Is Social Media Sharing Killing Blog Comments?

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With the advent of social media and the integration of sharing into practically every page on the web, it’s just so much easier for people to click a like button or a retweet button than it is to comment. Commenting requires multiple clicks, typing… sometimes, even thinking. Le gasp!

However, social media sharing is not nearly as rewarding as composing a well-thought-out comment that contributes to the discussion at hand.

Certainly we want people to share our content via social media. There’s no question about that. Unfortunately, the urge to answer a post’s call to action cools off very quickly. Why go through all the trouble of writing a comment (possibly to be trolled or misunderstood or get into an argument) when we can feel the satisfaction of responding and reciprocating for a well-written article by just sharing the link with a couple clicks at the most?

Am I imagining things?

A quick search doesn’t turn up much about blog comments specifically, just the usual “blogging is dead or dying” posts people write every year now just to get attention. Back in 2011 there were a couple blog posts on this matter: Jay Ehret’s The Future of Blog Comments: Comment Decline and Loralee Choate’s Has Facebook Lowered Blog Traffic and Comments? on BlogHer. The BlogHer article by Choate is interesting when you look at the comments and see people expressing the same concern.

Unfortunately, there’s just no way to really go about proving this is happening and why. You just can’t solidly prove causation. All you can do is speculate that since the advent of social media and the ease with which sharing buttons enable at least some action, that what’s happening is that people are simply taking the easiest path. Sharing something on social media is good for the sharer because it’s content curation for them (even if they don’t know the term or think of it that way).

And the one thing that affects this most of all is the one thing which just can’t ever be measured empirically: the efforts of the blogger to get comments (or, in most cases, the lack thereof). Most people have no clue how to wrap up and end a blog post with a strong call to action (hint: have your call-to-action in mind from the beginning).

Ironic and blatant call to action on a post about declining blog comments

Yes, you knew this was coming, didn’t you, you smart sexy thing, you? Of course you did. But really: what do you think about this? Do people comment on blog posts anymore? What has been the experience on your blog? No social media sharing until you comment!

Filed Under: Blogging

http://owengreaves.com Owen Greaves

Hey!

I agree, in fact, I rarely get comments because most people move the conversion to Twitter almost every blog post for me.

I suppose it’s better than no conversation at all : )
- http://remarkablogger.com Michael Martine
  
  I’m sort of starting to wonder if this change (if it’s real) isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Does it matter, really, where the engagement takes place, as long as it happens?
  
  But on the other hand, when I see blog post after blog post on the web with zero or almost no comments, that is a poor “social proof” indicator. Unless the social sharing buttons make it really obvious that the conversation is happening elsewhere, how is anyone to know?
http://persuasiontheory.com/ Matt Fox

I have not made a habit if regularly commenting. Recently, I’ve had dissenting comments deleted from posts. They weren’t attacking anyone, just pointing out the flaw in their arguments. I’m finding it easier to comment on Google+ or Twitter and create banter there.

As far as my site goes, I don’t worry about comments. I’m not writing to receive comments and have them automatically close after 90 days (to lower spam comment volume). In fact, I’d rather have someone share instead of comment so the ideas can spread.
- http://remarkablogger.com Michael Martine
  
  It’s a shame your dissenting opinions were removed. I don’t do that here, so feel free to disagree with me and point out flaws in my arguments.
  
  I can see the attraction of using neutral 3rd party territory for a discussion because of that, but also (and this is important from a marketing angle) it might be seen by more people.
http://www.accretewebsolutions.ca/articles/ S Emerson

Getting real comments has always seemed to be a problem for a lot of people. That doesn’t mean that people didn’t find your post/article useful or interesting. (smiles)

One thing I have noticed when taking the time to create a comment is that the blog owner uses a spam filter and doesn’t double check their spam folder for false positives. If you are not getting comments, maybe this is what is happening to you.

I have noticed that people tend to use the social sharing buttons more than actually commenting. Guess that’s a good thing when they have an interested following. At least you could get a few more eyeballs at least looking at your posts.
- http://remarkablogger.com Michael Martine
  
  I regularly have false positives and must check my spam folder in order to make sure everyone’s voice is heard who’s truly contributing to the discussion. In fact I approved a comment today that was originally marked as spam on my previous post for my 2013 business blogging predictions. This is just part of the responsibility of being a blog owner, in my opinion.
  
  And you’re right, some kind of engagement is better than none at all. However, I like to think I have more influence over blog comments than that, and that with some effort I don’t need to be the hapless victim of a trend.
http://writeclever.com/ Sue Neal

Hi Michael,

This certainly isn’t the case from where I’m sitting. I visit blogs that have lengthy, detailed comment streams and spend a fair amount of time blog commenting.

More recently, I’ve been receiving quite a few comments on my own site, which is a mixed blessing in that it’s very gratifying but creates a lot of work. I have a policy of responding to all genuine comments – I think if a reader makes a response, it’s the least you can do to acknowledge it in a meaningful way.

It’s a shame if what you’re suggesting is true – I’d rather have some real feedback from my readers than just have them click ‘share’ – that’s too easy and it doesn’t mean anything. How do I know they’ve even bothered to read beyond the headline?

I always ask people to comment – and I think it’s great when they do (as long as they’re not a spambot of course!)

Sue
- http://remarkablogger.com Michael Martine
  
  Sue, thanks so much for your perspective. Yes there are blogs with very healthy and active readers and it’s what most bloggers hope for.
  
  As I mention from time to time, hope is not a strategy. If you want that kind of community for your blog, you build it one person at a time and it can be slow at first.
  
  It’s also a lot of work, but that’s the good kind of problem to have. I’m going to respond to comments as I can up until the point where I simply can’t anymore. And that point will be farther away than you might think.
  
  I could spend time on Twitter, let’s say, but what if the people taking the time and effort to actually comment on my blog are more important than my average Twitter follower? It’s obvious where my energy should go. It’s situational but not necessarily subjective, since I can use analytics to see where visitors are coming from and how they’re converting.
http://www.nancy.cc/ Nancy Man

This is an interesting argument.

I think social media is probably cutting into the number of comments I would have otherwise gotten from typical (search engine) visitors.

On the other hand, though, their shares introduce my posts to brand new people, some of whom do stop by and comment.

So perhaps the new comments from social media visitors make up from the “lost” comments from search engine visitors? Hm.

*

Your point about bloggers forgetting to include a call-to-action (forgetting to *ask* for comments/responses) is key.

I think it also helps to write controversial posts every so often. These make readers eager to tell you why they agree/disagree with you, and it makes the most sense for them to do that in the comment section. This approach can generate quite a bit of comment-conversation, I’ve found.
- http://remarkablogger.com Michael Martine
  
  Six of one, half a dozen of the other, right? You may be right about that!
  
  There are plenty of blogs out there that get tons of both comments and social media shares. This leads into your point about controversial topics garnering comments. When you look at a site like Huffington Post where articles about hot-button issues are posted every day, each article gets hundreds of comments and shares.
http://www.overcomingbloggersblock.com Marcie

I do think social sharing is impacting blog comments because I personally tweet stories when I have nothing of value to add to posts, which isn’t a bad thing. At least I do have sharing options and can help the author of that post.
mim.gomberg

I would think that with social sharing, comments would increase with readership in general. i have only been blogging a couple of years now and a lot of the comments I get are on my Facebook page rather than the actual blog. Does that count?
- http://remarkablogger.com/ remarkablogger
  
  @mim.gomberg Wherever the conversation happens, it counts. I think we need to challenge the assumption that having comments on the blog post itself has more value over any other way.
  
  However, if you think about what it is you hope to gain from comments, for many people, it would be exposure, influence, and eventually conversion. The most difficult of these to accomplish is conversion, even when comments are on the site. But conversion becomes nearly impossible if, at the moment a person is convinced to take action there is no mechanism for her to do so because she’s not actually on the site. That’s a noteworthy disadvantage of having comments off-site.
http://remarkablogger.com/ remarkablogger

Yes and it also is a benefit to you and your followers on social media because you just (hopefully) sent them something relevant, useful, and sharable.
http://remarkablogger.com/ remarkablogger

By the way, folks, I just installed the Livefyre commenting system here, and one of its features is called SocialSync:

You love the comments and conversation going on about your blog posts, but they’re not all happening on your site. Your friends, family and loyal readers are also commenting on your post via Facebook and Twitter and you haven’t been able to capture that conversation. Until Now.
With Livefyre SocialSync, the conversation happening on Facebook and Twitter automatically syncs directly to your content, where it belongs. SocialSync comments can be replied to and interacted with just like any other comment, including being automatically posted back to Twitter or Facebook.

This directly addresses the concern of the conversation happening off-site. Pretty cool.
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http://www.giftcardpartners.com Forrest Richardson

I only comment on blogs when, as you clarified, a call-to-action instructs me. The call-to-action has to invite or question me to respond with the nature of comments desired.
Our blog does not get many comments. Comments seem not to be one of our goals; not much of a measurable (as you highlighted). The goal is to keep people on our site by offering additional helpful info. You covered this adequately through mentioning conversion.
As a website section, I consider blogs educational (and marketing). As a reader seeking educational content, I would not highlight, write, or scribble in a textbook unless I owned it and the professor encouraged me to write in it. Maybe this is analogous to sharing vs. commenting directly within. Not to assume a comment would be invasive (like marking in a textbook) but that I would likely only be compelled to do so when clearly invited and for a purpose. I feel the author owns the blog rather than the reader.
I used to comment on articles more openly. Some became tied to facebook; I stopped commenting so much. Not because facebook offered an alternative, but the opposite. It became so public that it seemed now just a further invitation for scrutiny.
Sometimes my objective in commenting is truly only directed at the usual interested readers (and author) of blog or article; my comments not intended to attract additional readers (despite author objectives). With facebook being so public, those objectives are often tangled, like it or not. I like blogs offering commenting that only goes on facebook or elsewhere, if I want it to.
Sharing doesn’t require comments. Commenting does! That is another point of discrimination for me in deciding. Sharing, for me, is about my ‘connections’ whereas commenting on blogs is about communicating with the author and core readers. Called-to-action, if I trust the author, I would comment. If unfamiliar, I would just share. If I wish to communicate with the author and am wanting to get connections involved, then I do both.
I have not yet figured out why facebook thought this point of decision-making needed to be in their hands rather than mine, a reader’s. I like automation and having the option to do either or both, and not both being done in one-step automatically, where blog comments show up on feed without my okaying first.
What portion of websites/blogs actually let facebook tie into their comments platform? Maybe it is only a few. Is Linkedin any different? When it comes to blog comments, I love commenting and sharing both. If I am to view facebook as personal and linkedin as professional, that is a reason to first understand where the comments will appear. Generally, I know how linkedin works, so I can work with it. I find facebook functionality has been changing more and some changes have a blanket effect. I have these considerations to deal with when blogs are tied to it. Assuming the blog’s website gives all such choices openly, I am free to comment, so long as I don’t have to log in to anything or sign up in order to post comments. I am leaning to adapt, I made an exception for livefyre.
- http://remarkablogger.com/ remarkablogger
  
  @Forrest Richardson Very thoughtful and insightful, Forrest, thanks so much. Some of the practices which seem to be worth questioning to you are (in my opinion) based on the idea that everyone seeks attention. So of course the Facebook comments get replicated elsewhere and lines are blurred. Not everyone seeks this kind of attention, but the default is set to please the majority of users.
  
  I really love what you said about sharing is about your connections, whereas commenting is about connecting with the author and other readers.
  
  Most people just don’t comment. Ever. I don’t know if it’s a generational thing, but some people just assume it’s their right to comment if the capability exists, while other folks would never assume that right. It just doesn’t occur to them. When I’ve taught blogging to seniors in the past, I explained commenting as somewhat like “letters to the editor” in a newspaper, only it’s instant. Then they get it, and understand that yes, it is within their rights to comment if they feel so moved.
  
  I don’t think you’ll regret making an exception for Livefyre. I’ve used it and competing services both as a publisher and as a user. I’m very much in favor of 3rd party commenting systems because of the advantages they offer.
Pingback: Marketing Day: January 2, 2013
http://www.techacker.com/ techacker

I kind of agree that social media is killing the comments in a way. The irony is that the discussion is happening in terms of “Likes” and “Shares” because it is easier and quick. Instead of spending time into thinking and adding to the discussion, it is far more easier to just click “Tweet” and give a shout out in support that I liked what you wrote.
In a way we blogger like the idea of social sharing because it brings traffic and we hope someone will start the discussion. But no, that is not happening on smaller blogs with no so tech-savvy audience. People do still leave comments, but on blogs with more traffic and larger audience in hope to bring some of this traffic to their own sites.
Lots of Pro and early days bloggers have convinced this audience is that commenting is good to bring more traffic back to your site. Check out Mashable, TechCrunch, Lifehacker and Problogger, there are hundreds if not thousands of comments on almost every article.
Also everyone is trying to get a small pie of everyone’s time in this 24 hours…people have to surf the web, tweet, Facebook, Google+ and the promote their own stuff. After that if time permits (which doesn’t happen very often), leave a comment or so.
That’s why, commenting on blogs is a choice and social media makes us even lazier by making it easier to share whatever we read online.

Thanks
Anurag Bansal
- http://remarkablogger.com/ remarkablogger
  
  @techacker You raise an interesting point: the motivation behind the actions. You seem to be assuming that most everyone is out for their own self-promotion (as far as commentors are concerned, anyway). If I’ve misunderstood you please let me know.
  
  If you look at a site like Huffington Post or TechCrunch or even a humor site, say, 9Gag, you will find that most of the commentors there are not promoting themselves. They don’t see what they’re doing as marketing. On a marketing or business-related site, however, you’re almost guaranteed that is the reason for the comments, regardless of how well-reasoned and well-written they are.
  
  On such sites, everyone is so sensitive to this (and yet at the same time, jaded) that when someone comes blundering in like a bull in a china shop putting self-promotional links in their comments or saying “I wrote a post on this topic too” that everyone cringes. We know that the best self-promotion looks nothing like self-promotion, and everything like making a real contribution to the discussion. Which, in fact, it is.
  
  But again it goes back to motivation. When I comment on another blog (which is kinda rare, nowadays) I don’t do it to get traffic. I do it to help solidify the relationship I have with the blogger, because relationships are more important than a few hits.
  
  However, there is still one way that commenting can bring back more traffic to your site, even on a blog that gets hundreds or thousands of comments per post: be the first to comment. This is possible with notification software, but this leads to another question: is the traffic from the other site worth it? The answer to that lies in the quality of the comments.
  
  Thanks again for a thought-provoking idea.
  - http://www.techacker.com/ Anurag Bansal
    
    In fact motivation is a key. There has to be something that motivates the audience to leave a comment.
    Whether that brings a lot of traffic back to your site or not, it does improves your credibility in blogosphere. (assuming the audience is a blogger too.)
    But another issue I have found is that people don’t leave comment because they are not that tech-savvy (at least on my blog.) They come to visit my site and if they like what they read, then send me a thank you in an email, instead of leaving a comment, i.e. taking the discussion elsewhere.
    In my case, I have seen that they don’t know the meaning of comments. I guess as a write both work for me. I feel good that I could be of help.
    Thanks for a thought provoking post, I should try to educate my reader about commenting.
    Thanks again…
    
    EDIT:
    Hey, I just noticed something. Did you switch to DISQUS from Livefyre? What was the reason? I did the same too, but I would like to learn from you too.
    
    Thanks
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http://www.lifewhack.com/ Peter Hall

If sharing eliminates the asinine “Great post!” then it’s a good thing. The point of comments is that blogging should be a dialogue. Good comments and replies build on the post and make the post and hence the world a better place!
- http://remarkablogger.com/ remarkablogger
  
  @Peter Hall I’m down with that. I’ll take a retweet over a comment I would delete, any day of the week (yes, seriously, I delete those).
Jerry Booker

I’ve been blogging online for about 1 year, and have noticed that commenting do require some time to log in and set up a profile. However after that it very easy to make comment posts. Most people will comment on specific topics that they are interested in. Finding the right niche just might be the answer to get more comments and shares. I appreciate the though it happens to us all. If you don’t mind I would like to post a link back from my blog to your site. Thanks
- http://remarkablogger.com Michael Martine
  
  Great point, Jerry: pick and choose where you want to spend your effort. And always be aware of why you’re commenting or choosing not to comment. For myself, I also know that the stronger my relationship is with someone, the more I’ll comment on what they create. I think commenting as a marketing “tool” is actually anything but: what it really is about is building relationships.
  
  And yeah, that takes work. Totally worth it, though.
  
  Thanks for your comment!
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