This is purely anecdotal because I’m not going to give you the actual data, but I’ve noticed that all the comments a client is receiving for their blog posts are coming on their Facebook Fan Page.
The entire post is only available on the blog as there’s just a heading, a link to the story and photo on Facebook. That’s all.
But all the comments are being left on Facebook!
So they read the blog then came back to comment here. Why?
Tracking User Behaviour
Looking at the Analytics I can see that visitors from the Facebook Fan Page are clicking through from Facebook to the blog and then returning to comment in Facebook rather than on the blog itself.
What’s causing this?
Is it because users can’t be bothered to fill in the name / email details in WordPress?
Or is it because they see others commenting in Facebook and just follow suit?
Or is it because Facebook is THE place to discuss and engage?
Or perhaps the brevity of the comments in the example just work better on Facebook?
What Next?
It’s great that the Facebook Fan Page is active with lots of discussion but it would be good to have (some of) this on the blog too.
I’m tempted to install WP-FacebookConnect or Disqus on the WordPress blog to combat this as both allow users to comment with their Facebook account.
If you have any other suggestions as how best to combat this, please let me know.
In the meantime I’m left wondering: Do business bloggers have to take Facebook integration with their blog more seriously?
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I have been coming across this same issue, and it happens on site such as LinkedIn too. I think people are so sold on the social side of social media that they just see blogs as places to find info, not interact. I have some Facebook pages set up to display an RSS stream of comments on the blog, but it would be nice if there was a plug-in or API to do this in reverse so that anytime someone links to a blog post all further comments would appear below the post on the blog. After being moderated of course!
The creative part of my brain thinks this should be feasible, however the technical side of my brain isn’t well developed enough to tackle it!
@Angela, thanks for responding! Sorry it took me all day to come back to you. Half-term here in Stockholm so lots of other things on the go
That’s a very interesting take on blogs: “places to find info, not interact”. Hmm. Yes and no. Some blogs have really vibrant community discussions going on through the comments but a lot of these aren’t business blogs. They’re more topical.
Disqus makes connecting with Twitter or Facebook easy but I’m not a fan of the system really. That’s why I haven’t implemented it myself on various client sites or here. But it’s getting to the point where I may have to.
One problem when commenting on Blogs directly: My Facebook friends/contacts don't get aware of these comments and so they can't participate in the discussions. That's why i always try to comment on postings from my subscribed pages/blogs on Facebook only.
It seems to me that people tend to respond faster on facebook and that commenting is easier there. I still get lots of blog comments but that might be due to the fact that people ask for support there. I don't have many comments s such but rather questions coming there.
Again, Facebook seems more geared towards discussion! Interesting.
From a business point of view it's getting harder to ignore Facebook.
Thanks for commenting, Andreas. I appreciate your input.
You make a good point about how Facebook really is geared towards keeping the discussion with the people that really matter.
FB is a great way to interact and it's reasonable that people sharing the same interests (your blog content) would want to comment there to have conversations. My target audience is any individual in the real estate industry so I receive most of my comments on ActiveRain. This platform also rewards members with points when they comment. As a result, these individuals are even less likely to post a comment on my blog.
For FB, Linked In & ActiveRain, my main goal has changed. It is no longer to get their comments but just have them read the content. If they like what they see, they'll want to read other posts … better yet, they will visit my real estate website (the main reason I created a blog).
@Jennifer, Thanks for joining in the conversation.
I'm curious to know more about ActiveRain and will check it out. Sounds interesting.
I think as long as people are reading the content you want them to read, and responding to the calls-to-action your content pages include, then it doesn't matter where (or if) comments happen.
The bottom line is whether your web content helps you achieve your goals.
I agree! Here's a link to my ActiveRain main page so you can see what it's like … http://activerain.com/yrpjen as you might determine this is good for you too. AR has have over 176k members and it's free to join.
Thanks for the link, Jennifer. Looks interesting.
great post, but i think not
great post, but i think not
I haven’t yet experienced this myself but I guess it just makes things easier and probably takes away from the struggles of managing comment spam (unless you’re using Disqus of course). How are you finding Disqus, by the way, Jon? I’ve seen a few people reverting back to the basic WordPress comments due to lack of power over the comments! nnMarty =)
I haven't yet experienced this myself but I guess it just makes things easier and probably takes away from the struggles of managing comment spam (unless you're using Disqus of course). How are you finding Disqus, by the way, Jon? I've seen a few people reverting back to the basic WordPress comments due to lack of power over the comments!
Marty =)
I think Disqus is okay but I’m not overly amazed by it. I like that you can reply to comments through email. But I don’t think it’s as good at stopping spam as WordPress’s default comment system.
I think Disqus is okay but I'm not overly amazed by it. I like that you can reply to comments through email. But I don't think it's as good at stopping spam as WordPress's default comment system.
I’d probably have to agree with you there! WordPress do work with a rather large Database in akismet after all.nnMarty =)
I'd probably have to agree with you there! WordPress do work with a rather large Database in akismet after all.
Marty =)
thank you nice post