Artists who feed their blog into their Facebook page notice quickly that friends and fans respond.
Are you worried because people comment on your posts on Facebook instead of your blog?
Stop.
It’s not worth your time.
Stop trying to control the situation.
Social media is about sharing, giving, and liking. It’s not about maintaining control.
Be grateful that people are commenting at all! You’re engaging them and the forum shouldn’t matter a lick.
There’s a really good chance that the people who comment on Facebook would never visit your blog to comment. Appreciate their presence in your world.
Blog Comments on Facebook
- Alyson Stanfield
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38 thoughts on “Blog Comments on Facebook”
Thanks Alyson for posting this. You are absolutely right — it doesn’t matter. Good that they took the time to post on Facebook. That is why we have our blog networked. I have enjoyed haveing it linked and the comments on Facebook.
I have question, thought. I just created a new post to my blog on Wednesday, and it gave me a message it had been reported as abusive or spammy. I was shocked! I only post to my blog maybe four to six times a month — not extensively. I did fill out the form to have them investigate the problem, but have not heard anything yet. Have you heard of anything like this?
Marsha: Who said it was spammy? Facebook?
Yes, it was facebook. When it did not show up immediately as it usually did, I went back to my blog post, and clicked on share — which is when the box opened up saying it had been reported as abusive or spammy. I clicked on the button to comment and get an investigation. Don’t remember exactly what the box said.
I have linked my blog to Networked Blogs on Facebook and that has helped me in getting a few more followers. I was off of Facebook for a long time and did not see the benefit, but have been back now for several months and am really enjoying the contacts I am making with other artists and followers.
Debora: I’m not sure I understand Networked Blogs. Seems like I did that at one time and now don’t know what happened to it. Maybe someone should do a guest post on this topic for me. Can you think of anyone? 😉
Some of my favorite comments come from Facebook. I have a completely different readership there than I do on my blog, and the conversation has a different feel (perhaps because I actually know the readers there).
Matthew: Exactly. Completely different!
excellent info and reminder! This has been on my mind for a while and I was “fighting” facebook because I haven’t been getting much action on my wordpress or twitter. Thank You!
The only thing I’m dealing with right now is that I seem to get more feedback when I post from my personal fb account as opposed to when I post on my actual studio fan page. I have 400+ friends and around 170 fan page likes. Any thoughts on that?
Will: I know what you mean. I quit feeding my blog through my personal page so that it’s really focused on my fan page. Do you have it both places?
i do. When I post, I post on my fb personal page, fb fan page, wordpress, twitter and sometimes tumblr. A few times I posted only on my fb fanpage and didn’t get a single like or comment. I always get some sort of feedback when I post on on my fb fan page. I really do feel that the fan pages somehow don’t get seen as much as the personal pages.
I jumped on board and created a business page on fb about 2 weeks ago. I do not have a personal profile on fb and it has been a steep learning curve to realize what you can and can’t do with a business page plus there seems to be a lot of bugs ( fans don’t get posts, impressions disappear, etc.)
While half of the likes I have are people I don’t know which is interesting, my overall impression has been underwhelming. I know it is way too soon to judge, but I’m wondering if like Will if it’s not better to create a personal profile and just use it for your art. I know supposedly you aren’t supposed to use personal pages to promote your business, but it seems that a lot of artists are doing it very successfully.
I agree. I have a general feeling that my fans aren’t seeing my fb fan page posts like my friends are seeing my personal posts. For now I’m just cross posting and hoping that my friends that are fans also don’t get annoyed.
I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned here before, but I really love your work, Casey. Especially the trees!
Thanks Will, I really appreciate the compliment.
I know that one of my “fans” isn’t getting my posts, but she gets posts from her other “likes”. I have another “fan” that isn’t getting posts from any of her “likes” so that must be an issue that she has in her set up.
As a business I am unable to comment or post on anyone else’s site, which limits my ability to network other than to those who already know me. It appears that those who are doing so successfully are doing it through their personal profiles.
Casey: Please give it MUCH longer than 2 weeks!
Yes, you can only comment as an individual.
Keep in mind that the reason you have a fan page is because it’s public. Everyone can see it and find it on Google. Not so for personal profiles.
Will: I would worry about cross-posting. You’re training your readers that they can get it both places. I make a very clear delineation between my personal profile and biz page.
Will – just tried to find your fb page through facebook search and got
“No results found for your query.
Check your spelling or try another term.”
Your website looks good.
Thanks Sue, for the comment and the heads up about my page not showing up in search. Yours popped right up in search (love your drawings!) I’ll have do some more investigating for mine, because that doesn’t make sense. I wonder if my settings are “off” somehow?
Will: This happened to Joan Stewart. No one could see her page! She wrote about what happened and what she did:
http://publicityhound.net/help-no-one-can-see-my-facebook-fan-page/
She said in her newsletter: “Do a Google search for “Facebook Fan Page disappeared” and you’ll see a long list of frustrated, angry people, many of whom still haven’t found their pages.” She also wrote: “Dave Kerpen of Likeable.com, who doesn’t know me, read about my dilemma when somebody retweeted me. He emailed me, asked me to make him administrator of my Fan Page, and within a few hours, he solved the problem and brought the page back to life.”
How did you know? This is something that has frustrated me. Thanks to you, I will now just relax and be grateful for any attention!
Gloria: I hope you can do that. Just keep talking to yourself and say a prayer of gratitude whenever you get those comments on FB.
I am one of those who has linked her blog to her facebook Page and profile via NetworkedBlogs. I have no qualms about comments coming either directly to the blog or indirectly to facebook. I don’t get enough of either one. What my blog does get is an enormous amount of spam comments (which, becuase I have the blog set to moderate almost all comments, means these will never see the light of day because I delete them first). Comments at either site (assuming they are real not spam) are always welcome.
Patricia: You’re using WordPress, right? Have you tried the Akismet plugin? This keeps 99.9% of my spam comments from seeing the light of day AND my commenters can see their posts immediately.
I do use WordPress.org – however did you remember that? I looked at Akismet but balked when I saw that one has to have an API. I know that it means “Application Programming Interface.” I know what each of those words mean. I’m thinking it’s not quite a command language (as in IDL’s command language). But I don’t know how to write an API. And if I’m not supposed to have to write it where would I get it?
Am I making it more confusing than it needs to be?
@Patricia, yes, you are making it more confusing than it needs to be. The Akismet API they refer to is merely a kind of “secret code” that you enter into the plugin settings to make Akismet work. As I recall (it’s been a while!), the plugin settings page has a link to the correct location (right beside the API box IIRC) where you get the code, and the explanations were fairly clear on what to do when you got there.
Aha! I’m off to dl Akismet and install it. I hope it isn’t a widget – I can’t seem to get my theme (home-made based on an old WP classic default theme) widget compatible.
I’ve been ‘worried’ about this too! You make a good point, Alyson; as long as people are reading and responding, where they do it doesn’t really make a difference. I’m often surprised by the people who’ve found my FB fan page–the social networking thing really does work. And, you never know when a FB fan might become a real life collector!
Michelle: You’re right. Artists are selling on FB all of the time.
I’ve been obsessed with widgets that allow me to import blog comments from elsewhere on the web directly back into my blog (Google Buzz has one)… to give that illusion of blog activity. LOL
But you’re absolutely right! It doesn’t matter where people are following you, the point is that they ARE. And commenting and sharing!
The end goal will still be achieved.
Thanks so much for reminding us to think outside the blog! 😀
Oh, goodness, that sounds like a lot of work, Tara. Has it been worth it?
Alyson,
what I think is interesting: my friends and family members always comment on FB but never on my blog (not a single one!). The friends I have made through Twitter (and are friends on FB now) and other social media comment on my blog.
I love them all and I am very happy to have them in my life 🙂
Great post!
Franziska San Pedro
@FlavorDesigns
I appreciate all comments, but my complaint with facebook is that those comments are not with the original post and so get “lost” from the record.
I like your reply about cross-posting. I found this week friends were commenting on my personal page when I would prefer the art comments on business page. I will heed your advice and limit art stuff to the page.
Sue: It takes time and the willingness to endure fewer comments, but it’s worth it in the long run. Think of it as a training or testing period.
Ha! Tell that to the people who hide their tweets. Seriously – what’s the point of that?
They perhaps want to mutter to themselves?
I’m so relieved to read all of this!
I get frustrated because “e-mail subscribers” to my blog hit the reply button and comment from their in-box. They’ve subscribed, reading and commenting about my blog post – duh! Isn’t that the idea? Just because a comment isn’t showing up directly on the blog doesn’t mean the conversation isn’t taking place.
Thanks everyone.
Sharon: That’s a different story.
I used to get email responses to my blog posts, but I rarely do any more. Whenever it happens, I respond to the email: “That’s a great point, Sharon. Would you mind posting this on my blog as a comment so that others can benefit from it and so that I can respond to it?”
Works 99% of the time.
Thanks for sharing this. – I dont have a blog, but have created a Facebook page which i have a link to from my website. I get great feedback on work added to the site via Facebook, and its great way to build up a network of friends who can keep in touch with you and your work.
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I have a facebook personal page that I set up first then a fan/business page. I always post to my fan page. It automatically goes to my personal page from there. so it is on both with one posting. I find the same people are usually on my fan page checking it out all the time, but I do pick up new ones almost everyday from the personal page that everyone sees. They see the post that lists my fan page and go to it and check it out. I’m cann’t remember setting it up that way, its been a while. But since everyone else’s doesn’t automatically do that, I would assume that I did. I have noticed that after I post to the fan page, I check into the personal and that’s when the fan post goes to the personal.