Book: Blog Commenting

Book time. The last three weeks I wrote about best practices and how to utilize message boards and online forums for marketing purposes.  Its a very delicate process because if you don't take your time and get to know the audience, you'll just upset people and your marketing will completely backfire.  Message boards and online forums were the first item in the first main topic in the book called Conversational Marketing.  This is the real one to one communication where you, the marketer, participate in discussions with individuals.  The sub-topics that make up Conversational Marketing include:

• Message Boards and Discussion Forums
• Blogs
• Question & Answer Websites
• Social Networks
• Product Review and Opinion Websites
• Brand Evangelist Forums on Blogs, Websites, & Social Networks
• Crowdsourcing Websites
• Expert Marketing Websites (aka "How To" Websites)
• MicroBlogging (Twitter)

Check Message Boards and Discussion Forums off the list.  I went into serious detail on them.  If you missed it, you can look back at my three part series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

Now on to Blogs or specifically Blog Commenting.

Conversational Marketing Through Blog Commenting

Overview
The reason people create blogs is because they have an expertise or an opinion about something that is important to them.  There are literally millions of blogs and people talk about everything from politics to their pets.  The majority of those blogs attract a very small audience, but even the smallest blogs often engage people who are close to the blogger.  As a blog obtains more and more readers, that blogger's voice becomes increasingly influential.  The blog starts to evolve from a personal memo to a distinct opinion that has avid readers who will respond with a positive comment, a differing opinion, or a question.  Much like message boards and online forums, a community may erupt within that blog's commentary section and people will begin to discuss the topic at hand with each other.  One effective way that a marketer can gain attention for their product is to engage in conversations within the blog comment community.  However, as with message boards and online forums, if the marketer jumps in and immediately starts to "sell" their product, they will be quickly removed either literally by the blog moderator or systematically by the community.  Time and attention are key and it is important to become part of the community.