Twitter is Great, But Take The Conversation Back To Your Blog

Guest Post from Grant Griffiths.

I would be the first one to admit that Twitter has had a huge impact on both my blog and our business this last year. In fact, I get tremendous amounts of traffic to Blog For Profit every time I do a post when I let my twitter followers know about it. And each and every time one of my followers retweets my new post, I see a spike in traffic too.

I will also admit I love the conversations which are centered around one of my post on twitter. But, and you know there is always going to be a but. I also think twitter can take away from the conversations we like to see on our blogs too.

We would all like to think everyone who is anyone uses Twitter on a daily basis. Everyone doesn’t. And that is why I want to make sure those on twitter don’t forget the importance of the conversations which take place on our blogs. Yes, twitter is social and we do have conversations there. And yes, we can all network there and make connections. However, connecting with our target audience is so much more than just using twitter.

Blogging is Social Media

Don’t let anyone tell you blogging is not social media. Blogging was social media before social media even knew about social media. What sets blogging apart from other online social media venues is the fact we can post our thoughts or our message and provide a way for our target audience to engage in that conversation. Our audience is given a means to not only engage with us, but to engage with each other. As bloggers we have to continue to encourage and make it very easy for our readers to comment on our blogs.

Blogging also has another huge advantage over tools like twitter. Mainly we are not limited to 140 characters. Not that this is a bad thing. Usually we are more focused in our messages with twitter than we are with other tools we use. However, at the same time there are those conversations or subjects when we need to be more wordy and long winded.

We all spend such valuable time planning a post, researching a post, drafting and outlining a post and then actually sitting down to write the post. What many of us forget to do is to make sure the conversation is taken to the next level. We tend to overlook the one huge benefit of blogging and that is the two-way conversation we can have with our audience. Blogging is social because of the very fact we can have a conversation there. It is not as instant as twitter might be. But that does not eliminate the importance of blogging.

What can we do as bloggers to get more comments?

• Ask for them – Not rocket science, but it is the first step in getting comments. Invite your readers to leave comments by just asking. I do this sometimes at the very end of a blog post. Don’t be afraid to ask.
• Ask questions and seek opinion – How many people are going to ignore an opportunity to give them opinion? Very few. And asking a question is an indication you might need help. And people just have a natural urge to help by answering questions. Use this technique, it works.
• Comment on comments – Your responsibility as the blog publisher does not stop when you hit the post/publish button and send your post to the blog. If you expect to get comments, you have to participate in the conversation too. I try to make it a point to respond to as many of the comments I get as I can. If our readers have taken the time to stop what they are doing to leave a comment, I feel I have an obligation to do the same back. If you are not getting comments, are responding to the comments which do come in? If you are not, then why should your readers leave any in the first place.
• Stir the pot from time to time – Everyone of your readers have a topic they are passionate about. As you do. Don’t be afraid to get the “juices” flowing by bringing up such a topic and giving your take on it. “Often some of my best interactions come from topics that people are decidedly passionate about.” However, be careful on this one too. Don’t get carried away with what topic you might blog about. While I love a good political argument like the next guy, I would not blog about it on my blog. Some topics don’t belong on a business blog.
• Don’t require your readers to register to comment – This is one of those things people are doing which really just causes me to get angry. You are accomplishing nothing other then keeping busy bloggers from leaving a comment on your blog. And don’t use those stupid CAPTCHA spam filters either. For one thing, spammers are finding ways around them. And two, they are a pain in the butt for your commenters. There are a number of times I have attempted to put in the required letters and it does not work. If you make it difficult for your readers to comment, they won’t. It is your responsibility as the blogger to moderate your comments.
• Moderate your comments – You have a responsibility to your readers to keep out spam and nasty comments. If you don’t moderate your comments your readers are going to assume you don’t care and will not take the time to leave a comment.
• Allow your readers to subscribe to comments – One of the keys to getting your readers involved in the conversation and engaged is to give them a way to keep up on the conversation. Give them a way to subscribe to the comments in a post and hopefully they will come back and comment on the comments. On Blog For Profit, we use a WordPress plugin called simply Subscribe to Comments. And readers do subscribe to comments to see what is being said after they comment.
• Give your commenters something in return – Commenters leave comments for a couple of reasons. One, they want to leave a comment because they do want to get involved in the conversation. Two, they leave a comment to get noticed. And there are tools available which allow you to give both of these commenters something in return for engaging in the conversation. We use another WordPress plugin called Commentluv. This plugin shows a link to the last post from the commenters blog in their comment.

Just as important as what we can do to get more comments is, how can we leave better comments on other blogs. If we as bloggers are going to have the position that commenting is a beneficial activity of our day. Than, we as bloggers need to make sure we are participating in the conversation taking place out in the blog world in our particular niche or market. We have to practice what we preach.

Leaving better comments on the blogs you read

• Read the full post – Before you should even consider leaving a comment, make sure you read the entire post. I know this sounds very apparent. However, I don’t know how many times I have seen comments on my own blog and on those I am reading completely miss the entire conversation taking place. It is very easy to skim content, jump to conclusions and flame the other blogger. Don’t be one of those commenters who don’t take the time to really digest what the blogger was saying.
• Read all of the other comments – This may be both difficult and very time consuming. If you really want to add to the conversation and leave a better comment, you have to know and understand how all of the content, the post and the comments are moving the conversation. What you may find is the comments are actually doing a better job of taking the conversation where it needs to go than the original post. Don’t look like a bumbling idiot because you did not take the time to read the comments either.
• Add a new twist – If you feel you can add something new to the conversation, do so. As I mentioned above, a lot of times the comments are better than the original post. Don be afraid to add a new perspective.
• Come back and respond – Just because you left a comment, doesn’t mean you should forget about it and not come back. Whether you can subscribe to the comments or not. Make sure you come back and respond to anyone who might reply to or add to your comment. I often will leave a blog post I have commented on open in my browser. I then might refresh the page a couple of times that day to see if anyone may have replied to my comment. If they have I will try to respond or even answer a question they may have asked. Remember, commenting on other blogs is a great way to build your own authority and social proof.
• DO NOT LINKBAIT – The temptation to leave a comment for the sake of leaving a comment on a heavily visited blog is there. We all think about it. But don’t do it just to get a link. You will look like just what you are. A linkbaiter. If you can’t leave a comment with more than, ‘great blog post,’ don’t leave anything at all.

Blogging is here to stay. Twitter is here to stay. And whether we like it or not, social media and even the phrase “social media” is here to stay too. What we have to do as those who blog and who use tools like twitter is to make sure we meld them together so they both become cohesive and not separate from each other. While the traffic we get from twitter is forced by its very design to visit our blogs when we post a link. The traffic from RSS or our email subscribers is not. If we want the conversations to go further than just having someone read our blogs, we have do take the necessary steps to ensure this happens.

As bloggers, if we want to be competitive in a very competitive market, we have to go further in our actions to engage our readers and our niche. We have to be proactive in our actions and not sit around and complain we are not getting traffic, visitors, readers and subscribers. And we need to not complain about not getting comments and go out of our way to encourage them and make it easy for our readers to do so.

Please take the time to add to the conversation contained in this post and leave your comments. While I love all the positive ones we get. I certainly don’t want to discourage you to disagree. We all grow from the conversation, even if might take a different view.

About the author Grant Griffiths is founder of Blog For Profit and co-founder of Headway, a premium WordPress Theme/Framework. You can follow Grant on twitter at @grantgriffiths