I made this mistake once. Not again
As an online creator, the thoughtful comments I receive on my work are gifts.
Let's consider the journey of Seymour Posts, a fictitious reader, who eventually comments on a Medium article.
- Seymour found the article somehow. Perhaps an algorithm determined that the article would be a good match for Seymour's interests. Perhaps Seymour follows a topic or an author in Medium. Or perhaps someone else recommended the article to him.
- Seymour clicks or taps to view the article, which then displays on his monitor or device.
- Seymour starts reading the article. The headline and subheading and picture capture Seymour's attention long enough so that he doesn't abandon the article, and he starts to read it.
- Seymour finishes the article, or a big chunk of it. The article was indeed interesting to Seymour and he consumes it. This is a clear win for the author as this now likely counts as a “read” for Medium Partner Program payout purposes.
- Seymour has something of substance to say, and clicks or taps the speech balloon icon to leave a comment.
- Seymour doesn't only do a drive-by “nice article” comment. He responds to details of the article, adds his interpretation and perhaps an example, or even asks a follow-up question.
Each step in this journey filters out people.
- Of all the readers on Medium, only a fraction will find the article.
- Of all the readers who find the article, only a fraction will view it.
- Of all the readers who view the article, only a fraction will start to read it.
- Of all the readers who start to read an article, only a fraction will finish it.
- Of all the readers who finish an article, only a fraction will start to leave a comment.
- Of all the readers who start to leave a comment, only a fraction will be thoughtful and engaging.
That's six “only a fractions” and if my math serves me, multiplying those together makes for a very small fraction indeed.
In other words: Readers that leave thoughtful comments are few and far between, and should be treated as gifts.
Twenty-four gifts, and one thank-you note
One of the authors I follow on Medium has been writing on the platform for three years.
I read a few of his articles, and in one article he referred to another that had done particularly well. It had earned $19 to date. This is “meh” for some writers, great for others. (My top earner to date is $6, so I'm not at all one to judge.)
All in all it was a serviceable article, and I'm glad it earned him $19. No reason it shouldn't have.
What gave me pause was the comments section.
Twenty-four people had left comments on his post. Several of them had a number of replies to them. Most of the comments were detailed and insightful. That's a decent amount of engagement!
Here's the more surprising thing, though.
The author replied to only one comment.
One. And it was a quick “thank you” reply, in literally that many words.
Ouch.
To add irony, he talks in that very article about the benefits of staying engaged with your audience … and some of the commenters highlighted this part, and got no response from him!
It's as if most of those comments fell on deaf ears by the person meant to hear them.
And they're from that small fraction that made it through all of the filters to get there — arguably the readers most interested in what he had to say and could best champion what he's doing.
Experience of regret from my own blog
Occasionally I'll revisit or update a post on Mighty Bargain Hunter and depending on how far back the post goes, I'll wince a bit.
Not necessarily because of the post itself, but because there were comments, sometimes several, that I never responded to.
A few of the names use to comment regularly on my blog, but they eventually stopped.
There could be any number of reasons why, but a big one I'm sure is that I gave them every indication that I didn't value what they said. And looking back at how I got lazy and took my audience for granted, it almost certainly was true.
Regret is a miserable companion.
Responding at the time would have been pretty easy. But that was apparently too much effort back then, and now the time has passed.
What I'm doing now and what I recommend
What I'm doing now shouldn't be terribly surprising.
I'm responding to most every comment I get because they're gifts from a select group of people who have genuinely engaged with what I've put out there. I'm responding on Medium, on my blogs, and on my YouTube channel.
What I recommend is never getting to the point where you're losing audience because you gave them the silent treatment. It's painful to look back at what your audience once was and what it is now, knowing the part you played in its demise.
Granted, once a certain level of popularity comes, it's difficult to respond to everyone. The Ayodeji Awosikas and the Eve Arnolds and the Tim Dennings of the world have made it. Their tribes are beyond critical mass and only require occasional direct care and feeding for the most part.
But for the rest of us, responding to our fanbase is a key ingredient of keeping things going, and keeping them moving forward.
If someone gifts you with a comment, send a nice thank-you note.
Thanks for reading!
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(header image by Nicholas Green on Unsplash)