Blogging Communities

What is a Blogging Community?

A blogging community is where a group of individuals who shares the same interest in a particular topic which they blog about. Blogging community also serves as a platform for individuals to connect and interact with each other. (Kinkeldi, 2007)

How to Create a Blogging Community?

Source: BlogLovin

Blogs can be shared through blogging communities such as Bloglovin where readers can follow their favourite bloggers according to categories and interest. Bloggers sign up at this community so that their posts will be updated and it is used as a form of interaction between the bloggers and readers by gaining more followers based on common interest.

To build a community around your blog, one must be able to:

(a) Create your own direction and style of your blog

Contents of a blog are mostly based on individual interests and this can help to narrow down the topics and attract readers who share the same interests. Layout of the blog is also important as simple and user friendly layouts will enable readers to navigate around your blog easily (Yoskovitz, 2007).

(b) Networking with other bloggers

Blogs provides a huge networking opportunities where bloggers can interact with one another. By networking, bloggers of the same interest will link up your website on theirs and vice versa thus creating a community where their readers can also refer to your blog while browsing through their blogs. Approaching established bloggers is also another method to build up your blogging community by supporting on another (Crowe & Holman  2011).

(c) Comments

Interacting with readers who post on your blog by replying their comments will build a rapport with readers and this will help build up readership as readers give their own opinions or agree with the topic that you have posted on your blog (Schaefer, 2011).

(d) Submit blog to blog directories and using tags

Submitting your blog to blog directories will automatically update and place your post in the search engines which has a higher chance of getting discovered by readers. Labeling your blog post with keywords according to the topic you have blogged about will also direct readers to your blog as internet searches from websites such as Google will pick up that keyword and eventually lead the readers to your blog. 

(e) Promoting your blog

With social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, blogs can be easily shared to friends by posting up blog links that will direct them to the website.

Types of blogging communities

According to White (2006), there are three main patterns of blog based community which are:

(I) One Blog Centric Community - A community formed through the blogger and the readers or commentors.

(II) Topic Centric Community - A network formation through common passion or topic.

(III) Boundaried Community - A collection of blogs and blog readers hosted in a single website. Example: A Malaysian blog community, Blog.my.

Foodbuzz

Source: Foodbuzz

Foodbuzz is an online food blog community which brings together food enthusiasts, people who share their recipes and passion for food blogging. Foodbuzz is a boundaried community which has tools of social networking features such as featured posts, polls, contests and more. Foodbuzz helps bloggers to grow their blog, as well as boost relations between bloggers, readers and food lovers. Recent updates and popular posts are published on Foodbuzz to keep the community updated.

References

1. Crowe, P & Holman K 2011, How to Create a Blogging Community, viewed 5 May 2011, <http://www.spiceupyourblog.com/2011/03/how-to-create-blogging-community.html>.

2. Kinkeldi, B 2007, Forging Connections and Promoting Growth Through Blog Communities, viewed 5 May 2011, <http://www.21publish.com/pub/21publish/blogging-whitepaper.pdf>.

3. Schaefer, M 2011, How do you REALLY build a blog community? A love story, viewed 5 May 2011, <http://www.businessesgrow.com/2011/05/05/how-do-you-really-build-a-blog-community-a-love-story/>

4. White, N 2006, Blogs and Community - launching a  new paradigm for online community?, viewed 5 May 2011, <http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2006/edition-11-editorial/blogs-and-community-%E2%80%93-launching-a-new-paradigm-for-online-community>

5. Yoskotitz, B 2007, 8 Steps to Growing Your Blog Community One Person At a Time, viewed 5 May 2011, <http://www.instigatorblog.com/8-steps-to-growing-your-blog-community-by-1/2007/01/09/>.