The Water Cooler: Do You Owe Your Community?
ACKNOWLEDGMENT: Writing this post has been scary for me. I’m like all of you. I want to be read and respected by people I admire. I feel shaky hitting publish, but I feel in my bones this post had to be written. By writing it, I’m not judging any individuals – just the decision to turn off -or never allow- commenting.
Call me insecure (I’m not) but my feelings are getting a bit hurt. Judging from the comments on Charlie Gilkey’s response post, I’m not alone. My micro-heroes seem to be dissing on communicating via their blog comments and, well, I don’t like it.
I respect them so much. I want to get it. I really do. And I just don’t.
Most big bloggers are using a form of WordPress which has spam filters and most have VA’s who could easily screen out/highlight various comments as inappropriate or send them up the flagpole (gag, corporate speak) as thought-provoking. I fail to see the “creative drain”.
Most big and other bloggers started blogging to build a community of followers who would one day want to buy their products, their events, their services or later, their books. And we have. Yet, when they have that community, they want to stop “talking” to them at the very source they were found?
I know. They’ll continue engaging via social media which is even more of a time-suck and less topic-focused than blog comments. It just doesn’t make sense.
Judging from the input here and on Charlie’s post (via comments, irony intended), I think we can deduce a few things:
- Readers like comments and the ability to locally interact with other readers of a particular blog and, periodically, the author
- Early, small-following bloggers love comments
- Famous (i.e. highly followed) bloggers can find managing blog comments overwhelming OR
- Famous bloggers feel like “mission accomplished”-people know me (i.e. I’m a BRAND) and now I can stop reading their input about my posts
It’s the same reason bigger names don’t return follow on Twitter or build a fan page only versus a personal Facebook page.
This could be cured with good comment management (a good online business manager or VA-and I could not bring myself to link to myself here, Kelly and Dave!) or, with Facebook and Twitter, by return following genuine readers, but using a tool like Hootsuite to manage lists effectively (I can’t manage 1000+ Twitter followers fairly. THAT is not possible).
Lots of people have chimed in that turning off blog comments is a personal decision. Of course it is. That was never the debate. I support anyone in managing their business life as they see fit, and by their gut, just like I do their personal life. The debate, really was about the wisdom of it.
So, do bloggers, writers, entrepreneurs, speakers, coaches, consultants owe the community they worked so hard to build the time and attention required to allow and routinely review comments?
Yes. I think they do. And, it appears, so does most of their community.
Related Post:
Loving and Respecting Your Tribe
More Wise Words from Danielle LaPorte
Postscript:
Charlie Gilkey pointed out a post he wrote in April. It is a wise must-read prequel to this post of mine.
6 Responses to “The Water Cooler: Do You Owe Your Community?”
Comments
Read below or add a comment...
I hear you, and I salute your courage in hitting Publish. You’re not alone.
So when a famous blogger starts out and they’re not famous *yet*, I’ll bet they loved the comments … it just doesn’t follow that as the ‘brand’ gets more established, the less the comments are worth. It’s crap – the blog has grown, at least in part *because of* those reading it who gave their time in leaving comments.
And, with respect to all, I don’t see how there could be a ‘creative drain’ by allowing comments. I for one have been inspired by those of you (including your lovely self) who have left comments on my writing, and I continue to be grateful for that.
Thanks for writing this.
Hugs,
Josie
Oh boy! It just gets juicier and juicier with you, Kelly!
Loved your thoughts here (thanks for having the courage to hit “publish”) and enjoyed the links (Charlie’s story rocked)!
I will say that doing something out of obligation may not be MY best answer, but I know I DO want stay strongly connected to the JOY of interacting with my community.
In fact, at lunch the other day someone was saying how we misinterpret where the value is coming from when we plug in to teachers and leaders. For example, it’s easy to think Jack Canfield is all that and a bag of chips, and that Tony Robbins is changing our lives – but she said the TRUTH is that it’s the syngergy of the GROUP that’s making the difference. THAT’S where the value really lies.
Not in its leader.
I’m inclined to agree.
Which makes comments and interaction with the community that much more important.
Thank you, Kelly. I’m off to go answer some comments on my blog now …
Jeannette´s last blog ..Lead With What You Love
That is a profound statement: “it is the synergy of the group that’s making the difference.” Follow the message, not the guru, eh? I’m glad you read the post after I added Charlie’s tale. I felt a bit sheepish I hadn’t seen it before…
Agreed. The comments feed vs. drain me. Perhaps there will come a day when that is less true, but I can’t imagine I will ever be so Gaga-huge (and she is awfully good to her village of Monsters) that I won’t want to check in.
I’m behind on handling my comments at the moment. And email.
I don’t know whether it’s a good idea or not, but I’m turning comments off for both my higher traffic blogs while I’m at Burning Man.
All that said, there is middle ground here. Example: at some point, even though I don’t have that much traffic, I am probably going to turn off comments to remove distraction from coding and writing. I’ve been on a long plateau with both, and I want to move to the next level, without distraction. And handling comments are *distraction* when I’m coding.
Will I lose readers? Yeah, almost surely.
Will my writing and programming improve? Definitely!
I think this is what Danielle is trying to get at: as a blogger, you have certain cultural expectations, and having a more or less open comment policy is one of those expectations.
As a writer (or programmer), those expectations are slightly different. Many top programmers and writers don’t have any sort of blog, never mind fielding comments!
I don’t know what the answer is, but I do know this discussion is timely, and really important.
Dave Doolin´s last blog ..Thickbox Ajax Form Handling in WordPress