Our readers are our lifeline. No argument there. But there’s a fine line between giving your readers ultimate freedom to comment and act how they please, and letting them dictate the entire direction and mood of your blog.
Just as a reminder: your blog belongs to you.
I was thinking about this over the weekend because I received an email from a former client. She wanted my input on something that was happening on her blog. Honestly, it was something I had never encountered before. It’s kind of a dramatic situation.
For every blog post she wrote, there was one person who commented negatively. Every single time. They aren’t defamatory or rude comments necessarily, but they are just negative in nature and really kill the mood of her overall blog that promotes positivity (her blog is in the personal development/life coaching market). Ever heard of Debbie Downer? That was this person.
Not only that, my former client noticed that when this person started commenting on her blog, suddenly others stopped commenting, or shifted their commenting to just responses to this one person. This one, negative person had essentially taken over the otherwise positive conversation on her blog, and twisted it. And my former client didn’t even feel jazzed about blogging anymore.
My response to my former client was simple: who owns your blog? It’s time to make an executive decision (because you’re an Executive Editor when you own and operate your own blog, don’t forget) and take control over your blog again.
I told her she should kindly get in touch with the commenter and state her case and say she appreciates the feedback and ask if she can help with anything, then let the person know that in the future, she’d have no choice but to delete comments.
I know what you’re thinking.
“Delete comments? Why don’t you just take away our freedom too?”
Okay, maybe I will. (Just kidding).
But really, as bloggers, we get way too caught up in the utopia of “we’re doing good for society by providing free information” and “blogging is an art form” and “free speech and freedom of the press”, and we forget that it’s also a business. I don’t know about you, but I’ve worked hard to create my brand and my businesses and my blogs. I’m not going to let someone come in and hijack the conversation and make it the complete opposite of what I’ve built and what I stand for.
It’s not personal. It’s business.
In this case, I really advocate taking the negative conversation off of the blog and approaching this person directly and continuing the conversation that way, if you feel they’re damaging the community as a whole. We’re not talking about the occasional critical comment here. We’re talking about a pattern of negativity infecting her blog and her readers as a whole.
It makes no sense to put so much effort into establishing your brand, then put zero effort into protecting and maintaining it.
You own your blog. You call the shots when it comes to what’s best for your brand, and for your blog’s community. Let’s not forget that.
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