I know that acknowledging and responding to comments left on your blog is very important and am hoping to have some light shed on the best way to handle this aspect of blogging. A friend recently mentioned that she rarely goes back to a post’s comments and only occasionally subscribes to them, so she doesn’t usually see if a post author has responded to her.
What is the best way to keep the conversation going and let your readers know that you are interested in what they are saying? I would love to hear what you are doing and what your suggestions are. Please share your thoughts (and you can also vote in this poll, which will be open for a week).
I'm a mom with Asperger's raising an amazing son with autism, which means I'm basically the case manager/advocate/cheerleader/chauffeur. The rest of the time, you can usually find me with my nose in a book!
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
I couldn’t vote because what I do varies…I typically email the person directly but alas many people do not have an email for me to access. When that occurs if a response in necessary, then I respond in my own comments area.
Its a difficult one, ive seen it done in many different ways.
I usually email, or someone will email me.
If something significant comes up i will think about it and then write a post about it.
I usually reply to comments on my blog, and in the event I don’t have anything more than “Thanks for stopping by” to say, I make it a point to visit them in the next couple of days. The worst thing to do is ignore them completely, I think.
You know I have no idea. I usually reply with a comment on my blog but had recently wondered what happens if the person doesn’t check if I replied. I’ll be back to hear what your readers think since I need some guidance in this area too.
All the ideas above are good. Some people have an automated response. If you have tons of comments that would probably be the way to go. But I think the personal touch of email will start a relationship and they will come back. If your answer is one to share with everyone, then either comment back so others can see your answer or if the subject is large enough, do a post about it.
And remember, it is always great to reciprocate the visit and the comment. You might even find a blog you want to write a review on in one of your posts.
Okie Aunt
Thanks for the comments so far; it is really good to hear what other people think about this. I plan to follow up with a post next week after the poll ends.
I used to respond on my blog, but then I realized how time consuming it is for the readers to subscribe to my comments…so they rarely ever saw my reply. So then I started doing personal e-mail responses for those who allowed replies, but there were two problems with that: 1) about 1/3 of my regular readers still don’t have email enabled on their blogger accounts so I CAN’T email them and 2) others reading my comments may think I never responded to anyone or answered any questions that were asked. And maybe, just maybe, they would like to know the answer to the same question without having to ask it again. So email wasn’t the full answer either.
I’ve been working on a new post on how I plan to handle answering all future comments. There’s a not-so-new comment option called Disqus. I’ve been reading all sorts of articles and websites on it–both the good and the bad. And I’m seeing it pop up more and more on other larger blogs. To see how it looks when comments are responded to, check it out HERE.
Anyway, without re-typing my entire blog post, it would be proverbially killing at least a few dozen birds with one stone (much as I love birds :sniff, sniff:). There are so many things I like about this new-ish service after using it on other friend’s blogs so I hope to get it up and running in the next couple weeks. And I guess I’d better finalize my blog post and just fling it out there for anyone else who’s interested.
Hope this helps!
.-= 2Shaye´s last blog ..Full, Undivided Attention =-.