What it means to have our political debates on social media

Social media has become one of the biggest frameworks for our political conversations, for better or worse. Left unchecked, it can lend too much power to the opinionated and agenda-pushing.

While platforms like Facebook and Twitter give us new voices to speak out with, they allow us to drown out opposing ideas with dangerous ease. Even within our own circles, social media tends to benefit the extreme voices over the more moderate ones.

What can we do? This We The Voters short film has some ideas. Read things you disagree with, and retweet with care. When everyone can contribute on social media, we all have some responsibility. Read more...

More about Mashable Video, Politics, Social Media, We The Voters, and Us World

How To Create Facebook Lead Ads That Convert

Larry mentioned them in his list of 10 CRO Truth Bombs. WordStream clients are using them to corral leads in droves. They're cheap. They're effective. The targeting options are so vast and precise that finding new customers is easier than bullseyeing womp rats in your T-16 back home.

I'm talking about Facebook lead ads.

 

If you're not familiar with them, lead ads are Facebook's answer to the jaw-dropping amount of time the average person spends on his or her mobile device. It's no secret that conversions from paid channels tend to take a hit on mobile, so the Zuck and crew decided to eliminate one of the most prohibitive steps for would-be converters: visiting your website.

Instead, with lead ads, you just choose from the Cheesecake Factory-esque menu of targeting options, create a lead form, and watch the (significantly cheaper) scorching hot leads roll in. They can be used to acquire all sorts of information, from potential consumers anywhere in the funnel.

 

And the best part? Contact info collected through lead ads can be used to create new audiences – both custom and lookalike – allowing you to adjust your paid efforts based on where a prospect falls in your funnel or find new, similar prospects.

Sold yet? Of course you are.

But before I delve into how you're going to make your Facebook lead ads irresistible, here are the six simple steps you'll need to take in order to create your first one (assuming you've already got a Facebook Business Manager account).

Facebook Lead Ads For Dummies

 

Once you've signed into your Business Manager account, navigate over to Power Editor.

 

Click the “+Campaign” button on the top left hand side of your screen to open a laundry-list of prospective campaign goals. While many will be familiar (and some more useful than others), the one you want is titled “Collect leads for your business.”

 

Now, let's get granular. Choose your desired audience, targeting parameters, placements, budget, and scheduling. Discussion of this warrants a post of its own, so I won't try to condense a thousand words into twenty. Suffice to say you know your business, your goals, and your target demo better than I do. Get everything calibrated and proceed.

The Power Editor UI will prompt you to create a new lead form or duplicate an existing form. Since we're operating under the assumption that you haven't done this before, you'll only be able to select the former. For future reference, though, be sure to recycle forms when appropriate, but don't use a single form across every lead campaign you run (especially when you're serving lead ads to those already in your funnel).

Next, add a context card. They're “optional,” but trust me: you want to make one. Essentially, a context card is the step between somebody seeing your lead ad and the formfill itself. Take your time crafting the copy that goes on your context card (or hire a professional). Make sure you distill your message down to the most concise version: explain what you're offering, who you are, and why whomever is seconds from giving you their precious contact information should do so. Nothing more.

Once you've finished the context card, it's time to put together your lead form itself. You'll be given more possible fields than you'll know what to do with…

… and that's okay. Because for your first lead ad, we're going to focus on just two of them: email address & full name. Why full instead of “first” and “last” as separate fields? The more boxes a prospect has to complete, the less likely they are to convert. You can use a little bit of Excel wizardry after you've got the data to parse names into separate columns.

Finally, complete the privacy policy and disclaimer and you're ready to rock.

Optimizing Your Facebook Lead Ads

The good news: you know how to make a Facebook lead ad!

The bad: your competition does, too.

Because your competitors are plastering your prospects' timelines with ads, it's important that yours stand out. Now that you know how to make a run-of-the-mill Facebook lead ad, it's time to learn how to make an incredible (read: high converting) one.

Optimizing Targeting for Facebook Lead Ads: Lookalike A Paying Customer

Create lookalike audiences using customers, not prospects.

If you make a lookalike audience of everyone who submits, your reach will be wider, sure, but it'll also be less qualified. By creating lookalikes of your converters instead of everyone who has submitted a lead, you're building a more accurate profile of the sort of person who makes a purchase or becomes a client.

This model is inherently more valuable to your business than a rough estimate of the type of person who might possibly could maybe one time almost sort of be interested in what you have to offer. Niche-ing down is a good thing. Remember that.

Facebook Has More Targeting Options Than Members…

Use them to your advantage!

Get as granular as possible with your campaigns and ad sets, and don't be afraid to experiment. Personally, I like to take any customer data I can get my hands on and look for patterns. From there, you can begin overlapping the traits you uncover using the virtually limitless targeting options available to you. Things to look for include:

• Job titles


• Education


• Relationships


• Age


• Hobbies


• Average income


• Language proficiencies


• Entertainment 

Through all of these and more, you can create highly targeted campaigns outfitted with lead ads that speak directly to the traits you've identified.

Are you a drivers' ed teacher looking for new students? Consider targeting parents in higher-income areas (driving lessons don't come cheap). Flower shop or purveyor of fine chocolates? Seek out people in new relationships, show them a lead ad, and get 'em on your email list.

Duplicate Audiences Are A Waste Of Money

Having a fat stack of ideas out the gate is great. Know what isn't? Trying to test them all on the same audience at once. Patience is key. 

According to Facebook, attempting to target the same audience with multiple lead ad campaigns can result in “under-delivery issues.”

If you're following the advice above (ratcheting down on those lookalike audiences) and leveraging the rest of Facebook's robust targeting options to your advantage, the initial reservoir of some-odd billion people with Facebook accounts has been dammed up and reduced to a faucet's trickle. Your ads are only serving to small, qualified audiences. Under-delivery isn't an option, folks!

 

Your Customers Sleep. Your Ads Should, Too

If you're selling a SaaS product to large businesses, I doubt your potential customers are up at three in the morning on a Tuesday. But things change if your offering is meant for the garage-based startup, or you've cornered the market on glowy, pulsing rave gloves.

Ad scheduling is a great way to avoid wasting time and money serving your finely-tuned lead ads to people catching Z's.

And once your campaigns are up and running, you can add more scheduling. If your data suggests that there are times at which prospects are highly motivated, increase bids (better yet, create a new campaign and find a way to make use of your insight in the ad copy). On the other side of that coin, if data suggests prospects simply aren't interested in forking over their information at dinner time or 51 minutes before their mid-morning snack, scale back.

Optimizing Creative for Facebook Lead Ads

Context Matters...

With lead ads you're asking people to take immediate action. Unlike more traditional ad types, there's nothing standing between the first click and the form fill (unless you count the context card, but that's more complementary than intermediary). As such, in addition to lookin' pretty your creative needs to do a lot of legwork.

 

Ensure that you pair your captivating image with clear copy. Take this Land Rover ad for example. It features concise but captivating language (the percussive consonance makes it clear this tagline wasn't conceived on the first try). The image is striking. And check out that button. It tells the prospect exactly what he or she stands to gain by clicking.

Coupons Rule Everything Around Me

           

Some people won't click on your ad no matter how well it reads or pretty it looks. When it comes to the folded armed curmudgeons in your vertical, incentivize the click.

Look at where in your sales funnel the audience you're targeting with your lead ad falls. If it's the very top or somewhere in the middle? Send free information or offer a subscription. Closer to the bottom? Create buy-in by offering a coupon, a free consultation, or quote.

Whatever your value proposition ends up being, if you want it to grab potential prospects, it must be clear. Emblazoned in neon. The completely irresistible version of the guy at a traffic light spinning a sign for $5 cheese pizzas.

The Context Card: Never Say No To Screen-Time

As I touched on above, the context card isn't optional. That “optional” is just a silly April Fool's joke Facebook forgot to remove from the Business Manager UI. In reality, context cards are necessary.

They allow you to share more information about your offering with a potential prospect in the seconds before he or she is presented with the opportunity to give you valuable information. Use the context card to:

• Highlight benefits your business provides


• Promote a special offer


• Create a double opt-in (qualify your prospects with another “are you sure” button)

Keep Prospects Informed

Let people know how and when you'll contact them. And be sure to follow up. This isn't really a big one if you're just asking for an email address to get someone into your automated funnel, but if you're advertising a free quote or audit, you must reach out. Failure to do so isn't just a waste of your money: it makes you look unprofessional.

Labor Over Your Copy

Don't just cut and paste the same copy every time you make a new lead campaign, and don't jack text from your landing page. The context card is its own, standalone piece of text with a distinct job.

Sure, you can draw inspiration from content you've got stashed away, but rehashing it completely is a bad idea. Consider the specific audience you're targeting with each lead ad. What information would they appreciate? Now, take that even further. What sort of language and tone would they find most appealing? Take a few stabs at writing something that will resonate and have somebody else look at it.

'Every Prospect Under The Sun Is Completing My Forms, But I Can't Find Their Information!' - Every Person to try Facebook Lead Ads

You've made irresistible ads. People are sending you contact info faster than even your autoresponder can respond. Just one question remains…

 

There are currently three ways to fetch lead information from Facebook:

1. Good 'ol CSV. It ain't pretty, but it works. Simply navigate to your Ad Set tab, find the “Results” column (illustrated below) and click the link that says “Leads(form).” You'll want to check this frequently, as there isn't currently any sort of notification system available to marketers.


2. If you use a CRM that syncs with Facebook (so far: Marketo, Salesforce, Driftrock, Oracle, Maropost, Sailthru), your leads will magically appear there!


3. The third option is above my pay grade, but it's possible to develop a custom connection between your back end and the Facebook API. Ask your developer to explain what that means.

Now you know how to make a Facebook Lead Ad. You know how to make it awesome. You know how to track down prospect info. If you've got questions please feel free to get at me on Twitter or share them in the comments below.

Now get out there and woo future customers already!

Facebook rolls out code to nullify Adblock Plus' workaround

 Adblock Plus launched a workaround to Facebook's ad block bypass today that ham-handedly removes posts from friends and Pages, not just ads, according to a statement provided by Facebook to TechCrunch. “We're disappointed that ad blocking companies are punishing people on Facebook as these new attempts don't just block ads but also posts from friends and Pages.… Read More

Here's How to Transform Frontline Staff from Conversion Killers to Valuable Assets

Posted by BeTopLocal

Here's a scenario that may be all-too-familiar:

You've worked with your client to improve their SEO and optimize their pages for conversion. You've set up tracking software and done a great job of delivering qualified leads.

Then your client complains they still aren't closing more deals.

What gives?

What if it's not the tech part of the funnel letting you down? What if your problem is of the human variety?

“Hold up!” you're thinking. “Not my problem!”

Digital agencies often don't think of "interfering" with in-house operations (or don't feel empowered to), and it's easy to wipe your hands of the issue once your ad campaigns are in full swing.

But when you've spent thousands of dollars making the phone ring, you can't sit by idly and allow your client to lose customers to busy phone lines or poor onboarding. If you do, you risk losing the client.

Online marketing doesn't end with the "submit" button or a phone call. Frontline staff are CRITICAL to both your ad campaigns and your client's success.

In this post, I'll share the process we followed to make frontline staff an extension of our digital efforts and grow our client's new patient booking rate to 61%.

Step 1: Earn staff buy-in by solving their problems

Buy-in is tricky. You're an outsider trying to introduce change into a company that's been doing things "their way" for years.

You need to overcome this fear and get staff to buy into your new goals and marketing plans. Once they do, they'll be an unstoppable part of your onboarding process.

But how?

First, interview frontline staff, and make it about helping them vs. instructing them.

Advice from an outsider is seldom welcome, so it's your job to get to know the staff by asking them three simple questions:

• What is the most frustrating thing that happens on a call?


• What do you wish people calling in already knew?


• How could we make your life easier?

By showing staff you want to make their lives simpler and asking them for input, you build credibility and rapport with them while making them feel like you're on their team. What's more, you learn about the information customers currently lack when they call in, which is information you can give them on the landing page ahead of time.

Remember, receptionists are the first point of contact that a customer has with many businesses. They're extremely important for shaping how new prospects view the entire company.

Second, consider offering an incentive for staff to close deals more quickly.

This is a tricky one, as booking clients is, technically, the job of frontline staff; but if there's a way to recognize top performers, monetarily or otherwise, this can become another powerful way to get staff in on the deal.

An incentive could be anything from an office lunch on Friday if more than X number of appointments are successfully scheduled in a week or a gift card if scheduling rates increase by a certain percentage to vacations, TVs, etc. for top performers.

A quick example

One of our clients, a small, local clinic in Utah, was enjoying an influx of quality leads after we launched our Facebook, AdWords, and Pandora ad campaigns. However, long wait times resulted in lost prospects.

To remedy this, we sat down with the staff to learn about their pain points and showed them the ads we were running, then asked them what was missing. We wanted them to have a voice in the changes being made and to know how valuable they were in the onboarding process.

Their feedback was surprising.

Our client was also able to offer a $5-10 incentive for every appointment booked. This incentive motivated receptionists to answer calls and emails as soon as they came in, even on weekends, and reduce calls placed on hold or sent to voicemail.

Once you remove all barriers to staff buy-in, your marketing campaign can really take off. In this case, our client was able to book 203 new leads per month on the strength of staff enthusiasm.

Step 2: Use analytics to diagnose weak points in the funnel

Once the staff is onboard, it's time to dig up some granular results that will help them refine their processes and eliminate the obstacles in the way.

That means tracking and recording calls so that you can provide hard-hitting feedback for your client. The key here is to record calls and take the right lessons away from what you learn.

Get a tool to record phone calls

There are dozens of different platforms for call tracking out there, and most are quite affordable (usually $3-5 per line per month plus a small fee per minute). We wound up choosing CallTrackingMetrics to record calls for its affordability and reliability.

Make sure the staff knows they are being recorded, and that you'll use the information learned from the calls to make their lives easier.

Including a standard "this call may be recorded for quality control" message on calls is also good practice so that you don't violate callers' privacy. (This is not necessary in every state; you can see a list of the applicable rules here.)

Get a tool to trace calls back to digital sources

After evaluating several tools, none did what we needed, so we designed a custom WordPress tracking plugin solution (which you can download for free) to help us attribute converting calls to channels.

This also enables you to see with clarity where poor leads are coming from so you can either improve your landing pages and conversion funnel or keep those leads from coming in at all.

These tools gave us the means to analyze the clinic's onboarding techniques and calculate the cost per lead (CPL) and ROI of our advertising channels.

Listen to incoming calls to identify common causes of drop-offs

Listen for…

• Questions you can proactively answer


• Questions staff try to answer, but shouldn't


• Difficult prospects, and what made them difficult

Track these carefully, then take them back to frontline staff to get their insights and opinions. This is not a time to be accusatory, but to talk through ways to combat common problems.

When you have a clear picture of what your reception staff deal with, you can collaborate with them to turn their weaknesses into strengths, whether on your end in content, or on their end in the way they answer or divert client questions (which we'll cover in the next step).

Step 3: Improve your 'time-to-value' ratio

The main goal of your reception staff should be to get customers off the phone and into the office (or to the next step of the funnel).

You can support this goal by using your landing pages to prevent bottlenecks, as well as having strategies in place that help staff book appointments and navigate difficult situations.

A quick example

One of our clients had a problem that's common to most businesses: Patients wanted all of their questions answered over the phone by front-end staff who weren't qualified or equipped to answer them.

That meant more time on-call. More calls on hold. And more potential patients hanging up, tired of waiting.

We addressed this issue by first solving whatever bottlenecks we could with landing page content:

• We made sure our landing pages answered any FAQs we might have missed so that the receptionists wouldn't be answering them so often


• Second, we worked with the front staff to come up with a very specific strategy and goal for each call, and we provided examples that they could draw from. (Note: This was not a script. It's far more important that your staff understand your "closing strategy." In our case, this was walking reception staff through best-practices that would get new patients to make an appointment.)

To tackle this in a practical way, we worked with frontline staff to help them generate a list of guidelines that not only worked but that they believed in.

We guided the process but gave them ownership over the guidelines.

Here's what we included in our strategy:

Empathy: Make a connection with your caller

It takes less than three seconds to make a good impression, but only one bad experience to drive a new caller away. Knowing this, we drew on best-practice advice for business telephone etiquette and collaborated with staff to come up with our main objectives:

• Answer calls promptly and professionally


• Make a good first impression


• Show you care


• Build confidence


• Be courteous and helpful, even when redirecting calls

To do this, we listened to successful calls and noted what made the best frontline staff successful. How did they answer questions? What were their greetings?

You can do the same, then use this information to draft basic scripts for greetings, redirects, and answering common questions.

Authority: Have clear priorities and achievable goals

Medical clinics have a lot in common with other B2C businesses in that most questions can't be answered over the phone. Receptionists often aren't qualified to speak on behalf of the staff members who are experienced in solving the particular problems that callers have.

The best response to most customer questions is, "That's a great question for_________. Let's get an appointment/consultation scheduled so s/he can answer it."

To set up our goals, we took cues from resources like these Receptionist KPIs and combined them with the personal experiences our client brought to the table.

Our reception staff goals were:

• Ask questions and track responses


• Make onboarding painless


• Show empathy and compassion


• Give hope to callers


• Offer accurate information


• Don't answer questions you're not qualified to answer


• Schedule an appointment

Response: Have a strategy for dealing with difficult callers

You lose most of your callers during high stress periods, especially if it makes new callers wait for long periods of time.

When difficult callers tie up your phone lines or you experience an influx of new callers and you have to manage multiple lines, you risk losing new callers that grow frustrated with waiting.

Our strategies for dealing with difficult callers:

• Stay polite and courteous. Say your greeting, offer your name and ask for the caller's name.


• Avoid saying anything that might upset the caller. Offer them reassurances instead.


• Tell the caller that you understand their frustration and want to help them.


• Stay calm. Remaining calm will calm the caller down too.


• Keep your conversation positive and diplomatic


• Show that you're willing to help them resolve the conflict they're experiencing


• Be empathetic. Think like the caller and understand that their problem is important.

Our strategies for managing multiple lines:

• Prioritize calls in the order they come in


• If a second call comes in and you need to put a caller on hold, get permission to do so


• Solve simple problems for the new caller if possible (e.g., a transfer request) to free up the line


• If the second caller also needs your help, ask them to hold while you finish with the first caller


• Don't make callers on hold feel neglected. Check in with them periodically if your first call takes a long time to resolve.


• If possible, have a system in place so that you don't have to place callers on hold at all (e.g., transfer the call to another staff member or an automated attendant)


• Keep a pen and paper handy. Take notes whenever necessary.

Frontline staff are a critical part of the funnel. With the right approach, their work can be optimized.

You might not think it's your prerogative as an agency to train reception staff, but this is an opportunity to bring the principles of online conversions to the offline staff and unify the client's entire team to get better results for everyone.

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

Facebook is testing video ads during Live broadcasts

 If you watch a lot of Facebook Live broadcasts, get ready to see some ads. The company is now testing short video ads that will play during breaks in Facebook Live broadcasts, they confirmed to Adage. The move shouldn't be a surprise for anyone who follows Facebook and their various video products. Video ads are lucrative for Facebook and a Live product devoid of ads would cause… Read More

How to Generate at Least 50 Comments on Your Next Blog Post

Blogging is an important part of digital marketing.

And if you know me, you know I'm passionate about blogging.

This isn't just a personal quirk of mine. Research shows websites with blogs have 434% more indexed pages.

Blogs have tons of important benefits, which is why I'm a major advocate of a solid content marketing and blogging strategy.

Take into consideration a few blogging stats you may not have read before:

Blogs are super important.

But blogs with comments? Even better. Comments' section is where the conversation takes place.

When people comment on your article, they bring additional information and content to the table, brainstorm ideas for new topics to write about, and strengthen your website.

Comments even add to the words, keywords, and SEO value as seen by search algorithms. Higher word count-something that blog commenting builds-is one of the 13 most important SEO trends in 2016 as Digital Reflow points out in this infographic:

Driving and encouraging comments on your posts isn't difficult. I've previously covered the technical reasons why nobody is commenting on your blog and how to reformat your site to encourage commenting.

That post itself drove a lot of comments, so I decided to supplement it with this article, describing how to generate 50 comments or more on your next blog post.

Here's a step-by-step guide.

1. Create insightful content

The only way to get comments is to get traffic.

And to build sustainable traffic, you need to provide insightful, deep, researched, and well-thought-out content.

This is where everything starts. If your content sucks, you won't get comments. Period.

Only the cream of the crop content sticks out in today's crowded environment, so you need to write with your A-game.

Focus on creating compelling stories that draw people in and make them want to share an opinion. The best content gets shared, goes viral, attracts audiences, and connects.

Like I said, the content marketing world is crowded. Just take a look:

More and more companies find they need more and more content to sustain revenues and growth. But more and more of everything means that your job as a content creator is more challenging.

How do you stand out?

It's all about building trust. To build trust, you have to write in a way that communicates authenticity and transparency.

Edelman recently published a report showing the behaviors of consumers based on trust. This data helps to illuminate the importance of being viewed as a trusted resource.

The key to any successful effort is trust, and this is especially true online and in business. Nearly half the population refuses to do business with companies they don't trust, and over half choose companies based on trust and recommend trusted companies to friends.

BlogHer found that 81% of online consumers trust content from blogs. It's the new newspaper or magazine.

So, let's get back to the question: how do you build content that stands out?

You do so by building trust.

And you build trust by providing insight, detail, and facts.

2. Encourage idea sharing

Brainstorming is one of the most difficult parts of blogging. Constantly filling a rotating schedule with content is a full-time job typically involving large teams.

I like to encourage readers to share their ideas and thoughts throughout my articles because I sincerely want to know what my readers think. I want to involve the community to create a crowdsourced brainstorming session.

Have you ever been part of a really good brainstorming session?

I have. There's something almost inspired that happens when the ideas start pouring in, and you know you're onto something.

I try to recreate that experience in my articles. These five rules of brainstorming help guide my thought process as I create content.

You can think of your article as a guided brainstorming session.

When people are inspired by your content in an idea-sharing way, they will provide their feedback.

TED Talks are an inspiration to me. TED's tagline is “ideas worth spreading.”

The TED speakers are inspiring others with their thoughts and ideas.

And look what happens. Notice those comment counts:

Thousands of comments!

Yeah, I'd have to agree that the “worth spreading” part is definitely happening.

We can all learn from TED Talks-not just the content of the talks themselves, but the whole idea of creating a rich learning experience that people want to participate in.

I'd like to think that because I encourage a positive, transparent, and open community, my readers love to share their ideas. And this commonly created space provides community even for me to hang out and be myself.

The creative industry is difficult, and mutual encouragement is universally appreciated.

Even a thought leader like myself needs a network of trusted people working together toward a common goal. No one succeeds alone.

If you're looking for more tips on how to write more content, I recently wrote a guide on how to push yourself to continue writing. Also, if you have any brainstorming tips or ideas, feel free to share them in the comments below.

3. Respond to comments

You should respond to commenters, but with the “ABC” caveat.

ABC stands for Amy's Baking Company, an infamous business from Kitchen Nightmares. Celebrity chef and business consultant Gordon Ramsay walked away from ABC because it was so bad.

Throughout two episodes (and a summer media storm), Amy was bombarded with negative reviews and comments throughout Yelp and social media.

Did they respond to comments?

Yes. Yes, they did.

As you can see, instead of being cool about it and learning from the feedback, the owners responded with angry rants.

My my.

Although Amy later hired reputation management and PR consultants to delete the negative comments, the brand's reputation was effectively ruined. The company eventually closed permanently.

That is not how you respond to negative comments.

And you can't cover up your tracks by deleting comments.

People know how to screen-capture these days.

Content moderation is important, and automated tools such as Akismet do a great job of filtering out most spam comments. However, the Internet still has its share of trolls and paid shills, filling comment sections with randomness and negativity.

The way you handle comments says a lot about you personally and your site in general. Simply deleting or refusing any negative comment is a form of censorship and is often viewed negatively by online communities.

As long as people aren't directly attacking each other but debating with some level of courtesy, all comments are good comments.

These basic community guidelines can help guide your behavior in pretty much any public forum, whether online or off to encourage open dialogue.

Regardless of the type of comments you get initially-negative or positive-respond to them to get the ball rolling.

Your position as the content's author allows you to set the tone for the comments.

• If you are defensive, the naysayers will become more hostile.


• If you are rude, others will become ruder.


• If you start name-calling, others will name-call you.


• If you express gratitude, people will be thankful.


• If you exemplify kindness, others will be well-mannered.


• If you respect others, others will be courteous.

For some people, the comments make the article. They may not read the entire article, but they'll scroll down to the comments to see the buzz.

If you are creating a positive, affirming, and engaging discussion with your replies, it will make the overall experience of the article that much better.

Replying to comments also shows the next person who comes along what to expect if they leave a comment.

Your comment replies lay the foundation for open dialogue among the entire community.

4. Write conversationally

When I guest-post on other authoritative websites, such as Entrepreneur, Forbes, CrazyEgg, and HubSpot, I follow their publishing and editorial guidelines.

On my own site, I can be more myself.

Conversational is my jam.

I'm able to write about my personal experiences, successes or failures, and personalize the content with a bit of my own personal flair. It's meant to be less of a lecture and more of a dialogue.

I encourage you to join that dialogue.

How do you write conversationally?

• Direct comments and questions at the reader. Use the word “you.”


• Refer to yourself with personal pronouns -  “I,” “me,” “my,” “mine.”


• Ask questions. And then answer them.


• Use easy words.


• Use figures of speech, slang, and conversational expressions.


• Use short paragraphs. I aim for 1-4 sentences. Anything greater than six sentences in a paragraph is probably too long.


• Tell a story. Who doesn't like a story?

According to Nielsen, nearly 7 million people host their own blogs. Another 12 million bloggers keep up a stream of content on social media sites such as Tumblr, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

The only thing I can add to such a crowded conversation is my own perspective, so that's what I aim to do. Brands with a purpose-even personal brands-always outperform those without.

I encourage you to do so as well.

5. Take a stand

You have to take a stand to write a decent blog article.

What do I mean by this? There are usually two sides to any story, and informational content should always be included. Taking a firm stance for or against something forces commenters from both sides of the issue to take notice.

Basically, you have to pick a side.

Of course, you don't have to get political. Just take firm stances on industry issues.

I personally think blogging is among the most important pieces of a solid content marketing strategy. I'm going to pick this point of view and argue for it.

Others may argue that graphics, videography, SEO, CPC, CRO, and other tactics are more efficient. Great! I welcome that debate.

Your blog will generate comments when you pick a position, hold a viewpoint, and maintain a stance.

Why is this important?

People learn from these discussions. There are people reading your article who also want to shore up their viewpoints, pick a side, or maintain a position. Your article helps them do that.

A simple example of this is in the influencer marketing space. Major players speak to their audience, make recommendations, share opinions, and hold considerable sway!

From the perspective of influencer marketing, nearly half of literate people will read blogs to learn about products.

If you can take a stance, bring data, and prove a point, you'll be well on your way to generating 50 comments.

6.  Be approachable

I welcome you to disagree with me. That's not a challenge. That's not a dare. That's not a come-at-me-huh kind of attitude.

That's just me being real, asking you to have a conversation.

I'm an approachable and down-to-earth guy in real life, so I like to portray the real me when I write online.

Even my color choices are an attempt to be me.

Did you know there's an emotional color wheel utilized by advertisers to invoke certain emotions?

Psychology plays a big role in marketing – you want customers and clients to feel certain emotions when doing business. With QuickSprout's color scheme, I'm suggesting that I'm a peaceful guy with a brand focused on growing healthy businesses.

I tried a different color scheme on my other blog, NeilPatel.com. That one uses orange.

The idea with that color is to convey that I'm friendly, cheerful, and confident.

So, even colors play a role in fostering approachability.

Having a picture of yourself makes you appear more approachable too. That's why I use sidebar ads with images of myself.

That approachability needs to be clear in the way you write too.

If I were to spend this entire time lecturing you, I'd risk insulting you as a reader. It would also make me seem less approachable.

I want you to approach me not just for business but so I can learn from you and improve myself.

Life is all about opening up to new perspectives and experiences.

7. Comment on other blogs

Bloggers love networking with each other. If you want people to participate in your community, you have to be willing to participate in theirs.

Take a look at this infographic, particularly the section “are people who comment also bloggers?”

You'll notice that while bloggers make up a smaller percentage of overall commenters, they comment nearly twice as often.

This means that by commenting on other blogs, you'll encourage lengthier conversations with other bloggers. Sure, many of these conversations will occur on their blogs, but traffic will spill over to yours too.

8. Share your posts on social media

Where are the biggest conversations taking place today?

Social media, baby.

It would be foolish to write a killer comment-ready article and then not share it on social media.

What's going to happen on social media when you do post your article?

People will comment on the social media thread, not the article itself.

Is this a bad thing? Aren't you going for blog comments rather than social media feedback?

No, it's not a bad thing. Although social media comments won't count toward your post's overall comment count (unless you use a Facebook login WordPress plugin), they still promote the overall conversation. That's a good thing.

It's important to always keep an omnichannel focus and not get so entrenched in one tactic that you forget the overall goal.

Here are some serious social media statistics to consider:

Regulations and money are involved in social media to this extent because there are a lot of users.

Here are demographics for the most popular social media platforms in 2016:

Huge audiences use social media as a primary method of interacting with content.

You simply can't ignore them and the conversations they are having there.

Conclusion

Blogging is an integral part of any online strategy.

Encouraging blog commenting engages readers and builds a loyal community of readers more likely to continue the conversation with friends, coworkers, and other social circles.

It boils down to this: care for your readers. They're your friends. They're your fans. Give them value.

Be honest, open, and transparent, and provide valuable content that encourages readers to leave comments.

And if you're as bold as I was when I claimed (in this post's title) that I knew how to generate at least 50 comments, you'd better reach that count as quickly as possible. Otherwise, you'll be as sweaty as I am right now.

What do you think? Will these tips help you reach 50 comments on a post?