Your comments, your brand?

Picture_6 We have many opportunities to extend our brand’s reach every day.  Most of them are tiny little details that seem insiginficant.  But they’re not.

Dawud Miracle raised this issue in a recent post where he suggests that people should be mindful of how they sign off on their blog comments.  He makes a very strong argument for always using the same signature to build awareness and increase your "findability."  He tells the story of how his frequent commenting on blogs has encouraged other people to look him up and in doing so, discover his blog.

Let’s go a little further.  How a person comments — do they ask questions, do they tell stories,  do they play devil’s advocate? Do they add to the post by sharing or illuminating?  Answer those questions and you have a snapshot of a person’s brand.  This, by the way, holds true on or off line.  How you engage says a lot about you.

Want to watch a Master (or in this case, Mistress) in action?  Start watching for Valeria Maltoni’s comments throughout the blogosphere. Check out her comment on David Armano’s recent post.  She’s amazing.  Smart, engaging, collaborative — her brand is all over her comments. 

We all have the same opportunity — how are you doing on maximizing yours?

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18 comments on “Your comments, your brand?

  1. Drew, great post. You went even further than I did. I love it. I’m going to look more at Valeria’s comments as I see them. And, perhaps, I’ll write more about this myself.

  2. Drew, those are very kind words, thank you. I think some of my best posts are actually comments on other blogs — and so they should be. They are a tribute to the blogger who raised a great question or made a really good point.

    Conversations are built best as departure off each other’s ideas. The self-appointed title I have for our local business network is curator. I’ll take the credit for showing up. More often than not, the smart observations come from all over.

  3. David Reich says:

    You’re right, Drew. I find I often get as much from the comments as I do from the original post.

  4. CK says:

    Valeria is a goddess. She’s generous and brilliant but sans any attitude (and with her brains she could get away with one). I really look to her as model on how to communicate effectively and so genuinely. Yep, a goddess.

  5. Great point, Valeria. I’ve noticed the same thing. I do much better in conversation than I do sitting down and writing a post. I guess I just work better in the interaction. I would say that some of my better writing can even be found in my comments on my own blog. I’ve thought of beginning to cherry pick them for post topics.

  6. Dawud,

    I think the the biggest flaw in the feedreader design is that it does not capture the comments section as well.

    So often the original author just plants the seed, but the people commenting add so much depth and meaning.

    And if you were going to follow anyone’s comments — Valeria is my pick.

    Drew

  7. Valeria,

    I love the idea of being the curator. It is a role that you play brilliantly.

    I will tell you a secret. Your comments are always so smart and add so much — that as an originator, I give myself a little high five when I’ve written something that is worthy of your attention and time.

    Drew

  8. David,

    Some blog authors write posts that seem to encourage insightful commenting. I think your posts, both at your blog and at the Marketing Profs book club are great examples of that.

    You create an environment that begs for strong, valuable comments.

    Drew

  9. CK –

    I’m grinning at the Goddess description. Seems fitting with her being Italian and all.

    Actually, I sort of lump the two of you into the same category of bloggers. You are both incredibly generous of spirit and look to add depth to conversations because you are genuinely interested in them.

    Wow…two blogging Goddesses? Could we be so lucky?

    Drew

  10. I agree about the problems with feed readers. Perhaps as the blogging keeps expanding the conversation, we’ll find it easier to subscribe to it. I would certainly like to see comment tracking supported by all the major readers (and blogware). Imagine being able to select a check box for each post and see the comments – ajax, on and off.

  11. Dawud,

    Interesting idea and I for one, would love it. I suppose in some ways, it defeats the purpose of the reader, which is to in essence skim the topics.

    I don’t know about you…but in most cases on my own blog — you guys are a lot more thought provoking and interesting than I am! I suspect many people don’t bother to read a post I’ve written and really miss the gems of learning that happen underneath the surface.

    Drew

  12. I agree. Same thing on my blog. I find the conversation much more interesting than the post. That’s one of the reasons I track all my conversations with CoComment. I can keep up on comments that way and join into a conversation when I feel it’s the right time.

  13. Dawud,

    I suppose it only makes sense that we love the interactivity the most. After all, its what sets this medium apart!

    Even with cocomment, it’s easy to lose track or on the flip side, get so immersed in commenting that in a blink of an eyes, 2 hours has gone by!

    Drew

  14. Oh, I’ve never had that happen to me. It’s amazing how much time we can spend on blogging…

  15. Dawud,

    Hmm, why does the phrase “liar, liar, pants on fire!” come to mind?

    You’re right, it’s easy to get sucked into an intelligent, lively conversation — blog, bar or ball game.

    The medium is just the meeting place. It’s the people that are so intoxicating.

    Drew

  16. Okay, you caught me.

  17. Very nice site. Please keep updating it. girl can percieve grass

  18. Michal,

    You are more than welcome. I hope you’ll come back and jump into more conversations!

    Drew

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