Three Ways to Create a Community Around Your Blog

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In 2004, the major virtue of blogging was that it established two-way conversation, a communications type that was, up until that point, relatively uncommon in publishing. The previous generation of publishers — newspapers, magazines, and online articles — were a one-way communications tool, and discussion was generally limited to off-site forums and other online communities.

Now, there’s a second benefit to blogging. It’s not the incredible publicity that it can generate, or even the huge marketing potential. It’s another communications development; the way blogging can generate a community around ideas. While social media has been at the forefront of internet communities for the last few years, blogging has been the idea center; the frontal cortex of the internet’s ideas.

That’s why it’s important to establish a community that’s built around your blog. When you’re an online thought leader, sharing the discussion is just as important as creating it. These three online platforms will help you establish a community around your blog, whether it be for marketing reasons, research reasons, or merely the fun of chatting about things you enjoy.

#1: Creating your own social network.
Ning, one of the most popular Web 2.0 services, allows users to create their own social network, making collaboration and discussion a possibility for even the smallest niches and subgroups. If you blog on a topic that attracts a lot of active readers, creating a social network can be a great way to generate new ideas, create skills and information exchanges, and have your blog readers help one-another achieve their long-term goals. Setting up your own social network is relatively simple, and adding, modifying, and customizing aspects of it are as simple as pushing a button.

#2: Use message board software to create and control discussion.
For some blogging communities, a full-on social network is a little too much, both in terms of information and maintenance. If you want to create a community that flourishes on a purely discussion-based level, forum software is probably the best way to establish it. There’s a wide range of forum software around, from free solutions with relatively limited options to annually billed subscription services. Don’t have a self-hosted blog? No problem, many forum providers will be happy to set up an externally hosted forum in exchange for the ability to sell advertising space on it.

#3: Incorporate with an existing online community.
Strength in numbers, right? If you run a blog that’s highly popular within a specific group of people, but is lacking the total size required to build a good community, incorporating with another online community can be a good strategy. Find a popular social network that shares ideas that you discuss, and approach the owner or community manager about collaboration. Most website owners love new traffic, especially when it’s on the same topic as their own, and the benefits to both of you are massive. Their community grows, and your blog has the chance to attract thousands of new readers.