Hershel Sarbin & Paul Conley On Publisher Engagement

I was lucky to meet Hershel Sarbin at the American Business Media Association digital sandbox day last week. Hershel and Paul Conley run a blog called MagazineEnterprise360. The blog provides ideas and advice on how today's publishers can use new media to engage with their audiences.

Hershel asked me if I had any thoughts on the idea of publisher engagement and accountability with their audiences, and pointed me to a post on his blog, "The Engagement Imperative in Magazine Management."

This mention of the issue of engagement reminds me that if you want to build a successful connection with your audience, engagement is very important on the web. Engagement on your own website or blog is no longer sufficient, any company has to actively engage their audience where they reside, even if that means other blogs and websites. That's why any company should be conducting blogger relations with their audience. As for successful engagement with your audience using blogging, we created some tips on effective blogging that can help with that process, they include:

Understand the fundamentals of Blogger Relations
Create value
Grow and sustain your audience by providing real analysis
Report on community opinion
Respond with comments to build relationships and traffic
Track your conversations
Don't be afraid of criticism
Conduct interviews to generate content and ideas
Promote your blog
Monitor the web for brand names and references

Posted by johncass at March 20, 2006 11:28 AM