How To Handle Reader Comments To Your Biotech Blog

By Rob Wright, Chief Editor, Life Science Leader
Follow Me On Twitter @RfwrightLSL

By Rob Wright

One of the primary goals of a blog post is to attract comments from readers. As a life science executive, you should know if your time creating a blog post is time well spent. One way to know if your post was valuable and interesting to your audience is to look at the number of comments it received. You want to engage your audience, and comments are a tangible sign of that engagement. Additionally, comments on blog posts:

• Add value to each post as readers share different opinions and exchange ideas
• Help an editor determine topics and writing styles that readers are more apt to engage
• Demonstrate the community involvement and social activity that make the blog worth reading
• Allow editors to build relationships with a community of readers

For all of the positives that commenting brings, there are also drawbacks. Comments from individual readers can be mean-spirited or overtly promotional. Comment tools can also be hijacked to deliver spam messages. If any of these scenarios is allowed to happen, legitimate commenters will not participate and real engagement will be nonexistent.

Best Practices Regarding Reader Comments On Your Blog Post

1. Comments are not moderated before they are posted, however, all posts must be reviewed within hours (check first thing in the morning to review comments made at night).
2. Never remove comments that are constructive or valuable (regardless if they are positive or negative in nature).
3. Never approve and post comments that are mean-spirited or irrelevant, but respond to the commenter by email explaining your decision (most of these types of comments will have a fake email address anyway).
4. When a commenter asks a question or raises an interesting point, you should respond thoughtfully in the comment section as quickly as possible (this is a “conversation”) and no later than the next day.
5. For newer blogs, respond to comments more frequently, this builds engagement  and gives the site a more social appearance (mature blogs should have already achieved these goals).
6. Make sure you have a headshot in your comment profile, this will more easily distinguish your comments for your readers. TIP: Create an account on Gravatar, this will automatically embed your image in comments you make on your blog and others.
7. Don’t publish spam or promotional comments and there is no need to reply to them. Finally, when a comment demands a thoughtful response, sleep on it. You may even want to respond by writing, “this comment deserves some thoughtful response.” Responding quickly may create engagement, but could also damage your reputation if you let a mean-spirited comment get under your skin.