I've often joked that not a day goes by when I don't receive an email reminding me that we're missing the boat on how to "Use Facebook Effectively" to reach our customers, or "Master Twitter for Media Relations" or "Communicate Effectively in the Social Media Age." You know what I'm talking about. The white papers, conferences and tele-seminars built around so-called social media "best practices" have become a cottage industry.
We recognize that some may see us only taking baby steps in this still very-much unfolding milieu, and we've publicly confirmed this is indeed terra incognita. We're constantly exploring and hopefully learning.
One thing we've found with this blog is that while readership is pretty good, we ain't getting many comments. And we're not the only one who's noticed.
Should this relative paucity of comments be taken as a signal that we aren't fully "engaging?" We'd certainly like to have more ongoing back-and-forth dialogue with our readers on the blog (btw: we seem to have much more "engagement" on Twitter), but perhaps it is unfair to use the amount of comments as a bell-weather of success. Based on readership it seems we've been able to provide company information and perspective on a range of issues here that was never available to us before.
So the jury is still very much out on "the right" way to do this I think. But we will continue to try and improve and engage until we indeed get caught doing it right.
Thanks so much for linking back to my blog post on this topic. Sorry it took so long for me to notice - I went on vacation and have only finally caught up on my RSS feed.
Not having access to your traffic, the lack of comments was something that stood out for me. As I noted, the blog is updated regularly with interesting topics and I was surprised that it wasn't generating more feedback. Would you be willing to share your traffic? Or at least if it is trending upward or staying steady? It would make for a great case study.
I agree that in this new media world there is no established "right" way and appreciate your ongoing efforts in this arena.
Interestingly, my own blog post on this topic didn't generate any comments, so there you have it!
Good post - and good question. This comes down to "do we need comments to affirm that we've done something worthwhile?"
I would argue that a healthy blog provides much more than a forum for people to offer feedback - a good blog acts as its own online archive system, information resource, and updated stream-of-consciousness outlet.
I subscribe to and read at least 10 blogs a day, and probably offer comments on about one post a month (congratulations, you are the February blog post!).
But, I can honestly say that I receive quality information and insight from reading all of the blog posts, even the ones with which I may not fully agree.
Also, we should all be able to measure the regular traffic and use that as a primary yardstick for success rather than whether someone leaves comments or not.
Of course, the real measurement is whether the ideas start to take hold and permeate the society we're hoping to improve - if I hear someone sharing an idea I know originated from my blog, but they can't remember where they heard the idea, well, I'm OK with that.
Keep up the great work - if you see the audience declining, then it might be time to look at other ways to engage, but don't take a lack of comments as anything other than people feeling like you've said what needed to be said and they've gotten what they need out of it.