When you create a landing page or release a blog article as part of your internet marketing approach, it’s sometimes a good idea to allow comments. This can help increase engagement and could lead to more subscribers for your mailing list. At the same time, you could end up with lots of spam comments.
How do you manage your blog comments to increase the effectiveness of your marketing content? There’re a few simple steps that you can take to prevent a free-for-all.
Use a Trusted System for Your Comments
You shouldn’t allow just anyone to comment on your blog. This can quickly lead to spam comments, random messages, and internet trolls. Before long, your comment section could be packed with comments that’re completely unrelated to your content.
Use a trusted system for your comments. This means a system that requires a login. There are two main options – social media plug-ins and third-party plug-ins.
Google Plus, Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter have plug-ins that you can place on your site for your comment sections. This helps to cut down on the random noise-makers that plague open comment sections.
Another option is to use Discus or another third-party comment plug-in. These plug-ins also require a login. By ensuring a user has some type of profile, there is less of a chance of anonymous comments.
Community Only Comments
If you find that you still get anonymous, irrelevant comments, you could restrict comments to community members. Before someone could leave a comment, they’d need to sign up to your community and join your mailing list.
Restricting comments to community members can help increase the quality of your comments. Though, it can also decrease the number of comments your content gets.
Don’t Allow Comments
You don’t have to allow comments. While comments help create an engaged community, provide feedback, and allow you to answer relevant questions, they can also be distracting. If you feel that your comment section is more trouble than its worth, you could remove it completely.
There’s a downside to removing the comment section. A recognisable brand won’t see a major impact by removing the comment section, but, a smaller business may find it more difficult to build trust with their customer base.
Choosing the Option That Works for You
How do you choose the right option? You basically have four options — you can use a social media plugin, use a third-party plugin, restrict your comments to community members, or not allow comments at all. Each of these options has their own advantages and disadvantages.
Social media and third-party plugins can help you build a community. They’re more open and allow a greater number of users to comment on your content. This can be beneficial for businesses that’re still establishing themselves. They can also lead to irrelevant comments and discussion unrelated to your content.
Community only comments can restrict unrelated comments. Though, they also limit the number of comments you get. This could be a suitable option — if you already have a large community established.
The final option is to not allow comments at all. This is mostly reserved for major brands that don’t need to engage with their customers.
Weigh the benefits and drawbacks of each option. The decision should be made before you begin releasing content. You may even use different options for different types of content.
For example, on landing pages connected to a PPC advertisement, you might choose to include social media or third-party plugins. For blog posts, you might want to restrict comments to community members.
These tips will help you make better use of your comment section, depending on your marketing strategies. This only covers a portion of the considerations you should make.
Peter Grant
Your Dot Com Pal
