More secrets to engaging blog commenters
By Beth Graddon-Hodgson
In last week’s post, I gave you a little bit of insight to help you use your intuition and determine how to respond you comments on your business blog, based on what you think each commenter wants to hear. This week, we’re delving a bit deeper into the really juicy stuff; writing blog posts that are sure to get people commenting and I’ll reveal one of my big secrets about handling comments.
Writing blogs to evoke emotion
A great blog post gets people thinking, and beyond that, it should also make people strongly agree or disagree with whatever stand you’ve taken with your writing. A great post will either make someone jump up and down in agreement (and hopefully share it enthusiastically on social networks) or utter profanities at the computer screen that you fortunately can’t hear (unless of course, they spread that distain across social networks, too). Good or bad reactions can only be positive if it’s for the right reasons– it’s all online publicity!
In order to write a blog post to evoke emotion in your readers, hone in on a topic that you know is controversial. For example, check out this post I wrote in the first few days following the Gulf oil disaster . I wrote it knowing and hoping I would irk some people by saying that it just wasn’t getting enough media attention. It was clear that some readers would strongly support the perspective that an environmental disaster of this level should have been highly publicized worldwide from the get-go, not swept under the rug.
In choosing a controversial topic, you can anticipate what you think the reactions of your readers will be. The important thing is to ensure that you stick to the facts (at least as far as they are available at the time) because you want your readers to debate with you. What you don’t want is them rightfully saying you have no idea what you’re talking about. Facts can’t be disputed, only each individual’s interpretation of them can.
Debating to encourage more blog comments
One comment said in that oil spill post said was that I was “stirring the pot”. If only they know how right they really were! I chose a controversial topic to get the chatter going and virtual fists flying. I don’t just like to stir the pot, knowingly either with my articles, I try to do it with my comments, too.
Hone in on whatever aspect of your article that really seemed to irk a commenter, and politely try to push your point home and keep the debate going. Be courteous and direct; you never want to personally attack a reader even if they started it, but push their buttons by taking advantage of your differing opinions. Of course, this technique only works with someone who’s out for a heated debate and when there are two clear sides of the argument. But, do it right and not only will you get that person into an endless debate, you’ll find that other readers will jump in to either support you or support the other commenter. If it works, you can usually step out of the argument yourself and let the debate keep on going between your readers.
Make sure you do remember that when you’re intentionally writing about controversial topics or leaving comments to incite debate; you’re prepared to have a thick skin. There will be backlash, but as long as you stick to the facts and your interpretation of them; there’s no such thing as a bad comment. Know too, that while some comments may get to you on a personal level; it’s really not about you, but rather the issue itself that you presented to get blood boiling!
These kinds of posts aren’t appropriate on every blog, and you do have to know there’s a fine line between continuing a debate and insulting a reader; so make sure you’re level-headed enough not to cross it when using this technique.
While you’re here, if anyone wants to try their hand at this technique and pick a fight with me; go nuts! After all, this post on controversial posts, has its own elements of controversy of its own…don’t you think?
Tags: Beth Graddon-Hodgson, blogging for business, blogging for small business, how to get blog comments, problogger, professional blogging, small business marketing, small business promotion, social media, writing
July 27th, 2010 at 9:17 am
My commenting experience indicates most bloggers don’t know how to advance an argument without eventually recoiling at comments and saying the equivalent of, “Yeah, well, your mamma!” (probably dating myself with that one
)
My most controversial, but almost entirely meaningless post to me is one I wrote about AT&T Wireless. But the nuance of the argument was lost to most reader as it became a “you hate AT&T too” piece. *sigh* No, not really but… http://www.dogwalkblog.com/i-hate-att-wireless.html number one read, week after week. Finally just closed the comments.
And then the best writing gets almost no comments! I understand the draw of baiting and when you use that power for good, it’s probably ok, but I don’t know about those means justifying the ends. They do work, though.
July 27th, 2010 at 9:18 am
Hey Rufus…YOUR MAMMA!
July 27th, 2010 at 12:28 pm
You can talk about feelings if you are a girl,and your blog is about love, and other girlish aspects of live. For boys Debating over football, soccer or sports is great!
Thanks for putting together this great post – some very good points here that all bloggers can start implementing.
July 28th, 2010 at 4:56 am
True true
July 29th, 2010 at 1:55 am
Comments that agree or disagree with the article concerned are still comments. I’ve encountered some posts that have some kind of arguments, and I’m glad that most blog owners handle them all in a calm manner.
August 1st, 2010 at 5:53 pm
Rufus – yep, gosh have I noticed that and the same can apply to those leaving comments. Although, those are not the ones I am trying to bait! It’s not about making someone lash back in anger, it’s a question of engaging them in an intellectual, healthy debate! Find the ones that clearly are informed but do have a strong opinion and keep the convo going. Not all comments have to agree with your perspective at all so I love to “encourage” others to share more, and sometimes that’s the only way!
And my oh my, I know how you feel about the comments that post got. A top read article of mine on one site drew about 1,000 comments debating grammar (totally irelevant). I made a typo, fixed it around the time the first comment was left and the comments after that continued with people jumping on the bangwagon saying I used the word correctly (of course, it was fixed within 2 min of posting) and others who tried to say it was wrong because others had said it was. Pretty hiliarous to watch, really but we closed the comments there too, it just got out of hand!
I think the bottom line is know that this trick is a tool that can certainly lead to backlash, it won’t always work as you hope!! It’s great when it does work well though! And no “your mamas” a “I don’t know if I agree with point xyz (their main point in their comment)” can sometimes be all it takes!!
August 5th, 2010 at 1:08 am
well,i like blog,Comments that agree or disagree with the article concerned are still comments
August 13th, 2010 at 9:33 am
In my old personal blog, to get comments i simply share my thought on my day, share pictures and share about experiences, i liked to share stories about my life like for example: “3 funny stories from my childhood” and at the end, i ask something like “what are yours”? And then, i received a lot of comments. I always did this type of things and received around 100 comments for each article, it was the good time…