Blogging Analytics Part 2
Hey There! I hope you all enjoyed Part 1 of my Blogging Analytics Series…I just hope that it helps someone get started on this digital journey! This week I wanted to get down and dirty talking about joining your local and regional blogger crew as well as the ugly or beautiful truth about giveaways!
LETS GO…..
Giveaways
Not sure if you guys remember but back in May I joined my first ever giveaway and it’s a really popular way to gain engagement and followers. Sometimes they can be free while other may require a form of payment.
Paid vs Non-Paid
As an influencer you’ll get contacted by brands frequently, all with very catchy offers and deals but you’ll need to learn which brands are for real and which ones just want your money and free advertisement. For example, a brand may contact you and request to send you some free products for an IG post or a blog post. More than half the time they will offer to send you one or more free products to raffle as a giveaway to one or more of your followers. This is a GREAT way for you to gain free engagement and start getting some experience on “how bloggers work”…this is a part of it.
Once you’ve been a little more established you may find yourself getting invited to participate in sponsored or paid giveaways. This is a great way to get a ton of engagement in a short amount of time but you have to beware of SPAMMERS! If you do get offered to join a giveaway, always ask for previous giveaway stats and analytics. The last thing you want to do is throw away $100 to gain “bot” or fake followers, so I recommend asking for basic proof. Another thing to keep in mind about paid giveaways is that you will gain a few thousand followers but if you will notice a drop in your follower count after a giveaway. This is typical and something to think about as you join and enter these giveaways!
Other Engagement Ideas (I may or may not have tried these)
Below are some other fun ways that I’ve seen other bloggers gain real engagement!
Follow Fridays
This is a really fun one that I’ve been seeing a lot more of lately and is definitely a great example of ‘Women Helping Women’…I have typically seen it being done on Friday’s as a #FollowFriday type of thing. You feature a blogger on your IG page or IG stories that blog about similar topics as you or maybe have an attractive feed and encourage your followers to follow them. Now how does that engage your following? Well the idea is that other bloggers and creatives will recipricate the love back to you on the next Follow Friday! One of the great things about gaining engagement this way is that its 1. FREE and 2. it’s Real!
Join a Blogger Community
Similar yet different from influencer platforms are blogger communities. Think MeetUp for bloggers! There are a couple of apps and websites that host blogger communities, some you can join for free while others have a monthly/annual membership.
Blogging communities are typically groups of bloggers and/or creatives formed around a central idea, commonality or interest. The purpose of these communities is to help bloggers and creatives around shared characteristics and blog topics. This offers both parties a chance to grow together and learn from one another’s experiences. Ever get in a writer’s slump? Well, joining a blogger community can also help you generate new ideas for your blog content and allow for collaboration with bloggers like yourself!
Keep in mind that blog communities aren’t monolithic so it definitely pays to do your research before commiting to one, especially if there is a membership fee or extensive application process (time is money). First, think about the type of blog you have and the kind of bogging community that you would want to join.
The opportunities for connection and collaboration are endless, so I’ve linked a couple for your use and convenience based on blog topics!
- Blog It Better– Small community of
- BlogHer– Blogging community geared towards women for all categories
- Style Collective — Great for fashion, lifestyle, and style bloggers
- Blog Engage — Great way to get exposure to your blog and engagement
- Google+ Community– If you’re not a fan of Google+ you will be of Google+ Communities. Easily link your blog posts to a community (preferably in your niche) which can thousands of users and increase your blog traffic.
- Medium– Created by the founder of Twitter (so they MUST know a thing or two about this stuff) great way to get your writing to other readers and writers
Tag EVERYBODY
I’m pretty sure nearly every major city has one if not multiple community groups created for creatives, bloggers, entrepreneurs, and casual coffee shop go-ers alike. Join them, tag them, gain free engagement. The same goes for restaurants, hotels, museums, etc. Basically, if you post a photo tag the location, tag the page of the location on your photo (this way they get TWO notifications), and if they have a hashtag use that too!
If you’re a Bay Area Blogger you definitely should be following and tagging these pages!
Twiirly, San Jose Creatives, Walnut Creek Socialites, Los Gatos Socialites, Bay Area Blogger Babes, California Bloggers,
Next Week → Marketing Influencer Platforms
Next week on Part 3 of my Blogging Analytics Series, I’ll be talking about different platforms you should be a part of to increase blog traffic and really up your influencer game! There is a platform for everyone, whether you’re a large influencer (100k plus) or you’re a micro-influencer, like myself…I’m still working my way towards 10k!
Originally published at bloggingandthings.com on August 16, 2018.
