How To Be More Involved In The Blogging Community

One of the many perks about blogging is that is has such a huge community of like minded people, that it can make what is essentially a lone wolf hobby a lot less about being alone and more about being surrounded by other bloggers. Although if you are shy or suffer with social anxiety, it can be hard to put yourself out there and engage with others. Or perhaps you just don't have any idea as to how you can get involved and how you can stop isolating yourself from bloggers. 

Whilst the majority of bloggers are pretty friendly and will welcome you with open arms, there are the few hard gems that will try to tear people down. Don't let these people ruin your hopes of wanting to join the community. Anyone and everyone is welcome. Whether you're a small new blogger or  have been around for awhile, you all deserve a chance to get involved in the blogging community and here are some ways to do just that...

This perhaps seems like a way too obvious one, but ask yourself how many people a day or week do you actually go out of your way to tweet or respond to? I know I can barely count on two hands how many I do. If you're like me, then why not reach out to more people. Compliment them on one of their pictures that you really love. They'll love to hear how much you admire their hard work. Ask them a question you've always wanted to ask e.g what lipstick they're wearing in their profile picture or what they use to edit their photos. If you see someone struggling, ask them if they're ok or offer your help. Maybe they need some product recommendations or help with the design side of their blog. 

Also remember you don't always need to reach out to them first. You can start the conversation a completely different way rather than tweeting them. Start a discussion by tweeting out a question and waiting for the responses to come your way. It's more than likely someone will see your question and type a reply back to it. This way you can start a discussion and this will persuade other people to get involved. This is a great way to create lots of engagement and help you to meet lots of new friends. I also find this is such good practice for overcoming any shyness. The more you do it, the more you get use to it and your confidence grows. Twitter chats are useful for this if you do struggle as you are regularly getting involved and chatting. The #BlogosphereChat is a great one to get involved in!

It doesn't have to just stop at the tweeting side of things! Twitter also gives you the option to share other users posts. If you've really enjoyed someones post, then shared it. Either retweet their original promotion tweet with the link to the post included or paste the link into your very own tweet and share it that way. The blogger will be super grateful and might even return the favour at a later date. You could also use this a chance to share what you thought of the post and get others to share what they also thought.

These little things are super handy for us bloggers. Not only do they help us beat the algorithm and increase engagement, but they're also such a great way to meet other bloggers and become friends with them. You can request to be put into a group if you see someone seeking people to join their pod or start one yourself. They're a great way to help each other and also start discussions. The ones I am in on both Instagram and Twitter are both super supportive. Everyone looks out for each other and helps each of them through both blogging and personal issues. It's also a great way to share that love and continue to make the blogging community a great place to involved in.

For me I have never been to a blogging event. My social anxiety and general anxiety would completely get the better of me. But that's not to say I would never go to one. I would actually love to go. But they're a great way to meet lots of new blogger friends and network with them outside of the online community. It's also handy to go if you want to learn lots of new tips and tricks, either from the event itself or other bloggers who may be willing to share their own experiences they've picked up along their journeys. No doubt you'll also have tonnes of fun with whatever event it is and also get to meet lots of brands that you could potentially work with in the future along with your blogger pals. Then at other events, you can plan to meet up and go along together. This can then become something you do on the regular and will be a good way to keep in touch.

Whether this is on your blog or any of your socials, it's really important you respond back to your comments when you get the time to. Of course, don't expect yourself to always be on your game with responding. But if you want to be able to return the favour and discover new blogs all whilst building your own readership, then getting back to your comments is a good way to do so. If you have a comment system on your blog installed that enables your readers to see when you have got back to their comment, then this may encourage them to keep coming back and joining in a conversation with you. This can be really helpful for you to not only build your own community, but also be involved with the blogging community. 

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