I’ve been having a good back-and-forth over e-mail this week with Chris Brogan about the importance of responding to blog comments on the blog itself.

Chris is a friend and new-media colleague who blogs like a true creative madman/genius at ChrisBrogan.com, as well as at LifeHack.org, the Grasshopper Factory (his about-to-be launched new-media network), and now the New Media School. He’s also the co-founder of PodCamp, a podcasting/new-media extravaganza that I’ll also be a part of and am helping to spread the word about.

He receives some great comments on those blogs, too, but until a few days ago, he was only responding to them with private e-mails. His reasoning? A personal e-mail offers more value to the commenter.

My message to Chris? He may be showing attention to the individual commenter, but by not responding to blog comments on the blog, he is stifling the general conversation for everyone else.

Keeping the conversation alive
Some of my favorite bloggers — Neville Hobson, Lee Hopkins, Shel Holtz, Shel Israel, Jeremiah Owyang — as well as “A-listers” Steve Rubel and Robert Scoble, don’t only spark a conversation with compelling posts; they keep it lively by publicly responding to the comments that follow.

I know that after I’ve left a blog comment, I will typically monitor that comment area for at least the next day or so to see if the main blogger or other readers have responded to my thoughts and opinions. If they have, I may even comment a second time. Such is the flow of any good conversation!

Blog commenters want to know that the blogger is reading their contributions and cares enough to respond to them. When that’s done publicly, the blogger demonstrates in transparent fashion to all that s/he does. The conversation also stays ablaze.

And as for Chris? He seems to have come around to my line of thinking — he’s answering comments on his ChrisBrogan.com blog now as though he’d done it that way all along. Take some time to read Chris, too. He’s talented and passionate and about to do some very big things in the new-media space.

Technorati tags: , , , , , , , .

Share This