Are you one of those bloggers who answers the question completely, leaving no room for others to answer? Are you killing the blog conversation?
I’ve had a lot of appreciation and debate over the following statement from my article on How NOT to Comment on Comments:
Make your comments add to the conversation. Don’t just chime in because you want to see your name published on the web. Contribute. Give. Share. Exchange. Keep the story going. Keep the ideas flowing. Help us help each other by continuing the dialog.
At the time it seemed a new thought that it is the responsibility of bloggers to keep the conversation going on other blogs, as well as on their own.
There are two ways to kill a conversation on a blog:
- Write a Complete Blog Post: When you write a complete blog post, you leave nothing unsaid. Thus, your readers have nothing to add.
- Write a Complete Blog Comment: Whether on your own blog or someone else’s, if you say all there is to say, you leave no room for anyone to say anything.
Guess what the answer to this is?
Shut up.
Well, not totally. Just don’t finish your thoughts. Leave them guessing. Leave them with an answer to offer. Leave them room to breathe and reply.
