Today Book Blogger Appreciation Week (BBAW) asked us to share some tips for finding and keeping community in book blogging despite our daily hectic demands and the overwhelming number of blogs out there.
For starters, I think BBAW is a great link to explore new blogs and to connect with other blogs which you have subscribed to. I wish I have some new and interesting tips to share but all I can say is: visit and leave comments. I understand with our busy schedules and all, it is hard to visit all the blogs daily and leave comments but I think as long as we visit (no matter if it's a day or a week late) and to show our presence (yes, the comments if you have things to say), I think they are good enough (well at least in my opinion).
I know what I have shared above isn't new but what I'm trying to say is to find the time in making the connection - whether it is to share your opinions on your own blog or making rounds on other blogs. That said, I have to confess that I haven't been spending much time on commenting blogs (even on my own!) although I do read them on my Google Reader (on an average about 200+ posts per day), and for this it always makes me feel guilty and wish there are more than 24 hours in a day.
Also, I think joining memes is another way of getting to know book bloggers. A few which I participated are: Mailbox Monday, Teaser Tuesday and Wordless Wednesday, etc. Not only these memes are fun but they also allow me to see things which are out of my boundaries (e.g. Wordless Wednesday, where some bloggers will share pictures of the interesting things they do or the places they live/visit).
I also find Facebook or Twitter is a great platform to connect with other book bloggers as this is easily accessible through our mobile phones and aside from book talks we can also catch up with one another through updates and/or sharing pictures, which we may not post these on our blogs all the time.
What about you? What great tips do you have for finding and keeping community in book blogging?
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I can say that when I started to use twitter things really changed for me! It's my principal way of getting in touch with other bloggers and authors =D
And now I'm following you there! lol
Hope you're having fun with BBAW!
Using Twitter really has helped me-some very good ideas here-similar though not identical to mine
Hi, I am stopping by from the Philippines to visit your blog via the list of posts for Day Three
Please Stop by My Blog if you Like
I also vote for twitter being an amazing tool for building community. I held off for ages thinking I didn't need another way to waste my time, but now I realise it actually really enriches my blogging.
Twitter has to be one of the fastest tools for getting 'out there'.
I do find it a little frustrating, at times, because I often have to back track to find tweets from across the pond due to time differences.
I forgot to mention memes in my post. I can see this becoming a trend as I read other folks posts for today :)
carol
Very sage advice. I am crappy at Twitter, but I do get on there. That is where all the fun happens.
I agree, connecting with other blogs is very important if you want to feel part of the community.
Twitter can be addicting and time consuming but totally worth it :)
Twitter has been a great tool in helping me spread the word about my blog. But I rarely use the actual Twitter site. I usually Tweet via Hootsuite. I can schedule my tweets in advance, on the hour every hour or every fifteen minutes if I want. It's super awesome.
Thanks for sharing.
Commenting and reading together are my two tips, even though both are time-consuming. (But hey, we're all going to read anyway, right?) I love the idea of Twitter and Facebook but can't quite figure out how to use them properly. I'm hoping to learn a bit about that today!
I don't twitter. Frankly I don't have time!!
But yes ommunity has kept me going in a MASSIVE reading slump. Or I would have fallen apart!
Here is my post:
BBAW: Community thingy II
I'm Facebooking most of the time these days whenever I have time.