I was reading Paul Chaney’s blog post on Social Media Today this morning in which he thinks that there is a serious reduction on the number of comments flowing into blogs and he’s right. the quality is going down as well as the quantity. Part of the reason is that we now have more ways to access the writers of blog posts. Namely through Twitter, Plurk, Pownce et al. I basically told Paul “thats great that we can do that, but now our conversations are somewhat muted and shorter”.
Does that mean that blogging is dead or dying? That we need a lesson in blogger ethics? No.
But as I thought about this more and looked at some of my posts and my comments on other blogs. I make a concerted effort to engage others. I’m not sure what the requisite amount of replies or back and forths are required between writer and reader, but I personally think that there is an expected return on the comment expected. Maybe. A requisite expectation if you will. But what I’m starting to see is smuggness and a “I started it, contributed some, and thats sufficient, attitude” starting to permeate some really good blogs. I’m also seeing really nice blogs, with some decent content, and some history, tailing off with posts, and an otherwise obvious downtick in effort.
What this tells me is that, perhaps that blog strategy or the author, have gone in another direction. What this tells me is that you can’t finish what you started. It tells me you are not practicing what you preach. It tells me that if you are a PR or a marketing person, no way in hell am i going to work with you. You started the race and you can’t finish it. You built the frame but you can’t put up the walls, the roof and anything else. You’ve done a half fast job and it shows.
Or maybe just maybe, Twitter is now cutting into our desire to comment?
Or… You’ve written a good blog post but you can’t comment or respond to the people who have made the effort and done the same to your post. I know you can comment via email, or Twitter, and maybe you have, but if we’re to extend the conversations beyond a micro-blogging platform and bring them back to blogs, we need to see that you have a vested interest in your blog post and you’re not posting just for attention or link juice, or extending the conversation privately.
The bottom line is you started it, now finish it with transparency and efficacy. We’re still watching we’re still reading.
Direct Marketing Observations 
Marc,
“… if we’re to extend the conversations beyond a micro-blogging platform and bring them back to blogs, we need to see that you have … interest in your blog post and you’re not posting just for … link juice … .”
But don’t you think, inorder to start a conversation, there has to be a given amount of ‘attention’ in place?
Great topic. There’s definitely a link between micro-blogging and the decrease in blog post activity. Hearing “I don’t blog anymore since being on Twitter” is a fairly common thing to hear.
I think that “intimacy” is also a factor. If you’ve been following someone on Twitter, let’s say, you really do get to know a lot about that person. So as a commenter, you have many more insights than someone who stumbles across the blog or even someone who has read the blog for a while.
This issue came up just yesterday where I read someone’s blog post and tried to come up with a comment, but I “knew too much” about the person. In addition, this was posted to a major third party news blog so other issues came into play.
I ended up sending the author a 40 character tweet on Twitter instead.
@Allan, attention as in to, “before I start a conversation with you, I have to know you?” Please explain.
@Jesse That’s a great point, Twitter is increasing the intimacy factor.
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