How I Killed My Fear of Comments To Unlock Their Insights

For many years I thought it was safer to ignore user comments than risk the quagmire of reading and replying to their feedback. I employed a variety of “good reasons” to bury my head. My favorite was the belief that they weren’t that important, especially when compared to all my other priorities. Another was the fact that managing comments was a pull-your-hair-out minefield of legal concerns, resource constraints and software solutions that promised to automate but never did. Tending to profanity filters, responding to flagged posts, battling spam, deciding which posts to answer and what voice to use was too much. It was just easier to fall back on the reliable crutch excuse … it’s not worth the hassle.  

Comments Can Be Golden

It wasn’t until a 2015 conversation with a young blogger named Jamie Grimstad (@jamiegrimstad) that the true value of comments became clearer. Jamie was, and still is, a very talented food, fashion and fitness blogger who was looking for ways to grow her audience. Little did I know that she would teach me as much as I would her (see original interview).

As we discussed her post volume, publish frequency, top content and traffic sources, we stumbled across something that made my jaw hit the floor. She said, “Oh, and I answer two or three questions a day.”

“That’s interesting,” I replied, “you get two or three questions every day?”

“No. I answer two to three per day. I get about 100 per day.”

Come again? A hundred-plus questions per day was a signal of several impressive feats. First, she had a keen understanding of her audience. Second, they trusted her implicitly. Third, she was sitting on a gold mine of valuable content. And fourth, she owned the ultimate data source that could identify the wants, trends, needs and issues facing her predominately teenage female audience -- a demo many publishers would kill for. That’s why at the time the Columbia undergrad already had a branded content deal with Adidas and has now expanded to service brands such as Glossier, Bandier, Tibi, Armarium and AC Hotels.

Comments are difficult enough to acquire, but questions are the gold standard of feedback. They indicate users have a deep relationship with your content, because they not only view you as a resource, but trust and respect you enough to seek your guidance.

For those reasons alone, you should mine that gold every time and reply with a thoughtful response. 

Comments Are An Invitation

Imagine someone who read your first book met you at a conference and told you it was their favorite book of the year … you’d smile, thank them and shake their hand, right? Of course, you would. So why wouldn’t you do the same when it happens in your e-mail newsletter, on your Instagram post or YouTube video?

You see, if we think back to why we create content in the first place, it’s because we’re striving for a personal connection with the reader. Our hope is by sharing an idea, joke or story that we’ll deliver meaningful value. A comment is validation of how far or how close we came to accomplishing our mission, so why in the world would we ignore it?

More importantly, we should seize the invitation to engage with them about the content they spent their time to consume and then offer to discuss.

A 2016 Cornell study of 11,000 hotels in New York and Orlando showed that hotels who responded to their customer reviews had a positive effect on both review scores and revenue. In fact, just encouraging customers to leave reviews resulted in more positive feedback because it showed the hotel management was listening. It’s the same for content creators.

Who is a user more likely to establish a relationship with … a content creator who acknowledges them and their contribution, or one who ignores it and implies that it’s not worth their time or response? Don’t miss the opportunity to connect 1-on-1 with that person. They will value it, and so will countless others who don’t comment but read your response and judge you as the kind, helpful creator you are.

In fact, the comments section is an ideal place to grow your own exposure. A great example comes from entrepreneur, author and speaker Gary Vaynerchuk better known as Gary Vee, who preaches his $1.80 Instagram Strategy. It’s based on the concept of identifying the top 10 hashtags centered on your passion and then leaving your two cents (comment) on the top 9 posts every day … for the math centric that’s (2 cents x 9 posts) x 10 hashtags = $1.80. It’s an outstanding way to grow exposure in your field of specialty by connecting with like-minded people in an honest, organic and helpful way.

Comments Are Insightful

Look I’m a data guy. I appreciate it in all its shapes, flavors and colors. But my favorite kind of  data is the under-your-nose variety that offers direct insight into the wants, needs, likes and dislikes of your audience.

YouTube is the perfect example. When we launched new video series at Billboard, especially host driven concepts, the comments were a critical part of our data review. Sure, we cared about views, view duration, percent completed, likes, shares and subscribes, but the comments offered a wealth of information. We learned what people thought of the video, the host and specifically what caught their attention or turned them off.

Sure, there’s a good deal of noise in the feedback as well, but with a little filtering it presents a rare window into what moved the viewer enough to leave a comment. For example, in this Billboard video series “Finish the Hit” everyday people try to sing the lyrics of current pop songs. From the comments on this one video alone, we learned five things about our viewers. They …

1. Loved Shawn Mendes
2. Believe they can sing all the lyrics to these songs
3. Thought the host was funny
4. Thought the host was a good singer
5. Want to request the next featured artist 

Almost of all of these are actionable when planning the next episode. They are insights that suggested five smart new adaptations like …

1. Give the host more opportunity to improv
2. Give the host more opportunity to sing
3. Invite users to attend, participate in the next shoot
4. Invite users to vote on the next featured artist
5. Feature artists with Shawn Mendes-like followings

Comments Are Not Worth Fearing

We haven’t touched on this yet, but it’s the big ol’ negative elephant in the room. The biggest reason publishers and content creators shy away from comments is out of fear. For publishers it’s fear that bottom-feeding trolls and hate-driven arguments will dominate the community, crowding out any meaningful contributions and consume valuable resources in the process.

Editor in Chief Jonathan Smith said as much when Vice removed comments in 2017. “We don't have the time or desire to continue monitoring that crap moving forward.” Many other publishers followed similar paths stating the return on investment was not there.

For content creators it’s fear of that same negative, mean, spiteful feedback that strikes at the core of their personal worth. It prevents many from inviting and participating in the comments around their own and even other’s content.

Are both of those realistic possibilities? Sure, they are.

But here’s the rub. There are means to manage both of those challenges, but they require a willingness to prioritize the user feedback loop as one of the most important things you do. Like a garden it will take planting, feeding, weeding, protection and most of all patience before it yields produce. But the biggest reason to stow your fears is that the downside is exaggerated, while the promise of fostering meaningful connections is growing more valuable every day.

Take Instagram for example.

“For years, comments on Instagram were secondary to the photo and video posts that make up the app’s main feed,” writes The Atlantic’s @TaylorLorenz. “But recently, Instagram comment sections have begun to eclipse the photos they sit below … The comment section is increasingly where connections are made. For an increasing number of accounts, a feed post is really just a vehicle for starting a comment thread.”

Lorenz makes the critical point here. Comments are “where connections are made”. It circles back to the fact that content creators’ mission is to establish a personal connection with the reader and in turn help facilitate that reader’s connection with others.

Seth Godin, marketing guru, author and speaker puts it more plainly, “The future of publishing is about having connections to readers and the knowledge of what those readers want.”

Unfortunately, as valuable as those connections are, they’re not free. You have to pay for them.

For me personally and countless other content creators, that means overcoming the fear of rejection and judgment. Vaynerchuk says this is one of the biggest roadblocks to entrepreneurial strategies, especially ones centered on content creation.

“Never let someone’s opinions dictate your execution,” says Vaynerchuck. “People who leave me negative comments don’t realize, they think they’re tearing me down. You’re fucking feeding me … I feel bad for you, you have so much pain in your life that you’ve taken time out of being on the offense to come to me and tell me something bad.”

Now it’s important to separate out negative comments that are simply a contradicting point of view, because those have value and are an important part of your own growth and self-awareness. But personal attacks, naked aggression and hate, need to be flipped into fuel that drives you, or empathy for someone whose life is far more troubled than yours.

It’s simple really, at least for me. If you compare the return on establishing meaningful connections with your audience at scale versus the focus, effort and mindset required to grow them, the long-term prospects are just too bright to ignore.

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Who's Jim Thompson? As a journalist into data-driven audience strategy, I seek out people who are working on interesting problems or opportunities. So, e-mail [email protected] if you want to tell your story or need another set of eyes. I've worked at Billboard-Hollywood Reporter and Fox Interactive for more than a decade and my three favorite things are the Red Sox, my family and the challenge of a really smart question ... not necessarily in that order.