I’m at the Deep Thinkers Retreat in Destin, Florida and it’s beautiful. We come to the beach every year in February and I help facilitate the conference for the week. My main job during the conference is the care and feeding of the attendees. But I’m also watching, listening … and yes, sometimes I hear things.
Today I wanted to share some of my observations:
Eat Well, Write Well. Sorry, a steady of diet of chocolate chip cookies and malted milk balls are not conducive to clear thinking and well developed plot lines. Although they do help stabilize emotions, at least at the moment. When all else fails, have a malted milk ball instead of a melt down. For the record, I resisted the temptation this year and only succumbed to two. (Although we have two more days to go!)
Battle Uncertainty. I’ve heard, “I thought I had my story down, but now I’m not so sure.” It’s so easy to doubt yourself and question the validity of your writing.
Hashtags can be a confusing concept, so today I’m sharing Hashtags 101 for writers. I’ll give you a list of popular hashtags and teach you how to use them effectively.
First, lets back up and evaluate the reason we’re all working at building an online presence. We are looking to deepen existing relationships and build new ones. But building new ones can be difficult if the only people we interact with are those we already know, either online or in person.
We can get a little bit of exposure to new folks by our existing connections introducing us, but that’s a time consuming way to go about it.
What if there was a way for someone to search a given social media network by topic and find new, interesting people to interact with? That would be a great way to grow our connections.
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Social Media Minute— 7 Tips to Get More Comments on Your Blog
Even today—with as many blogs on the Internet as there are—blogging is still a valuable part of building and maintaining an online community. But it’s rare for a blog to take hold and grow, if it’s not a place where comments proliferate. Almost no one likes to be lectured, and that’s what a blog can feel with it the conversation is only one-sided.
I’ll go one step further and add this comparison. Your blog is your Internet home. And because it’s your home, you are responsible for being a good host and making people feel welcome.
Facilitating conversation is just one of the duties of a good host, but it’s the one I want to concentrate on today as I share tips to get more comments on your blog.
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