. . .how often the best conversations at a conference happen over lunch, at a party in the kitchen, and in the office round the water fountain. It’s one of the few things I miss from working; you know those ad hoc conversations you have at unexpected times which take you down a new path, provide sudden inspiration or challenge you in your thinking. Fortunately you can find alternatives  – perhaps in the queue at the supermarket till, on the bus or here on the internet.

Today’s assignment from the Blogging University is encouraging us to do exactly that by saying hello to our Blogging101 neighbours.  A chance to engage with others around the world or even someone just down the street. We might even make new friends.

I’m off now to have a tea break and hopefully have one of those best conversations, and perhaps I might even get to say hello to you too.

Before I go though I thought I’d share a few things I have learnt from following quite a few blogs via The Reader in WordPress for a while now.

  • Posts I likeReally helps if you can find a time every week or even day to spend 10 or 15minutes browsing The Reader
  • When you start the tags are a great way to find bloggers who write about the things you are interested in, and after a few months a great help for re-visiting people you have not seen for a while or discovering people you have yet to meet
  • Do try the Freshly Pressed to broaden your engagement with the blogging community – surprising what you might find.
  • Most importantly take charge of the notifications for those you follow!  If you don’t there is a real risk your inbox will become overwhelmed!  Most of mine are now weekly or none.  I used to have more but found my inbox was being overwhelmed and it was discouraging me from reading any posts.  So now I keep it light, make good use of the tags and have found I’m more likely to explore and visit new rather than sticking to the same conversations.
  • If you have a few moments add a comment.  Not only will your fellow blogger appreciate it, it will encourage others to visit you too and you will get to have a two-way conversation
  • Make sure you like those posts that make you laugh, make you think, make you do something.  After all we all appreciate a bit of positive feedback. My snapshot is of a few posts I have liked over the past 24hrs.
  • And if you want to help others find the great posts you have liked think about adding a ‘Posts I Like’ widget to your blog.  I have just done it on my other blog, and will be doing it here as soon as I’ve made my mind up about the new theme I’m going to have!

15 thoughts

  2. Enjoyed the post. Great ideas. I’m fairly new with wordpress, so have not figured everything out as of yet. The freshly pressed button is one I haven’t tried before, so it is on the to-do list for today. We have so many talented people on this site, and I have barely scratched the surface on what is out there.

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    1. Really loved the way you used the title and linked it totally as a run-off sentence to the main body. Excellent thought. Loved the post.

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  4. Lol, 10 or 15 mins browsing the Reader – before you know it an hour/acternoon/evening’s disappeared there are so many fascinating blogs to explore 😀
    Nice post 🙂

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  7. Great advice 🙂 I can’t beleive I haven’t followed you already after communication via 101… must have been saving it for today’s task. Thanks for sharing!

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