Blog Comments: Which Ones to Trash; Which Ones to Treasure

If you have a blog, you know that one of the tough decisions you have to make on a daily basis is which blog comments to keep (treasure!) and which ones to delete (trash!). Some comments are obviously spam and can be deleted without hesitation. But many blog comments I receive on this blog especially fall into a grey area. So how should you handle your blog comments?

The First Layer of Defense
First off, you should definitely have some sort of anti-spam mechanism installed on your blog. Askimet is a good anti-spam plug-in for WordPress blogs. You can also require folks to "log in" to comment on your blog posts. (This is the system I use.) This will help you get rid of 90% of the spam that you'll encounter.

Handwritten Spam
On the other hand, you'll get a fair amount of self-promotional messages that are actually handwritten. These won't get caught by your spam filter. The easiest way to recognize these is that it will be a general comment, followed by a link.

For example, here is a recent comment I received on a recent post, "Buying a Domain Name for Your Career Services Business."

If you see a message with a link in the body text that really doesn't add any value to your site, delete it.

Subtle Self-Promotions
You'll often get messages with the backlink embedded in the person's name and website. Whether or not you keep these comments depends mostly on the content of their comments.

If they're reading your posts and adding value to your site, then of course you should keep their comments. But if they're just commenting on your site generically to get a backlink to their site, then use your discretion.

A lot of comments fall into this grey area. They might not add a lot of value, but they are clearly not automated spammers. Some bloggers err on the side of deleting, while others err on the side of approving. It's up to you; there's no clear answer in this grey zone.

Here's an example of one of these comments:

The main reason why you'll get a lot of spam comments is to increase traffic to the commenter's website. This is a perfect example of one of these comments. It's important to remember that a lot of your commenters are going to be posting comments because they want a backlink to their site. That's not a bad thing.

It's only when they're detracting value from your site that you need to worry about it. Don't blame people for wanting to promote their websites.

Don't Delete Disagreeing Comments
Deleting dissenting comments is a big mistake. People who take the time to read everything you wrote and then share a dissenting opinion should be rewarded rather than silenced.

Someone might disagree with something you post this time, but could be a big fan of something you write next week. If you delete their comment, you'll lose them forever. Furthermore, the people who take the time to write a dissenting opinion are probably people who really care about your topic — Which means they are buyers and networkers.

In short, approve comments that add value, insights, or opinions to your blog. Delete comments that detract value, are self-promotional or are from people who clearly didn't read your post.

I would love to hear from YOU on this topic. Comment below!

Scheduling Social Media Into Your Resume Writing Business

One question I get from resume writers quite frequently is: "How do I use social media to promote my resume writing services, without having it become a time suck?"

Social media is an activity that can require a large time investment. As a busy resume writer and career services business owner, you may not have an abundance of free time available for social networking. But being effective on social media doesn't have to take hours out of your day.One of the best strategies to maximize social media involves scheduling your interactions.

© Fotolia

Step #1 Establish Social Media Goals
What do you want to accomplish with your social media interactions and efforts? What's your goal? The goal needs to be measurable and timely. For example, instead of saying, "I want to increase my followers or fans on my Facebook business page" you might say, "I want to increase my page 'Likes" by 300 fans in three months" or, "I want to increase my Twitter followers by 10% by the end of the first quarter 2013." Knowing the specific goal you want to accomplish will help you direct the time -- and resources -- you spend on social media so you maximize your efforts.

Step #2 Create a Plan to Achieve Your Specific Goals
The next step involves some planning. You want to outline a step-by-step procedure to reach your goal. For example, if your goal is to reach 300 new fans in three months, you can approach it several different ways. One way might be to launch a "Like My Facebook Fan Page" promotion where you hold a sweepstakes and award the winner a free resume or LinkedIn profile update. This promotion will undoubtedly require some work on your part. Outline the steps you need to take to make it happen.

On Twitter, you can spend 10 minutes each day following new people — one of the best ways to get followers yourself is to follow more people, and engage with them so they follow you back!

You can also "spend your way" to new fans. You can set up a Facebook ad campaign and invest a couple of dollars each day towards growing your fan base.

Step #3 Pull Out the Calendar
Assuming you know how much free time you have in the day, the next step is to grab a calendar and start scheduling your social networking activities. If you don't know how much free time you have in a day, consider tracking your time for a week or two. If you are unable to complete your task list each day, you may need to prioritize and restructure some of your plans.

Taking a look at your calendar, break your social networking tasks down into small, manageable steps. Ideally, nothing will take longer than 30 minutes. It can be anything from accepting friendships on Facebook and sending each person a personal message (and inviting them to "Like" your business page) to scheduling your tweets for the week (I recommend Hootsuite for this!). Identify the task, put it on your calendar, and attack your plan in bite-sized pieces.

Step #4 Follow Through and Assess
Try to stick to your plan for a few weeks. Then step back and assess. What's working? What isn't? Are you still trying to do too much? Are you procrastinating on your social media goals? Are you getting distracted from your goal once you log on? (Block off 30 minutes on your calendar. Tell yourself you will spend the first 10 minutes doing "work" and the other 20 minutes doing "fun" social media activities.) If necessary, rework your plan so that it fits your needs and goals better.

Step #5 Celebrate Success
Evaluate your progress -- did you achieve your goal? (Put the goal deadline on your calendar to remind yourself!) Once you've reached your goals, take some time to celebrate your accomplishment. Then set a new goal and repeat the process. Scheduling your social media efforts gives them a purpose. It helps you grow your business without wasting your valuable time.

Do's and Don'ts of Content Curation

The final post in this weeklong series on content curation is the "do's and don'ts."

• No matter where you publish, always remember to add something of your own to the curated content. Just sharing a link on Twitter isn't content curation; neither is copying and pasting sections of someone else's article to your blog, even if you give them attribution. 
• Try using your curated content as the basis for explaining your opinions, giving insights on a new topic, or exploring the opinions of others.

Did you miss any of this week's blog posts on content curation? Check them out here:
Curating Content to Attract New Clients
Best Practices in Content Curation
Where to Find Careers Content to Curate
Five Great Tools for Content Curation

Working With Challenging, Controlling, or Just Plain Pain-in-the-A$$ Clients

There has been a great discussion going on about "controlling" clients on the NRWA E-List as of late. My favorite tip list was shared by colleague Kelly Donovan, CPRW.

Here, with her permission, is Kelly's list of "PITA Warning Signs":

• Asking for a discount or questioning whether the investment is worth it.
• Saying their project will be "simple" (the "simple" ones are always PITAs!)
• Saying anything that reveals doubt/skepticism about your qualifications
• Mentioning they had a problem with another resume writer (ask for details!) 
• Asking for a watered-down version of your services with a lower price tag (is it really something you can scale down?)
• Calling/emailing with unusually high frequency (sign of being high-maintenance or disorganized)
• Calling before 8:00 a.m. or after 7:00 p.m.-ish (unless for a scheduled call)
• Complaining about any aspect of their experience with you (your voice mail, how long you took to get back to them, etc.) 

I wrote a previous blog post on the subject of challenging and pain-in-the-a$$ (PITA) clients in 2008 that also contains some warning signs to be wary of: "We Do Not Negotiate With Terrorists."

Kelly says when you encounter one of these warning signs, "trust your instincts and just say no. If they end up being a PITA, it won't be a profitable project regardless of whether you get paid (and keep it) or not."

Do you have other warning signs to share? Please add a comment!