How to Leverage Comments for Greater Success

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With all of the content that you write and publish, your ultimate goal is to get your readers to interact with you. They do that by leaving comments on your content. How do you get them to do that?

The more comments that go back and forth, the more online exposure you will get and the greater your business reputation will be. You will, of course, receive interesting and thought-provoking comments from others and that is the heart of the success of the interactions. However, at the same time, you will also receive comments from people who are only interested in promoting their own business and their agenda will have little to do with you.

A specific set of rules of engagement exist when it comes to commenting. If you follow them, you will gain a great deal for your business and other people (or at least the majority of the people) will follow suit.

  • Get involved in the conversation: You will never be able to generate discussions if you don’t engage with your readers in conversations. If you don’t get involved, your writing and sharing efforts were a waste of time and energy. Leaving comments like “That was a great article. Thank you for sharing it.” are very pleasant but basically are useless. You can’t really do anything with a comment like that when it comes to continuing the discussion. If, on the other hand, either you or one of the people with whom you are interacting say “Great article. Here is why I think so…” you have opened the door to further discussion that will hopefully prove to be interesting and exciting. In other words, it will provide a great deal of value to your online communities.
     
  • Encourage positive contributions with some sort of reward: Your engagement is going well and the comments that people are leaving are constructive and informative. Once in a while, someone will leave a comment that goes beyond that to the point of being extraordinary in some way. Those types of comments should be rewarded in some way. You might reward the person by recognizing his or her amazing comment publicly or you may want to communicate privately (through Email) and say thank you. When you reward someone for their contribution, you are showing everyone that you are not only listening passively but are an active member of the discussion and that you value your readers opinions, thoughts and feelings. Another positive result of rewarding is that it gives the other people something to strive for. Everyone will want to be treated that way.
     
  • Discourage negative behavior: As unpleasant as it is, if one of your readers is behaving inappropriately, you must deal with it in the most constructive and effective way possible. You must deal with negative, disruptive or destructive comments as quickly as possible so that it doesn’t affect the morale of the group and their desire to continue interacting with you. The sooner you take care of negativity, the better.
     
  • Provide credible resources for your content: The more you engage in discussions with your readers, the more they will want to interact with you. However, remember that you are building relationships with them that are based on trust and credibility. With that in mind, you should always provide resources that demonstrate the source of your facts. There is certainly nothing wrong with sharing your opinions with others as long as you do it in a way that makes them take you seriously and using resources is the way to do that. One of your purposes in interacting with other people is to teach them new information. You want to help them to grow.
     
  • Be honest about what you are gaining by interacting: If you have a specific interest in something (such as a company that you are pushing for some reason), it is better to be transparent about it with your readers. They will respect and trust you much more if you tell them up front as opposed to their finding out on their own and confronting you with the information.  

Conclusion

Generating comments based on the content that you share with others is extraordinarily instrumental when it comes to the success of your business. You could potentially write the most insightful, brilliant, exciting and interesting content but if nobody bothers to read it and to react to it, it won’t do your online reputation and exposure any good. If you only publish and that is the end of it, it is like opening a casino in the desert. It looks pretty but just sits there unused. It is critical to understand how important it is to generate as many good quality comments as possible. The more comments people make, the stronger your position in the social media world will be.

We are pleased to provide you with the insightful comments contained herein. Please contact us at CompuKol Communications for further discussion on how we might be able to assist you and your team and don’t forget to “like” our Facebook page.

Author

  • Carolyn Cohn

    Carolyn Cohn is the Co-Founder & Chief Creative Services of CompuKol Communications. Carolyn manages CompuKol’s creative and editorial department, which consists of writers and editors. Her weekly blogs are syndicated globally. She has decades of editorial experience in online editing, and editing books, journal articles, abstracts, and promotional and educational materials. Carolyn earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo.

14 Responses

  1. Clayandlauren Thomas says:

     

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: Books and Writers
    Discussion: How to Leverage Comments for Greater Success

    Don't know if this will help. The way my blog received comments is when I cared enough to look at other people's work and comment. I can't always trade one for one anymore but it was a great boost and a practice I still use when I can.
    Posted by Clayandlauren Thomas

  2. Tom Smart says:

     

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: Small Business Online Community
    Discussion: How to Leverage Comments for Greater Success

    Write something controversial or spell something very baddlly 😉
    Posted by Tom Smart

  3. MaAnna Stephenson says:

     

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: A Solo Business – Solopreneurs And Business Owners
    Discussion: How to Leverage Comments for Greater Success

    Over the past year, I've found that more folks are following my biz site on Facebook and leaving their comments there. And, they tend to leave more of them there than they ever did on my blog. I'm wondering if it's the ease of not having to go through the whole sign-in type process that they have to complete just to leave a comment on the blog.
    Posted by MaAnna Stephenson

  4. Robert Donnelly says:

     

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: Linked-N Bergen County NJ
    Discussion: How to Leverage Comments for Greater Success

    I write a monthly column that is broadcast to thousands of CEO's across the country and read by many more globally. I find that if you are right on target with your subject matter it will generate responses from readers who have a similar point of view or observation, but have never had an opportunity to voice it. It's like the best books where you are able to instantaneously relate to the subject matter.

    For example, Malcolm Gladwell's tomes – Blink and the Tipping Point.

    I am developing a piece now with Malcolm that I am sure will generate responses.
    Posted by Robert Donnelly

  5. Jacqui Murray says:

     

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: AssociationofWriters.com
    Discussion: How to Leverage Comments for Greater Success

    Great comments on your blog post. I haven't solved the quandary of comments, but I do make a point of visiting people's blogs who post to mine. It's mostly curiosity, to see where we overlap. Some have become blog friends, some were just one-time topics that brought me to their attention.
    Posted by Jacqui Murray

  6. Linda Faulkner says:

     

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: Authors, Writers, Publishers, Editors, & Writing Professionals (no religious/ political discussion)
    Discussion: How to Leverage Comments for Greater Success

    This was so helpful I retweeted and posted to my FB profile.

    (See? Iearned something!) 🙂
    Posted by Linda Faulkner

  7. Pam Burzynski says:

     

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: A Solo Business – Solopreneurs And Business Owners
    Discussion: How to Leverage Comments for Greater Success

    I have had a presence on FB for about a year and mostly post quotes of inspiration. It has evolved into posting a quote or comment and then following that up with a question of some sort. Often that gets a response, but not always. People will tell me that they love my inspirational messages, but most don't seem to comment or like. More folks end up commenting when I post something of a personal nature, i.e. about food, or what to cook for dinner or about cleaning or the weather. Now I am in the process of launcing a website/blog, but it's not as easy as it appears.

    MaAnna, perhaps my comment on the last post (which I directed at you) will answer your question. When I get a confusing box and try several things with no luck, you're right I don't bother. So maybe you will be able to answer how to respond to those sign-in boxes.

    Thanks!
    Posted by Pam Burzynski

  8. Ann Louise Truschel says:

     

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: Medical Education Communications and Pharmaceutical Marketing
    Discussion: How to Leverage Comments for Greater Success

    One of those simple ideas that makes one say: Why didn't I think of that?
    Posted by Ann Louise Truschel

  9. Michael Thacker says:

     

    LinkedIn Groups

    Group: A Solo Business – Solopreneurs And Business Owners
    Discussion: How to Leverage Comments for Greater Success

    I think some of the issue is that on our sites, for some reason people hate to be the first to post a comment. At least that is what I am noticing.

    Also, there seems to be some confusion about my Facebook site representing my business, that it IS my site! I often have to tell people its just the Facebook page for the site, but not the site! Maybe that is only happening to me, I don't know.

    Great discussion by the way!

    Michael
    CCO OutMaturity.com

    Posted by Michael Thacker

  10. MaAnna Stephenson says:

     

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: A Solo Business – Solopreneurs And Business Owners
    Discussion: How to Leverage Comments for Greater Success

    Hi Pam, I gave an answer on the other thread to those confusing boxes and hope it helps! I would also like to add that you should not become discouraged by a lack of response to your inspiration posts. I also get a lot more comments on my personal posts. But, the posts I get the most comments on are the ones with a typo or silly factoid. It has always amazed me how many folks will take the time to comment (or even email) about the typo, but not even take a moment to click a Like button on something they found useful. On one of my sites, I even turned off comments for a time because it was getting deluged with tons of spam and it wasn't worth sorting through that to find the false positives of real commenters. However, I've switched to the G.A.S.P. plugin instead of Akismet and the situation is much better.
    Posted by MaAnna Stephenson

  11. Emme H. Johnson says:

     

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: Writers World
    Discussion: How to Leverage Comments for Greater Success

    I've heard that offering freebies on your blog or website is enticing, but make sure you get them to leave an email address so you can keep in communication w/them and build a relationship over time. I've been told it's easy to set this up on a blog but needless to say, I haven't tried it yet.
    Posted by Emme H. Johnson

  12. Linda Austin says:

     

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: Writers World
    Discussion: How to Leverage Comments for Greater Success

    With blogs, you can encourage comments by asking for others' opinions or experiences or talking about something a little controversial. People can be reticent to put themselves out there, though. It's a common problem unless you have a lot of friends following you.
    Posted by Linda Austin

  13. Linda Fausnet says:

     

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: Writers World
    Discussion: How to Leverage Comments for Greater Success

    Also be sure to comment on other blogs. This can sometimes lead the other blogger and even some of his/her followers to check out your site.
    Posted by Linda Fausnet

  14. Brian Vickery says:

    Nice article that emphasizes the two sided conversation that can take place in the comments. It can draw out more blog ideas, further convince your readers of your thoughtful and respectful delivery, and perhaps even show how well you can handle a contrarian opinion.

    Now I need to get my blog more known to the social community, so I can practice these great ideas 😉