‘If a tree falls in the woods, and no one hears, is there a sound?”
How can I get more comments on my blog?
Wow, what a great question — especially for a couple of million people now writing blog articles!
It’s an even better question for all the bloggers who’ve been writing long enough to publish articles responding to that “challenge” like Charlie Gilkie, who Guest Posted on Problogger.net: “8 Reasons You Might Not Be Getting Blog Comments.”
However, after enjoying reading Charlie’s post, 77 comments, and inserting my own comment [Number 74].
I started to wonder:
What’s the ROI on Blog Comments, Anyway?
Why do we bloggers want comments?
How much do other people’s comments really matter?
Here are my thoughts — as well as some “crowd-sourced” [from asking the question on Twitter and my Facebook page]:
You’ve got to start with your objectives: Why are you writing a blog?
Like any strategy where measurement can be done, you must know what you are measuring.
From Twitter:
@frostoloa “The question is why you want to measure that – what’s the end goal?”
@A_Aviles “It would depend on what you’re measuring, wouldn’t it?”
from Steve Rubel’s FB Fan Page:
“Shari, think it depends on your goals – interaction, quality of content/ideas, etc.”
So WHEN do comments matter?
When . . .
you are writing to see how many comments you can get 🙂
you really want to know what other people have to say — whether you are the blogger or the blog reader
your comment on someone’s blog leads to a real, mutually beneficial relationship.
When do comments — or number of comments — NOT matter?
When . . .
your blog is just about you — and putting your views out there
you understand that many readers don’t have anything of extra value to add
you have your readers RT your URL and/or send you emails to applaud your efforts
you are just starting out and haven’t built enough Google Juice and content to draw huge numbers of readers
Lessee – you get some SEO juice if it’s dofollow, a little less if it’s not no follow, and you get connection to another human being – priceless. And maybe the person will then comment on your blog or click your lick. How does one measure these things?
Twitter is like my personal bookstore, but so is most of Web 2.0
photos by Howard Blum
Sharing is one of the amazing benefits of Web 2.0, so it’s no wonder that Twitter is so important to me — both as a source and a repository. Here are some of the articles I read and Tweeted and Re-Tweeted this week:
Quick Tips worth repeating over and over [until people get them ingrained]: (a) Identify goals; (b) Share personality; (c) Engage, don’t shill; (d) Use Facebook data Here are some article highlights:
Be where your customers — and prospective customers — hang out.
Nope, even traditional media admits social media is NOT a fad. Local bloggers are being paid for page views. Viral nature of social media is fountain for success. Social media provides 2-way communication. Social media will be your local marketing tool
Facebook & Google win social network marketing race
“In the future, the Web you know will be based on the Web that knows you.”
“Social Media has simply become an unstoppable force.”
“Making special offers based on known behaviors and connections, will be automated.”
Future marketing outreach: “Maybe you’ll also reach out to one of the baker’s dozen’s worth of active baking-related groups on Facebook.”
Robert Scoble interview with POSTEROUS for the “GEEKY-ER” among you:
Top Geek-Thought-Leader Robert Scoble posted a video interview with the two creators of Posterous, a platform on which anyone can post content via email. Steve Rubel stopped publishing his highly regarded marketing communication blog Micropersuasion in favor of a Posterous stream. Video is 17 minutes long and features Robert’s questions for Posterous founders: Sachin Agarwal and Garry Tan. Highlights:
Purpose is to provide a simple, clean platform for rich media and mobile application.
Only four full-time engineers do all the work.
To serve 1.8 billion people who don’t want the hassle of a traditional blog
Future business model to offer Premium features — far in the future.
Just over six months ago [in April 2009], I wrote my first blog post with the announced intention to aim for “A-List status.”
Four months later I wrote an article about the “day I thought I’d died and gone to Heaven” — it was actually a report of a panel discussion headlining Steve Rubel among other social media thought leaders discussing a Roadmap for the future.
How very exciting it had been to introduce myself to Steve, who’s been a role model.
I told Steve of the lofty goal I was working towards, and he said,
“You might want to reconsider, Shari. Blogs are losing their status, and you might aim, instead, to be an A-List Thought Leader,” he advised me.
During the panel discussion Steve elaborated on this view:
I do subscribe to Steve’s Posterous stream, but that’s in addition to more than a dozen other blogs I keep up with pretty regularly. [Check my blogroll on the right hand sidebar.]
Commentary on the PR 2.0 summary of Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere report
Technorati is a search engine for blogs, and it catalogs more than 112 million blogs. Every year the site comes out with a State of the Blogosphere Report and this year’s findings include information about these topics: professional blogging activities, brands in the blogosphere, monetization, twitter & micro-blogging and bloggers’ impact on US and World events.
The report also includes interviews with more than a dozen well-known, well-respected, and well-read bloggers including Steve Rubel.
Brian Solis’ blog PR 2.0 featured an indepth view of the report
This article will pick out and share pieces of the report that I found interesting and helpful to me as a fairly new blogger.
Brian’s post included color-coded charts recording responses from four categories of bloggers: (a) hobbiests; (b) part-timers; (c) corporate; and (d) self-employed.
1) About 70% of all bloggers felt that “Blogs are getting taken more seriously as sources of information” while 60% agreed that “More people will be getting their news and entertainment from blogs than from traditional media in the next three years.”
HOWEVER
2) Fewer than 40% agreed with the following two statements:
a) “Newspapers will not be able to survive in the next ten years.”
b) “Blogs are often better written than traditional media.”
Re: “Prolificness”
Brian wrote that “those bloggers who rank among the highest according to Technorati Authority post nearly 300 times more than the lower ranked bloggers.”
One Technorati survey question asked “How frequently do you update your blog?
20% post once or twice a day
27% post 2-3 times per week
33% post at least once a week
Interestingly, 3% of self-employed bloggers post 10 times a day or more! AND 7% post 5-9 times a day.
Why do bloggers blog?
“Self expression and sharing expertise are among the primary motivations for bloggers,” Brian wrote.
To measure the “success” of their blogs, survey respondents chose from the following ten factors, ranked from the most popularly selected to the least:
1) Personal satisfaction
2) Number of unique visitors
3) Number of posts or comments on the blog
4) Number of links to my blog from other blogs
5) Number of RSS subscribers
6) Accolades from other media
7) Number of people favoriting you
8) Blogger’s Technorati authority number
9) Number and quality of new business leads
10) and, finally, in last place for hobbiests/corporate bloggers was revenue; HOWEVER, 39% of part-timers admitted that revenue was an important measure of their success.
What activities do bloggers participate in to attract visitors?
The four most popular activities included (a) Listing the blog on Technorati; (b) Tagging blog posts; (c) Commenting on other blogs; (d) Listing the blog on Google.
Other activities were the following [from more popular to least popular]: (e) Getting listed on a blog directory; (f) Produce content for other blogs or websites; (g) Create a blog on a broader blog network; (h) Attend conferences for bloggers; (i) Pay for online advertising.
The future of Blogging
Here are the eleven blog ideas and tactics proposed for the coming year [from most popular to least]:
1) Blog more frequently
2) Expand some of the topics already blogged about
3) Publish a book
4) Begin using the blog to get speaking engagements
5) Add advertising
6) Begin guest blogging
7) Add video
8) Blog through mobile device
9) Start a new, independent blog
10) Start a new blog on a blog network
11) Blog less frequently.
According to Brian:
“Technorati believes that the next generation of blogs will be more action oriented, not just documenting real time happenings, but driving actual events.”
If you’re a blogger, how would you have answered any of the Technorati questions?
If you don’t blog yet, has any of this information convinced you to “dive in” and start expressing yourself?
Feeling left out because everyone’s buzzing about Twitter Lists . . . and you’re not?
Reminds me of how one of my good friends has had two dinner parties at her home in the last few weeks, and I wasn’t invited to either. But she did ask me for this weekend, so maybe there’s hope for all of us.
Fresh from a 30-minute webinar on Twitter Lists by Hubspot, I have decided to weigh in with my own . . .
List on Twitter Lists:
1. First off, Twitter Lists is a brand new social media/Twitter feature, so by the time we learn all there is to know, many aspects will change. And that’s OK. Really. Getting your feet wet in the evolving new technology makes it so much easier to capitalize on the opportunities you will find along the way — this is ESPECIALLY TRUE for businesses who’ve feared jumping onto the social media bandwagon.
a. COROLLARY: That means that the rest of this “List” may — or may not — be useful tomorrow/next week/next month . . .
2. Twitter is like a fire hydrant, according to the webinar, so Twitter Lists are like hoses, according to me.
b. COROLLARY: You can focus your Twitter streams and increase your Reach.
3. Webinar’s HOW-TO: (a) Follow the Lists of people you respect; (b) Create some of your own by going to your Follower list; and (c) Promote your lists via widget, FB, FF, and Twitter itself.
c. COROLLARY: Check out more lists on Listorious and add yours to this directory
4. Instead of number of Twitter Followers to measure your popularity, the new gauge will be how many Lists you are on.
d. COROLLARY: Using either of these analytics is “interesting” — to use the term many English teachers write when we can’t think of something positive to say about a student’s paper/thesis.
5. You can not [now] SPAM the people on a Twitter List
e. COROLLARY: A critical component to Success with Social Media Marketing [SMM} is to personalize relationships and service. Automatic anything is so un-SMM.
6. Teachers can make Twitter Lists for individual courses for in-class or homework discussions
f. I won’t have to use TweetChat which was giving us some trouble when students replied directly to other students, e.g., these discussions sometimes did not appear in the stream.
Posts re: Twitter Lists from the blogosphere:
7. Four clever uses for lists: includes creating mini-communities where every listee follows the list and uses hashtags for discussions.
“For those cast adrift in a sea of content, good news: A “curation” economy is beginning to take shape, tweet by tweet, list by list.”
10. Robert Scoble:
“Twitter Lists are for people crazy about tech news. Techmeme is for lazy people who want all their news in 10 minutes? Heheh. Very fun!” in response to a comment on his post “Techmeme vs Twitter Lists“
— BTW, Scoble is the ONLY “listee” on Steve Rubel’s “List/faves”
Time to “get off the couch” and start LISTING — or at least reading about them. It really is “All about the Buzz”
If you enjoyed this article, please consider leaving a comment or sharing it with your followers on Twitter! You can also subscribe by email for more cool interviews and articles from Sharisax is Out There.
My friend and colleague Zahid Lilani recently posted links to eight articles he’d found interesting. So I thought I’d do the same — and get through some of my emails at the same time. If you read any of the suggested articles, please feel free to comment below — that “tip” is also recommended in a few of these articles.
SOCIAL NETWORKING: Social Media success depends on more than developing an online presence. Taylor Ellwood offers five tips on how to “Network” and Build Community using social media. Basically he suggests (1) Comment on peoples’ tweets and posts; (2) Pay attention to what people need; (3) Post personal info, but be careful that you talk about things that would promote interaction; (4) Try to connect people with one another; (5) Treat people as people, more than just prospective clients.
Deleting Duplicates: Are you bothered by seeing the same Tweet Twice? Twitter is doing something about that, but some people are upset because they schedule the same tweet to be broadcast 3 different times during the day. Sorry, but you’ll have to make a small change and that will be enough to “delete the delete.”
Technorati Update: The name “Technorati” was one I’d heard early on as The Blog Directory. Apparently the site has not updated its offerings until lately — and the changes will no doubt affect the Blogosphere. Read this article if you want to familiarize with what’s happening with this Big Name.
How-to Plan an Event on Facebook: Many of my friends and prospective clients want to know how to use Facebook Fanpages for their businesses. Here is a Step-by-Step guide to broadcasting news about an event on Facebook. Who doesn’t like Step-by-Step guides?
For Techies – Resources to build Apps: To be honest, this article is a bit over my head, but some readers may be thinking of building applications for FOUR of the most popular SM sites, i.e. Facebook, Flckr, Google Maps, and Twitter. Interesting reading [and stats] even for some of less tech-types.
Make money blogging?: Final reading selection of the day is a Roadmap to Turn Blogging into Your Business. Read Darren Rowse’s [Problogger] Roadmap after his wife told him “You have six months to make blogging full-time.”
I covered the first section, ch. 15 on Community Managers in an earlier post. And today’s article only begins to summarize some of the key points in the three very diverse chapters remaining in Part 4.
You’ll find many resources referred to but much deeper explanations are offered in links below, and, of course, the book itself.
Notes from Ch. 16: Socialization of Communication and Service
One of the true values of our technological capabilities is an opportunity — and a responsibility — to “become experts in the markets, products, and services we represent.”
Do not fear negative comments as they can help organizations improve their processes and offerings.
One goal: pull your company into online conversations to help influencers, customers, and prospects gather the information they need. Also empower people to help one another.
MONITORING TIP— Use Google Alerts and “search.twitter.com” –You receive email notifications through Google Alerts for key words that you sign up for. If you use a desktop application like Tweetdeck, then you can set up columns to regularly stream mentions of your keyword from search.twitter.com. You could be receiving regular updates about your company, your products, and your competitors.
NING.COM: A new one for me, but I tried it and like it. Here you can set up YOUR OWN social network. For example, in my fledgling social media consulting business, I can offer SM Newbies a “comfortable” place to gather online and ask me and my interns questions about social media in a Newbie forum.
Finding WHICH communities your customers participate in is critical if you want to engage them where they are.
“Feel the pain and deliver the painkiller.”
If you are listening to problems, you can address them before your customers go elsewhere for solutions.
REVERSE ENGINEERING [one of my favorite concepts to (a) deliberate over and (b) put to USE
Here is the PPBPR 3-step reverse-engineering model:
Determine Who, Where, How — prospects are communicating.
Listen.
Adapt to their needs.
Notes from Ch 17 – The Rules for Breaking News
Concept of embargo: When PR people distribute news to those who will write about it [e.g., reporters, bloggers], the “embargo” sets a time WHEN the news may be broadcast.
Some bloggers are now saying that . . .
“PR agencies are no longer necessary”
Do you agree? Who does — and why? Who doesn’t — and why?
Here’s an opinion on the topic from Steve Rubel – thought leader, lifestreamer, and top PR guy for top international PR firm:
“Does the thrill of the chase make PR obsolete? It’s our view that increasingly, bloggers (and maybe journalists too) simply don’t want our help. Many bloggers — particularly those who cover tech — love to discover new things and experience them on their own.”
Key difference between bloggers and journalists: many bloggers want the news way before the story — because, in many cases, They are the Innovators and Early Adopters.
One key similarity: RELATIONSHIPS are All Important, no matter the medium or the writer/broadcaster.
Ch 18 – A New guide to metrics
The whole idea behind PR 2.0 is that the Old Ways of PR no longer work with today’s audiences OR the people who influence them. Same goes for Old Measurements: Organizations should NOT determine the ROI of their PR campaigns by the number of stories written in newspapers or broadcast on TV.
“PR 2.0 favors engagement more than hits, referrals more than eyeballs, activity more than ad value, sales more than mentions, and market and behavioral influences more than the weight and girth of clip books.”
People = Power
Perception = sum of all the conversations on the Social Web
Measuring the frequency and tone of conversations is the new measure of effectiveness, and here are some tracking tools to check out:
and a host of social networks from Facebook to YouTube.
Tracking conversations finds you WHAT?
When you listen, you will likely hear seven different types of comments:
Asking for info or help
Answering questions related to your brand
Sharing opinions/observations
Offering suggestions
Expressing dissatisfaction
Promoting competition
Reposting relevant content and market data
“Through proactive and consistent listening, measurement, and refinement, PR will not only justify its role in social marketing, but also more effectively enhance relationships, build trust, cultivate communities, and increase sales . . .”
i.e. INCREASE ROI
What’s YOUR TAKE on the new methods and measurements of Public Relations? If you read this post BEFORE Tuesday, Sept 22 at 8pm EDT / 5pm PDT, you can join me and others for the social media book discussion on Tweetchat. Just put in the hashtag #smbookclub and comment OR just observe.
An archive will be available after the discussion, but you can always weigh in with a comment below.
A few weeks ago, I felt like I’d died and gone to Heaven.
That’s the sensation one has when a passion is being filled to the brimming [tipping?] point.
For a student of the Social Media Revolution, nothing could be more gratifying and fulfilling than to hear a panel of highly influential Social Media Mavens describe what’s happening “out there” . . . Now . . . and what’s likely in our Future.
EVENT DETAILS
Sponsored by The Next Bench, an official HP destination for innovation and computing enthusiasts.
Wednesday, Aug 19 – San Mateo, CA
Moderated by Tony “Frosty: Welch, Community Manager for The Next Bunch, responsible for Web, Community and Social Media Strategy.
Panelists:
Steve Rubel, SVP Director of Insights for Edelman Digital, div. of the world’s largest independent PR firm.
Richard Brewer-Hay, Senior Manager Social Media Strategy & Chief Blogger for Ebay
THE MORE YOU LOWER THE BAR, THE EASIER IT IS FOR THE WORLD TO GO ROUND
IT’S NOT ALL ABOUT CONVERSION — CONVERSATION IS CRITICAL
Selected quips from the conversation:
* Experts are looking to lower the bar.
* Being “Gracious” is vital to being IN with Social Media.
* The Social Media Revolution is like a fast-moving sushi train.
* The Four Basic Means of Measuring Social Media Value: (1) Reach; (2) Engagement; (3) Reputation; (4) Trial/Transaction
* The Top Ten websites from a decade ago had one social network site; today more than half are social media.
* Digital Embassy Strategy: Fish where the fish are — have Embassies in all the venues where your customers are
“People don’t buy products; they buy LifeStyles.”
* Companies are screwing up as they experiment with social media, BUT these mistakes don’t seem to hurt the Bottom Line.
* Innovation really matters: *****INNOVATE IN SMALL WAYS – Those who innovate and iterate in small ways are positioned to pull ahead when things go mainstream. When something becomes a winner, you’ll be there.
* Social Media is NOT YET MAINSTREAM!
“Those who innovate and iterate in small ways are postioned to pull ahead when things go mainstream.”
* Smart companies will take advantage of people with strong personal brands.
* Do not look at Social Media in a vacuum: Look at all stakeholders and determine where social media fits. Where’s the HIGHER PURPOSE?
* Social Media, conversation media, whatever you want to call it — it’s all about one-to-one.
* We’re on THE CUTTING EDGE: The Internet is always changing.
Frosty Welch, HP Panel ModeratorMichael, the Voice of Intel
Wow, what a great question — especially for a couple of million people now writing blog articles!
Just over six months ago [in April 2009], I wrote my 
Feeling left out because everyone’s buzzing about Twitter Lists . . . and you’re not?
