Do you have a strategy for online comments?
- 24 Comment
Whether you’re a local bar owner or CEO of a Fortune 100 company, people are talking about you online. This post is specifically looking at the online communities of media outlets. The majority of online media outlets, especially blogs have a comment section following articles. Many times these comments can prove more entertaining, heated and thought-provoking than the articles themselves.
Landing the story is only part of your strategy
This means that landing a story in the media or by a blogger is only part of your public relations strategy.
Do you monitor online comments posted in articles you are mentioned in? If not, you’re missing a major part of your communication and public relations strategy. Invest the time into developing your own strategy. The worst thing you can do is to not have your finger on the pulse on what is being posted about you or your company.
Comments can determine prominence
In fact, did you know many times the number of comments can determine the prominence of an article? When a newspaper publishes it’s daily front page story, that story remains front page. If an online article receives a certain number (depends on the media outlet) of comments it can actually move an article “up” in prominence, making it the equivalent of a front page story.
You must monitor
It doesn’t matter if you’re a team of one or 100. You MUST monitor your online presence-especially if you’ve got a public relations strategy. A simple and FREE way to find out if you’re mentioned anywhere on the web is to set up Google Alerts. This is a MUST HAVE resource for any business. Set up alerts for your executive team, your competitors, high profile customers, etc. You will stay in-the-know on important news.
Who decides?
Is it your vice president of marketing and communications, the president or a public relations agency? Someone needs to be responsible for not only monitoring the stories but setting the wheels in motion for your comment strategy. This strategy is dependent on a host of triggers. For example, classify comments as positive, negative or neutral and have tactics for each.
TIP: As part of your strategy decide when an article no longer needs monitoring (i.e. no comments posted in 48 hours).
Comments: newest to oldest or oldest to newest?
Okay, you’ve been mentioned in a media article. What next?
Check out the comment structure for the outlet. Are comments posted oldest to newest or newest to oldest? This is important because if the oldest comment is first, it means it will stay there for-ev-er. The point is, you want to have the first comment posted.
Engage a group of supporters
As part of your strategy reach out to a combination of employees and non-employees (this number depends on your average daily number of media mentions). Ask them if they will help to post their real, sincere comments on media stories about your business/company. If they agree, share your key messages, important website links and other information with them. When it comes time to ask for their help, they will be prepared. (Don’t forget to reward and recognize these individuals.)
MY OPINION: If employees are posting, they should disclaim in their post.
There’s more
This is only a brief look into media integration of online communities. Overall, it’s a reminder that you need to beef up your public relations strategy to include the monitoring of online comments.
Feel free to share what has worked for you with this community.
24 Comments on this post
Trackbacks
-
Victoria said:
An excellent post! We always write a comment on any online media that’s been kind enough to feature us thanking them for their feature. If there’s every any questions, we regularly address them by using google alerts. I’m glad to see this info being shared with others!
Victoria
DreamBank.org
Give Dreams. Not Stuff.June 1st, 2009 at 11:45 pm -
Stuart Foster said:
Absolutely. I set out to own commenting on marketing and social media blogs last month. I can already tell you that the dividends from that endeavor have been more valuable then the actual blog posts I’ve written in terms of growing my readership. Unbelievable? Try it yourself.
June 2nd, 2009 at 4:12 pm -
CashBack said:
I definitely agree that you should be monitoring any blogposts/articles about you or your company. If left alone, there could be permanent bad comments about you or your company. It also adds a lot to a blogpost to get a comment from the person or company in question. Then it becomes an interactive discussion that you are involved in, instead of it being all third party perspective. You do have to be careful about what you add to the conversation though. It is easy to get emotional about any negative comments and respond inappropriately. If poorly worded, your own comments could act as firepower for others who want to attack you or your company.
June 3rd, 2009 at 6:04 pm -
used tires said:
I think Google Alerts is one of the most powerful tools anyone one that deals with online work or is in the media can have. Personally, I setup the Google Alerts to notify me of whenever my name has been mentioned anywhere on the net, and I receive the update instantly, I also have it setup to monitor my personal blog, I use the following code on the Google alerts page -> link:websiteurlgoeshere
The link: method isn’t as effective as the regular updates, but it at least notifies me of different websites Google has found that are linking to my website or talking bout my website in an article by using the url, instead of any mentioned name.
Till then,
Jean
June 4th, 2009 at 11:24 pm -
Restaurant POS said:
Certainly, i monitor the comments, in WP sometimes happens that good comments go in akismet spam section, i really appreciate good thoughts, it doesn’t matter it follows my articles or opposes but the main idea of the keep doing blog commenting is to follow up personally without any kind of hesitation.
June 5th, 2009 at 10:35 am -
Hair Salons said:
I know my readers and always be there to respond them. I’ve my friends in social media sites who interacts me at my blog. I’d always appreciate comments but won’t tolerate too.
June 10th, 2009 at 11:18 am -
gas card said:
Generating lots of comments on your article is sometimes a tough thing to do that requires a buildup of a decent strategy. Whatever that strategy may be, monitoring is definitely an important thing to do. Google alerts is a great program to use, and it is free so I also highly recommend it.
June 11th, 2009 at 10:14 pm -
Invisalign cost said:
Some companies have quite effective commenting strategies already in full effect. Recently, there was a bit of online drama surrounding SBI (Site Build It). A blogger made a post bashing the program and the SBI people caught wind of it rather quickly. They took quite an interesting approach. The owner made a forum post (on his site) calling for inaction, which obviously had the opposite effect. The negative post was bombarded with hundreds of comments from SBI supporters. The owner executed an impressive approach to the negativity by leveraging the power of existing members belonging to the program.
June 14th, 2009 at 7:42 am -
Energy Conservation said:
Good post. I already set up Google alerts for my sites and some of comments are really appreciate and we can improve to their comments.
July 2nd, 2009 at 12:55 pm -
Angela Connor said:
I happen to manage user-generated content and create policies for moderating comments on a major news website and it is very smart for you to suggest that people monitor the comments. I know for a fact that law enforcement agencies monitor comments on crime stories and many political types spend a lot of time foraging through comments as well to get the pulse of the community. Actively responding can do wonders for an organization and illustrate the value they place on the comments of others. Keep in mind though that some do not moderate comments and there can be some real trash out there.
Good advice!
Angela Connor | @communitygirl
Author, “18 Rules of Community Engagement”July 8th, 2009 at 4:16 pm -
NJ Work Injury Lawyer said:
These are really some nice techniques to make your social reputation protected. However, you should also keep an vigil watch on your competitors and clients, what they are talking about your products or services online. As social media is the place where one can easily spread his voice to millions of people and if that voice consists some negative about your services or products, it could spoil your social reputation. So you should be prepared to counter those negative comments…:)
August 13th, 2009 at 11:23 am -
generic pharmacy said:
Sure! Generating lots of comments on your article is sometimes a tough thing to do that requires a buildup of a decent strategy. Whatever that strategy may be, monitoring is definitely an important thing to do. Google alerts is a great program to use, and it is free so I also highly recommend it.
August 26th, 2009 at 3:51 pm -
Love Graphics said:
I think comments will definitely propel your business. It can be hard to generate lots of interesting comments to your article but it will be worth it. Comments bring an article alive.
September 9th, 2009 at 3:46 am -
youtube gir said:
thanx for post
December 1st, 2009 at 3:08 pm -
Cartoon Bears said:
Some companies have assigned customer service reps to scour the net for bad publicity. They are authorised to correct problems and/or deal with the issues. There are some great places to start, Consumerist.com is one I recommend highly.
December 4th, 2009 at 10:49 am -
Saglik Sayfasi said:
If left alone, there could be permanent bad comments about you or your company. It also adds a lot to a blogpost to get a comment from the person or company in question..
December 9th, 2009 at 7:01 am -
youtube gir said:
thank you sarah
December 10th, 2009 at 6:53 pm -
Saglik Sayfasi said:
I think comments will definitely propel your business.
December 22nd, 2009 at 12:12 am -
Generic online said:
Very good post. I already set up Google alerts for my sites and some of comments are really appreciate and we can improve to their comments.
January 15th, 2010 at 3:29 pm -
Cartoon Bears said:
Like if I wanted to tell my friend I don’t have a care so it’s better she come see me, is that to personal to be telling everyone or does that seem normal?
February 2nd, 2010 at 5:02 am -
direk izle said:
I think there is not a best strategy that you can use for all websites but for every website there is a different method you can use.
February 4th, 2010 at 6:41 pm -
Cartoon Bears said:
What kind of stuff should you keep to yourself when it comes to posting comments online??
February 5th, 2010 at 5:29 am -
Cartoon Bears said:
I started an online magazine with a friend – http://www.noise-cafe.com. I’m looking for any comments that would help us build into something better…
February 16th, 2010 at 10:31 am -
siki? said:
There are some great places to start, Consumerist.com is one I recommend highly.
March 3rd, 2010 at 12:23 pm
