ANNACOLIBRI listening blogging
I’m Listening

Do you know anyone who is a really great listener? Isn’t it deliciously satisfying to feel listened to?

Well, friends, you can satisfy your online audience and become a better blogger by cultivating your listening skills.

Why? Because blogging, at its best, is about building trust-based relationships. People love getting attention, and that is something you, as a blogger, can give them.

COLIBRI guarantees you will be more trusted and have better relationships on the web (and in “real” life!) if you are a good listener.

Two Kinds of Listening

For bloggers, listening means:

  • Identifying other bloggers in your field and regularly reading their work and
  • Monitoring social channels, such as Twitter and Facebook, and getting a feel for online conversations

Listening also means:

  • Reading comments, emails, Facebook posts and any other way your readers reach out to you and
  • Paying close attention to who is saying it (for example, boy or girl?), when they say it (evenings, weekends, daytime?) and, of course, what they say. “Loved your post!” means one thing and “I hate social media,” well, it means something pretty different

Plan to spend at least a little time each day finding out what’s being said.

This will help you:

  • Understand industry trends
  • Feel confident and knowledgeable
  • Develop a feeling for where you can guest post and who you might like to invite to guest post for you and
  • Understand and develop your relationship with your audience

Responsive Listening

Once you get a handle on what is being said, it is time to respond. Responding includes the following:

From the beginning of your blogging career, no excuses, you must respond to any comments about your work. It’s super important, so don’t be shy, to answer when someone speaks to you via any digital means. Otherwise, it’s like not answering when someone asks you a question. You wouldn’t do that, would you? Would you? Hello? I asked you a question!

After you get comfortable listening, you will want to start commenting on other people’s blogs. This will “get your name out” and give you experience being part of the conversation.

Being a good listener means you will be able to:

  • Change your message and content as needed
  • Give people the attention they want
  • Gather inspiration for your own work
  • Develop relationships with people you admire on the web
  • Start an archive of interesting articles, images and links and
  • Become an authority in your field which will, in turn, inspire trust in your audience

Sounds good, right? So, go ahead, get listening!

Your Turn

What has your experience been listening on the web? Let COLIBRI know in the comments and she promises (promises!) she will listen (and respond!).

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