design by Steve Gordon of @rdqlus_creative
The other day, Gary Vaynerchuk said he wouldn’t make videos and do what he does if people in his audience didn’t comment. I don’t feel that way, but I do wonder what happened to the practice of commenting on blogs. Facebook and Twitter happened, for sure, but the answer isn’t quite that simple.
I don’t know the answer, but it’s likely a combination of things. Whatever the case, I’d like to hear from you on this and other topics. So, I’m going to start rewarding writers of particularly insightful, funny or otherwise valuable comments with a free AdPulp t-shirt.
Note: If you want to compete for a t-shirt, make sure you leave a real email address (so I can contact you for your mailing address and shirt size).
I definitely think it’s a combination of things too. As I read your post, 4 potential reasons struck me:
1) In my mind the leading cause is fact that it is incredibly easy for people to take the content they want to discuss back to whichever network is most relevant to them. Like a caveman bringing a kill back to present it to the group…
2) Mobile devices are being used more and more for content consumption, but typing a long comment on an iphone would be a pain in the rear.
3) I know I comment less on blogs and such these days because there is too much noise and not enough “conversation”. Also people’s ability to post anonymously has the comment sections mostly filled with mean, childish rants… On the flip side, you have the blogs super-fans posting such gems as “great post!”… All in all, not a conducive atmosphere for thought provoking conversation.
4) It seems like “everyone” has a blog these days, and if they feel strongly enough about something to post a comment, then they may as well just post a blog on their own site…
Just thinking out loud above, but I thought I would share…