The Comment Paradigm

Comments are good. More the comments, the more giddy it makes you feel so that you can count those numbers gleefully up and showcase a proud slide on audience engagement.

After all audience engagement is all that matters.

No?

But then here lies the question. If on your content publishing platform only a percentage of your 200 close friends comment every single time, does that engagement really count?

Or is it even engagement that has real value ?

Or how do you ensure that the comments are relevant? Does “anyone” commenting have any value? Does the commenting individual know enough or more to add value to the discussion? If not then is s/he of any consequence?

What if the commenting individual really has no relevant knowledge on the topic but thinks that s/he does ?

What would be better for your reach? A person coming on to your platform and commenting or actually taking your blog to his/her platform and commenting or better still writing his/her take on the same topic ?

The power of ideas gets realized, when the ideas get spread and millions start believing in them and talking about them, beyond you. The game was never about an amazing article you wrote. It was always whether you could inspire others to take your story forward.

The action of commenting does not spread the idea beyond a very limited base. Because the content and the comment happen on the same platform/ url/ interface. It’s the same closed eco-system. Sure small innovations like Facebook or LinkedIn commenting via API’s help, but then again which network are you pushing your content feed out to ? Does that network matter?

A better analysis is to see whether you have even one comment from an individual who matters. ( don’t worry you know who they are even if you don’t admit it). Or whether you get repeated comments from a core group of readers who personally don’t know you but passionately come back every day to read what you have written. Even if they are not influencers ( as defined by experts), they are worth gold.

If you have great content and can write well, and people spread your ideas, be rest assured that the people who matter will find you, even if you have no comments.

Even if you have zero SEO.

If you are really good and engaging, be rest assured they will want to pay you to stop blogging and start on writing a book.

Till then don’t mistake the number of comments for heady engagement.

Till then you are just not good enough.

Just like me.