Why does nobody comment on my blog?

In this digital age where social media engagement decides what’s hot or not, and likes, emojis and retweets are the new way of expressing yourself, we look at the decline of commenting on blogs and what it means for you.

In the early days of blogging, and even as recently as a few years ago, blog posts received a lot of comments, and communities were created on the blogs themselves. There were link-ups and Follow Friday (#ff), which allowed a growing community of bloggers to not only drive traffic to their websites but also make connections with fellow bloggers covering the same topics. The higher the comments on a post, the more influential the post became, promoting the blog itself.

In recent years, although many blogs continue to use linkys and community sharing, there has been a strong increase in the use of social media to promote blogs. This has caused a notable decrease in the comments that bloggers receive on their individual blog posts.

Becky Wiggins, author of English Mum, says: ‘As my blog became more popular, I really enjoyed receiving comments from my readers and loved it when they chatted in my comments section. With the rise of social media, the days of receiving 50 plus comments are now gone.’

As it is for digital news sites, social media is now responsible for a much larger portion of a blog’s audience, with the audience interaction more heavily based on likes, retweets and pins. These often outnumber the comments that would have been left on a single blog post, but commenting still exists – it’s now on social.

Navaz Batliwalla of Disneyrollergirl [pictured], another long-running blog, agrees that although comments on blogs have decreased, in her experience they have migrated to social media, which is an easier platform for commenters: ‘Like most bloggers, I will also share my latest post on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and quite often someone will tweet their comment rather than commenting on the blog. They’re still commenting, just in a faster interface.’

As the lives of younger generations are now dominated by social media, promoting blog posts through tweets, pins and Instagram posts is an effective way of reaching new people and expanding an audience. Nowadays, almost everyone has at least one form of social media, which makes it much easier for non-bloggers to interact with blog content.

This change has meant that bloggers now share everything from their blog on at least one social media channel. Wiggins explains how her approach to interacting with her audience has shifted since the rise of social media: ‘I feel that I get a similar sense of community from talking to my readers on Facebook or Twitter. I confess, I’m also guilty of not commenting on blogs any more but will often RT a post I liked on Twitter.’

It’s clear that although bloggers may have enjoyed receiving comments and interacting with followers on the original blog post, most have adapted and now use social media to maintain these relationships with their audience. Wiggins mentions Facebook and Twitter, but for a lot of bloggers, there is often one social media platform on which they have the biggest following.

Batliwalla explains how important it is to prioritise a platform: ‘It makes sense to spend time where the most engagement is and right now, that’s on social media. If you have a strong community on Instagram, you are going to spend most of the time engaging with followers there.’

Instagram has been one of the fastest growing social sharing platforms, reaching eight hundred million users in September 2017. As a photo sharing tool, it proves most popular for bloggers who cover visually appealing content, which are often lifestyle subjects such as food, fashion, beauty and travel. There are many features, including the comments and likes, which allow bloggers and their audiences to interact. But it is another feature that is perhaps a factor behind its popularity with the blogging community.

For professional bloggers, who need to make money through their blogs, Instagram’s ‘Paid Partnership’ feature is a big hit. And this has created its own niche communities, as Batliwalla explains: ‘As Instagram has become the main platform for monetising, we’re also seeing bloggers forming comment pods to increase the engagement on each other’s accounts to beat the algorithms.’

The blogging communities in the comment sections may be gone, but comment pods are a reminder that bloggers can still support each other when sharing a new post. In this instance, comment pods are formed by Instagrammers or bloggers who share content around similar topic; they will share a link to their most recent post and then the fellow users will follow the link, like and comment on the post. This is believed to promote the post within Instagram’s algorithm.

Bloggers are divided on the rise of social media. On one hand, there are bloggers who are happy with engagement being spread across several platforms. Batliwalla explains the positives in relation to Disneyrollergirl: ‘Even if there are fewer comments on the blog post itself, the level of engagement from Disneyrollergirl followers (clicks on links, social media comments/likes) is the same if not higher than ever.’

Wiggins, on the other hand, has experienced some frustrations with the impact that social media is beginning to have on bloggers: ‘I do sometimes feel that I’m judged by brands for not having a huge amount of Instagram followers, and I often find myself explaining that my blog is my main outlet. I have a loyal following, and get frustrated when Instagram followers are ranked over unique visitors.’

While some bloggers have adapted their style of blogging to include social media, creating more image or video heavy posts and content that is easier to interact with on a social platform, those that include a large amount of written content or who cover less Insta-friendly topics, may struggle to create social content that acts as an extension of their blog.

Those with an existing loyal following can continue growing their community on social media. But without a strong presence on social platforms, it seems that in an attention-economy, it will become increasingly difficult for bloggers to gain new followers.

Do you miss comments on blogs? Let us know, leave a comment below!