Can Blog Commenting Survive the Twitter and Tumblr Assault?

Dec 10 2010 Published by under Blogs and blogging

I write to you today floating on a wave of delight that my teaching year has just ended. Since I am NOT ready to launch into grading, here’s a short blog post, that somehow still manages to be rambling (it’s a gift):

A year ago, I wondered if Twitter would cause people to blog less. I am not sure whether it has. Although I can certainly name some bloggers who seem more productive on Twitter than on their own blogs, there are new blogs springing up all the time.

Today, I wonder whether the main effect of twitter has been on blog comments.

Paranormal romance author Isabel Roman blogged today about the lack of comments on some of her posts, despite getting a lot of hits. She writes:

The thing I notice is that people come. They read. They do not comment. I wonder why that is. Curious. My post on reviews and why you do them, where you post them, and if you comment on others gets hits, but no comments. Hmmm…

Even my guests get hits, especially after the fact, and yet very few comments. Example: Friday Guest: Wendi Zwaduk with 120 page views but only a measly 6 comments. 120 vs. 6…my math seems skewed.

Not too long ago, Tumperkin of Isn’t It Romance? was thinking about shutting down her blog, and named lack of comments as one possible reason (she’s still blogging. Thank God).

I have been emailing a bit with author Shannon Stacey, my next featured author for the Behind the Lines segment. I felt nervous about how many comments she might get, since Shiloh Walker’s Behind the Lines had so few (despite getting lots of hits), but Shannon replied that, in her mind, any place people are talking about a post is all good, be it Twitter or Facebook, or wherever. So look for her post Tuesday.

Here’s an interesting comparion from Mediaite about Tumblr:

A year ago, in preparation for another piece about Tumblr, [founder] Karp told me that the average Tumblr post had five interactions – likes, reblogs, answers – as compared to an average 1.5 comments on the average WordPress post.

I have a Tumblr account, mostly because I didn’t want someone else to take the name*, but I do not know what to do with it.

(*yeah, because someone is really going to steal what is possibly one of the worst blog names on the planet!)

Looking at some of the big blogs, you see lots of RTs but few or no comments. This effect is really extreme at a site like www.mashable.com. But even here, I’ve had posts get more RTs than comments.

I’ve noticed that this blog has grown steadily in subscribers and daily visitors, but comments have not grown proportionately. Some folks like to lurk, and some read this blog, but only discuss it on Twitter.

Or maybe it’s just fatigue. At this point, in order to do my Monday Morning Stepback posts, I subscribe to over 300 blogs. It can be overwhelming to try to comment on everything I find interesting. Adding that to Twitter, etc. makes for a packed online schedule.

I don’t have an opinion, actually, on whether this is a good thing or not (if it even IS a “thing”.). Occasionally I do feel let down by lack of comments. The absolute lowest was a post on trends in paranormal romance I spent weeks preparing, even interviewing some very big name authors, and got like two comments. But usually I just go with the flow.

I know exactly what to post if I want a lot of comments (something about sex, something funny, snarky reviews, criticism of other blogs), but I would never force myself to write what I don’t feel like writing.

I recognize the irony in asking for comments on a blog post about comments. And it would serve me right if I get none. But I’ll try it anyway:

  • I’m curious, do you feel like you get as many comments these days as in the past?
  • Do you think Twitter or Tumbrl or even Facebook has affected blog commenting?
  • Do you care whether you get a lot of comments?

And even if you don’t feel like commenting? Thanks for reading!

49 responses so far

It’s The Book, Stupid!: Twitter Dos and Don’ts

Aug 17 2010 Published by under Blogs and blogging

A guest post by @JanetNorCal

I’ve been thinking a lot about James Carville and his motto when he was helping Bill Clinton get elected (and I know this dates me): “It’s the economy, stupid”. Ultimately an author’s books trump any and all social media.  You may love the author on Twitter, but DNF her books. You may hate the views she shares on her blog, but love her books. The bottom line is: “are her books worth reading?”

Obviously this is the merest scratch of the surface and it’s just my opinion. Many an online friend feels very differently. Without further ado, my thoughts today!

Do:


a) Share your opinions and expertise and let us know a bit of what’s behind the curtain.

b) Talk about the life of an author. I’ve read authors say I’m agonizing over which computer to buy or I’m tracking down the perfect pair of shoes before a book signing.

c) Be equally friendly to everyone, as much as you’re able. Try to exude an air of approachability.

d) Join the conversation whether it’s reality TV or a new movie or whatever is trending (just keep spoilers in mind).

e) Share your life in pictures sometimes: a great sunset, your new pet, super muffins … and make your twitter background personal and give us a glimpse into your world.

f) Have fun with twitter: make me forget you’re marketing.

g) Social media is rough and ready and no one’s grading your spelling and/or grammar. If your words are too slick, mannered or Haiku*esque, they won’t sound authentic.


Don’t:

a) Don’t constantly retweet your author (or blogger) friend’s request to get to 1,000 or 2,500 or whatever followers. So sick of those!

b) Retweeting retweeting starts to feel like spam when it’s all book and author related, again, especially if it’s your friends. If I wanted to follow them on twitter, I would.

c) WIP. Once in a while fine, all the live-long day, nope.

d) Reconsider being really really snarky and potty-mouthed. Occasionally, fine, but a steady diet of that impresses me not.

e) Don’t rip other authors a new one – this is a very subjective comment because who am I to say what anyone should say about their fellows. I can only say that even the appearance of piling on can be rather off-putting

f) When authors wear a number of different hats and share their expertise I wonder if I’m hearing from the former principal or the best seller or the hog farmer – for me it can be heavy-handed.

g) Probably no need to mention this but just in case: do not reveal plot spoilers when you have access to ARCs


If the metaphor of twitter and Facebook as the communal water cooler is a valid one, then perhaps the difference is that everything online is public rather than ephemeral. Even if one deletes a regrettable post, there’s often a record after the fact. The words of Henry Ford, quite possibly apocryphal, keep running through my head: “Never complain, never explain”. If you comment on a review that is unfortunate, if you enter into a very volatile discussion, if you talk about personal matters, you run the risk of having your words misconstrued or getting involved in a morass of back and forth that can be ultimately very unpleasant. Ultimately, it’s all a crap shoot.

Thanks Jessica, for letting me have the floor. Which is now open.

18 responses so far

Why I’m A Twitter Quitter

Aug 02 2009 Published by under Navel gazing

Quitter

I deleted my @RRRJessica twitter account recently.

The reason is simple and the fault is all mine: I can’t handle the Twitter. I didn’t tweet all that much, but I would check in quite often to see what others were tweeting. Sure, I could use Leechblock or set rules to keep my tweet lurking down, but I don’t need yet one more thing in my life that I have to exercise self-control over. And I found that Twitter encouraged me to split my attention in an unhealthy manner. I knew I was in trouble the other day when I seriously contemplated buying a Banana Bunker at the MoMA museum store just so I could showcase it on Twitpic (I still kind of regret not buying it, actually). I just want to be where I am when I am there.

So that was the reason, but now I get to the rationalizations, i.e. the ex post facto arguments I use to make myself feel better about de-tweeting. If you don’t want to see Twitter criticized, stop reading now!:

1. I’ve heard all about how you are supposed to use your blog as the mother ship and Twitter and other social media as smaller vessels. While I could sometimes see positive stat effects of the heavyweight retweet, the fact is that this is a niche blog which will never appeal to a very large audience. What makes this blog strong is good posts, and the more time I spent tweeting, the less energy I had for blog posts. Writing blog posts is draining, but at least you have achieved something when you finish. With Twitter, the energy just kind of gets sucked into the Twitterverse with no return on investment.  As Blogher Super Jive memorably put it, “If a good, well-thought out blog post is a night making sweet, sweet love to Al Green, then Twittering was thirty seconds in the art supply closet huffing glue. Quick, dirty, and when you tumble out of there you can’t remember jack and you have a sharp headache.”

I’m not witty or pithy, so my unremarkable Twitter stream is not the legacy I want my online presence to leave, yet, unlike Facebook, it’s open, forever, to anyone. It’s like having a permanent public record of every off the cuff remark you’ve ever made. If that doesn’t make you shudder, you are a much better person than I am. The anonymity problem hit me when someone I admire in my academic field started following me. I emailed him to suggest he try following my professional Twitter account instead (which boasts exactly one tweet a month, but at least I don’t talk about Banana Bunkers on it). He demurred. Blocking him would be an insult, but I found myself thinking with two hats while tweeting. I also found myself tempted to tweet things about work or people in my life that are unwise to share. Some of you may remember my wrath on the day promotional material went out about a “public health” event with a crucial letter in the first word — l — missing. In real life, I would never gripe about a coworker to anyone but my husband — it’s just not how I handle things — but I did that day. Twitter poses a certain temptation that I would just as soon do without.

2. I also felt that Twitter was impacting my attempt to be as noncommercial as possible on this blog. I’ve blogged about why I don’t accept free copies of books for review, or participate in author promos. At first, on Twitter, I didn’t follow any authors for the same reason. But when May rolled around and the @replies rules changed, I had to follow authors and editors in order to make any sense of what the bloggers I followed were saying. I found it affected what I wanted to write on the blog.

3. It took a lot of concentration and effort to try to engage in any type of real conversation within Twitter’s constraints. They say Twitter is a like a cocktail party. How likely is it that you will have a meaningful conversation over the noise and interruptions of a cocktail party? I tried a few of the #followreader chats but they were a nightmare. Even one-on-one chats were exercises in futility. I would often ask a follow up question only to find out my interlocutor answered it already in a tweet I hadn’t seen yet. If my interlocutor had more to say than one tweet could accommodate, I would sit and wait for the second, the third, the fourth tweet … not exactly an expedient way to chat.

4. Twitter bots. I wanted my follow count to reflect real people. I felt like I was spending too much time blocking spammers. Twitter has really got to do a better job with this.

5. Being overwhelmed. The romance genre is terrifyingly large. How many hundreds of books are published each month? Instead of feeling grateful for news of new releases or great reads, I started feeling a bit anxious, like I was always behind the eight ball. I want my romance reading hobby to continue to be an oasis from stress, a way to relax and rejuvenate. I have managed this on my blog, somehow. I know other people manage it on Twitter, but I just couldn’t shut out the noise.

They say you should set goals for your tweeting, so you don’t get overwhelmed. I finally figured out that I personally don’t have any goals that Twitter can help me meet. Quite the reverse, actually.

I’m already regretting that I can’t tweet with @RedRobinReader and @ScarletCorset about tonight’s True Blood episode, and there are some folks I love to tweet with that I won’t get a chance to interact with now (they don’t comment on blogs, but are available on Twitter), but for now, at least, it’s the right choice for me.

What do you say? Do you tweet? Why or why not? What do you get out of it? Have you found ways to make your Twitter experience better?

32 responses so far

Twitter: I Haz Succumbed

Feb 26 2009 Published by under Blogs and blogging, Navel gazing

Today I joined Twitter. You can find me at RRRJessica.

I don’t know what to make of it, honestly.

It does meet two desires I didn’t know I had (isn’t that what technology does in a capitalist economy? Create new needs it can expensively fill?):

1. You feel like there’s constant fun-seeming activity, even when no one is visiting your blog, or posting new blog posts, which is nice. It makes me wonder whether I hear a sucking sound in Romanceland, or is it just sucking away the fat (see #2)?

2. You feel like you can post the inane personal things you sometimes want to post on your blog but know no one is interested in.

Most people on Twitter aren’t interested either, but there seem to be no conventions: there’s no desired level of discourse, no need to worry about the worth of what you write. You don’t announce your arrival or bid anyone adieu. You can ignore Tweets. It’s very freeing in a sense, like a Tower of Babel we construct tweet by tweet.

Like Myspace and Facebook, there are also ways to measure popularity and status. It looks to me like having more followers than people followed is the main measure, and it more or less replicates popularity in the blogophere, which you can also measure by “who travels to whom”. So, for example, Jane at Dear Author follows 27 but has 445 followers, while Smartbitch Sarah follows a mere 10, but has 1112 followers. Me, on the other hand: I follow 24 and have 10 followers, and those proportions will likely only get worse as I add more people to follow.

Some romance bloggers have restricted accounts and I can only shudder to think what calamities await me on Twitter that might make me decide to do that.

There are several people I have not found on Twitter who should be there if your local stodgy aged professor (as opposed to the hip professor represented by Dr. Frantz) is doing it. I won’t name names but you know who you are.

Most other romance bloggers have some authors on their followed lists, and I haven’t done that yet. I am not sure why.

Anyway, this was just a record of my initial impressions after one half day of it. Do you Twitter? Why or why not?

23 responses so far