7 Splendid Techniques to Encourage Comments on Your Blog

One of the best ways to gauge the health of your blog readership is to check out how many comments you have for your posts. More comments mean that your readers are actively engaged in what you have to say. Such positive engagement between the readers and yourself creates a lively community that sustains readership and attracts more visitors to your blog.

Not getting the amount of comments that you would like to have? Don’t worry; it may not have anything to do with the content you’re providing. You may be providing quality content and information to readers, but not sufficiently stimulating them to provide inputs to your posts.

Here are a few ways to get your readers more involved before you scrutinize your content for any potential flaws. Full list after jump.

10 Ideas to Get More Comments on Your Facebook Posts

So, you’ve built a Facebook presence for your company or organization, you’ve added tons of fans, and now you wonder, what’s next? Sure, you use your Facebook page to share the latest news about your company and to reach out to new customers, but most of the time your page just sits there. Look at some of the big Facebook pages, what do they have going for them that you do not? The answer is interactivity. The best Facebook pages are those that have posts, likes and especially comments from the fans. Therefore, if nothing exciting is going on, here are some ideas, fun and practical, for posts you can make to get your fans talking back.

This is one of the best ways to build suspense and excitement about your product or service. Give your fans a taste of what is coming up, without completely giving it away. Similar to a movie trailer or promo spot for a television show, pique their interest.

Use your Facebook posts to give your fans a little insight into who you are as a person. People want to relate to the products and services they use, and if they learn more about the person behind the page, they will feel that connection with you.

Find jokes, comics or puns related to your company or industry. Generally if people bother to “like” your page, they at least have a passing interest in the field you’re involved with. This may take a bit of effort on your part, but find posts to make your fans smile.
Along the same lines, share useful and fun links with your fans. You do not want to bombard them with hundreds of messages like this, but if you find a useful app, page or even an amazing video, do not be afraid to share it with your fans.

This is especially useful for Facebook app pages, but can be adapted for nearly any page. Challenge your fans to beat a high score, discover new content or add something to your page. People naturally want to prove themselves and a challenge is sure to appeal to those with a competitive side.

You do not have to offer anything major, but hold a drawing, ask a trivia question or any otherwise host a contest for your fans. Just giving away a T-shirt with your logo or a credit for your services will encourage your fans to jump in and participate.
Very few companies actually solicit advice from their customer base, and this is a shame. Ask your customers what you can do better, what products or services they are looking for or anything else on which you want input.

Take time to wish your customers and fans a happy holiday. You don’t have to limit yourself to the more typical holidays. Wish your fans a happy Chinese New Year, Cinco De Mayo or even “Talk Like a Pirate Day.”

Another way to prove yourself as a “real” person instead of just a faceless corporation is to give your fans an insight into the company. Take some pictures of you and your staff at work or play and share these with your fans.

This is one you want to be careful with, you likely want to avoid strong political leanings, but mentioning current events is always a great way to get people talking; everyone has an opinion.

These are just a few of the types of posts you can make that will get your fans interacting on your Facebook fan page. If your page is more interactive, not only will your current fans be more likely to come back and check out what’s new, they may share your posts on their own feed, which will lead new fans directly to your page. Take the time to make regular posts on your Facebook page so it does not become stagnant, and you are certain to reap the benefits of a larger and more active fan base.

Harness the Marketing Power of Facebook Photo Comments and Tags

Smart website owners know that Facebook is one of the best ways to connect personally with readers and customers. However, it is easy to overlook one important feature of Facebook, the photos section. For nearly any business, using photos is a fun and creative way to connect with the current customer base and encourage them to spend more time on your profile. In addition, finding the right images allows a business to reach potential new customers with little effort. Current customers will share interesting images with their Facebook friends. There are two main ways to turn photos and images into powerful marketing tools: tagging and commenting.

Facebook offers the feature of photo tagging on every image that is uploaded on the website. The idea behind photo tagging is that if, for instance, a class photo is uploaded, each student could be “tagged” in the photo, providing a clickable link to the user’s profile. For most regular users, it simply allows them to reconnect with old friends.

In the business world, a company with a Facebook presence uses the tagging feature in two ways. First, the site owner can tag their website in photos posted by other users. If a clothing designer has a customer upload a photo of them wearing one of the designer’s dresses, the designer may choose to tag the dress. This provides everyone who views the photo an easy way to connect with the designer. The other way tagging works is when the business owner uploads their own images and tags their customers. This is an excellent way to give customers a feeling of connection with a business. If the image is relevant to the business and captivating to customers, it may be shared among friends, capturing some of that viral traffic that every business owner craves.

Commenting is another way for a business to connect with Facebook users. Every image has a space at the bottom where other users can make comments. This works as a two way street. The business owner can comment on images themselves and start a line of communication with the customer, and the business owner can solicit comments from the customer base. Both methods once again keep the customer on the Facebook page longer and build a personal connection from the site owner to the visitors. A huge benefit to commenting on photos is that when a link is added, it is not only clickable, but includes a website preview. This is a great way to get social networking backlinks to a business’s main webpage.

A good Facebook marketing campaign regularly includes the use of commenting and tagging. These tasks are not time consuming, and the results provide tremendous traffic and growth to a business’s Facebook profile. While there are many ways to utilize these free Facebook tools, one easy way to get customers involved in the photo tagging and commenting process is through a contest. The customers take a photo of themselves using the company’s product or promoting the logo. The customer does the work of uploading the photos and tagging them with the company’s profile. All their friends will see this image with the business tagged. The business owner can further promote their business by adding a link to the main page in the comments section.

Providing an interactive experience is the best way to encourage longer and repeated visits to a Facebook webpage. Using photo commenting and tagging is free and one of the easiest ways to connect with the audience. The results will pay off in the short term and over time as more people discover these photos and the attached tags and comments.