Communication with customers is key in business particularly if your business is an online one. They need to know you exist but also more about what you can do for them – not just in terms of product features but also of benefits, how you can make their life easier or help them to achieve something. You need to know what your potential customers want so you can provide it, hence making a living out of your business.
In today’s post, I’m going to explore if blog comments are important or not and should you wish to receive more comments, how to get more of those all-important comments to your blog posts.
Image: Free Digital Photos
How can you communicate with customers using social media?
It sounds easy doesn’t it? Twitter, blogging, facebook – aren’t they all about communicating? Social media means being sociable after all?
I like to think of a blog as a friendly doorman. If you visit Harrod’s, those smiling burly doormen are there to direct us, to answer our queries and to be helpful (perhaps they double as security too – I don’t know) but they are there for us to communicate with and to be the ears and eyes for Harrods.
It’s not necessarily as easy as all that though to get comments on your blog. We all love getting comments on our blogs but how many blogs do you read compared to those you comment on? Do you tend to comment on business blogs? I know I rarely do. If I need their service or product, I take their information and contact them to arrange a purchase or an appointment. If I decide I don’t want their product today, I leave the blog/website.
Are Blog Comments Important?
Yes! Blog comments give your blog kudos, they show it is a nice place where lovely people gather and that it is a well-written popular blog.
Yes! The presence of blog comments gives you, the owner, the chance to respond to comments, to show your personality, to assure them of your customer service and answer queries, and to form a relationship that may lead to purchases from your potential customers in the future.
Yes! Comments will help your blog’s ranking in google searches, particularly if the person commenting (inadvertedly or otherwise) uses a highly searched keyword within the text
No! Well, comments won’t pay the bills. They are lovely to receive and give you a warm fuzzy feeling and yes, I love getting comments too. I love chatting to people online. However, it is more important to me that someone sends me an email or picks up the phone to book into one of my training courses or books a mentoring session. However, if they are wondering whether to contact me or not, seeing a friendly reply to a comment might persuade them of my levels of customer service and helpfulness.
No! If you are active on other social media platforms such as facebook and twitter, you will probably find that people will respond to your updates there rather than leaving a comment on your blog. People see it as quicker, more conversational, can respond again to a response and this seems to be happening more and more.
Blog = Core
Your blog is the core of your social media strategy and you may find that people will comment on your facebook updates or reply on twitter rather than commenting on your blog post. Yes, it would be more beneficial if they’d left a blog comment, however, it is a valuable communication tool that also allows you to become that ‘friendly doorman’ and build a relationhip.
How To Get More Comments:
- Comment on other associated blogs with meaningful, interesting comments. Not only might the blogger visit your blog but other commentators might too.
- Do not spam with comments such as ‘nice blog, thanks’ or ‘thanks for sharing’. Take some time.
- Become part of a niche community whereby bloggers tend to read and comment on each other’s blogs.
- Sign up to see other comments or re-visit the blog to read them and perhaps respond again.
- Make it easy for people to leave comments on your blog – don’t make people jump through hoops and decipher difficult-to-read captha.
- The ‘leave a comment’ box should be easy to spot (and we are revamping our site and our comment facility this week
). Some blogs require you to find the comment box below lots of related posts and widgets, others require you to return to the top of the post. - Ask a friend to get the ball rolling by leaving a comment. Sometimes people are reluctant to be the first to comment but if they see others there, they are more inclined to ‘join the party’.
- Encourage interation on other platforms (facebook, twitter, google+) by asking a question when linking across to your content e.g. What do you think of our suggestions for encouraging more comments on your blog?
- Ask people for a comment at the end of your blog post. Don’t be discouraged if you don’t get them. These things take time – remember you have to put the work in and build your reputation, produce quality content and/or become part of a community to get a great response.
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