As the owner of a blog or website, you may find yourself with less feedback on your posts than you would like. There are various ways of encouraging feedback, but one of the most effective methods is to nurture a sense of community and dialogue. If you neglect this, readers may not feel the need to provide feedback. By making them aware that their feedback is valued, you can greatly increase your chances of receive more. Here are some tips to getting more feedback on your posts.
Ask Questions
This is one of the most direct ways of getting your readers to leave feedback and can also be very effective. Consider ending your posts with open questions, and inviting readers to comment and discuss the questions. This directly invites your readers to participate in a discussion and provide feedback on your post. You might even include a question early in your post, letting readers think about it as they read the post. By the time they finish, they may very well have something to say about the topic at hand, and therefore will be more likely to comment.
Interact with Your Readers
While it can be somewhat impractical on larger-scale blogs and websites, directly interacting with your readers lets them know that their feedback is noticed and appreciated. While you cannot easily answer every question your readers have, participating in your readers’ discussions can help foster a sense of community. Readers are much more likely to leave feedback if they know that you read it, and are especially encouraged to do so if they know you actively respond to their concerns and questions.
Reward Your Readers
Like interacting with your readers, rewarding those who provide quality feedback can be an effective way to encourage even more. There are several ways of doing this. You may consider displaying your sites top commentators, directly rewarding those who contribute the most feedback to your site. You can even implement a comment rating system, allowing your community members to rate the value of each others’ post, further enhancing a sense of community. One of the best ways to reward those who provide particularly valuable feedback is to feature them in a future blog post. If readers see one of their questions of concerns addressed in its own post, they are more likely continue contributing.
Allow Readers to Rate Your Posts
Some readers may not have the time or feel comfortable enough to directly comment on your post, but allowing them to easily rate the post provides a quick and easy way to get more feedback. You might consider letting your readers rate your post on a scale of one to five stars at the end of the post, displaying the average overall rating. While this form of feedback is less specific than comments, it can allow more readers to more easily respond to your content.
Create Targeted Posts
This is one of the simplest and most effective ways to encourage participation. Create posts based on what you think your readers are interested in. Examine previous posts to determine what topics seem to get the most feedback to gauge the interests. Make your content writing provocative enough for readers to respond, but not to the point that you will alienate them. Keep in mind the goal of your website, but target your post directly toward your readers to make it more engaging, and therefore encourage more feedback.