At a conference, I heard someone trying to explain the Comment Quality Quotient theory to a small group during a break. It went something like this:
You got your good comments. You got your bad comments. You got your comment spam. Somewhere in the middle, you got your time waster comments. Which do you want more of? Which do you want less? Which do you want gone?
The better the comments on your blog, the better your blog, right? So you need to improve your Comment Quality Quotient.
While everyone agreed that comment spam and “bad” comments were unwanted, a number of the group agreed they wanted the time waster comments gone as well. They all wanted good, clear, quality comments that contributed to their content. The problem was determining how to improve their Comment Quality Quotient.
How do you improve the quality of your blog comments? The ratio of valuable comments from the time wasters and boring commenters?
I asked them that question. Here are some of their responses:
- Quality Content Dictates Quality Comments: The better the quality of writing, the better the integrity of the content in general, the more improved the Comment Quality Quotient.
- Leave Room for the Readers to Comment: If you say everything, there’s nothing left to be said. Leave room for the readers to add their own perspectives and say.
- Consistent Content Creates Consistent Comment Quality: By building a strong fan-base with consistent content subject matter, the blogger sets a tone and controls the topic for discussion, eliminating the off-topic comments. The blogger also relies upon that fan-base to set the comment tone.
- You Get What You Give: The quality of comments are set by the tone of how the blogger responds to comments, on their blog and others.
- Quality Means Editing Your Comments: To control your comment quality, you must edit your comments when people break the “rules” by removing signatures, cleaning up misspellings, and deleting useless and inappropriate comments and comment spam, so what is left sets the standard.
How is your Comment Quality Quotient? Do you, too, wish it was better? Do you think about how you comment on other blogs as setting the tone for the comments to follow you? Do you consider how your comments can change the life of the blogger or another reader? Do you even think about how each comment you leave on blog is a mini-resume of your blog? How can you improve your comment quality, on your blog and off?
