Blogging is all about having the conversations — not talking to yourself! True conversations, which is what we want to achieve, is when we all, author and commenters interact.
Managing Comments on Other People’s blogs
I’ve many tips for keeping up the conversations on blogs but I believe the most important is being very effective at managing my comments on other people’s blogs. I use co-mment, which tracks my comments, and it notifies me automatically by sending the comment to my Google Reader account. This way when a person comments on a post that I have commented on I can choose to immediately respond back if I want. Co-mment means I can effectively manage my conversations, and they can be near instantaneous.
Setting up Co.mment Account
- Go to co.mment and click on Get an account to set up your account
- Click on Tool/Setting link and follow instructions to add bookmarklet to your web browser
Add A Post You Want To Follow To Co.mment
- Write your comment on the post you want to track
- Then click on the Co.mment bookmarklet in your web browser — make sure you are logged into your co.mment account
Subscribing To Your Comments From Co.mment Using A Feed Reader
There are a few options for recieving updates of new comments on blog conversations you are following:
- Read them directly on your tracking page at co.mment
- Subscribe by email — means you receive e-mail alerts when new comments are posted
- Subscribe to your tracking page RSS feed using a Feed Reader i.e. new comments are delivered to your Feed Reader
Subscribing using RSS is the most efficient method because you can use it to manage all the information you receive e.g. comments from your co.mment tracking page, latest posts from blogs you read, your friends Flickr photos.
Responding Back To Comments
By subscribing to my co.mment tracking page using Google Reader I’m quickly notified when a person comments on a post I’m tracking so I can quickly choose to respond back if I want.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Do you use comment tracking applications? If so, do you prefer co.mment or cocomment and why? What are your tips for achieving true conversations on blogs?
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22 responses so far ↓
[...] Larry Ferlazzo wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerpt [...]
I took your advice about co.mments some time ago and find it very effective for tracking comments and use it all the time. Would definitely recommend it. cheers Sarah
[...] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerpt [...]
Hi,
Nice post, I have been using cocomment rather the co.mments. I did tried it for a while, but at the end decided for coComment. Seems the most feature rich and potentially powerful tool. I think they are at 900,000 users and this is a good incentive for me to integrate with them since it increases my blog exposure. My humble opinion. tks
Sue can you contact me? I helped my principal set up a blog using Edublogs, and now ALL comments come to me–NOT her. Help.
oh i must have missed your other post. This is the first time i have seen this. Very neat. Will have to get my A into G and do this
[...] co.mments, Co.mments is a new tool for me. I will be able to feed my comments into a reader to keep updated on recent comments made to me. You can read more about this @dswaters [...]
Sarah you have become so good at managing comments on other people’s blogs using co.mment that you are starting to beat me to comment on blog posts I would normally comment on. WOW - well done and glad you like using co.mment.
Thanks Joaquin - cocomment definitely does have some really good features and it is good to know that it works well for your needs. I’m waiting for changes to their feed so I can get into it more.
While I may have been a bit (understatement) slow with responding back to the comments Cathy - I’m glad I was prompt in helping out you with your problem.
Hi Sue - nice to see ya. Definitely a tool for tracking conversations is a must for me. I like co.mment since it meets my needs but as joaquin what works for each of us is individual.
[...] ← How To Effectively Manage Your Comments on Other People’s Blogs Valentine’s Day in 21st Century [...]
I am definitely going to try this! I’ve been looking for a way to keep up with comments. Thanks!
[...] than cocomment however cocomment is better for community building. Here’s my explanation on how to set up and use co.mment. You can check out my comment tracking account’s here — on co.mment and at [...]
[...] How To Effectively Manage Your Comments on Other People’s Blogs | Mobile Technology in TAFE [...]
I’ve been wondering how people keep these conversations going! I just set up my co.comment account and am testing it out with this comment. Thanks for shedding some light on this mystery!
After dropping coComment last year, and now returning back (based on your excellent advice), I really see the need efficient comment tracking with RSS.
As much as I don’t really want to use 2 different tools to keep track of my conversations (minimal though they are), the co.mments RSS feed definitely works better than the one from coComment (which consistently says there are no items, even though I see them on my “conversations” page).
As always, thanks for the great tips!
OK Sue I have just joined co.mment and will see how it works by using this page as an example.
[...] to Being a Better Blog Citizen 28 04 2008 Commenting has been on my mind lately, thanks to a fabulous post and some recent conversations with Sue Waters. After talking about some of my struggles with [...]
[...] How To Effectively Manage Your Comments on Other People’s Blogs | Mobile Technology in TAFE (tags: Blogsupport Comment usmreadwrite2008) [...]
[...] My CommentsAbout a month or so ago I signed up with co.mments after reading a post about it by Sue Waters. It is easy to use, I just click on my ‘Track co.mments’ bookmark when [...]
Thank you for your helpful comments about using co.mments as a Comment Tracking Service.
After spending a couple of frustrating hours yesterday trying to get the coComments set up without success, I thought I might not be able to get a tracking service set up for the Blog Challenge.
I got a tip about co.mments with link to this post. In less than 15 minutes late at night, I was registered, ready to go with co.mments and linked into my Google Reader.
I am a very grateful fan.
Hmmm I am having problems with co.mments. I have registered but cannot get the bookmarklet on my toolbar …. spent hours on this trying to solve the problem. No problems with co.comments.
[...] How To Effectively Manage Your Comments on Other People’s Blogs | Mobile Technology in TAFE [...]
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