Welcome to Book Blogging 101, a weekly feature on Parajunkee’s View that answers your questions and strives to share great book blogging tips and some helpful hints to help you on your way.
What is the best way to gather more followers? – Alexander
I haven’t gotten one of these questions in awhile, so I thought it might be time to tackle this again, since I might be having to build my audience again (thank you GFC and my transition to WordPress).
Build a Following & Get New Followers
Get Social!
Start by getting on social networks and forums. Check out twitter and Facebook and Book Bloggers on Ning. Post in forums and always leave your link. But don’t be in your face about it. Just post it at the end of your signature. Here is an example:
Parajunkee @ parajunkee.com
Get on Twitter and follow other bloggers and readers and authors. Retweet interesting things and reply to certain tweets that the people you follow send out. A lot of the times just saying hi will get them to follow you back.
Jump on Facebook and create a fan page. It’s very simple there is just a button at the top of other people’s Like pages that says Create A Page. Follow the directions and soon you’ll have your own LIKE. Don’t forget in INFO to put your URL! Then staying LOGGED IN as your Fan page (there is away to Use Facebook as YOUR BLOG – check the top right hand column) go and like other people’s blogs. If you see questions on them or places to comment — say something pertinent. Get involved. Comment, follow and like. You need to get yourself out there if you want people to find you.
Goodreads is also a great forum for finding friends and followers. Jump on there and see who shares your tastes in books. Befriend them and start commenting and saying hi.
Most of the time getting that first onslaught of followers is by extending that olive branch yourself. You introduce yourself and follow them and they’ll follow back. Befriend on Goodreads, follow on Twitter, Like on Facebook. Comment, say Hi, send out invites.
Memes & Hops
Memes and Hops are good ways to have scheduled social blog follows. There are several out there, some are oriented for just book bloggers and others are for just blogs in general. The good thing about Memes and Hops is that they give you specific directions and rules on how to participate and a set day to visit blogs. Also, most blogs since they are participating are open to following back. For memes the host usually provides a link-up widget where you give your link for the general public to follow. I also suggest visiting the other blogs that are participating in the memes and saying hi. Try to make your comments engaging though, just saying “Check out my post — LINK” might be thought to be spam. Make sure your comments are pertinent to the post of the blogger.
On this blog Feature & Follow is hosted and I’ve heard a Feature blogger can go up 200 followers in one day. Well, I haven’t just heard, I’ve witnessed it. Of course the blogger had only about 20 followers to begin with and it was one of our greatest #FF turnouts. These types of shameless follower gaining is good when others are in line with you. Everyone is looking for more followers — they just have to be receptive when you are looking also. Memes and Hops are your ticket to receptive potential followers.
Giveaways & Giveaway Hops
Said to be the biggest FOLLOWER gainers, giveaways and giveaway hops can jump your follower count by the hundreds depending on the prize that is up for grabs. Some think it is cheesy to require a follow for a giveaway, but others think that it is just a common courtesy to ask for a follow.
Bloggers with low followers make the decision to join a giveaway hop because what is the point of having a giveaway when no one knows about it? Join a hop and everyone involved in the hop will no about your giveaway. Put a great prize up for grabs and your giveaway will sure to get a lot of attention and then of course — gain followers.
During a twitter conversation last night a few bloggers mentioned that their Hops were some of the most view pages on their blogs, check them out and see if this is something you would like to participate in:
For Adult Only Book Bloggers Check out Red Hot Book’s Giveaway Hop
For Romance we have two: Grace’s Romance Giveaway Hop & Reading Romance’s Giveaway Hope
For a YA Giveaway Hop
Networking
Networking is not just a business term. Have you noticed a reoccurring theme in gaining followers?? Follow them first. Say hi. Get yourself noticed by visiting other’s blogs and social sites. Networking stems to every part of the online world and the basic of that is by visiting other blogs and commenting. Be sure to leave your link in the comments, but do not spam. By not spamming, I mean, make sure your comment is thoughtful and shows through as you. Read their post and mention something specific in the post. Just like if you were looking for a boyfriend — you wouldn’t just walk up to a cute guy and drop your dress would you? No! Well, I hope not. You would make conversation, say something meaningful and hopefully they’ll follow you back to the bar and buy you a drink before the dress drops. Same thing goes with a follow.
Pump Up Your Posts
Make sure that you are posting well thought out and original content. The main thing about a follower is that they are a READER of your blog. In order to become a fan of your blog and diligently follow you, you have to provide them with content that they will want to read. Make sure what you are publishing is something that they want to read.
Tell everyone about your Giveaways & Hops
Get social here. If you have a Hop or Giveaway let us know about it with the linky tool
I can’t get to all the questions, but please ask your BB101 Questions here…bring it on.
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Thanks for mentioning my romance giveaway hop! ; )
You are welcome!
All great advice, Rachel! There are so many book blogs out there, it’s hard to get a foothold. But most of the other bloggers out there want the same things we do…to make connections and share their love of books. I’ve made some great blogging-friends and it not only makes your site more successful, but makes the whole experience so much more fun! Keep up the great work with BB101!
Thanks Jen — it has been a great experience, hasn’t it??
Excellent advice – I’m new to the book blogging world and I participate in a few memes, and love the comments they generate. I’ve also discovered a LOT of new blogs this way that I follow. And totally agree about having good content so that when someone does come to your blog via a meme, they will be inspired to stay. Personally, I’m not usually inspired by blogs that ONLY follow memes and don’t have any original content.
I’m not really much inspired by blogs that just do memes also… good luck with starting out.
Thanks for the link up….:D
Great advice. It’s all about getting yourself out there!
Just keep your dress on
Great advice – as someone who is just getting serious about blogging, it’s definitely appreciated.
Thanks for the helpful tips. I love that it is snowing on my blog! Thanks for last weeks tip as well!
Great advice as usual Rach! & thank you for putting up giveaway linky, I’m going to load it up with a few giveaways going on on my blog! You Rock!
Networking: “Just like if you were looking for a boyfriend — you wouldn’t just walk up to a cute guy and drop your dress would you?” <–LOL!!!!
Great way to etch this lesson in our brains FOREVER.
xx,
E.J.
@From the Shadows
I think giveaway hops and memes are actually great ways to meet new people and get new followers. I’ve tried out a few memes, but they are HARD work! And yes, comments that engage are great, comments that look cut and paste generic are not as great.
Giveaways on their own aren’t huge follow generators – if no one can find them that is! Which is why linkys like you have are super helpful!
Saying “hi” is a great way, too. For me, I know that if someone says hi on Twitter, I’ll follow back almost always unless I miss the tweet. So, totally agree with your “saying hi” suggestion.
Yes, being social is super important. Even if it’s hard work/scary/tricky!
Great post! Plus thanks so much for giving me another place to promote my giveaway for the animals (yes, it’s a book giveaway! LOL)
Thanks for this post! It’s hard out there for a newbie when you want to try to keep your dress on. I did a giveaway hop recently, and though I did get a bunch of new followers, that doesn’t mean they comment. The people that comment on my posts tend to be people I’ve become friends with through talking about books. Having the followers doesn’t mean as much if no one is talking to you. So I definitely think followers do not equal readers.
Also, Twitter is amazing for book blogging. Really easy way to interact with everyone. I didn’t like Twitter so I was hesitant at first but I think it’s a great idea if you want to get more involved.
Thanks for the advice! I’m lovin’ your snowflakes!
Magical Urban Fantasy Reads
♥bookluvrmindy
I love these 101 posts and thanks for adding the linky.
Stephanie @ Five Alarm Book Reviews
Awesome, awesome advice. Social networking can be kind of scary from the sheer amount of media and venues out there to do so, but it’s always comforting to read something like this and see it broken down into less-scary chunks.
Smiles!
Lori
Thanks for the awesome advice! I haven’t been focusing on networking as much as I should these past few months, but I definitely plan on getting back into the swing of it over winter break.
Is there a difference between a meme and a hop or are the terms interchangeable?
I’ve always felt a bit awkward leaving a link in the comments, especially when I’ve put my website in the comment form.
GREAT help, as always. Giveaways are crazy draws, it’s almost dizzying and then such low comments on Reviews!! It takes time to even learn how to be interesting!!
Thx for posting!!
Do you know of any good alternatives to GFC? So frustrating!
Thank you for all your advice and hard work to get the advice out to us! (I know, completely unoriginal but I wanted to say it anyways!!). I agree with Rachel @fiktshun – memes are hard work!!!! I’m finding all kinds of great blogs, tho, that I want to follow and now it’s even more work!!
Thank you so much for posting this. IT helped me to learn a few new ways to get some followers!!! I’m still a bit newer to book blogging so thank you for this!!!
Hi Rachel,
This has been so helpful and very easy to understand for someone like me who has no clue about how much the internet can work for me. Your blog is always fun and so resourceful, thanks for your effort.
Suzan Battah @suzanbattah
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