I have always been a keen reader of blogs, not only because of the actual blog posts – but because of the gold dust you can find in a blog’s comments section.
For example, no matter how knowledgeable a blogger is on his or her subject, there will usually be people reading a post, who can add important additional information. These comments are often just as likely to provide you with the ideas and information you need, as the original blog post!
Blog comments offer targeted feedback
If you want to know what your target market thinks about something, take a look at what they are ‘saying’ in the comments section of relevant blogs. This kind of snapshot can provide you with a useful way to spot trends.
It can also help you identify common problems that your potential customers have, which YOUR business could solve for them!
Your blog comments
An excellent way to develop a blog, is to take note of the comments people leave. It’s a great way to ensure your messages are resonating with your readers and that you are giving people want they want. Many of the changes here on this blog, have been made in response to comments people have made.
Thank you
I would finally like to say “THANK YOU” to everyone who comments here. Your feedback is, as you can see, massively valuable to both my readers and myself.
I really wish blogger had this nice leave a comment box where a person is rewarded with a linkback URL. I suppose one of these days I might have to stop being a lazy ass and get a word press layout. I would actually settle for blogger accepting gmail blog submissions without sometimes adding an extra line between paragraphs. It is most depressing.
Mitch,
I thought our blogs were ALREADY big!
Hi Jim,
Blog comments are really useful when you are starting out blogging too. Together with twitter they give you essential feedback – something I’ve been craving the last couple of weeks when I finally took the plunge and started my own blog about architects.
If you write a blog and don’t allow comments I think you are missing out.
I like the way you think, Jim.
About a month ago, Adage posted a blog Peter Blackshaw, a VP at Nielsen online, who talked about Social Media overload.
As someone who is trying to develop a network for a potential job hop, I’ve been trying to keep up with LinkedIn, Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, and anywhere else I might pop up on a search engine from an perspective employer.
Now, there is a group developing a aggregate program called Ping http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=133316 but it’s mostly for just keeping up with the twitter-like postings.
How are you to know what to keep and what to let go?
Jim, Is there a benchmark for what percentage of comments to posts you should be getting to feel like you’re on the right track?
Diana,
That’s a great question. I think it depends on what you write about, how long your blog has been established etc.
Although I get lots of comments here, it’s a small fraction of the number of readers I get.
As Robert Scoble pointed out last year, the only people who post comments are those who either:
Strongly agree with you.
Strongly disagree with you.
Those looking for links to their sites, who use your blog for unpaid advertising.
Ha ha on that last one…
Thanks
We’ll see what I can do about getting more comments after a little more time.
Comments are always good but they are even better when they are read
I think leaving comments on other people’s blogs is good practice responding thoughtfully to those on your own.
Nicola,
You just made a lot of sense, using very few words – Excellent!
Well… If a blog has a good community then each blog post is pretty much just a seed, it’s the discussion and the comments that follow that is the real gem. Of course you need a good post followed with good comments.
I enjoy the sharing of opinions. I don’t always agree (heck I’m argumentative at the best of times
) but usually take something from a good post.
Robert,
I think you are selling yourself short.
Whilst you do occasionally have a difference of opinion with other commenter’s, you do so professionally and you share a lot of information too.
You’re always welcome here!
Jim, Thanks.
A thought: “If everyone agreed there would never be a need for change. Without change there would never be invention. Without invention there would be no progression.”
Okay, I know that I’ve stolen that from someone. I just don’t know who.
Great point Jim. By the way, the twitter link on the comments was a genious idea. Was it yours?