Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Why Comment?

Many fans of Sporting Kansas City enjoy finding lots of great content about our team on the web. We find it, read it, maybe share it, but most of us never comment. Plenty of people lurk on the web, which is fine. But did you know that comments are more valuable than you think?

If you have never commented on a Sporting KC blog (or Facebook page) I would really encourage you to break your silence and be proud to say 'long time reader, first time commenter.' Here are some of the reasons why you should comment on blog posts:

1. Comments Make a Community: By contributing you now are part of a small (but growing) network of Sporting Kansas City commenters which provides a foundation for a growing community. Often times the commenters answer each other's questions before any official writer gets a chance to reply. Seeing Sporting KC fans help each other out on the Facebook page is great to see.

2. Comments Guide the Content: Sure blog topics are what writers decide to write on, but how they decide to write on is influenced by great comments which open up new areas of interest.

3. Comments Are Currency: Comments help any blog writer realize they are not talking into thin air, which is what it feels like when you first press 'publish post.' By making a writer feel heard, we encourage writers to write more, which gives us more to read! And since few of them are getting any money to do this, isn't that the least we could do for them? And if you comment often on a blog, that writer may be willing to help you out when needed.

A second way to think of comments as currency is that a comment is more powerful than just logging page views. Comments show an engaged fan base and that means the blog or Facebook page may have more leverage to get special access. Which means more inside scoop for the readers.

4. Comments Make a Better, Smarter Blog: Comments often lead to new resources, new links and new insights making the blog a better resource for everyone. Also like a huge crowd sourced editors desk, if you find a broken link, a misspelling, poor grammar, tell the blogger. They'll fix it, then thank you for helping all future readers.

5. Comment Can Make you a Blogger: Many thoughtful commenters turn into bloggers eventually.