service not fear and manipulation. This is where social media sites really screw up. Bad reputations originate from fear-based motives.

Social media sites do a fantastic job of keeping you on each site and engaging. Mark Zuckerberg became one of the most powerful people in the world because he designed a site that keeps people around and active.

Twitter also keeps people on site and engaged. The designers do not send Twitter users away from Twitter. When someone leaves your site the site becomes less valuable. When people remain on your site the site becomes more valuable. This is such a simple success lesson but viewing most blogs reveals that the majority of bloggers have no idea about this online success fundamental.

Look at your average blog. Doesn’t it seem like bloggers want nothing to do with you? Doesn’t it also seem like they want to send you running to the hills as quickly as possible? Do you feel like bloggers want you to stick around and publish a comment? More bloggers have closed comments than ever. Is this a good idea for your bottom line?

User generated content build empires. Look no further than Amazon, Facebook and Twitter to understand how influencing billions of humans to generate content for you forms the foundation for monstrously sized companies. Does it still sound like a good idea to keep comments closed because spammers annoy you? Or should you open comments to begin receiving user-generated content? Think that one through before you answer.

Admittedly, I flip flopped on comments for years. I opened then closed then opened ’em again. But I will keep comments open going forward because I realized this: I cannot do it all on my own.  I need user generated content to keep scaling.

I nutted up a while back to follow the social media lead. Changing my blog design to mimic special social media fundamentals felt uncomfortable. But I decided that succeeding seemed worth the effort to leave my comfort zone.

I opened comments to all blog posts on Blogging From Paradise. Anyone can comment on any post. Making this decision instantly increased comments and each comment forms the basis of user generated content that only builds the Blogging From Paradise brand and business.

The only downside is being hit with a tidal wave of spam. But social media titans deal with a deluge of spam daily. It goes with the territory.

If increasing your user generated content, targeted traffic and blogging income comes with the price tag of being besieged with spam comments…..I’ll pay that price.

I also added the 20 most popular posts on Blogging from Paradise via the sidebar. Doing this keeps readers on site to check out these posts. Adding a search bar also increases reader time on site. The search bar improves the user experience as well. Improving your UX encourages readers to stick around.

I run a business too. Placing links to my blogging courses and blogging eBooks and prominent spots boosts my blogging income while providing you with valuable resources for improving your blogging campaign.

Keeping people on site increases your blogging income. Imagine someone walking around a store for 1 hour instead of 2 minutes. That lounge lizard will buy something. They will also come back tomorrow or next week because the store grew on them. Plus they will refer that store to their friend, increasing referral business.

Your blog is an online store. Identical principles apply. Keeping people on your blog increases your business bottom line.

Modeling your blog after social media sites on some level simply positions you to succeed because these are the best sites in the world in terms of mastering certain business fundamentals.

Deciding how not to copy social media sites positions you to build your business ethically. Do not use fear to keep people on your site. Never try to manipulate users into sticking around. Don’t prey on greed, desperation, anger or other base human fears to get people to stick around and buy stuff.

This is how social media completely screws up the process. Site owners had a pretty good thing and experienced sweet success for a bit but made unethical, immoral decisions that nudged these vehicles down a darker path (even though we’re all deciding to co-create these sites with them).

Avoid using clickbait. Don’t divide people. Never manipulate people with fear. Don’t sell user information. Most of us wouldn’t dream of selling information from our users to make a profit but to the select few who want to make a quick buck think about the worldly concepts of karma or cosmic justice. Notice how much flack social media gets and how this hate unfolds in direct correlation to unethical, a moral decisions made by higher ups from social media sites.

Avoid this karmic shitstorm. Keep people on site by publishing in-depth, detailed, highly targeted content. Someone will spend 5 or 10 minutes reading your posts for the value you share, not through some manipulative, BS tactic that you use. Keep comments open to increase engagement. Build a community based on making your blog a two-way street versus trying to broadcast a narrow narrative from your blogging throne.

Link to old content to keep readers around. Use a search bar so readers can get what they want quickly. Improve your user experience. See your blog through the eyes of a third party.

Social media teaches bloggers what to do and what not to do.

Take the higher energy success lessons and apply these concepts to increase your blogging success.