An online community for me is somewhere people can discuss, share and enlighten each other with similar interests or topics.
When I had to think about who or what community I belong and am involved in I came to a blank wall then a superabundance. I realised that every day on the internet I involved myself in a community. Then It was a case of sifting through and reflecting on who, what, and how my online presence is influenced by this. Knowing That I am posting and others are looking changes in the way we project our thoughts into the internet.
While writing my blog my topic of choice has been traveling. I have found at first I have no followers, no comments or likes, it was a little disheartening and un-motivational to keep writing when I knew no one was reading so my next step was to gain some traffic towards my blog my first point of call was obvious. Facebook. A place where all my friends and family resigned and eagerly waited for the next update on my travels. When advertising yourself can be seen a cheesy or sleazy, I had to think of a sophisticated way to say “HEY look over here!!” With a nonchalant status update choosing a good time to get The most attention. 
Within minutes I had doubled in views but saying that I still hadn’t gained many comments. In order to be part of a community I need to be part of a discussion. I had to find other bloggers. I done this by first comparing my blog use to Instagram (probably my most used social media platform) I get between 10 and 20 likes per post and around 1 – 2 new followers. It was the use of hashtags, hashtags open up a whole new world of communication between people on the internet. It’s a case of people looking for information vs people giving information in this case information being travel photos.
It is important to use hashtags responsibly, wildly using 50 tags won’t do anything you will only be seen as spam and desperate for attention. There has to be something of value given back to the reader whether that be a funny insight, a beautiful photo, a nice story or a review. My first post using tags on WordPress was the “Grampians trip” and it is the most viewed post to date. 
I then went back and tagged all my post with similar but relevant tags. This didn’t have the same effect, people respond better to new posts and bloggers that post frequently. I found this out the hard way with my latest post (about two weeks later) not gaining anything near the number of views at the Grampians. I posted and used relevant tags but nothing yet. An online community will appreciate what you give but the first step of giving posts and receiving comments is to receive posts and give comments yourself. You will only get back what you give.
- Bolter, Jay David. “Social Media and the Future of Political Narrative.” Travels in Intermediality. Lebanon, US: Dartmouth, 2012. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 8 February 2016. 206-226
- Oatway, Jay, Apr 26, 2012, Mastering Story, Community and Influence : How to Use Social Media to Become a Socialeader Wiley, Hoboken. 97-109. ISBN: 9781119943457.
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