Social Media Marketing: Why You Should Comment on Blog Posts

If you are active online to promote a brand, book, cause or business you should also be active in posting insightful comments on other people's blog posts.

First step, you should NOT post anonymously. A main reason for posting is to get people interested in knowing about you. And having the same photo on your comments as you do on your social media profiles enhances your online recognition factor.



Many blogs today offer you the ability to leave a comment by signing in with your Twitter login or your Facebook login. In either case this will display the photo you have on that site.

Other blogs require you to enter your email before leaving a comment. If you have a photo on gravatar.com and the blog is Gravatar enabled, your photo will appear on your comment if you entered the email associated with your Gravatar account.



Now that you understand how to have your photo display with your comments, here are three reasons why you should post comments:

1. If you post thoughtful comments, you are showcasing your own expertise.

2. If you have posted with your website URL, people can check out your website.

3. You are contributing to the blogging community, and sometimes the blogger on whose post you commented will return the compliment by commenting on one of your own posts.



And if you are the blogger and people leave comments on your posts, do respond:



If you want to encourage people to leave comments on your posts, show your appreciation publicly by responding to the comment.

And if the comment doesn't lend itself to giving a specific response, you can simply thank the person for his/her comment.

If the comment does lend itself to a specific response, then write that response.



The same advice goes for showing appreciation to people who write comments on your Facebook updates:



Show your appreciation by thanking these people on Facebook by adding a comment under their comment. And, if you have time, you can go to their profile or their Facebook Page and leave a comment on something they have posted.



One cautionary note: Whether you are commenting or tweeting or doing a status update on Facebook, LinkedIn or other social media sites, do check what you have written for misspellings, incorrect words, etc.

I recently got a tweet from a top person at a high-tech company. The tweet had so many spelling mistakes that I had to puzzle out the meaning.

Once again, I'm reminding all of us that everything we do online reflects on us and our businesses. We want that reflection to be positive.

P.S. You might also like to read the post How to Use Notes Function on a Facebook Page as Your Blog – thus providing people an opportunity to comment on your published Facebook notes.

© 2011 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) is the co-founder of Miller Mosaic Social Media Marketing. Download the company's free report "5 Tips for Staying Top of Mind With Your Prospective Target Markets" at www.millermosaicllc.com/los-angeles-s...