Why You Need Comments

You’ve put together a brilliant blog post illustrating your company’s newest product, or an upcoming event guaranteed to make your business the talk of the town. The post goes live, and then a couple of hours later you check back and notice a comment sitting at the bottom. Expecting lavish praise, you find instead someone claiming your company cheated them, did a poor job, or (worse yet), fired them for no reason. This isn’t a nightmare, it’s an opportunity.

     It’s a scary thing to put your reputation out there, to leave the door open for words both positive and negative to stream out into the public web. In the old days, barring a letter to the Editor, customer complaints usually went to the manager and stayed there. Now, a single person can plant a searing indictment on your own web property, and then broadcast that same sentiment to millions in a few minutes. Dell, Amazon, and many others have suffered these kinds of events, and should be glad they did.

    Often, it takes someone outside of your business to really tell you what’s wrong with it. That’s why good consultants are so valued – they won’t hesitate to say what smells. Treat your commenting public like free advisors, and take their concerns to heart. Re-tweet positive remarks and discuss solutions with the ones who are having issues. Companies are already constantly scanning Twitter and other social networks for mentions of their name, and if someone has issues, they’ll often receive a message from a corporate rep offering to help.

    Comments on your blog serve the same purpose, a kind of instant and open customer service. And you’ll find that, for all the spam and flaming commentary, there are plenty of people who just want to know more about what you do. Taking these engaged consumers and making them into loyal advocates can do wonders for your business, and your self-esteem. When you see your customers jump to your defense without any input of your own, you know you’ve succeeded.

    Let your website talk with the world, it has good things to say.