As I have noted before, I feel that the quality of my online interactions with other individuals has been dropping.
I no longer use Twitter as a conversation medium with friends because Twitter has changed. I don’t really like instant messaging because I find it distracting; when I’m in front of my computer I want to focus on the task at hand. On Facebook I tend not to get solicited much due to my privacy settings.
Which leads me to a recent conclusion…the best way to engage with someone, especially if for the purposes of networking, is to leave thoughtful comments on their blog.
Unlike all the services I mentioned above, if person blogs and uses a commenting service like Disqus, you’re pretty much guaranteed they will receive your comment. Email gets ignored. Calls go straight to voicemail. Comments get responded to.
Commenting on someone’s blog accomplishes so much:
- you engage someone on their turf and in a very non-invasive way
- comments tend to have a high response rate, it’s likely you’ll get a reciprocated comment back
- comments let you showcase critical reasoning and smarts
- regular commenting is a sign that you value the other person’s opinions; that won’t go unnoticed
Keep in mind, networking by commenting is not about cold calling someone, or leaving 20 comments in 24 hours.
Comment are about establishing a relationship with someone that you can later turn into an in-person meeting. It’s the next best thing to a warm introduction. Personally, I’m guilty of having forgotten the value of comments: I used to comment frequently, but stopped several years back as comments were a mess. Now, with more folks authoring great niche blogs and coupled with the awesomeness of service like Disqus, I’m back on the bandwagon.
Note: good thoughts on a related note by Mark Suster, Comments are the New Black
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
I agree with you on this, but have been finding that good quality comments/conversation is going down. That's good if you are trying to get to a blogger. But bad for the learning and networking value of blogs.
hey Tony! I think there are definitely a lot more spam comments, but
overall, I think the quality of comments on blogs using services like
Disqus and Backtype (where one associates their real identity with
their comment) is getting better and better. Check out Avc.com for an
example of truly excellent comments
Agree that Disqus and Backtype with real identity helps – although there's a few negatives to those systems as well.
And while I see the great comment activity on AVC and others, e.g., Suster's blog, the trend on my blogs is more spam, less quality comments. Some of my past active commenters now spend their time on twitter which doesn't allow for detailed discussion unless you can catch it real time.
I agree that people are spending more time with less detailed and
thoughtful comments on services like Twitter —- and that's what
creates the arbitrage opportunity.
Because while the shift over to Twitter happened, it has not yet
reversed back, and meanwhile comments continued to get improved upon.
Now you can take advantage of leaving great quality comments and
expecting good responses — hopefully like you're getting right now :)
I also think the 'quality' of spam has greatly improved. Sometimes I
can't tell the difference on my blog. So I would suggest that some of
the low quality comments you may be experiencing may actually be spam
Hey Sam –
Do you think people should set up different Disqus profiles to aggregate their comments based on their various interests? For example, if you happen to be interested in Ultimate Fighting Championship and want to leave comments on Mixed Martial Arts blogs – are you better off setting up a Fight Follower persona, which would be a different profile from the one that would leave comments on startup blogs like Leveraging Ideas. (I happen to watch UFC every once in a while, but have never commented on any of those blogs – so Leveraging Ideas trumps UFC.com).
Or do you find it more natural to combine your personas and interest in one user profile?
Have you been back to Loomis lately, by the way? Reunions are coming up!! :)
Rob
Hey Rob! I was actually just thinking of you the other day while at a
Le Pain Quotidien. We should catch up soon as I have some stuff I'd
love your opinion on!
Good question — personally I just use the same persona for all my
commenting because it's me. It's also pretty easy to sort through
comments and I often subscribe to comment feeds of people who I think
are great thinkers — in some cases I get more value out of their
comment feeds than their actual blogs!
My parents live in Windsor, and my sister used to teach there, so I do
get back to Loomis somewhat often. Ah! Is it your reunion year? Those
are always such fun.
Look forward to catching up soon!
Comments are the easiest way to have (and follow) a public, asynchronous, context-rich conversation, IMHO.
Meaning, if you use comment systems that have notifications systems, they are great ways to follow conversations and track back to conversations as they unfold over time (and you can follow even if you don't engage), full of the complete context from all the parties, in public, and can unfold over periods of time.
Of course, that's assuming we actually read the comments others leave :)
I found this site today and boy am I glad I did. This segment was great and it gave me some ideas about what I could and can’t do. It was great seeing and perusing. I will keep tuned in and keep up the good work!!
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