Comments

Facebook introduces replies for comments

This past week Facebook introduced reply functionality to comments.  It’s a move I’m really excited about because chronologically ordered comments can get really confusing, especially if people are trying to respond to specific people further up the chain.

What are comment replies?

When someone comments on a post, you can now either respond directly to them, or make your own comment.  This means that mini conversations can start happening in response to the original post.

There’s more!

On top of including replies to group comments, Facebook is going to try tailor the content specifically for you.  How are they going to do this?

  • They will order them by popularity so that people will see “the best conversations” at the top.
  • Comments made by people you are already connected to will get more prominence.
  • Spam comments will get pushed to the bottom.

 

You can read more in details about all of this on Facebook’s announcement note.

How do I turn it on?

Facebook will be rolling out replies to all pages by this July but until then you can easily turn on the functionality in the admin section of your page.  (For now, only personal profiles with 10,000 followers or more will have replies, and the option is turned on automatically for them.)

For some, there is a pop up that will appear in your admin panel and only one quick click is needed to turn replies on.

 

If you don’t have that pop up, do the following:

1) Go to your admin section and select edit page and manage permissions:

2) Go to the very bottom and check off “Allow replies on my page.”

That’s it.  It’s now turned on, but it will only apply to new posts made after you’ve turned it on, not anything you’ve posted in the past.

Will you turn replies on? Are you excited about the change?

No Comment

One of the things most people who start a blog look most forward to are the reactions they will surely get from all the words of wisdom they are set to share with the world.  Unfortunately, most of us will be disappointed.

Comments aren’t that common

We all want lots of comments. Very few people comment.  Less than 1%. That’s really not a lot.

Add to that the fact that many posts don’t leave an opening for discussion/comments. For instance, if someone shared some interesting information and nobody had any questions, would there be a reason to comment? 

Would you comment?

When is the last time you read a blog post, even one you found very interesting, and felt compelled to leave a comment?

On average, what percentage of blogs that you read do you comment on?

Others are no different than you.  If you wouldn’t comment, why would your readers?

Make it easy to comment

I’ve wanted to comment to support someone but “Great post!” is a tired comment and not even worth taking the time to write. 

Entice me. Ask me a question. Ask me to tell you something specific related to the post.  Readers still may not comment, but at least if they WANTED to comment they’d have somewhere to start.

Don’t get discouraged

Just because you aren’t getting comments doesn’t mean people aren’t reading your blog or finding your content interesting.  Make sure you’re tracking your analytics (Google Analytics is one of the easiest ways) and seeing the number of people visiting, where they’re coming from and how long they’re staying is far more important.

Share some comment love

Remember that people love comments, so if you’re reading a post and feel even remotely inclined to share something, do it.  I’ll even challenge you to leave 3 comments today.

Do you have a blog? Leave me the url in the comments and I’ll come and visit (and comment!) – just make sure to give me an idea of what you’d like to hear from me so I don’t end up saying “great post!”

Buzz, Brilliance and Blogging: Week ending June 23

Every week I compile a list of the noteworthy social media news (Buzz), balanced with valuable commentary (Brilliance) and some good advice about Blogging as well. The links that follow are to sites and blogs that I read on a regular basis - consider them recommended reading for you too. Or you can just come back here each week for a taste of what stuck out to me.

~Karen

Buzz

Facebook started rolling out editable comments this week. But be careful: Edited comments will be marked as such and previous versions will be viewable. Other changes that have come out this week include the option to opt-out of notifications in the drop-down menu - a handy, quick way to customize your Facebook experience. In a move toward more stalkerish data delivery, Facebook is going to tell you how many of your friends have logged in recently and the last time you posted. I like the new hovercards that started showing up this week. They include your cover photo and avatar, as well as a bit of info about you. 

Facebook’s editable comments have sparked debate about the need for similar functionality on Twitter. I think the two are different networks - let’s leave Twitter alone. Mistakes happen. We don’t have to revise everything to perfection. If you’re on Twitter and want to read the feed of a verified account, you can now filter all of the @replies out. This would be a useful update for them to roll out globally. 

You might have been a bit frustrated Thursday with Twitter being down. I know I was since I needed to access some information for a client. They have offered a pretty comprehensive explanation here. 

It’s always confused me that I couldn’t post to Google+ anywhere but on the page with my feed. Now that I’m used to that, they’ve changed it so that you can post from your profile - kinda like that other big social network.

How much do you care about your Klout? If last October’s change to the algorithm bothered you, please brace yourself for another change. Or, perhaps, change your perspective on the importance of Klout.

Brilliance

Read this and think about what’s currently driving your content strategy. Do you need to make adjustments?

There are no less than a bazillion posts outlining pet peeves or don’ts in social media, but they crop up because people still do these things. I happen to agree with this list. 

Looking for a solid list of reasons for entering content marketing? BloggingPro has you covered.

Blogging

Blogging for business is incredibly valuable - especially if you know how to blog competitively. 

Do you struggle with knowing what to write about or finding resources to feed you inspiration? There’s no end to the sources, but you should set yourself up so they come to you regularly.

One of the most oft-debated topics in blogging is comment management. Gini Dietrich started the discussion this week with comparisons of her own style with several others. One of those who came up in her post was Mitch Joel and he decided to weigh in with his thoughts on blog comments.

What is your preferred method of blog comment management? 

,

The anatomy of a blog post

,

We’ve been talking about blogging a lot lately because we believe that a blog is one of the most valuable tools a business can use. Here’s a great post from the archives on how to create good, sharable, clickable content for your blog!

*****

I don’t know about you, but I’m a blog post skimmer.  I wish I could promise that every blog post I open gets all of my attention and I take the time to read it all - but I don’t.

Here are some tips on what I find makes a blog post easy to read, skim, and decide if I want to spend more time reading all the words.

1. Clear content

Introduce what you’re going to be talking about and what the goal of the post is.  I did this by introducing the topic by saying I need blog posts to be easy to skim and saying I was going to give tips on what I find works to achieve this.

2. Section headings

If the post is broken down by section headings that jump out at me and give me a feel for the topics in the post, I’ll have a better sense on whether or not the post is hitting points of interest for me. It lets me quickly skim the post to see if it’s what I thought the post was about and whether or not I want to keep reading what the person has to say.

3. Bullet points

  • skim-able
  • succinct
  • don’t require full sentences
  • people don’t like to read long paragraphs of text

4. Photos

Photos in a blog post make your post more readable by:

  • giving a visual relating to what you’re talking about
  • breaking up the text making it more appealing to the eye
  • making your posts more clickable

Here’s why: When posting to other sites (like Facebook) it will pull in a few lines of text as well as an accompanying image. It has been proven that having a thumbnail image in a link update increases click thrus.

5. Questions

If you want to make it easy for people to engage, ask a question so they know you want their opinions and input. The more specific and easy to answer the question is, the more likely you are to get a response.

What additional tips would you give for generating good blog posts?

Subscribe to our mailing list

* indicates required
Email Format

Sixty Second Social: Blogging is not a monologue

Several weeks ago a fairly passionate debate was sparked about the value of comments. It all started when a fairly popular blogger (Matt Gemmell) wrote a follow-up about his decision to eliminate comments from his blog - not unlike Seth Godin, though his reasons aren’t quite the same. A couple of other blogs (MG Siegler and MacStories) responded to Matt Gemmell’s post in support of the decision.

Are comments required on a blog? No. Nor should they be. Every blogger has the right to his/her own policies. I say it often: My blog. My rules.

But…

When a blogger posts about something, there’s always the possibility of discussion around it. By removing comments, you ensure that there are no angry tirades on your site, but it takes away the social part of a blog - and, make no mistake, blogging is a tool of social media.

Writing my thoughts and hitting publish gives me the chance to share my side of things. Comments allow my readers to respond and keep my blog from becoming a one-sided broadcast (we all know how much we hate that on Twitter, a microblog). Occasionally, readers will write a post in response, which is a good solution when your thoughts are too long for a comment, but I often receive an accompanying comment (along with the pingback) to alert me to their contribution to the conversation.

When I write about a controversial issue and comments flood in (“flood” is relative, by the way), it can be a little challenging to keep up with responses and stay calm when I get critical comments. On the other hand, I think the discourse is extremely important. Whether I agree with your opinion or not, I’m open to hearing what you have to say - provided we all stay respectful. I will not tolerate trolls.

Disabling comments gives the impression of a closed door, “Here’s my view - take it or leave it” attitude. Some of the blogs I respect a great deal are high traffic sites where the author responds to many (if not all) comments. A few have even taken the time to visit my little blog when I’ve linked back to their posts. How do I know? I get a comment from them. (I’m impressed by little things like that.)

As always, don’t take my word for it - here are a few additional opinions about blog comments with ideas for how to solve some of the genuine challenges that exist, as well as some debunking of the “troll” stereotype given to anonymous and pseudonymous commenters:


What do you think of the idea of turning off comments on your blog? Would you ever do it?