Wednesday, January 7th, 2009...2:16 am
Respond to comments on your blog
So you get your blog started and finally it happens: You get a comment.
Once you stop dancing around the room in celebration, what do you do?
My take: Talk back.
Respond to comments
I know I’ve said it a lot, but blogging is a conversation. You talk (in your blog post) and someone talks back (in a comment.) Wouldn’t it be rude if you just ignored the person?
I think so. And, responding to comments is good for your blog, says Darren Rowse, of ProBlogger. In fact it’s one of his tips in “31 Days to a Better Blog.” He offers a further suggestion: Click on the links of your commenters, check out their blogs or even comment. You might get a return visit.
A blog is like hosting a party, one person told me. You want your visitors to have fun, learn something new, meet interesting people and not be bored. But you don’t want to seat the Vegan next to fur-coat-clad lady and spark an inferno. (Now some bloggers do want to incite, and they egg on their commenters. That can make for a go-to site, but that’s not my style.)
I make it a policy to respond to nearly every comment I get on my parenting blog and on this blog. Obviously, I’ll answer a direct question. Or if the commenter just makes an observation, I’ll thank him or her and try to expand on the issue.
What about attacks or idiots?
So what about if somebody says something offensive or ignorant or starts attacking me? That’s why I said I respond to nearly every comment.
If someone attacks me, and it has happened even on my pretty upbeat parenting blog, the first thing I do is to step away from the computer. I get a drink, take a short walk, vent to my husband. I try to never, ever, ever respond to a comment when I’m emotional. Then, with a cooler head, I decide whether to respond or not.
If you’re blogging for a newspaper, it will likely have a policy on deleting truly offensive comments. But even ones that don’t meet that thresh hold can be hard to take. A blog is personal; a harsh criticism can cut deeply.Â
My advice: Grow a thicker skin. Many people won’t agree with you, and that’s OK. Learn from them if they’re worth it, and forget about them if they’re not. If a commenter points out a mistake you made, correct it — and note in the blog that you did so. Â
You can’t blog and put your ideas out there and expect no one to dispute them. Try to distance yourself emtionally from the harsh comment and see the kernel of truth it in. It’s not easy. It takes practice. Lots of it. As a journalist blogging for a newspaper, you’ll also have to remember that your blog is an extension of the newspaper, so you don’t have quite the same liberty as if you were blogging privately.
Harsh comments
So, should you respond to a harsh comment?
My rule is: I’ll respond in a professional, reasoned way if I think I can. First, I thank the commenter. Then I try in neutral terms to explain what I meant (if the commenter misunderstood) or to raise another point. Yet, I stand my ground unless, of course, I really did goof, and then I explain my mistake and edit the post.
A good example is when I blogged about Syracuse University basketball player Eric Devendorf’s suspension after he hit a woman.  I blogged about how my 8-year-old son, a rabid SU fan, was dismayed that Devendorf got suspended and was at risk of missing the season  just for hitting someone.  ”I hit my sister all the time,” my son told me. In my post, I noted that I was worried he didn’t get the gravity of the situation.
I ended up with a very different crowd on my blog than I was used to, and many of them were quite unhappy with me. At first, I responded to their barbs. Then my regular readers came to my rescue in a way, and I just let the comments fly and didn’t interject. (Note: Later SU lessened the penalty, and Devendorf is back on the court.)
Sometimes, it’s best to say nothing, according to Jim Regan,  who blogs at The Net Fool. In an interview on Thou Shall Blog, he noted his “biggest blogging mistake” was to: “Answer to enemies… sometimes you just have to let things sit, eh?”
I agree. Sometimes, nothing you do will come off as neutral if you want your blog to be a welcoming place. Or a comment cuts you so deeply, you just can’t rationally respond. A criticism can feel like an attack, but if you strike back, you may lose a reader who has a lot to offer. Or by arguing back you may be giving the commenter just what he or she wants.
The Lorelle on Wordpress blog says:Â “Many hateful bloggers want your reaction. If they get a strong enough reaction, you might blog about them.”
True enough.
What do you think? What’s your commenting policy?
– Gina
I'm Gina Chen, a 20-year veteran newspaper journalist who is studying for a communications Ph.D. I want to see journalism survive. I believe news organizations need to embrace new media, change their thinking, improve their content and innovate. Read more about me 
13 Comments
January 7th, 2009 at 3:23 am
Thank you for the reinforcement. I really didn’t know what to do after I stopped dancing around the room with my first comment! Now I know. And why didn’t I think of following up? Well I did, actually, but I need to be more intentional…
January 7th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
No mistake about it. Not only you need to “talk back”, you must always reciprocate the best you can.
Reciprocal commenting is the next effective way of building your own comment community. There isn’t any shortcut and no dancing is enough to attract more comments.
Sadly, many are still not going out of their blog and connect with others.
Yan
PS: It’s becoming hard for me to keep up with all the responses and reciprocate those. I think outsourcing might be a good idea. I kid…..I kid….
January 8th, 2009 at 12:52 am
Good points on the following up and reciprocal commenting.
And, Yan, wish I had your problems — so many comments I can’t keep up.
Gina
January 8th, 2009 at 3:13 am
My policy: Respond to every single comment. Period. If you don’t respond to the comment, you should not have allowed it to remain on your blog.
I’m a stickler for that; most bloggers aren’t.
January 8th, 2009 at 3:42 am
Daniel,
I do see your point, and, of course, I appreciate you commenting.
I guess my viewpoint is I have a very high thresh hold for allowing comments, so I’d rather leave one in that’s idiotic but not offensive, than cut it.
Also, if you’re blogging for a newspaper, you may not have control over moderating or comments.
For this blog, I don’t moderate in advance because I haven’t had a need to. I have complete control over deleting a comment because it’s my blog and my blog alone.
For my newspaper blog, I don’t have that type of control. There’s no advance moderation, but if people complain about a comment, it goes to a moderator at our Web site. He or she decides whether to delete the comment, and I know nothing about it. I know other newspapers have a similar setup.
Of course, even at the newspaper blog, I could delete a comment, but I really try to let everyone have a say.
I do see there’s another way to view it beside my own.
– Gina
January 12th, 2009 at 2:25 pm
Gina-
I think you’ve hit on the single most important thing to do. It’s what I try to tell printing salesmen. The single most important thing they can do to increase business is “Answer the phone, answer the question that was asked.”
Meanwhile, you might find this site interesting. He is working on a language for “constructive discourse.” I found it very helpful. http://civilities.net/
January 12th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
Just another thought.
Journalists should consider the blog as information gathering, not information giving. As in, when you get a comment, you said something someone thinks is worth responding to. Even if it’s only one it’s a clue.
The ratio of lurkers to folks who take the time to comment is very, very high. Lurkers are viewers, responders are readers.
If they leave a link to their websites, they intend to be public. A glance at their website will give a pretty good idea of where they’re coming from.
So . . .it’s not unreasonable to start with “Something I said got a response from someone like this” Try with another post on the same or similar topic. How many responses.
For a journalist a blog can be used as a intelligence gathering tool. With some experimentation, a blogger can turn that into actionable intelligence. Actionable intelligence can be very helpful to make decisions about what is important to focus on. It’s a way to refine that “gut” feeling.
February 21st, 2009 at 4:14 pm
[...] readers’ ideas as they contact through e-mail, the phone, in person and in blog comments. You include them in the conversation on your blog by replying to their comments. You connect with them through social-networking tools, such as Twitter and Facebook. Then you [...]
April 14th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
[...] you want to set on your blog. As I’ve written before, I try not to take criticism personally. Instead, I thank the commenter for raising another point of view, but I will assert my own. I try not to get into a pissing match, though. Another side benefit of blogging is your loyal [...]
June 14th, 2009 at 11:22 am
[...] an online record of you virtually talking to yourself. I strongly believe bloggers should respond to comments on their blogs. Being a blogger is a bit like being a host: You need to keep the conversation [...]
July 15th, 2009 at 8:34 pm
Hi, i recently started blogging and well, i haven’t had the joy of seeing someone comment yet, but when i do I’m sure it would be just as you described it. Thank you for the heads up advice on how to deal with negative comments etc. This was really helpful. I agree that blogging is like a conversation, but i need someone to comment first to talk to
July 29th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
Great idea, but will this work over the long run?
August 5th, 2009 at 9:06 am
i must say u are very good in your worldz but i still need more lesson thankz
Leave a Reply