We often get focused on the amount of likes, shares and social media comments that we receive for our content. This is an important element to keep an eye on, as you will be able to gauge how much reach and interaction you’re receiving on average. Unfortunately, social media has a tendency to inflate numbers in such a way that doesn’t totally contribute in the way we would often like. When it comes to commentary on your blogs and pages, there is much more value. Why exactly should you give more focus to interaction on your blog and not through social media? We’ll discuss the tenets of this balance in the following article.

People Can Be Deceiving

So many people use social media to boost content exposure, with varied effects. A properly calibrated social media effort can produce plenty of benefit when monitored on a consistent basis, but how much of that effect truly is effective? Multiple studies have shown us that people have a tendency to like and share content without even reading it – a rather strange development in the world of marketing and advertising. This can make your likes and shares deceiving to a degree. While these likes and shares may help boost the exposure of your content to others who will read it, the reality is that every social media campaign will produce social signals that have very little value in and of themselves.

What Comments Show

Whether you’re pinging to Google, or posting on social media or through your website, leaving a comment on an article takes time. It takes a second to like an article or a few seconds to share something; very little effort is required and this is commiserate to the amount of benefit you can expect. Those who comment on content, however, are showing genuine interest in what you have to say and are willing to spend time out of their lives to engage. There is also a secondary benefit in posting comments on social media for you, and that is that the algorithms are more inclined to show this content to the commenter’s friends and family members.

Comments are Hard

When discussing the incidence of comments on blogs and websites, the verdict is in: there are very few. Even some of the biggest corporations and companies on the web find themselves receiving very little interaction in terms of direct comments. What this demonstrates is a clear correlation between comment value versus social media value. Your social media endeavours may succeed at bringing people to your website, but engaging them further is the true key to success. Engaging these people will increase the likelihood of them signing up for your mailing lists, purchasing products, giving their time or interacting in some other form.

Conclusion

Social media is cheap and easy, but you get what you pay for. With many likes and shares being hollow, you want to engage users by insisting that they comment on your posts and articles. When you do this, you’ll experience an increase in on-site comments – a key indicator of dedication, attention and success. The more commentary your blog or site is pinging to Google, the more value it will ultimately assign to your domain.