cre8d design

I was one of the readers of your previous column who just RT. I guess that I had nothing to comment on (you said everything that needed to be said so well) but wanted to share the post with my Twitter friends hence the RT.

I would also say that RT has become an equivalent of pressing “DIGG this” button. It’s a seal of approval that does not require me to write a whole comment post about it.

Hope this helps!

PS: your comment system is acting up (I use Safari on a MacBook Pro). Whenever I try to point the mouse in the comment section it reverts back to the name field which I have already filled…

I’ll buck the trend and comment.

Haven’t been blogging long enough to know if this is a trend, and it’s an unscientific observation, but seems to be feast or famine regarding blog comments. The popular blogs get hundreds per post with Twitter expanding their audience and contributor base. The rest garner 5-20 comments and many none at all.

And, If retweets are replacing blog comments, it’s yet another point in the case against the new RT Twitter function that doesn’t allow for including commentary with the retweet.

I’ve been thinking about this on a very small scale. I tweet links to my blog posts and post them on my Facebook account. It’s a personal blog with very low traffic, which is just fine with me–I put it on Facebook because that’s where I’m connected with people who know the kids and husband who often feature in my posts.

I get comments on Facebook and on Twitter from people who don’t post these on the blog. They’re interacting with me directly and I really appreciate the contact. What it doesn’t do, though, is give other blog readers the chance to respond to those comments along with the original post, which I always find enjoyable as a blog reader.

Since I have such low volume it has been manageable for me to go create a comment saying, “Response received from @so-and-so on Twitter” (these have been @ messages and thus public–I wouldn’t do this with a DM meant only for my eyes) or “Comment on Facebook”.

I’ve been thinking about this on a very small scale. I tweet links to my blog posts and post them on my Facebook account. It’s a personal blog with very low traffic, which is just fine with me–I put it on Facebook because that’s where I’m connected with people who know the kids and husband who often feature in my posts.

I get comments on Facebook and on Twitter from people who don’t post these on the blog. They’re interacting with me directly and I really appreciate the contact. What it doesn’t do, though, is give other blog readers the chance to respond to those comments along with the original post, which I always find enjoyable as a blog reader.

Since I have such low volume it has been manageable for me to go create a comment saying, “Response received from @so-and-so on Twitter” (these have been @ messages and thus public–I wouldn’t do this with a DM meant only for my eyes) or “Comment on Facebook”.

The dialogue among blog readers that I see in robust comment spaces can’t be achieved by RTs, so I really hope they don’t replace commenting.

@BarbChamberlain

A valuable question going forward!

There is another angle on this. What Twitter has done has given more exposure to blogs, and I believe that it has encouraged people to start a blog or revive their blogging. It gives then a shot at traffic they probably wouldn’t have had before.

As always quality content will attract comments. Admittedly, the @problogger’s and @chrisbrogan’s of the blogosphere get hundreds, but they also get stacks of RT’s and twitter comments. The majority get little comment, but has that ever been any different?
My pure guesstimate is that only about >5% of blog readers ever leave a comment anyway.

I have been writing my blog for 3 years, and post about 5 times a week. I average about 1-2 comments per post (some lots more) and considering the volume of blogs out there, I am pleased to be getting comment on my writing. (That said, I wouldn’t say no to loads more of course!!)
But I always get more comment and RT’s via Twitter each time I post a blog post link on Twitter of about an average of 10-15 each time.

So working on my own experiences, in the world of short attention spans, you do need to factor in Twitter RT’s and comments as part of the overall blog post feedback.
If there was an app or widget that could do that , that would be great!!

I found this blog post via a Tweet, but I have left a comment so I could shamefully leave a link back to my oh-so-brilliant-do-everything-you-ever-wanted(-and-some-things-you-never-wanted) website LOL

Interesting, eh!

And I wonder whether the commenting ratio would have gone down anyway, despite Twitter, as people get Comment-fatigued – all this user generated content, sooner or later the user gets a bit tired of it…

Thanks to you for this post (and ProBlogger for tweeting about it)

Steve

We all know that a percentage of visitors to a blog that actively comment on the blog post, is very very low. Somewhere in low single digits. Twitter seems to “wake up” some of them, so they at least actively share the content that they read so I don’t think there is anything wrong with that. I invite all comments but also all the retweets. After all they will spread my message to a larger audience.

I’d agree with JaBig – on time short working days when you skim content, know it’s valuable but, in my case, sometimes don’t have the time to comment, the RT is the perfect (and dare I say lazy) option. It shows that
a) you’ve acknowledged the value
b) you care enough to spread the word
c) allows a little private trail to go back and read later – which is what I do – I skim through all my RT’s and read at my leisure – then I know I haven’t missed anything.
I have to say I don’t comment too often – unless I feel strongly about something.

Like a few before me, Twitter RT’s help me spread the word about my blog. There are times that I find folks RT’ing without ever really reading. This may happen because the person likes me, trusts me, and supports everything I do. In another situation, I find that people who have not read the blog RT because of blog title.

Of course, the obvious reason for RT’ing is to share this information with followers.

Do I think RT’ing takes away from commenting? No, because the typical RT barely adds additional thought. Although, Chris Brogan often creates his own message when sharing RT’d information.

In the end, people who want to comment, will. Just assume that many of your readers just do not have much to say OR they are not bloggers themselves.

I find that bloggers learn to comment on other people’s blogs because they too want others to comment on their stuff. With A-Listers, they have tons of bloggers following them and all vying for attention. For many of us less known authors, our work falls on family and friends who probably don’t blog at all. Let alone, RT.

Keep doing what you’re doing. Write, comment on other people’s blog, and engage with your own readers where ever they may be, and the number of comments will increase. It may never match the number of RT’s but it will increase.

P.S. To find out where your stuff is being read and commented on, check out http://analytics.postrank.com and use referral code: “grooved-gull”

I find this service has helped me realize the power of engagement and to go where people are talking about my comments.

Thanks for writing!

[...] my last post I wondered about the tweet-to-comment ratio (I’m still digesting your fantastic comments – thank you!) and I’m still wondering if the viral-focus has meant more traffic but [...]

I don’t find Digg/Twitter/Facebook useful at all, regarding spreading the actual content. Digg appears to be a content directory where people are voting their choices, in Twitter it’s just the 140 chars, and Facebook is a mixup of so many activities. It’s hard to keep track with updates from contacts. If I login to FB after 3 or 5 hours, I find over 200/250 updates from contacts, I have lesser than 100 friends. So I have to scroll down and down to get all those 250 updates. Similar with Twitter as well. As of Digg, articles having less than 20 votes never catch our attention if we don’t really dig up the site well. Only very popular websites’ articles get enough votes to appear up the list and catch our attention. What’s the use really? Already popular websites don’t need Twitter or Digg to get more popular.

If I like an article in your site, I’ll be glad to write something meaningful in comments rather than to pass it onto Digg/Twitter/Facebook and make them more popular instead. I feel that is letting down the article writer badly. If the writer finds more comments than tweets/retweets and diggs he/she’ll be more happy and will find more inspiration to write more in the future. Interaction of writer and reader is so important.