Blog comments are something of a double-edged sword for web publishers.
On the one hand, user engagement is a great marketing tool that builds solid relationships with the people who are buying your goods and services. On the other hand, responding to comments can chomp off big bites of your workday and, sometimes, cause real headaches.
If you’ve been going back and forth on the value of responding to blog comments, here are a few pros and cons for your consideration.
Readers Read, Customers Comment
Who are these people who are posting comments on your blog anyways? More often than not, they’re the same people whose igaming habits are putting money in your pocket every month.
In a recent posting on Quicksprout.com, content marketing guru Neil Patel pointed out that a whopping 68% of people who purchased premium memberships to his site were also site commentators. Given that only about 2% of his visitors even comment at all, that’s a very impressive number.
In short, someone who comments on your site is probably someone who’s worth getting to know.
Where Did All My Time Go?
Here’s a problem most casino affiliates would like to have; so many comments that don’t have time to moderate them.
While it’s true that monitoring comments can be a real time suck, it’s an important job that seriously impacts your bottom line.
Just think of this way, if you owned a store and a customer was trying to talk to you, you probably wouldn’t ignore – even if you had other things to do.
Time spent talking to customers is time well spent, not matter what else you’ve got on your plate.
Attention, Please
The sad truth of any comment section is that mixed in with all those great customers are a smattering of straight up attention whores and trolls.
These folks delight in antagonizing, agitating and generally making life miserable for everyone they come in contact with. (And it seems pretty clear that they don’t come in contact with a lot of people in their day-to-day lives.)
The easiest way to deal with comment trolls is by taking the high ground. Acknowledge their beef; thank them for commenting; and move on. You’ve got better things to do with your time.
Engagement Matters
Engaging with customers on your forums doesn’t just help you move product, it also helps increase your social media profile. In a recent survey of his readers, Patel found that comment posters were almost three times more likely to share content than non-posters.
If you’re looking for someone who’s going to be a brand evangelist, he or she is probably sitting in your comments section as we speak.