So today we’re going to continue talking about building an online presence, but this time it is through conversation engagement.  This kind of goes back to blogging, putting your message out to the world and discussing things you are interested in.  We’ll talk about blog/website comments, the importance of engagement, and what you can accomplish with it.

In my Social Media for PR class we have an assignment called the Conversation Engagement Project.  We have to initiate or extend a conversation on a particular topic relating to social media or PR.  By doing this we must comment on two blogs per week.  The objective is to engage others, grow a network, and gain an audience.

This is what I encourage you all to do as well.  Find people, experts, bloggers, etc. in your network and talk with them.  Ask questions, give your opinion, further support an argument, or contradict one.

To me, writing comments is a little scary.  Sure I can post all I want on my blog but for a while I wasn’t completely sure how I felt about posting on someone else’s.  It’s hard putting yourself out there, especially on someone else’s space, who is probably getting a lot more attention and traffic than you’re used to.  You want to look professional but easygoing.  You want to be respectful but state your thoughts.  You want to get your name out there but not be too “spam-my”.

I found a blog post, Blog Comments and Reputation Central, about commenting on blogs and how it affects your online self.  It really shows the importance of the things you comment, how you say it, and what it reveals about you to the online world.  If you read this article, you’ll find that the real discussion is in the comment section of the post actually.  It gives a lot of good insight into what you should aim for in a blog comment.

On the flip side however, as a blogger you want people to comment on your blog as well.  It shows people are reading your content, and it is interesting enough that they have something they want to add on the topic.

Social Media Examiner has written an article on 7 Tips to Increase Your Blog Comments.  It shows you how to make your blog more “comment friendly.”  I think this would be very beneficial for people trying to attract more readers to their blog.  Engaging with the community is a good way to get more traffic to your blog.  You want people to feel comfortable commenting, just as you would on their blog.

Lastly, Jeff Goins wrote a post on the Seven Types of Blog Comments and How to Respond to Them.  I thought this article was particularly interesting because you can take this advice from both angles, as a commenter and as a blog host.  It classifies the different types of comments and the motives behind each one.  It then tells you how to best deal with them.

So as a person wanting to learn how to properly comment on other blogs, you should read this article and see which comments appeal to you and which ones you should avoid.

And conversely, as a blog host, you can take this advice and use your best judgment when deciding how to respond to different comments.

Either way you decide to look at it, the main objective is to engage.  You are putting information out in the blogosphere for people to read.  And in turn, people can send you back information on that topic to create a discussion, completing the two-way communication that characterizes blogging and social media.