Your blog audience and the six degrees of separation theory
Posted: Mon Dec 23, 2024 6:53 am
shutterstock_146600840A few weeks ago I was talking about different strategies to attract new audiences when the results started to stop coming. When everything seemed to be going well, but we weren't achieving our goals. And we were looking at what to do depending on the type of media used (paid, owned and earned).
The post I mentioned is useful when we talk about companies. But what happens when we talk about blogs like this one? That is, blogs managed by people who have another job and who don't have more resources than the time they can find when their other obligations allow it.
What can we do to 'unblock' the growth of our blog? (to make it evolve) How do we get our content to reach more people? And above all, to the people we are interested in.
To understand how, we first have to understand when our blog needs a new audience .
These moments occur in the combination of two concepts: product life cycle (for once I'm not going to use 'my' funnel), and the theory of six degrees of separation , or in other words, the evolution phase and reach capacity of our blog.
Phases of the evolution of a blog
Just like a product or a business, a blog indonesian phone number goes through phases of launch, growth, maturity and decline (and before final closure, 'rebirth' or 'death').
Product life cycle - tristan elosegui
1. Launch phase
The blog's goal and focus are being defined. We are learning everything at once: platform management, writing style, social media strategy, etc.
Everything is new, and we are obsessed with visits and the number of followers. Each visit to the blog is a source of personal pride: " Have all these people visited my blog? "
2. Growth phase
Getting to this stage is key, because it means that we have passed the initial period of doubt (where many blogs end up forgotten), our blog is taking shape and 'things' are starting to happen.
At the beginning of this stage you see how your posts are already receiving comments, they are shared with some regularity on social networks, you start to be invited to write on other blogs...
And at a certain point, you don't know how, your blog 'explodes'. That is, you start to hallucinate with the things that are happening to you, the volume of traffic grows without stopping, more serious collaborations begin to emerge, conferences... you have taken off !
3. Maturity phase
You are now settled, your blog is doing well and is now part of your professional life. You have stopped taking free time to write, and have started dedicating some moments of your working day to do so. You have found that your blog is a great help in your professional career.
This phase can last for many years. Until the next change/phase that leads to the decline or rebirth of the blog (e.g. because it becomes 100% of your working day).
If we think about it, each of the leaps coincides, in addition to quality and constant work, with growth in your audience. Not only in volume, but in quality.
What has happened to your audience in this process? How has your reach increased ? What role has your audience played in the transition from one stage to the next?
Your blog audience and the six degrees of separation theory
Some time ago I used the presentation that I attached below to talk about how to reach customers who are further away from the brand , but it serves me perfectly to illustrate the example of the blog.
Your blog audience and the six degrees of separation theory from Tristán Elosegui
1. In the launch phase ( slide 3 ), your audience is made up of your closest contacts. As I said at the beginning, it's time to define the blog's objective, and this is the perfect audience to do it with.
2. Once we've decided on our path and the blog begins to take shape, we begin the first phase of growth (the beginning of the uphill climb in the photo at the beginning of the post). Our content begins to reach people who are interested in the topic we're dealing with and they begin to comment on the blog and share it.
These people form the basis of our online community , so we have to take great care of them. They are the ones who will make our content surpass the first two degrees of separation.
It's at this point that the first pause comes. Most of your personal contacts know your blog, your followers share your content. But it doesn't manage to make the jump to the next level. You begin to notice that you're somewhat stagnant. We can say that we've exhausted the audience of our first two degrees of separation: friends and friends of our friends (or fans and fans of our fans).
The only (and not insignificant) source of new audiences is organic traffic. But this can take a while to become noticeable.
How can you break through this barrier and get to the next level? ( slide 4 )
Some examples for the growth stage would be:
Guest posting : Try collaborating with third-party blogs that give you access to a complementary audience (if it is very similar to yours, the effect will be less). When you write on their blog and/or they write on yours, an 'exchange' of audiences will occur in which you can capture the attention of new readers.
Growing your email database : the most effective way to build reader loyalty and get them to share your content.
Events : Try to gain visibility at industry events, whether by attending, participating or even organizing them.
Content : work on content that will allow you to reach the desired audience. I am not referring to posts like “the n cases of…”, but rather content that may be of interest to those people (in my case, online marketing directors).
The post I mentioned is useful when we talk about companies. But what happens when we talk about blogs like this one? That is, blogs managed by people who have another job and who don't have more resources than the time they can find when their other obligations allow it.
What can we do to 'unblock' the growth of our blog? (to make it evolve) How do we get our content to reach more people? And above all, to the people we are interested in.
To understand how, we first have to understand when our blog needs a new audience .
These moments occur in the combination of two concepts: product life cycle (for once I'm not going to use 'my' funnel), and the theory of six degrees of separation , or in other words, the evolution phase and reach capacity of our blog.
Phases of the evolution of a blog
Just like a product or a business, a blog indonesian phone number goes through phases of launch, growth, maturity and decline (and before final closure, 'rebirth' or 'death').
Product life cycle - tristan elosegui
1. Launch phase
The blog's goal and focus are being defined. We are learning everything at once: platform management, writing style, social media strategy, etc.
Everything is new, and we are obsessed with visits and the number of followers. Each visit to the blog is a source of personal pride: " Have all these people visited my blog? "
2. Growth phase
Getting to this stage is key, because it means that we have passed the initial period of doubt (where many blogs end up forgotten), our blog is taking shape and 'things' are starting to happen.
At the beginning of this stage you see how your posts are already receiving comments, they are shared with some regularity on social networks, you start to be invited to write on other blogs...
And at a certain point, you don't know how, your blog 'explodes'. That is, you start to hallucinate with the things that are happening to you, the volume of traffic grows without stopping, more serious collaborations begin to emerge, conferences... you have taken off !
3. Maturity phase
You are now settled, your blog is doing well and is now part of your professional life. You have stopped taking free time to write, and have started dedicating some moments of your working day to do so. You have found that your blog is a great help in your professional career.
This phase can last for many years. Until the next change/phase that leads to the decline or rebirth of the blog (e.g. because it becomes 100% of your working day).
If we think about it, each of the leaps coincides, in addition to quality and constant work, with growth in your audience. Not only in volume, but in quality.
What has happened to your audience in this process? How has your reach increased ? What role has your audience played in the transition from one stage to the next?
Your blog audience and the six degrees of separation theory
Some time ago I used the presentation that I attached below to talk about how to reach customers who are further away from the brand , but it serves me perfectly to illustrate the example of the blog.
Your blog audience and the six degrees of separation theory from Tristán Elosegui
1. In the launch phase ( slide 3 ), your audience is made up of your closest contacts. As I said at the beginning, it's time to define the blog's objective, and this is the perfect audience to do it with.
2. Once we've decided on our path and the blog begins to take shape, we begin the first phase of growth (the beginning of the uphill climb in the photo at the beginning of the post). Our content begins to reach people who are interested in the topic we're dealing with and they begin to comment on the blog and share it.
These people form the basis of our online community , so we have to take great care of them. They are the ones who will make our content surpass the first two degrees of separation.
It's at this point that the first pause comes. Most of your personal contacts know your blog, your followers share your content. But it doesn't manage to make the jump to the next level. You begin to notice that you're somewhat stagnant. We can say that we've exhausted the audience of our first two degrees of separation: friends and friends of our friends (or fans and fans of our fans).
The only (and not insignificant) source of new audiences is organic traffic. But this can take a while to become noticeable.
How can you break through this barrier and get to the next level? ( slide 4 )
Some examples for the growth stage would be:
Guest posting : Try collaborating with third-party blogs that give you access to a complementary audience (if it is very similar to yours, the effect will be less). When you write on their blog and/or they write on yours, an 'exchange' of audiences will occur in which you can capture the attention of new readers.
Growing your email database : the most effective way to build reader loyalty and get them to share your content.
Events : Try to gain visibility at industry events, whether by attending, participating or even organizing them.
Content : work on content that will allow you to reach the desired audience. I am not referring to posts like “the n cases of…”, but rather content that may be of interest to those people (in my case, online marketing directors).