How Bloggers Can Grow Each Others Readership

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If you are a blogger for a mid-sized company, or trying to build a B2B’s reputation, growing your readership is an ongoing objective. This is the same challenge that all business bloggers and individual bloggers struggle with alike.

I have always thought Twitter was a marvelous way to help grow your blog readership by helping others grow theirs. Bloggers supporting bloggers. That sounded like s stupid simple thing that any blogger would get behind. However, for whatever reason this wishful reciprocity only happens sporadically at best…until now.

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A lot of requests from fellow bloggers to share their latest post flow into my DM and email boxes. I don’t mind when I know the requester well, or have had some meaningful exchange on social media, or have met in real life. Heck, I enjoy helping friends and people I know that have been supportive. Which is why it is a little disheartening that only a small circle, of some very cool fellow bloggers who have become friends, actually return the favor of sharing my posts with any regularity.

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Gini Dietrich – Trail Blazer

Just when I thought that was just the way of life, I found Triberr. I was delighted to find it. I had seen that my buddy Gini Dietrich was using it. So, I checked it out. (BTW: She is a gracious sharer of mine and other blogger’s posts!)

The concept is simple, but not immediately intuitive when you see the Triberr.com page without any previous explanation, which was how I experienced it for the first time. Once I understood what Triberr was, and how it could help me reach new readers, I could see why Gini smartly included it in her arsenal of tools she uses to grow her readership.

What Is Triberr?

Triberr is a platform that makes it easy for bloggers to mutually grow their readership. You connect your blog’s RSS feed into it, and connect your Twitter account to it. You then join one or more groups, known as tribes. I suggest you join between 5 and 10. Now, when you publish a new post it is automatically sent to the tribes you have joined. Your fellow tribe mates (other bloggers) review and then share posts they like with their Twitter followers.

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How Triberr Works

When you log on to Triberr using an Internet browser you see what looks like a standard RSS reader or email browser. In that window is a running list of new posts from bloggers you are connected with in tribes. Each post you see shows the blogger’s avatar, post title, a short text preview, likes, and who else has shared it.

You then click on the link and a pop-up allows you to read the post while still on Triberr or on the original blog website. You then decide if you want to approve it for sharing to your Twitter stream. If you do choose to share it, you click the big approve button and it is scheduled to Tweet at a future time (which you have per-configured in your settings). Then you move on to the next post in your tribe’s stream. It’s that easy.

5 Tips To Get The Most From Triberr

• Start Your Own Tribe
  • You are assigned your own unpopulated starter tribe when you sign up. You can invite people to join for free if they aren’t already to Triberr. If you invite someone who is already on Triberr you are charged a small fee that you pay for in Bones. Building your own tribe is a great way to expand your reach. I found it most effective when I followed up on those invites personally with Tweets and emails. Share this post with them so they can understand why they would want to sign up for yet another online service.
  • Smart tribe management tip: Neal Schaffer, noted social media author and blogger, runs an elite tribe on Triberr, which I am lucky enough, and honored, to be included on. He’s curated only the best bloggers he likes. To maintain that high quality he is a task master when it comes to ensuring that tribes members stays active. His policy is that tribe members must login and share, and if you abandoned your tribe for more than 30 days than you are quietly voted off the island. This is a very good strategy and one that I have started to adopt.

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• Join Other Tribes
  • You are randomly assigned to a tribe that is in the same category as your blog. The one I was originally assigned was poorly populated, and the two other bloggers in the tribe wrote crappy posts that I’d never share with my followers. So, I resigned from it. I immediately posted in “Looking For Tribes” and talked about what I wrote, what kind of tribes I wanted to join, and a link to my blog. I did this twice over the month, and I got several offers I accepted.
  • It makes sense to work at finding tribes to join. Also, while you want to connect with bloggers who write on the same or complimentary topics, try to be open to blogs that may be a little off topic for you, but which you might find interesting and be willing to share. I did, and as a result have better varied content to share.
• Buy Some Bones
  • Bones are the currency to do many of the basic actions in Triberr. You are given 150 when you start. Playing around on the platform I went through my bones in a few weeks. However, buying more is easy and affordable. You can buy 150 for $10 or 500 for $30. A good investment to help build your connects.
• Date Around A Lot
  • While it is not an ideal search tool, it seems to show limited results, you can search for people and tribes by topic on the platform. When you find a fellow Triberr who seems interesting you can ask them to join your tribe, or if you find a tribe you like you can ask the tribe’s ruler if you can join it.
  • The key for both is letting them know why it is a good fit. The better you are showing why you are a good tribe-mate the better results you ‘ll have. I often invite or ask to be invited via email or Twitter first, then spend the bones on the invite. When I reach out I like to use some version of this well written blurb crafted by the talented marketing author Mark Schaefer. (If you don’t already subscribe to his blog, do so right now!) Feel free to steal and customize as your own. No need to ask me for permission. I didn’t ask Mark…. :-)
  • “I try to share as much as I can but I generally won’t share if it is not relevant to my core topics of social media, PR, communications, branding, lead generation, and marketing in general. Also, I won’t share if the post is poorly written, is overly self-promotional or has a bunch of typos. I’ll do my best to deliver great content to you too.”
• Play The Long Game
  • This is not hit it and quite it. You will get only what you put into it. You need to log on and find the best posts you want to share several times a week. Every few weeks see if you want to find a new tribe or add a new person to one of your tribes. Is someone in your not logging on and sharing? (You can see how many times they have logged in and if they are sharing any posts.) Send them a gentle reminder to keep participating. Or if they have a problem, help them solve it. This is a team effort!

Mid-Sized Company Bloggers

I think this is a great tool for business bloggers. However, feeding your entire business blog might be inappropriate if you have more that one blogger and you produce a lot of content. Triberr still is debating the inclusion of business blogs, but there are several who already use it and are good Triberr citizens. I suggest that you set up your blog with the ability to create RSS feeds for each blogger, and that they each participate as individual contributors creating their own Triberr account with their own Twitter accounts.

My Results

After starting my tribe, buying bones and joining other tribes, Triberr started paying off for me. I found each post originally peaked in traffic after a day or so. After Triberr I found that the peak traffic lasted for a two or three days. The visits to new posts doubled and tripped, and newsletter sign ups and RSS subscriptions jumped significantly. I have some anecdotal evidence to suggest that my experience is not unique. Digital marketing maven and fellow blogger Adam Helweh has had similar success, as have several other bloggers I know personally.

Your Millage May Very

I’m lucky enough to have a strong twitter community, and blog readership. So, you may have a different experience, but I firmly believe if you stay active on the Triberr platform you will see results. I would wish you luck, but in my experience the lucky are those who keep working it.

“Swing hard, in case they throw the ball where you’re swinging.” – Duke Snider

Blog Sponsor

This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet.

About Steve Farnsworth @Steveology

Social media, communications, and content marketing for technology companies. Strategy and implementation that generate leads, builds customer loyalty and word-of-mouth buzz. Contact 650-331-0594 to increase your market position and sales.

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