Are blog comments the new black?

ducttapemarketing.com is an insightful portal on the merits of digital marketing in it’s many guises. For small businesses marketing is tricky and can be pricey if you want any kind of innovation.

We all know how important networking is, especially for building a business and a reputation. Ducttape’s blog is busy with with comments and engagement which are flagged up on the homepage.

Sometimes a blog post contains everything you need and it manages that feat of summing up a subject quite nicely on it’s own. Sometimes it doesn’t and you might feel the urge to leave an extra nugget of information, or a point of correction or disagrement.

Commenting is quick, easy and a nifty way of casting your influence. Unfortunately, it’s often overlooked. Everyone has an opinion – it’s just a case of having yours sparked by a blog post and getting it out there.

The comments brought up points that neither the author nor myself had thought about. Ironic, considering the post was about blogging. It’s like networking but without the expense – networking shorthand. As one of the commentators put it, it’s just like normal networking:

“Except you don’t have to balance the Swedish meatball plate on your wine glass.”

Depending on your experiences that’s either a very good or a very bad thing.  It takes the effort out of attending events and filters out the topics that aren’t relevant.

Comments lets you network from your couch, your desk or, should the desire take you, even your bathtub. Like an ecosystem of it’s own, it’s been described as:

“a mesh of posts, comments and links will create a community around a specific topic. Everyone in the community will benefit from the conversation”

Which can only be a good thing.

Rogue comments are another thing entirely. These sneaky comments bear no relevance to the blog itself and are completely off topic. As one contributor describes them:

“it’s the equivalent of interupting a conversation at a dinner party”

These messages, whether vulgar or otherwise, are only a delete key away from oblivion. Plus their much easier to get out of than an akward conversation over dinner!