The Vine: February 16, 2011
I have a quick question on blog etiquette. On personal blogs, should every comment be acknowledged?
For the new year I started to blog regularly. They aren’t long or even very interesting posts. My posts are usually on my weight-loss progress or lack thereof, on either a weight-loss LiveJournal community or on Sparkpeople. I post for myself to keep myself honest and feel somewhat accountable. Comments are usually of the “you can do it!” variety and I’m wondering if any response is needed.
I also wonder about this on Facebook at birthdays. When you have a page full of birthday wishes, should each one be thanked? I didn’t do this on my last birthday, but have had a few friends do it. Am I being rude?
Krista
Dear Krista,
Responding in some way to the comments is probably called for, even though your motivation for blogging isn’t necessarily to build or relate with an audience. If people took the time to say something encouraging, it’s courteous to thank them, but you don’t have to address each commenter individually, or write a whole paragraph in response. An occasional “thanks, everyone; I appreciate the support” takes 15 seconds.
I do the same thing for Facebook birthdays or other events, more or less: thank everyone partway through the day; thank everyone again the next day to cover any stragglers. If one of my FB friends asks a question or makes some other comment that requires a response, I’ll answer it individually, but it’s not necessary for a string of variations on “Happy birthday!” Certainly I don’t expect it when I post such a variation.
Tags: etiquette
This is where the Facebook like button comes in handy.
For the Facebook birthday thing, I will “like” a person’s birthday wish on my wall, and then do a blanket “thanks for the b-day wishes” status update at the end of the day.
re: Facebook birthdays – on my last birthday, I decided (the morning of) to acknowledge each comment with a comment. It took almost no time and really was oddly cheering, for me, to connect in such a small way with anyone who happened to notice Facebook telling them it was my birthday and decided to post on my wall. Definitely doing it again this year.
That said, when I wish others a good birthday, I don’t expect a direct response back. It’s not everyone’s thing, ya know?
The general thank you to all is sufficient. I understand that not everyone has the time to respond to each person on their facebook or blogs; I know I don’t so I don’t expect it of others.
Like Krissa, I thanked everyone individually for the birthday good wishes as they were posted on my fb page. It made my day even cheerier, but I also had the time to do it. If your day is busy, then a post thanking everyone works too. And the ‘Like’ button lets people know you saw the post.
I’m usually surprised when I wish someone a happy birthday and the person gives an individual response, especially if it’s someone I’m not that close with or I haven’t seen in a while. Like Krissa said, it doesn’t take much time, and it could make someone’s day.
I usually just post a general thank you status at the end of the day instead of acknowledging each individual comment unless they mentioned something specific that warrants a response.
For the blog comments, if it’s just a bunch of random, “keep up the good work” comments, I probably wouldn’t respond individually. But at the start of the next post, I’d say “thanks for all the encouragement in the comments,” and then move on to what I was going to write that day. Commenting 12 times to say “thanks” doesn’t seem productive to me, but I wouldn’t want to discourage commenters either.
For Facebook birthdays I think that a general status update of thanks is seen as fine by pretty much everybody, or else you spend hours saying ‘thanks – I had a great day!’ over and over again.
And with my blog, I tend to reply to each comment, but that’s easy when you have something like five regular posters, all of whom tend to make reasonably interesting comments. But I don’t think that any of them would storm off in a huff if I missed a comment. After all, they can stomach my erratic posting schedule, so they’re a tolerant bunch.
If you WANT comments, nothing increases comments on a blog like knowing that each one will be individually answered. I used to regularly get 60+ comments on the most banal LJ posts when I made a point of answering each one.
But if you’re keeping track for your own purposes, and comments are just a bonus, then a semi-regular “Thanks, I really appreciate your comments!” does for courtesy’s purposes.
I personally do thank every person on FB that wishes me a happy birthday. But when I wish people a happy birthday, I don’t expect them to do that. Some people have A LOT of friends, by comparison I only have people I talk to often and some grad school friends that live far away.
However, someone recently did thank me and it was a nice surprise. :)