Whether you are a blogger or a journalist, building a relationship with your readers is probably your most important order of business.
Why?
Think about it — building trust, not deceiving your readers, being sure to level with them when discussing a topic. It’s not even about having credentials or experience in a given field; it’s about letting your audience know where you stand, how you think, and what your motives are.
Keeping these issues in mind while writing ensures that you’re not just writing at your readers, but rather involving them in the process and considering their best interests. In other words, you’re writing for your readers.
How do you build a relationship?
Establish trust. Cite your sources (if you’re a blogger, use links to support your claims), state your experience with the topic, provide statistics if necessary, and be sure to explain your biases. As far as experience and biases go, by the way, these can either be stated within the content itself, or (in the case of a blog or website) within an “About” page. As long as you let it be known, it doesn’t really matter.
Maintain balance. Approach issues or topics from multiple fronts, and understand that there are always different or opposing ways to look at something. Consider the readers who may disagree with you.
Involve your readers in the conversation. Don’t make your writing a brick wall. Provide contact information, or the ability to leave comments if you’re blogging. When writing for more static media, involve your readers by acknowledging how they may feel or think.
Listen. Pay attention to any comments or feedback you may receive, positive or negative. To do so shows that you care (which, hopefully, you do).
Be professional. Be mindful of your spelling and grammar, and in general try to portray an image of, if not professionalism, a desire to be taken seriously (this, of course, depends on the nature of the writing, but it’s always a good idea to appear as though you care).
Stick with it. Consider the writers who work on something, toss it out into the public eye, and then decide to stop writing altogether when it turns out no one is listening. They lose credibility immediately because it casts into question why they were writing in the first place — most likely, if they felt they had something important to share, they would have persevered. The writers who continue on despite the hardships they may face prove that they find their message valuable.
And most of all, be genuine. You don’t have to keep saying “trust me!”, and you don’t always have to explain your biases. Most of the time, they’ll be self-evident, especially if we’re talking about personal writing. It all boils down to respecting your readers and how much you value their interests.
It doesn’t happen overnight.
Trust and accountability aren’t something you can miraculously attain, and even as I write this article I question whether or not I’ve made any progress connecting with readers, myself (which is difficult to measure in the first place, given this blog’s fickle traffic).
Regardless, it’s something you should always strive to do. As long as you do your best, as long as you are transparent, determined, and considerate, you should be able to develop a positive relationship with your readers.
