In a world where everyone focuses on quality content, SEO, and getting more traffic, there is a tiny detail that many bloggers forget to include in their blog post. Not including this element of a blog post makes these bloggers lose engagement and strong connections (some of those connections lead to sales). The element of a blog post that most people forget about is asking questions.
I always make sure I see one question in a blog post that I publish. I actually search for the question mark using the word finder just to make sure. The reason I make sure I am asking questions in my blog posts is because there are three powerful outcomes of asking questions in your blog posts.
- Your visitors will feel as if they are having a conversation with you. Asking a question in one of your blog posts starts a dialogue. The visitor has to think of an answer to that question. Then, as you ask more questions in your blog posts, the conversation will build. How do you think I am doing with this blog post so far? Your response is the continuation of our conversation that is currently taking place.
- You blog posts will get more comments. If you ask questions, you will start a conversation. The only problem for the particular conversation taking place (such as the one in this blog post), a visitor cannot ask a blogger a question and get a quick response. I can ask you how your day was and get a quick response. If you ask me how my day was, you would still be staring at a blank screen. In order to get a response from me or any other blogger who asks questions, a visitor would have to leave a comment below to get the proper response. How many comments do your blog posts get? Imagine what would happen if you could double that number. Asking questions throughout your blog posts makes that possible.
- Passive reading turns into active reading. If there are no questions in a blog post, then the visitor is passively reading that blog post. When you ask a question, you are turning passive reading into active reading. You are forcing your visitor to go from scrolling through your content to think of an honest answer.
Those are the three big reasons why you need to ask more questions in your blog posts. How did you like the blog post? What are your thoughts on asking questions in your blog posts? Please share your thoughts below.
Well, okay, here are some thoughts but these questions refer more to a previous blog post. (I’ve considered doing a blog, but I just don’t have the time or knowledge to do a quality job of it right now.)
I’m puzzled by a number of things on Twitter.
1) I see so many people that follow me that have thousands of followers and people they are following. I wonder how they all got to that level. I’m trying to get known, too, for reasons I’ll explain below. I figured either they worked up to it by following people they were interested in and eventually getting more followers. But that didn’t work for me, because as soon as I got up to 2,000 followers and 1,000 people following me, Twitter cut me off on following more people. I also wondered whether they were “buying” their followers, but your tool indicates that the great majority of their accounts are genuine. So I’m still wondering.
2) You talk about how much one should post, talking as if posting once or twice an hour is, perhaps, a moderate amount. But that seems like an awful lot to me. I post a few times a weeks now, posting mostly interesting articles and pictures that I think are of interest to my followers (musicians, tech people and some teachers). Occasionally I get favorited or re-tweeted, but I’m sure it’s not at the levels you are talking about. Sometimes I ask for a response on something, but that rarely gets answered (unlike on LinkedIn, where I typically get quite a few genuinely interested replies).
I’m in the process of launching an app that helps non-musicians learn to actually play popular parts from popular songs. I want this to be a good thing for the musicians, too. After all, about every songwriter wants their songs to be popular and the sort of thing that young people are trying to pick out on the piano or guitar. My app fosters that, so I’m trying to make contact with interested musicians. That’s my main goal on social media, though it’s nice to meet people, too. So I wonder what I should be doing on Twitter to that extent. I’m not a marketing kind of guy. I’m a technologist, musician and teacher, so this does not come particularly natural to me.
Just identify your target audience and follow the people in that audience.
You are so correct Marc, it is often overlooked, and I do notice more interaction when my post is focused on a question or includes questions throughout, I am going to have to remember this more often.
It is something great to remember. Always be sure to include something at the end of your blog post that encourages interaction.