One Comment is NOT Enough
Social networking sites are great tools for connecting with others. They make it significantly easier to reach out, stay in touch, and engage. That said, there are still a whole lot of people that aren’t taking advantage of these resources. There’s people that just ‘don’t get it,’ and are out for themselves – a cheap back link, personal brand awareness, etc.
Make sure you check out the people that have been doing a good job engaging me. Jaclyn, Nisha, Brian and Matt all have links in the side bar as ‘top commenters.’ You can find Andrew here.
Also, here’s Rebecca’s videos with roses on the table, and a well decorated room. Not as cool as bobble heads.
And then mad love to Jun (and his videos) who I think started the trend within the Brazen community.
Do you comment on other blogs? Do you try to engage people on Twitter with only 1 @reply? What do people have to do to get you to take notice?
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Ahaha! For the record, those flowers were from Valentine’s Day – I don’t have them normally
Also, I agree with you that a person that has a really good comment makes me visit their blog and feel compelled to comment there.
You have such great energy, I love your videos.
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admin Reply:
June 27th, 2009 at 12:03 am
@Rebecca – Thanks so much for the comment. I’ve evened up the video count now, your turn!
I would love to respond to everyone, and I try to, but sometimes I get swamped with other things, and if it wasn’t a very compelling comment is gets lost in the shuffle.
I don’t waste my time with, “Good post,” but sometimes I know people are genuinely trying and I want to get back to them, but forget. When your name starts showing up on that ‘Top Commentators’ section though, typically I notice OR if you say something that adds to the conversation, makes me thing, is intriguing, etc.
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I know what you mean Ryan. It can be a little frustrating when someone comments to on a tweet or blog post, you reply, and then you get no follow up.
Social media isn’t about comments and reply’s, it’s about conversations and building relationships.
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admin Reply:
June 27th, 2009 at 12:03 am
@Brian – If they comment first, and I reply, I’m okay with no follow-up. I just don’t want someone to expect me to go out of my way to get back to them when they left one line that didn’t add any value to my post, network, discussion, etc.
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Ryan,
Your style is great. Talk about ‘authenticity of voice’. I think video is such a great medium because personality starts to come through immediately.
I have to admit I spent a good deal of time as a lurker on various blogs and Twitter for some time. I really wanted to take the time to ‘listen first’ before chiming in with my own thoughts and opinions. That said, I think once you have a sense of the landscape, the next level is the kind of true engagement you’re talking about in your video. And I think it’s important for people to remember that true engagement takes time and consistent effort (like anything worth doing, right?)
Thanks for sharing!
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admin Reply:
June 27th, 2009 at 12:04 am
@Maria – Thanks so much for stopping by and contributing to this discussion. I do not think there’s -anything- wrong with lurking, and agree that you should listen first, before chiming in. My point is that once you go to engage, you might as well do it appropriately.
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Thanks Ryan, I’m glad more and more BCers are starting to use video.
I’m going to start creating this cool challenges soon. Look out for them!
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admin Reply:
June 27th, 2009 at 12:04 am
@Jun – Keep us on our toes Jun. Looking forward to learning more from you and connecting Sunday. I’ll send those questions back first chance I get.
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Ryan,
I agree, a comment needs to add something of value. Just a “nice post” or “good work” is not enough to engage people. I was more referring to someone making a valuable comment, you ask a question back, then you get no response. It makes me think, ‘why did you engage me in the first place.’
@BGleas
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admin Reply:
June 27th, 2009 at 12:05 am
@Brian – That’s a pretty good point, but I think it depends on the medium. There are a lot of times that I will leave a comment on a blog (not necessarily asking a question, but trying to add value), and I won’t always venture back. This is especially true if I’ve left 12-15 comments places, and spent 3+ minutes on each.
Time is no man’s friend and I understand that it catches up with us all.
If someone actually asks a question though, then yeah, I think they should come back and see if the admin answered their question. I’ve found that if you just be courteous and try to contribute solid value the relationship aspect of it all will take care of itself.
R
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Hi Ryan, nice post, great video, and awesome hair.
Seriously though, I think you do a great job in responding to folks who comment on your blog. You sometimes even mention them in a video. I’m totally humbled by the way.
There are also a few things you can do as a blogger to engage your readers and encouraging comments via technology.
There’s a simple plugin for WordPress called Subscribe to Comments which will notify a commenter if anyone else leaves a comment. On a blog like Lifehacker it gets a little rediculous, but for your blog, I’d certainly use it.
There’s also commentLuv which adds an excerpt of the commenter’s latest blog post below their reply. And then there’s entire commenting systems like IntenseDebate and Disqus which add all sorts of neat interaction within the comments like voting, karma points, linking to Facebook, etc.
Of which I’d be more than happy to help you set these up. You know where I’m at. Thanks for the article, and keep up the video posts. The energy you have works well with the medium.
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admin Reply:
June 27th, 2009 at 12:06 am
@Matt – I agree. I think some of those features could potentially work well here. Remind me, and we’ll have that conversation. I don’t think I want Disqus, but I do think the subscribe to comments feature could work on my “smaller blog,” and I like when my most recent post is featured, so I bet my readers might as well.
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Hey Ryan,
Nice post. I’ll add one additional thought to your post, and I think you were driving at this to begin with, but comments/engagement must be authentic. Just as the short “nice post” comments can seem distant, I think sometimes people can write in ways that make you wonder whether they really mean what they say or whether they’re just trying to get you to scratch their back too. I may not engage as often as I’d always like, but you can rest assured that everything I post will be honest and true…this is what allows for the development of the real strong relationships.
Catch you again soon.
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admin Reply:
June 27th, 2009 at 12:07 am
@Jason – I think your approach to comments is spot on. If I suspect someone is just furthering their own agenda, it’s doubtful I’ll respond, and I try my best to respond to everyone who takes the time to engage me here. I think that’s only fair.
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Hey, thanks for the shout out! Also, I’m really enjoying seeing you in these videos – they work well for you!
Matt’s comment about using different plug ins to get the mechanics of your comments to provoke more interaction is definitely true, and Matt certainly knows what he’s talking about he — we recently connected and I have been so impressed with his knowledge of Wordpress.
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admin Reply:
June 27th, 2009 at 12:07 am
@Jaclyn – Glad you are diggin’ the videos. I’m starting to wonder who Matt hasn’t recently connected with? I love it. I’m looking forward to some of the new things you have planned Jaclyn, keep me in the loop and let me know if there’s anything I can do to help.
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[...] Ryan Stephens [...]
March 27th, 2009 at 3:18 pmHaha! Love it. What you said you are going to do to make the background nicer is priceless.
But seriously, I hope you keep these coming, they are really great and your passion shows through these videos a lot more easily than it shows through text alone. Now when I read your writing I’m sure to hear more of your voice behind it. That’s one of the great things about incorporating video.
And what you said about comments and reaching out is spot on. It is difficult to connect with someone if they just through one comment your way. All the relationships that I’ve developed over the last year through social media are the result of an effort on both parties part.
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March 28th, 2009 at 7:47 amRyan, I really like what you are preaching here–relationships aren’t formed by one @reply and Rome wasn’t built in a night.
Real relationships, unlike one night stands, are built on constant interaction and a little bit of commitment. (While I’ve never been all too good at this myself, I’m learning). Thanks for the advice, keep up the videos!
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