Just a blog: Are Blog Comments Dying?

Wednesday, 7 September 2011

Are Blog Comments Dying? - DailyBlogTips

Posted: 07 Sep 2011 03:45 AM PDT

This is a guest post by Margaret Adams. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here.

A couple of weeks ago a post here on Daily Blog Tips highlighted the fact that there are fewer comments on blogs these days than there once were. Does that mean that people are less interested in blogs? Could it mean that people are changing the ways in which they interact with blogs?

Here's my view.

Commenting on Facebook

These days I'm more likely to comment on a blog post if the blog owner has Facebook comments enabled.

I think this is good new for blog owners. When I comment, my comments show up on the original blog, but they also appear on my news feed in Facebook. That means they show up on my friends' feeds or on my fans' feeds, if I'm commenting as my page.

Facebook comments give the blog owner more exposure, and they help to show that I'm a helpful person, too.

The benefit doesn't end there. I can follow the comment I've made back to Facebook and explain why I've commented. I can explain what it was about the post that encouraged me to comment in the first place. I can do all of this to a highly targeted list: my list of fans or friends. Every one wins.

Tweeting the post

I actually prefer to tweet about a post that I like rather than comment on it. I use a URL shortener to help me. When I tweet, I tweet good advice to my customers, so I explain to them – as far as anyone can explain – in only 140 characters, why the advice in the post will be useful to them.

There's no comment on the website, but there's good exposure for the original post. I have over a thousand targeted followers. Most of them are not Daily Blog Tips readers or readers of the other blogs I tend to use as a source of good advice, so I'm promoting a new site to them. That's good news for Daily Blog Tips. There could be new readers over here as a result.

Reactions, not comments

Shortly after I read the post about blog comments in Daily Blog Tips last week I clicked through to a very popular site and saw, at the bottom of the most recent post:

0 comments, 52 reactions.

That, I think reinforces the trend. People are reacting to posts. They are promoting posts and websites that they like, just as they always have. They're just not commenting beneath the original post.

So is blog commenting dying?

You'll have your own views. I think the nature of commenting is changing, not dying.

I don't mind if people who read my articles tweet about them, or share them on LinkedIn, or comment on them via Facebook. I'm still getting endorsements for my work. They just don't show up on my site. I have to live with that.

As a blog owner there is an upside to fewer comments. I don't need to keep and eye on the comments and remove those that say:

"Great post! Now come over to my website (URL posted) and buy (specified product or service)."

All of this leads me to think there's more to the so-called demise of blog comments than might immediately meet the eye. What's your view?
You could comment below, or you could tweet about the post, or you could share it via …. Well, you get the idea.

About the Author: Margaret Adams helps independent professionals and expert-led consultancies to use the online world to build the success of their offline businesses. You can read her work – and comment on it, if you wish – at MargaretAdams.co.uk

Original Post: Are Blog Comments Dying?