How many times have you seen me write those four words in a blog post here? “Keep the conversation going.” I am a firm believer in this concept of a conversation and blogging. However, there are some bloggers who appear to see this conversation as a one way street. They get comments on their blogs and they leave it at that. The blogger does not participate any more in the conversation, other then posting the original post.

Chris Brogan has a great guest post on his blog called How to Keep Your Conversations From Turning Into Broadcasts. Key to the concept of a conversation is the fact it has to be a dialogue between two or more people. If it is not, it becomes a “broadcast” or a “one way flow of information.”

Jacob Morgan provides ways we can make sure your conversations don’t turn into broadcasts:

Respond to all of your comments and emails, and when I say respond, I mean put some thought into it, add value where you can.

Facilitate conversations and discussions by asking your readers and customer’s questions, ask for feedback, ask how you can improve, and ask what your readers and customers think of a particular topic/issue/tool.

Thank your customers and readers for the time they are spending on interacting with you; show them that you care and that you appreciate them.

Respect your customers and your readers by not sending out spam or unsolicited communication.

Get to know your customers/readers, who are the active ones, who aren’t?

Encourage new members to comment and interact again. When I receive a new comment/email from someone, I thank them and then tell them that I look forward to hearing more from them.

Offer your customers/readers the opportunity to become a part of your brand, let them share their expertise; perhaps let them write a guest post. If you want to write a guest post on my blog, just let me know.

Participate in other discussions and communities that are outside of your blog. Find other industry related blogs and comment on them, ask questions, get feedback, encourage dialogue. Don’t be shy!

I try to make it a point to either respond to comments on Blog For Profit or to drop a personal email to someone who left a comment. If I am going to keep preaching about keeping this conversation going, I had better walk the walk. And you should too. Don’t stop with just doing the post. Engage your readers and “keep the conversation going.”