Blog comments were social long before social networks. Interacting online, submitting feedback and comments is a mainstay of the social network.
Opening your blog to comments comes with baggage in the form of comment spam. Think email spam but take it up a few notches. My content management system of choice is self hosted WordPress. I rely on two WordPress plugins to protect against spam. One is named Akismet advertised as the worlds best way to protect your site from web spam. In addition I use GrowMap anti-spambot plugin.
Comments made with the sole purpose of gaining a backlink, which in turn will send traffic or link juice (provided the blog in question doesn’t use the nofollow tag) to the site of the spammer. Some spam comments are very explicit and come with several links to drug or gambling related sites. (definition from http://www.dailyblogtips.com/the-bloggers-glossary/).
I compare spam to a dirty window that can’t be cleaned no matter what technique is used. Spam is annoying and persists because somewhere somehow money is made from it.
Bloggers, good bloggers that is write to share valuable content with readers. Readers, good ones leave comments in praise or to debate different points of view. Smart bloggers harness the power of social media and offer social sharing buttons for readers to use. Social sharing is great and comments are too.
Responses to comments and the resulting conversations is what makes the commenting relationship social.
Many social sharing options are preferable, we’re not all on your favorite social network are we?
I find my social sharing stats within the content management back end of my wordpress website. I monitor and measure social shares often.