Tips to make your blog interactive

Blog is one of the interactive channels in Social Media Marketing. This is a two-way communication channel as it creates interest in the target audience/readers to respond and become part of the blog communication.

Here are few routes to make your blog interactive.

Commenting: Allow users to comment on the blog post, this way user become part of your blog & they get to interact with each other apart from the interaction between the blogger and commenter.
Interact with comments: Blogger has to respond to comments posted, which shows the readers that their comments are valued. This would ensure in users revisiting the blog.
Drawing attention of the readers: Acknowledging and rewarding good comments by “Liking” the comment, would draw the attention of the other readers & make good use of the comments section.
Ask Questions: Asking open ended questions as a blog post would encourage users to share their knowledge by respodng to the posts. This should be done on the later stages when your blog has a good number of followers.
Add a forum: If the content of you blog is B2B oriented, adding a discussion forum to the blog for interaction among the users will also help.
RSS Feeds: Allow users to subscribe to your blog through rss feeds.If you own a Facebook Like page link the blog to the page through Social RSS app, similarly you can do it to your Twitter profile & LinkedIn group.
Share widget: Add Social bookmarking, Facebook &Twitter buttons for users to share the blog post on the social media channels.
Blog followers gadget: Show off your followers by adding the “FOLLOWERS” gadget to your blog.

Social Media Optimization

Online marketing has changed the strategies of traditional marketing, paving the way for new found marketing techniques. As we know online marketing is pull marketing, that is, it directly speaks to consumers. Social Media Optimization does just that. It creates buzz around a brand and increases visibility and creates awareness.

Social Media is a buzz word in today's day and age. The level of interaction among consumers is great in the social media space. But how does one optimize social media?
Social Media like SEO, drives traffic to the website. It is done through various channels and platforms like blogs, communities, podcasts, social networking sites, and microblogging sites among others.

Social Media Optimization is possible when one interacts with the consumers and brings about a two-way conversation. Encouraging consumers to participate is the key. Many brands fail to excite their consumers online. Hence, it is important to know your target audience well. “Who is your target audience?” “Who are you talking to?” and “what are you talking about?” must be paid attention to.

Content is another major factor that gets consumers back to you. Keeping it short and simple is a must. Customizing content and messages for each channel helps. One cannot have the same tone and messaging for both Facebook and LinkedIn. Content creation, thus is an important part of Social Media Optimization. Also, overdoing the marketing strategies online, kills the purpose and goal of the particular brand. Consumers do not like to be told what to do; it has to be done subtly. It is vital to choose the right marketing platform that can help you meet your goals and objectives. Letting others use your content such as subscribing to RSS feeds helps. Letting users bookmark the content and tagging is another way.

Marketers today are seeking to optimize social media in more ways than one. So, don’t just use social media to create buzz, optimize it to your best advantage! And get the brand talking to your consumers, so that they keep coming back for more!

Source:rohitbhargava