A lot of on-line businesses use WordPress blog as one of their marketing tools. WordPress is a free blogging platform that is easy to install and maintain. Small businesses prefer using WordPress because of its simple Content Management System (CMS), which is adaptable to any kind of business.
Blogs are good marketing tools to reach to a company's audience. Through articles, infographics, videos and other contents, companies can create connections to the people who uses their services or products. One of the best ways to connect to your audience is opening a comments box on your blog.
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WordPress allows flexible ways of commenting. It has various plugins like Akismet or Disqus to improve usability. Comment section is also a good way to promote interaction and healthy conversations among your readers. It helps build a community and your company acts as mediator for people who share the same interests.
Why Do People Comment?
They say that "no man is an island." People are social in nature so they cannot live without communicating with others. This is why social media are becoming very popular these days. People share our opinions, feelings and even stories to inspire, warn, or entice others. The urge to communicate is what makes them feel that there are others who share the same passion and interest as they do.
Benefits of Having a Comment Section
There are web administrators that close comments box to avoid spammers. But closing this section is like telling that your company is not open for customer suggestions and complaints. Plus, you are missing the chance to further optimize your blog.
Here are other benefits of having comments section in your blogs:
Increase Blog Activity- One of the factors that Google use in measuring the quality of a site is the amount of on-page activities. A lot of activity, including posts and comments, shows that you blog is active. This also attracts readers to read your posts.
Increase Traffic- Comments help increase blog activity. This leads to better traffic. It means more people are likely to share your articles in social media, which will attract more readers. This new readers eventually take part in discussions in your posts.
Study Demographic and Geographic Information- Companies can study their market through discussion in the comments section. Are there more male or female readers? Are they parents, young adults or students? How do they react to your product? What part of the world gives more interest?
Makes the Company Close to People- Feedbacks drive the company closer to people. For small scale businesses this move is very important. They build trust, get returning clients and eventually grow their business. Through this section, the company can easily address questions and issues about their company. They can easily say thank you, and appreciate the participation of their buyers in improving their business.
Keep Comment Section Engaging
Blog administrators should always keep their comments section engaging to attract more feedbacks. Here are few way to keep this section engaging:
Entice Readers- As administrator, you have to entice people to take part in dicussions. Make sure that your articles attract readers to share their opinions. Questions make them curious and call for action encourages them to act. Adding: "Share your Opinions", or "What do you think?" can help to engage your audience. Once they leave messages, you have to reply! Act as a facilitator to encourage healthy conversation.
Add Disqus Plug-in- Disqus is a helpful plug-in that enables commenting easier. Sometimes users hesitate to share comments because they have to register for an account. With this plug-in, they can use their Facebook, Twitter, or Google accounts. They can check for replies to their comments too.
Try Image Comment- This is another plug-in that is good for young audience. Millennials love using meme and gif's to convey their feelings. This is funny and attractive so it motivates more comments.
Use Comment Rating- This adds flavor to the usual activities in the comment section. Sometimes users are too lazy to type a few words. With comment rating, they can just "thumbs- up" or "thumbs-down" a comment. Poorly and highly rated comments are display differently.
Conclusion
Comments are important part of a blog. WordPress has various plugins to improve the usability of comments box in order to engage readers. You should not be afraid to use this blog feature to communicate with your audience because establishing rapport and communication helps build trust. This eventually leads to better traffic, sales and consumer response.
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