Is Twitter Killing Blog Comments?

Danny,

I recommend that you join the Blog Engage community over at blogengage.com

The bloggers will comment on your posts, comment on the post listing at blog engage AND tweet you and retweet you until....

Since I joined last month, I've received a constant stream of valuable comments and interesting exchanging of information. Let me know if you need any assistance.

Thanks for sharing.@Ileane

.-= ileane´s most recent blog post ...Blog Engage Activity for Ms. Ileane Speaks in November =-.

I'm glad you shared your plugin as I am looking for a solution where I can tweetback not just the blog, but the comment I made on the blog to my twitter followers. I will check out Posterous as suggested by Danny Brown!

Thanks for the complement! I still think that encouraging comments from other 'twitterers is never a bad thing. Lead by example, One way to do that is to make a comment, THEN tweet out the blog post. If someone sees you comment, they may be inspired to do so as well.The other reason I like to encourage blog comments, is that it offers a way to deepen the conversation/discussion/exploration of an issue much more than can be done in 140 characters on Twitter.

Speaking of follow-up posts - there's one on its way about this very post from a great guest blogger. Hope you can pop back over to check it out when live :)

While I think Twitter can be great for quick blips, I agree - sometimes it's just a breath of fresh air to write out as much as you want in a comment. In my mind, blogs and their comments are more ideal for discussion...I really do feel more relaxed and free in that kind of online atmosphere. If you're a blogger that uses Twitter, I think the key is to integrate both so that their features play well off of each other.

I really liked the approach. So long as there isn't continued pestering if someone doesn't comment, I think it can work well.My site is still definitely a work-in-progress. I'm just trying to learn as much as I can.

Personally, I've seen more conversation on Twitter (which is still cool) as opposed to on the posts. That could be down to my writing or invitational skills, for sure. Or it could be to do with the medium - of my five most popular posts as far as comments go, four of them are about Twitter. Maybe the next question should be "Is Twitter reducing the topics of blog posts"? ;-)

Are you finding that since the Twitter hype has begun, your comments have decreased significantly? It would be interesting to hear some definitive numbers, from a variety of pro bloggers. For me, it only increases traffic thus far, but I'm so new to the community, I need that extra voice and push from others (thanks heavens for the RT).

Agreed, Steve - if someone can aggregate all comments (that aren't just standard RT's, etc) and feed them real-time into the conversation, so that when you reply it goes back to where their comment is posted... now that's the gold right there! :)

Just comments and emails from other bloggers - it's not really meant as a scientific question, Tibbon, more a reflection.

I think you nailed it perfectly, Joanna. When you look at "blogs" like Mashable and Techcrunch, they obviously have a huge community - yet they also have a lot of trolls and flamers in the comments section. With a personal blog, you're investing in your community and (as you say) getting to know your readers as they're equally getting to know you.I guess I look at Twitter as an admittedly cool tool and a great way to build connections, yet someone's blog as the place where real magic can happen. Networks can be fleeting (look at Plurk), but a blog and its community can continue to grow even when the networks have gone. And it's be a shame to see bloggers who could be great potentially giving up, from perceived views that Twitter (or anywhere else) is the hub.

That's cool, and it's great to see that your audience is expanding via Facebook and email. But a little part of me thinks that some of the best discussion by blog readers could be getting missed due to the conversation happening elsewhere? Say someone emails you (or says something great on Twitter or Facebook) - how cool would it have been to have your blog readers experience that knowledge too?

But I wonder if that's Darren's audience, or more pro-bloggers, or taking into account everyone? Does it include news blogs or tech blogs, for example, or is it personal blogs only? Obviously the larger the audience, the more the percentage could be affected. I'm just curious whether Twitter is affecting newer bloggers and comments overall.

I think that the answer for the question is: Yes, Twitter is indeed killing blog comments! Take our blog for example, http://blog.thoughtpick.com, for every article I promote through twitter, I usually get most the the comments to that article via a tweet rather than a long argument on the blog itself! I don't think that is "bad" per say, since there is interaction but I'm confident that the more the space for commenting, the more valuable the arguments.

Danny, I think it depends a bit on the purpose of a blog - if it's to offer news, commentary, thought worthy, link worthy pieces, or is perhaps trying to build a community around about it. If the latter, then the comments do count because they build more personal connections than you can create on twitter. The way to support and encourage those comments (in my experience) is to value each and every one, to respond personally to each and every one, and to get to know the people who are taking the time to respond. And to write with the intention of asking for those comments and reactions as an integral part of what you're doing with your blog (as you obviously also do)

I find this fascinating because I was on twitter for quite a long time before I'd ever even heard of a "blog" or started to write one. In fact, had I not been on twitter, I would never have had the courage to start blogging at all (and now I actually have two blogs). I find that people not only comment on my blog posts via twitter, but also leave comments on my facebook wall, and even e-mail me about posts. Admittedly, this means that the comments on my posts are fewer and there is less discussion, but since my readership comes from both twitter and facebook I feel that twitter, especially, has not killed comments on my blog, but actually brought my blog into existence in the first place.

Hey Danny,There's a statistic that Darren Rowse has put out there in his two ProBlogger books about how less than 1% of a blog's audience leaves a comment. So I haven't been sold (yet) on Twitter (or FaceFeed) cutting into the amount of comments that would be left.

I've known some bloggers deliberately write almost every post under 100 words. Just put out the facts, a mini-suggestion, and let the readers run with it. Twitter is a fantastic medium, but I'd be sad to see blog comments decline due to conversations happening away from the post all the time. I'm beginning to sound like a broken record now, but if someone could find a way to seamlessly integrate meaningful comments from different playing fields, and the replies went back to these places, I'd happily pay a monthly premium for that type of functionality. :)

You'd like to think so, but they don't always arrive ;-)It's one of the things that's come up in the previous comments - it would be really cool if there was one big aggregator for comments, that integrated seamlessly, in real-time, from the various outlets. Them when you replied, it would go back to that person's medium, whether it was Facebook, Friendfeed, Twitter, etc. Soon, maybe? :)Must admit, with the new functions it's just introduced (including BackType support at last!), Disqus is doing a great job of trying to meet this. If they can work out how to include CommentLuv, we'd be set :)

See, that's a really cool (and non-invasive) way to expand the conversation. I admit I have thought of it before, but wasn't sure how it might be viewed. But, from your comment, it may be worth trying.And welcome to the wonderful world of blogging - I'll pop over and visit you shortly, Kim. :)

I almost just Tweeted this. Personally, I know I comment much less now because of Twitter. It's something I've noticed myself doing less and less of. I had come to the conclusion it was because I chose to discuss it on Twitter instead. I've actually been making an effort to change that. I think, too, that many times blogs survive because of the great comments left by their readers. The conversations that can get going because of comments on blogs are endless. As always, appreciate the post, Danny. :)

I dont know that Twitter has killed comments as much as it has changed them... as with everything else in the world of web 2.0, it has helped expand the reach of posts. I think it is much more a question of how can we start to measure the overall reaction to posts including things like tweets and FB comments. I autopost my blog to Facebook and lose comments to that site all the time, but if I didnt post them there, I probably never would have reached that audience. Honestly at the end of the day, if you create compelling content and ask interesting questions, the comments come... I think this one makes 79 comments on this post alone.

I'm really glad you wrote this post, Danny. I was just thinking about the whole conversational asset of blogs. I recently had a great experience when I tweeted a blog post that I really enjoyed. The author replied, encouraging me (in a very nice and non-spammy way) to share my comments on the post. I may have commented anyway, but this showed me that the author was interested in engaging. A very nice and continuing conversation ensued. So, I think the Twitter and blog conversation can be synthesized well.As a new blogger, I hope that I can model this approach.@knmu

I guess that depends on the blogger, Jeff. For me, my main aim is to try and offer a view on something that isn't repeated on a thousand other blogs, while hopefully making you question the status quo on how we've always approached something. Sometimes I think I'm successful, others not so much :)I agree - it's not (and shouldn't be) about the numbers, and that wasn't the intent of the post. It's simply asking a question about other networks affecting one of the core strengths of a blog and its community. It's fantastic that discussions happen elsewhere - much like reading groups for books.Yet wouldn't it be cool if all these discussions interconnected and used the blog as a hub? More people could bounce thoughts off each other and really open up a topic. As it stands, much of the conversation is fragmented, and I think that's what can hurt any medium, blog or otherwise.I know what you mean about comment numbers, and yet it'd be a shame to miss out on that one nugget of gold that a commenter can leave - it's that Catch 22 situation again. Damned if you read, damned if you don't ;-)Thanks for some great views.

I don't think it's "obsessing over blog comments" as much as it is enjoying the conversation, Derek. Many bloggers aren't actually on Twitter (strange but true) and so perhaps that's where some of the feeling that a little bit of community is disappearing comes from?Personally, I enjoy comments on a blog (here or otherwise) as it offers far more scope for what you're thinking (see Cathy's response further up for a great example).There are certainly a lot of follow-up posts still doing the rounds, but there does seem to be a dearth of them compared to even just a year back.

Obviously didn't kill your post here. Tons of comments and looks like less RTs than comments. So what's the original goal of a post? Is it to get people talking? Or just to get them to leave a comment? Both? To try to create a community? To get people to comment and discuss only on your site? Or does it matter that they're talking elsewhere, or even on their own site, or their microblog? What's the goal?Seems to me it's just like everything else: you can't control it. And, in reality, when we measure success by the number of RTs or number of comments, we're doing ourselves a great disservice. Many lurkers have not waded into the engagement pool and feel comfortable leaving a comment yet.Also, when I see a long list of comments, I don't want to read them it all. It actually repeals me from leaving a comment. I don't have that kind of time to read them all. I want to take what I can from your post, share it if I think it's valuable and spread some link love. I want to grow in learning and knowledge, apply it if possible and move on. When it’s relevant, practical and I can apply it easily to my work, that’s when I really get excited.So is Twitter killing blog comments? IMO, Twitter may actually help spread your message.

Personally, I never understood why people obsessed over blog comments. Even if Twitter is "killing" them, it may be for the better...Why? Your blog may "look" dead with 2 comments per post, but when someone tweets your article to their audience, it exposes you to new readers, and overall, that's probably better for the health of your blog. There is one thing that I think Twitter did kill... ...And that's a thoughtful follow-up blog post that expands on someone's article. This was all the hype back in 2006 when you could see sparring via trackback, but that has seemingly died off with the popularization of Twitter.

Please see Twitter for my response!I am not sure if Twitter is killing blog comments, so much as it seems to be the easier route to comment. There are a lot of blogs I choose not to comment on, but I'll Tweet about them. I think Twitter and comments can work together and you can utilize both.

I think this is where there's a screaming opportunity for a comment aggregator system that collates all the "effective" conversation (not just simple "great post RT's, for instance, as useful as they can be) and drops into the conversation at the right place.Your response then diverts back to where that comment cam from - keeping the conversation going while not asking anyone to be somewhere they might not want to be at that time.Heck, I'd pay for a system like that!

Yep, I was discussing Echo with Chris from BackType (except I think I called it J-query Echo, like the noob I am...). I'm just not sold on that as a platform - the noise looks absolutely crazy and without testing it, I'm not sure how much flexibility there is. That would probably put me off commenting - kinda non-conducive to my post here ;-)

Danny, as one of the potential elements for measuring the effectiveness of social media is number of comments, you're right. The perceived or actual lack of comments should be measured if the blog is intended as a conversation medium, rather than a push-info medium. Blogging can be quasi-journalistic (which is why I asked in my blog about ethical considerations), in which case engagement may not be the desired strategy (despite social media emerging custom.).I have read that choosing which bloggers to follow should include evaluation of the comment stream -- number of comments, number of different commenters, number of repeat commenters, for example -- as well as blogroll, links, pingbacks, etc. The concept of influential bloggers is still largely hocus-pocus, in my opinion -- volume of Twitter followers is interesting, but only if the followers are in your intended market. The Calculated Risk blog on economics is widely read and hugely commented, but irrelevant to a Dad-blog audience focused on child rearing. We are still figuring this stuff out...Cheers.

You know, I was going to go into a full reply here, but I think you've said it all perfectly, Cathy - great response! :)Of course, it could then beg the question - do we need to be encouraging comments from Twitter, or leaving as is?

That would be an ideal solution for a comments system to have analytics for, say via their email account (it could be pretty difficult otherwise). As far as comments or views, I'd prefer the comment route every time - I'm all about the community, Ari. Views are the eyeballs, but comments are the lifeblood.

Well even so. Sometimes you can be following them back and if you leave your desk or do something else. Then you forget what you commented on. So the idea of landing pages is better for this case. I mean even if it is your blog. I find it to be one of the downfalls of Twitter.

You know, that's a great point Jamie. It's long been one of Twitter's failings (especially since they changed the @ feature), that you only see one half of the conversation unless it's a mutual follow.It's definitely an area where a blog community can prosper and grow - the trick is in finding out what's the most successful, as you say.

Calculate how many of your blog commenters have Twitter accounts and how frequently they update (and/or retweet links in particular) their profiles. That will provide a telling statistic whether Twitter is to blame.Something else to consider is whether a Twitter user is your ideal blog commenter, considering there are more Facebook users than Twitter users.Also consider whether you prefer comments or views.

Hey there Sean,I still get excited whenever I see a new comment alert - I don't think that ever goes away! :)I think that's a great point you raise, and one I touched on in a couple of replies earlier. Comments can often be seen as the success of a blogger (either by visitors or by the blogger themselves); and I just wonder if lack of comments (or perceived lack) might eventually deter an audience or blogger, even though the blog may actually be very successful popularity-wise?

Well, there is Echo - http://js-kit.com/ - that was recently released, which aggregates all comments/mentions from other platforms. But the problem with this is noise to conversation ratio. Sure you can see what everyone is saying but I think it loses value in the ratio aspect and whether those ppl know that you've commented back to a comment from a totally different platform.Definitely tough to tackle but we've all just gotta keep busting our ass and staying on the grind to make our blog worthwhile to the community we've built. :)

Hmmm ... that should not be. Information that is MOST useful, Danny. Thank you! I'm making the switch to Thesis over this weekend, so I'm hoping that those little glitches will soon be no more. THANK. YOU.

That could be to do with the fact it's about Twitter ;-) Actually, 4 of my 5 most visited posts are Twitter-based - coincidence?I think the key difference is that often, the social bookmarks don't encourage discussion like Twitter does. Sure, you will always get some submissions that have great chats going on around them - but more often than not, it's less chat (at least on the submissions I've seen or added to).The first company to come up with a truly universal (and effective) comment aggregator might just end up owning the space Robyn - we can but hope :)

I think it may be a bit of both. The sheer volumne of posts being tweeted on Twitter may dilute the number of comments per blog. Also, those of us deeply 'in it' forget that social media, networking and blogging are still new to many people, and that there is a learning curve. I do find with some clients, I have to teach them things that seem natural to me. A couple of clients recently said -"I got a comment on my blog - cool!" I asked, if it was a valid comment, "well did you reply to them, engage them on the topic?" They both said some version of, "oh I didn't know I should do that, how do I do that." They are very smart people, I have learned that I need to set up this expectation ahead of time now, "when you get a comment, if possible, and if it will add to the convo, reply to it," but it was so obvious a next step to me, I never thought about it.I think: -Those who blog are more likely to comment than just interact/talk on Twitter -Those that have been blogging for longer will comment on other blogs-I think those seeking to engage with their audience will be more likely to comment-Those trying to showcase their knowledge (or push their SPAM) will both be more likely to comment but -Others who are newer to social media and blogging are less likely to think of that as the next step. My most recent post is on connecting the social media dots, how people can connect their various online "outposts." By the reaction I received, people thought it is a great idea, but many had not really done it. -Those who are shyer may hesitate to comment on a blog-Those who are very busy, or ave limited time for social media are less likely to comment on a blog, it does take more time and thought to do well.Also, I like the interaction of talking about a post via Twitter too. It is harder to track conversations about a post (unless you are on a format twitter chat or use #hashtags well), but that real time exchange can also be a fun and a dynamic learning experience.I think it is a both personal thing and it may also be a learning continuum. For many, at first it's all talking on Twitter, but once they get the hang of Twitter, and when they find a blog post that moves them, and read interesting comments, they will begin to comment more often. For me personally, I find the dynamic and serendipitous nature of Twitter to make me far more likely to comment on a blog post, than finding posts in my more more static RSS feeds/feed readers. Although "common wisdom" would say that it is best to comment on a few people's blogs and build a relationship with the blogger. I do that too, but I love Twitter's variety.Cathy Larkin

Yes, it will probably have an impact. But...you will always have people who still eat at the table. Seems to be more and more lately. There's that whole pendulum swing. Now there's a post that could get some comment love flowing, written well. So...about the pendulum...Life is change. I'm especially glad of that on hot summer days when I don't have to wear several layers of long skirts. ;)

I agree that some will definitely visit, read and often comment. I guess the "proof in the pudding" would come from how many RT'd Chris (or anyone else in a similar position) and gauge it to visits and comments. Of course, that in itself is a fair old task - and when we're talking about how Twitter may (or may not) dilute a conversation for brevity and time, adding a task is hardly likely to engender many fans! ;-)

I've actually tried commenting on your blog before (I think I tweeted you about this), but it requires you to be logged in to comment. Often this deters people - is it meant to be set this way, or should it be open? :)

I agree it kind of annoys me when people comment via Twitter. Only because it seems like the conversation is fleeting. With a blog post or even a facebook comment section there is a landing page where the conversation is stationed. I think this is a valuable difference between blogs and Twitter. Twitter if you go back through your history it is there but often you only get one side of the conversation. When you are participating in a blog and/or Facebook you have a landing page. This helps build relationships between the blogger and the community.I think you can have a mix of both but you need to get lurkers out of the box and if people comment on Twitter maybe you need to get them to stay on your blog? I don't know how you do it but there has to be something different.

Hey there Chris, always nice to see you around these parts. :) I was reading about that GigaOM test, and it did look interesting. I'm just curious whether that would "add" to the commentary, or just have another way of having extra backlinks or reactions at the end of the post?I looked at J-query's Echo comments system, and while it has potential, it currently offers a lot of noise. Posts that look like they have 300 comments, to find that there are about 20 genuine discussions coupled with 270 RT's... gah!Blogging is evolving so much, with platforms like Posterous and Tumblr making it easier than ever before, it'd be great to see something that can involve all your converations, in real-time. I think Friendfeed could have offered an idea on how to achieve that (particularly with BackType of Disqus integration) - but now that they're part of Facebook... who knows where that'll go.

A Catch-22 indeed. Ideally we should all want our content to be consumed and shared wherever our readers wish, whether that's Facebook, Twitter, a feed reader, the blog itself or somewhere else entirely. And as bloggers, we should be following and monitoring the subsequent conversation wherever it happens. I really don't have a problem with the conversation becoming fractured across multiple sites (this has happened to me a few times when one of my posts has been syndicated somewhere like SocialMediaToday with its own comment system, e.g.). As many others said, this is often how people discover new blogs.But what I do dislike is when sharing in and of itself becomes a substitute for interaction. I'd rather have more people challenge me, add to my post, share a contrasting view, etc. via a comment (no matter where the comment is left) than simply push my content out into the Twittersphere or elsewhere without adding their own take somehow. Hmm... so maybe I *should* get rid of the Tweetmeme button? :-)

Danny, like @Shonali, I'm pretty new to blogging, so I count it a great victory if ANYONE comments. I know my overall traffic increases when there are more comments and that Twitter pushes people to my blog. I prefer the conversational aspects of comments, so I need to see them on my blog rather than on Twitter. But I don't mind carrying on conversations in both places. Whether Twitter poaches from comments, we shall see... Thanks for bringing up the topic.

Although that's the beauty of the option to select whether you want to tweet a comment/reply, or not.I liked how BackType had their settings with BackType connect. They use an algorithm that shows whether it's a simple RT or actually adding to the conversation, then you decide whether you have that within the flow of the comments, or as a backtrack solution.Of course, then you take away the value of the "real" backtracks from other bloggers, and can then dilute their potential new audience. Le sigh... ;-)

I think I checked out your plugin prior to moving over to Disqus, when I used other plugins to get (most of) the features here - looked interesting.It's a solution that's almost begging to be met - perhaps a way to connect to your networks via your email, with your choice being set up prior to even commenting? Similar to how some systems (like Posterous, for example) let you post a blog on multi-networks, maybe comments can do the same (if selected).Of course, then it'd be down to the individual not to just add more noise. Ah, brainteasers - don't you just love 'em? ;-)