How to Foster An Improved Commenting Environment

byllj-tucson

4.4K followers

8 years ago

Over the past two days, I spent several hours in the commenting trenches. I know this statement applies to most of us, but I'll start with the obvious. I try very hard to provide thoughtful comments that add value. I admit I struggle with this at times which has driven me to search for more guidance in an effort to improve. I find that reading examples of stellar comments can be enlightening.

I discovered a fabulous post at Smartblogger.com called The Ultimate Guide to Writing Comments That Open Doors with Popular Bloggers. It's not my intent to rehash the article here. I've provided the link in case you're interested. I will say it's a great read! I'm also not delving into the meat of commenting here. I'll save that for another day.

But there are three major elements discussed in the post identified above that really jumped out and smacked me. That personal reaction drove me to share. Please know that it is not my intent to criticize. Rather, I'm introducing food for thought. Judging from my own experience, I'm intensely aware that I don't always thoroughly examine my practices (especially when I'm engaging in something relatively new). Maybe I'm not alone? So, here we go.

Two of these factors hold prominent positions on the list of mistakes that really make comments suck (their language not mine). The third element appears as item #1 in the anatomy of a superior blog post.

Let's Start With the Mistakes

The two mistakes I honed in on are closely related and revolve around the issue of establishing credibility. I see this as entirely consistent with our training here at WA. Building credibility and a position of authority within our respective niches are expounded on as key determinants of success, and rightly so.

Smartblogger emphasizes the significance of using photos in Gravatars and also commenting with your real name rather than a username. The author of this Smartblogger post views both of these practices as absolutely essential in establishing both credibility and a personal connection with your readers. I've noted that in the WA community, use of whimsical Gravatars and unique user names is prevalent.

Within the WA platform itself, why not? The practice is fun, often lighthearted, and may create just the desired persona. But, should we consider the advice emanating from this highly respected blog when providing comments that go out to the world? I don't believe you'd hear any disagreement from Kyle or Carson. Please take note of their Gravatars.

Mind you; only a minuscule portion of the public is currently viewing my website, but maybe that's irrelevant. I choose to believe that will eventually change. Hope does spring eternal :)

Here's the thing. Whether we've achieved it yet or not, we're all focused on driving organic traffic to our websites. Consider this. Will visitors feel dang silly engaging in a serious conversation (I think that's the intent of comments) with a kitten, puppy, cartoon character, or graphic icon? As pointed out in the above article, puppet figure Gravatars are even worse. Think generic and faceless (almost spammy). Is that the business image you want to convey?

Unique Gravatars

It's entirely possible to create more than one Gravatar. All you need is another email account. My thought would be, that's what gmail is for. You can easily enjoy one Gravatar when interacting with the WA family, and use another for conversing with readers and potential customers. Something to ponder?

The Anatomy of a Superior Blog Comment

Let's move on to element #1 in the anatomy of a superior blog comment. Every comment should begin with a friendly greeting that always includes the use of the author's name. You would think following this recommendation would be pretty simple, right?

After all, there are three potential sources of this information. One of the first pages we created in Lesson one was the About Me page, every WordPress post includes the author's name at the top by default, and if comments are already present, the author has responded.

I admit the friendly greeting is not a practice I was adhering to before reading this article. But the approach makes a lot of sense to me, so this week I tried to implement this suggestion. I was honestly surprised at the difficulties I encountered.

Here's a quick list:

1. Many websites do not have an About Me page. Perhaps the page exists but it's not part of the navigation bar? Are you missing an opportunity to create that all-important personal connection?

2. Some websites that do have an About Me (Us) page are entirely focused on the purpose or mission of the site and fail to provide any personal information (including a name). The website owner remains completely anonymous. Is this a best practice when it comes to creating trust?

3. I was amazed at the number of post authors that share the name "Admin" :). Should we be consciously logging into our sites under our personal account rather than the generic Admin account that WordPress creates for everyone by default?

4. Many of the folks still using puppet or silhouette figure Gravatars are also responding to comments with the name "Admin". If we truly want to encourage engagement, is this the way to accomplish that? It kind of smacks of delegating the chore of responding to office staff. Wouldn't that be fun to have, lol?

So, I felt compelled to ask this question. Are we creating the appropriate business image, geared toward the success we all desire, with these practices?

Will you join the conversation and let us all know your thoughts? Please feel free to disagree with any and all points.

All perspectives are welcome!

To our success!

Linda