Many bloggers assume that they need tons of traffic or they need to become an influencer to get more comments on their blog.
To an extent, this belief may be true as influencers usually have a large following on social media and their blogs tend to get viral quickly and fetch higher engagement.
However, new bloggers or small businesses can also get a decent number of genuine comments despite little social following if they follow the right approach.
Read more: 9 Tips For Running A Successful Business Blog.
Before we talk about the right approach, let us understand why comments are important and what motivates users to spend their precious time in writing a comment on blogs and social media:
Why comments are good for your business or blog:
- Comments provide a fresh perspective from users with a diverse background
- It shows that people read your blogs – It is a proof of traffic
- You get an opportunity to connect with new people – Building community
- Users’ feedback helps you refine your writing style or content.
- Readers’ appreciation boost your confidence and inspire you to do better
- The comments improve the credibility of the blog
- User-generated content also helps in SEO
There are many other benefits of comments on a blog. However, it also has some downsides too such as spending considerable time in moderating comments, spam filtering, promotional content, online abuse & personal attacks, and comments that don’t add any value to the blog.
However, the benefits of the comments usually outweigh its disadvantages. Thus, it is always recommended to have a beautiful blog comment form at the end of the post and a call to action (CTA) that encourages users to share their thoughts, opinion, and experiences through the comments.
What motivates users to write a comment
As humans, we are wired to connect. We are a social animal, and by default, we like to express our views, share our experiences and love to be in a community, and we look forward to receiving appreciation from our friends and acquaintances. This is the main reason behind a lot of discussions and commenting on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. Thus, emotionally we are wired to connect and communicate with people.
We love to compliment people when they help us.
People need help and ask some technical questions and expect an answer from the author or other users.
We can say that broadly people comment due to emotional and technical reasons. Thus, a clear strategy of attracting more comments would be to appeal to users on these two parameters.
How to get more comments?
It is essential that your site has some traffic before you think of getting more comments. People can’t write comments until they know about your blog and read it. However, you don’t need to have tons of traffic to get comments.
100+ visitors a day is enough to generate feedback on the blog posts. If your site already has this much traffic, here are some tips that can be helpful in motivating the users to write comments on your blog posts:
Being Human – Write in the first person
There is a famous saying, “On the internet, nobody knows you are a dog.” This clearly depicts the anonymous nature of the internet. To counter this, you need to show to the users that you are a real human being and know what you are talking about.
Thus, write your posts in the first person and put your personality into it. Initially, it may look like you are arrogant or self-centered. However, soon your audience will establish a connection with you. The connect will lead to more discussions and hence more comments.
Take a Stand and share your original experiences
Don’t be ambivalent or politically correct. Most small businesses are too diplomatic while writing the blog posts. Fear of offending people (and perhaps losing business from someone who may disagree with you) or unnecessary controversy discourage companies from taking a stand.
However, you should understand that when users are reading your blog, they want to know your opinion. If you can make a persuasive argument with the help of relevant facts and take a stand against popular opinion, your users may feel compelled to express their thoughts.
Do remember that taking a stand doesn’t mean, being offensive or rude. You can put your arguments nicely and may choose assertive words to convince readers about your perspective. However, the negative tone must be avoided.
You should also share your personal experiences with your readers. Be authentic and genuine while sharing your experiences. The more people will know about you; the more they would like to engage with you. If you keep everything confidential and secretive, no one will care to share their experiences, and thus, a true conversation will never begin.
Taking a stand and sharing personal experiences will also help you in establishing a right perception of your brand or yourself. People will perceive you as an authentic person who can be trusted for things related to your field.
Invest time in selecting titles
A great title will do half of the work required in generating a large number of comments. Of course, the content of the blog must reflect the title. Invest considerable time in writing a title that touches the emotional chord of your audience.
On social media, especially on Facebook, many people comment just because of the title even if they don’t read the blog post. However, it is okay as they contribute to making the blog viral. Thus, the right title should compel your readers to either agree or disagree with you, or it may encourage them to share their experiences.
Make it easier to comment
Make commenting easier for users. They should be able to find the comment form quickly. Ideally, they should be able to comment without registering themselves with the site. Using social media comment plugins will help integrate comments on social media as well as website.
Write one or two lines at the beginning or end of the article that shows that you value your readers’ opinion.
Wrapping it up
If you follow these tips consistently for the next few blogs, you will see a rise in the number of comments in the blog post. However, it will not happen overnight.
It takes significant time and efforts to build a vibrant community.
Moreover, there is no replacement for epic content. Thus, irrespective the approach you take to get more comments, high-quality content is a must to accomplish your engagement goals.
