Image by CyboRoZ via Flickr
Two of the best ways of building your online reputation are providing your own original content and adding your comments to others’. This takes you out of your isolated, comfortable bubble, and demonstrates that you’re willing to participate in and continue the conversation.
Commenting is a cyclical process, though, and as I personally experienced last week, follow-up is critical. Here’s what happened:
1. A former work colleague has started actively speaking and blogging about social media. I saw the link to her blog in an event announcement and decided to look her up.
She had recently posted about her job search, updated blog, and ongoing social media experiments. Since it sounds like we have some of the same interests and will probably be crossing paths again sometime soon, I posted a “Hi. How are you?” comment with a couple of additional resources that I thought she would be interested in.
And, just a day or so later, she visited my blog and commented back. Ok, we had met before, so I did think my likelihood of getting a response was pretty good, but the fact that she came here, checked out my blog, and commented here, was very nice. Good karma points!
2. While reading through comments on another blog (not mine), I came across a request from one of the commenters who was asking for feedback on a post she had written. It sounded like an interesting topic, so I visited her blog and wrote a couple of paragraphs (some encouragement, some “here’s why I liked part xyz”) in the comments.
Response = nothing.
Unlike the first example, I don’t know this person and she doesn’t know me. I’m also not necessarily trying to build a relationship with her – different interests, different location. So, I didn’t think that I was expecting her to reply to my comment, but… I was. Even just a generic “thanks” would have been nice.
Best case scenario, I feel a little bit ignored and slightly less willing to help in these situations. Worst case scenario, what if I wasn’t the right connection for her, but I had the right connection for her (the original commenter was job changing). Karma, meh.
What do you think? Do you have a policy for dealing with comments? Are there times when you definitely do (or do not) reply? (If you comment, I’ll be sure and send you a Thanks, okay?)
{ 4 comments }
It's interesting that you wrote this because I was just popping over here to say a 'thanks' for your comment on my blog. =) (And that I took your advice and posted a new entry that I hope is more focused but I'm afraid it's probably not… lol.) I try to respond to comments because I always feel so honored when others respond to mine. It makes me feel good. I like to pass around the feel good vibes.
Yay! I'm so glad you stopped by.
I'll drop by and take another look at your post sometime this weekend (I'm sure it's great and even if it's not where you want it to be yet, part of the battle is just to keep writing, right?)
It's interesting that you wrote this because I was just popping over here to say a 'thanks' for your comment on my blog. =) (And that I took your advice and posted a new entry that I hope is more focused but I'm afraid it's probably not… lol.) I try to respond to comments because I always feel so honored when others respond to mine. It makes me feel good. I like to pass around the feel good vibes.
Yay! I'm so glad you stopped by.
I'll drop by and take another look at your post sometime this weekend (I'm sure it's great and even if it's not where you want it to be yet, part of the battle is just to keep writing, right?)
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