The Value of a Comment - Jorge Albinagorta

Jorge Albinagorta wrote an interesting twitter note about comments. Here is is twitter profile and this is what he said:

theory: blogs' readers are commenting less on posts rather tweeting their feedback = content fragmentation that makes comments more valuable

There is a lot of truth in what he says and there is some that I am not sure I agree with but I've been thinking about it for many hours now. On the surface, content and discussion fragmentation is real but I don't think twitter is the main cause. I think the main cause is due to the belief that the same post should be placed in as many places as possible. I get it because people post for a lot of different reasons and sometimes, the post is not so much about getting a conversation going but rather to promote something so the goal of the post is creating awareness rather than actually getting a conversation going.

It's easier to leave a quick twitter reply to an idea and since you only have 140 characters to do it, no one is expecting a reply of 150 characters or more. I have never thought about the value of a comment on a blog post compared to the value of a twitter reply to an idea and I don't even know how you would measure it.

I think Jorge's twitter thought/comment is one of the more interesting ones I've seen simply because I can't really get it out of my head. Thanks Jorge.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Recruiting Animal on April 23, 2009 at 12:00pm

JD, I haven't read Jorge's posting yet. I'll base this comment on what you said here. And, to put it bluntly, I disagree.

I have often seen more comments here on Recruitingblogs.com than we ever had on Recruiting.com. (JD and I were partners once for the uninformed). That's to be expected; there's more people online. But it also proves that there are more comments not less.

You want some examples? Papa John Sumser's Death of Sourcing has over 300 comments. Now, I must admit that the regulars on that post set up camp there and talked about anything and everything. But look at Becky Metcalf's posting about trial closes. There were a lot great comments under that posting that could have been turned into postings themselves.

Or what about Becky's posting about how to turn off candidates? When she turned off the comment function, I started a new post about the same thing and the conversation continued over there.

Twitter has absorbed some of the "filter blogging" function - when you just point out a good link. But Twitter is different from a blog because the messages are so unstable. They are not only very short, they disappear immediately.

Twitter offers the quick exchange of bits of information. But blogs offer something that Twitter does not replace.

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Permalink Reply by pam claughton on April 23, 2009 at 12:31pm

I don't think they're commenting less. If anything I think Twitter is likely driving more people to the blog posts, and may result in more comments. I don't think it's an either or thing. I do both.

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Permalink Reply by Rich on April 23, 2009 at 12:39pm

He's right in that conversations happen everywhere, but its not exclusive to Twitter (it happens in forums, network pages, and discussion areas too). Twitters appeal isn't about the number of characters as much as it is the ability to respond in real time.

Animal's right in that in that it doesn't replace the function of comments, which allow for better responses.

Part of it also depends on how the author of a blog post chooses to connect with their readers. If you frequently engage on Twitter, then it's very likely most people will chat with you there instead of writing a comment. Here's an example...

I'm working on the release of an independent film right now, and in that case, comments are only the tip of the discussion. My team also chats with them in their fan forums. In one instance, the post had three comments but a fan forum had 129 comments and 1,500 views from more than 100 people. On Twitter, in this case, there are frequent discussions about the cast, but there is currently no central body to connect the fans (until this weekend).

Best,
Rich

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Permalink Reply by Recruiting Animal on April 23, 2009 at 12:52pm

Rich - does the film have anything to do with Jericho? And peanuts? [inside joke]

Jeremiah Owyang says that the fact that comments are happening all over the place is a good reason to open your company blog or website to them. That keeps them in view and allows you to respond.

Whether you agree with his solution or not my point is that he agrees with you about the distribution of comment.

But there were always discussion boards. And always multiple blogs about the same thing. Twitter hasn't changed that.

If anything, as Pam Claughton says, Twitter is being used to drive people to blog postings. They work in tandem and increase the number of comments on a blog because more people know about the posting.

(Pam was a prominent commenter on the trial close posting I mentioned above).

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Permalink Reply by Steve Levy on April 23, 2009 at 1:56pm

Blog or Twitter participation is a self selection process and as such those commenting come from a range of backgrounds, interests, knowledge, communication ability, ad infinitum. Some posts promote long comments (blogs) others short ones (blogs and Twitter) depending on so many factors. So according to Jorge, bigger is no longer better?

We really should be talking about engagement - now that we have tools that limit engagement to 140 characters, perhaps those who simply want to keep their toes warm are commenting less, perhaps using Twitter, rather than immersing their entire bodies into the warm pool on a true discussion. But engagement is very different at both schools.

Are long/short comments affecting whether lurkers become participants or are there other factors at play?

Some people can be sufficiently intriguing in 140 characters whereas some long-posters can be banal and bombastic. Or 140 characters of banality and many paragraphs of insight and great thought.

Twitter may be driving people's eyeballs here and there but frankly I care more about stickiness than the length of the message.

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Permalink Reply by Jorge Albinagorta on April 24, 2009 at 2:18am

Jase - this post is like a supersize RT - awesome!

i think i meant that the 'feedback tweet' may be more valuable to the reader than a comment because it helps you with further distribution, whilst also leaving the opportunity to provide thoughtful - read not crap - commentary or endorsement.

the commenters here though had pretty good points too (except animal, of course :))

- bigger is not better, except when Sumser writes
- this is not a twitter phenomena, a lot of commentary/follow up can happen outside the 'on the post' comment, e.g. forums, etc.
- more tweets does not mean less traffic to the post, if anything as i said it helps with distribution

cheers

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Permalink Reply by Recruiting Animal on April 24, 2009 at 7:14am

Listen, Jorge, you're not allowed to use "whilst" on this site.

> i think i meant that the 'feedback tweet' may be more valuable to the reader than a comment because it helps
> you with further distribution, whilst also leaving the opportunity to provide thoughtful - read not crap -
> commentary or endorsement.

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Permalink Reply by Jerry Albright on April 24, 2009 at 8:05am

Sorry to pop this fantastic thought bubble - but it's quite simple really. 140 characters is just not enough room to put together any form of reasonable reply to a substantive topic.

Though now that I think of it - most Tweets deserve a very short comment but I've never seen it used. "Who gives a shit?" That is certainly tweetable. (I dare someone to use it..........Animal?)

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Permalink Reply by Steve Levy on April 24, 2009 at 8:08am

WGAS

Jerry Albright said:

Sorry to pop this fantastic thought bubble - but it's quite simple really. 140 characters is just not enough room to put together any form of reasonable reply to a substantive topic.

Though now that I think of it - most Tweets deserve a very short comment but I've never seen it used. "Who gives a shit" That is certainly tweetable. (I dare someone to use it..........Animal?)

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Permalink Reply by Jerry Albright on April 24, 2009 at 8:09am

Or an "F" if you're Canadian, eh?

Steve Levy said:

WGAS

Jerry Albright said:
Sorry to pop this fantastic thought bubble - but it's quite simple really. 140 characters is just not enough room to put together any form of reasonable reply to a substantive topic.

Though now that I think of it - most Tweets deserve a very short comment but I've never seen it used. "Who gives a shit" That is certainly tweetable. (I dare someone to use it..........Animal?)

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Permalink Reply by Recruiting Animal on April 24, 2009 at 8:11am

But, Jerry Gerald, I do care. I do care about what you ate for dinner and what little Rito ordered at the Pizza Pizza on his birthday. Gee whiz, I RT it every night. I thought you knew!

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Permalink Reply by Jerry Albright on April 24, 2009 at 8:15am

I need to create the Anti-Jerry profile so I can blast myself with a WGAS message. It would certainly cut my therapy bills down!

@antijerry WGAS that you just ate 7 mini powdered donuts washed down with a hot cup of Starbucks Sumatra w/cream/sugar

Recruiting Animal said:

But, Jerry Gerald, I do care. I do care about what you ate for dinner and what little Rito ordered at the Pizza Pizza on his birthday. Gee whiz, I RT it every night. I thought you knew!