Hello everyone! It looks like the blogging encouragement has worked, since this week's question is about how to manage all the comments showing up on a blog. I'll let the blogger speak for herself...
"Dear Ask Remabulous,
I had a question about blogger etiquette I thought you could
help with. I’ve started getting more and more comments on my blog which
makes my heart sing but I don’t know if I should respond to each and
every one of them, especially when most of them are not questions but simply “Ah,
I relate” type comments.
Do you have any guidelines for this?
Thanks,
Cupcake"
Great question, Cupcake, and it's one that every blogger wrestles with once her site gets any attention. Here are my thoughts and strategies below...
Dear Cupcake,
First of all, I want to congratulate you on needing to ask this question! You must be creating a lot of fans with your blog to have so many great comments. Here is the general rule of thumb...
The more you can respond, the better. Now, I saw that with the awareness that all of us, even those who are full time pro bloggers, have other things we have to do all day than blog and deal with our blogs.
However, if you respond directly to someone's comment, that is going to create the most loyalty and positive fuzzy feelings in that reader.
Now... you don't have to do a separate response to each comment. Bloggers I know who get gluts of comments, like Holli of baby-faith and my big love Tim Ferriss both write back to commenters, but they post one comment themselves with a lone or two to readers and answer direct questions that way. This seems to work well and can also cut down on your comment reply time as you can do it in chunks.
Another strategy is to install a commenting program like intense debate or disqus that allows you to post a general comment, reply to a specific reader so you're sure that your reply gets emailed to them as well, and- here's the fun part- it allows other readers to comment on each other's comments.
This is great becuse a) if you take the time to write back to someone, you certainly want to make sure they get that reply instead of forgetting they ever said something on the site, which could happen with the solution above. And b) you can start to encourage people to comment to each other, which takes the pressure off you to be in 1 on 1 dialog. I like the idea of posts as discussion topics so everyone feels encouraged to chime in. As a moderator, there is less stress for you, and you are still providing a valuable service to your readers.
It's a win for everyone!
And, as a note on the end spectrum of getting a glut of comments... I know from meeting and interviewing Heather Armstrong of Dooce, who probably gets more comments in a day than most people see in a year... she believes it is her job to read every comment that comes into her site, even if she couldn't possible write back to everyone. She is a powerhouse.
If you become pressed for time in the extreme like she has, put a note up saying you do love and read all your comments, but can't respond individually. instead, at that point you can let comments guide you in what you post about or in what topics you focus on. Someone who reads, "in the comments recently I've noticed people really care about_____" followed by a post that is relevent to your readers shows that you care what they have to say.
Which is what it all boils down to in terms of etiquette, after all.
Hope this helps! Keep us posted on your success and feel free to share your blog address below in comments so others can see your site!
best wishes, Cupcake!
Caroline
