4 Issues With Comments, And Why Most Blogs Are Anti-Social

Comments matter because that’s when blogging becomes social. When I look at where I’ve come in the last year, I can trace much of it to the comments on this blog and the follow-up discussions on Skype and face to face.

Connections trump community. A connection with someone who is engaging two-way with you is far more valuable than someone in the community who just blindly ‘likes’ or ‘retweets’ your stuff.

Four issues with how most blogs handle comments:

1. Readers don’t know what to comment. There is no direction. We read loads about writing better blog posts, but who is writing about being a better commenter? The answer is to help commenters by asking focused questions.

2. Bloggers don’t know what questions to ask. The skills of facilitation are really absent in a lot of bloggers. Start valuing people – really valuing individual people. Look at what you’re writing and ask what your smart, expert readers can add, and get specific about it.

3. The community focuses on blog posts, not blog comments. Every newsletter, feed, retweet and share is for blog posts, not for the discussion in the comments. When was the last time you really engaged in a comments section because of the comments?

4. We don’t understand Social. Social is about relating with people, not to them. The word comes from the Latin for companion. Most blogs are one-way – the author broadcasting. Social Media are tools built around relationship. Two way. When did that get forgotten?