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Do Blog Comments Inspire Blog Posts?

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Heidi Cohen wrote a thoughtful, tip-oriented post today in honor of Stephen Covey, one of the most incredible business writers of our time with his popular  book, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Heidi featured each habit from the late Mr. Covey’s book and then provided an actionable blogging tip alongside.

Here’s Habit 5 along with Heidi’s blogging tip taken exactly from her blog that appears in my mail box:

This Habit 5: Seek first to understand, then to be understood. Start by taking the time to truly listen to others before jumping in to get your point across. Consider what the individual is trying to say, not how your experience relates to the incident at hand. Hear what the person is saying to be respectful and caring. Actionable Blogging Tip: At their heart, many blogs are started to communicate an individual’s perspective on an important issue to him or her. Yet, as its readership increases, the blog’s “ownership” is transferred to its community. This requires bloggers to listen more carefully to the issues upon which their readers are focused and to contribute useful content on those topics. This is best accomplished through the use of blog comments.

This tip got me thinking more than the others she offered – “Yet, as its readership increases, the blogs ‘ownership’ is transferred to its community.”

Has this happened to you as a blogger; does your community control or influence topics you write about based on comments?

Here’s where I’m stuck about this…on a few occasions I’ve been able to glean a follow-up blog post from comments; however, the comments squarely originated in a post I created with my thoughts driving the community to think more provocatively about an issue.

I wish the comment section would drive topics; then, I’d not need to think about what to write on each week. I’m wondering, too, if Heidi gleans topics from her community because she writes such amazing content always relevant and full of teachable tips? This likely works for her type of blog where she is such an expert and knows the content she writes begets questions from her community that thusly drives her to dive a bit deeper into the topic.

So, Soulati-‘TUDE! community, I’d love to hear your thoughts! Do you glean topics from the comment section of your blog? Does your community ask for actual topics for you to cover, or do you take inspiration from a comment and then write about it?

 

 

Promote Safe Blogging; Report Blogger Abuse

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When I write a blog post, I welcome everyone to my house to read, comment, debate, negate, laugh, cajole, banter, and share in the ‘raderie I’ve created in this amazing community.

Everyone regardless of creed, color, age, religion, gender, profession, alien status (Howie!) or other is invited. We carry on in a friendly manner, exchanging hugs and kisses along the way as well as highly professional discourse. Rarely is there an offensive comment in the midst.

Apparently, this is not the norm in some places. A person in this community posted a comment on one of my posts in the last several weeks that made me shudder. She, a Muslem, was called a “terrorist” on someone’s blog she visited and asked never to return. If that’s not enough, the blogger proceeded to attack her blog and make a mess in comments and elsewhere trying to create havoc.  Regardless of her experience, she continues to keep a positive attitude with forward momentum.

For anyone who has been the subject of a racist or religious profiling blogger/commenter, I want to apologize to you. I naively write in the comfort of my home and in the company I keep, and I had no earthly clue this was happening. It saddens me to have ignorant people mistreat others and not suffer consequence.

Here are several resources to report such behavior on the blogosphere. If anyone is privy to or the victim of hateful accusations, racism or other ethnic or religious profiling, these organizations share some steps on how to respond. The first step is logical – blacklisting, but there is more recourse:

Report Hate on Social Networking Sites

Youth Web Online

Blogger policy on reporting abuse

Other policies are also available on Facebook, YouTube, MySpace and other sites. Don’t allow a cyber-hate experience to go unnoticed; at least file a report and inform your communities. Get professional counsel on the best way to go about managing the experience, too.

Who might have something to add here? I’m not expert in managing such situations, nor do I have professional training. The resources on the web are slim pickings, too. Share some?

 

How Do You Manage Negative Blog Comments?

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This post originally appeared at New England Multimedia  on April 19, 2012.

How can you handle conflict while keeping your cool? Michelle Quillin invited me to share how I manage negative blog comments because she believes I do it differently than others. She ought to know, as I’ve never met a woman other than Michelle who reads and supports so many bloggers. She hears voice, knows style, understands professionalism, and is thoughtful in her own blog comments always bringing different insight on a topic.

Apparently, I stick my neck out when I write. I push the envelope of what’s tried and true and thought to be consensus. I like to poke a hole in someone’s opinion and rabble rouse a bit. I think they call me a bit of rebel.

I shoot from the hip more often than not; my opinions are validated from many sources that gel into the writing. I don’t take valuable time to fact find ad nauseum to write the best, most accurate blog post. If I was publishing a daily newspaper, I would take that approach, don’t get me wrong!

So…I’m getting to my point, promise…when you write as I do explained a bit as above, there are bound to be contrary comments. When I’ve been published on a national level, those comments come fast and furious from people who are total strangers to me and usually writing anonymously. I dread those retorts and experience a range of emotion as a result. Regardless, I have to respond for the benefit of others reading and to also defend myself!

Handling Negative Comments

These tips I offer on how to handle negative comments in your community are true and tried. I’ve been in the hot seat (not always) enough to have developed something that works. It took time, mind you! The first time I fielded a negative comment, I nearly collapsed with angst and ended up letting that anonymous person dictate my control in my house. No more! Perhaps these will help you when (because it will happen) you experience a detraction:

1. Never respond immediately. Let that comment sit there until you catch your breath.

2. Be calm because that emotion will direct your writing.

3. Accept all comments regardless of how they’re written. Thank the writer anyway in spite of the tone of his/her comment.

4. Direct people to your blog’s comment policy. If you don’t have one, you should reference the unspoken rule every blogger has calling for collegiality.

5. From your dashboard, locate the url/email from where the commenter wrote. While that may not be the true identity of the writer, you can tap that information and use it in your reply.

6. There are other ways to check identity of commenters and you can do that by the internet protocol or IP address. You can also Google the exact comment to see if it’s spam. Whois provides identity for domain owners, too.

7. When replying, never address the negative points. Skirt them at all costs. If the comment is so highly offensive, delete it! It’s your house, after all!

8. Invite the commenter to write a guest post and express his/her views.

9. Ask your community for support or send a direct message on the Interwebz calling for people to come to your rescue.

10. Most of all learn from the comment. If you’ve done it really well, ahem, you may get more disagreement than just one comment. Rather than being defensive, stop and think how your post was written and regarded by the readers. In your responses, be appreciative, courteous and take something away from the entire experience.

What experiences can you share about negativity at your house in comments?

 

Give A Little Love; Get A Little (Link Love)

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Summer is a time for most moms to scream for help. You’ll see my hashtag frequently: #MomInSummer and others are already on board to feel my pain. There are some moms who love summer; perhaps they don’t run their own business or try to blog three times weekly plus be a mom taxi back and forth to camp.

Because I’m already affected by a serious strain on my time for my blog, I decided to give a little love to my community by compiling a categorical description of bloggers with various bloggers LISTED in each category. That became a spur-of-the-moment blog post,

My goal was pure; my naiveté embarrassing! I knew that recently I had neglected my community as well as visits to bloggers’ houses to comment. I thought this a good way to accomplish several purposes — give a little, get a little.

Alas. Lists are a no-no for bloggers. In comments, Shonali of and Shelly Kramer of each mentioned that lists are a tad offensive due to various and sundry reasons. I didn’t know. The good news is the way I presented the bloggers in the lists was different than just weakly attempting to earn attention; it was a more thoughtful approach oriented to types of writing.

Get A Little

At the same time, when you do put a blog post together with outbound link love, you get some wonderful support in return. In fact, it’s awesome. I was surprised with the number of folks who did, in fact, come on over to share thoughts and ask which category they should be in. That was way cool and felt good because I have been neglectful.

I have to call out here, too. She suggested a new category of bloggers as curators, and I gave her a triple hmmm on that one. What say you? Is curating blogging? I really want to know!

So, here is my take on lists, based on feedback from doing one this week:

1. Do not just list every blogger you know in a blog post. It comes across smarmy and offensive.

2. If you are going to list a bunch of bloggers in a post, ensure there’s a creative way to do that.

3. Understand that people will see right through you if you are only out to get attention.

4. Meanwhile, if the mood strikes you, test it out!

Yes, no, maybe?

 

Six Types of Blogging

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What type of blogger are you? What do you write about the majority of the time? Here’s what I’ve noticed in the circles I’m in; perhaps you comfortably conform or you’re more of a mashup writer, like me.

  •  Blogger Teaches Blogger. This person continually tries to help other bloggers out of the conundrum that is blogging. It’s not always a conundrum, but it takes a lot of work. We who have been at it more than a  year know and often try to teach new bloggers the ins and outs. You can often find teachings at these blogs and ; #ThatIsAll.
  • Current Events With Twist.   I know that I can find twists and angles at about current events relating to social marketing, media and PR. At , and you can get some goods, too.
  • Family, life and happenstance. To always write about these topics the majority of the time means opening yourself up for peer commentary, feedback, support, ah-hah, and opinion. You can find this style of writing at , , , and houses.
  • Industry specific meanderings. Good bets on high-end industry news are via , with Carolyn Nicander Mohr, PR news with and , plus with some great tech news. One can always count on for copywriting lore Love these bloggers. does a grand job about inbound marketing (and, woah, that man shakes the house when he speaks — like a revival ceremony!)
  • Tips and Counsel. has been morphing his blog the entire time I have read him. Today, he’s back to tips and counsel with some solid experience as proof points.  is oriented to business and entrepreneurship. and shares highly relevant topics every day on just about anything relating to social marketing.
  • Mash Up. Well, I’m putting myself in this category. What strikes me in the moment (typically with a current events twist) is usually what you get. News of the day often gets me all axed up to write, especially when I have an opinion to expound. Then, I sprinkle in a little of this and a little of that. Not the most focused solution, but it works for me!

The big question is not what are you going to write about, but who is it for? Are you attracting folks to your blog you know you need? Is your writing matching up to the goals for your blog? Uhmm, do you have goals?

Who did I miss above? Add your blog here and the category you typically write under!