Have you ever seen those social media profiles on Twitter, Facebook, or elsewhere that use a company name and logo instead of a human name and a photo? Of course you have seen those. Pepsi, Doritos, McDonalds, Ford Motor Company, and a good number of others do that.
What about those profiles that are based on some presumably important industry keywords? You can see those on Twitter, and even more prominently on blog comments, but not likely from successful companies.
If you don’t know what I mean, you can see some comments from people such as “Custom Logo Design” right here on my blog. I let some of those remain, when they are not offensive, and when they don’t just drop links to their agenda in the comment text. All the same, they are missing a much greater benefit. Until they learn the importance of human connection, they will never know just how much they don’t know.
There is a right place to use a company name, and there is a wrong place. For example, Facebook profiles are not for companies (Facebook Pages are). If you don’t know when to act as a company or when to be a human, you are surely wasting a lot of effort.
Even if you are communicating on behalf of a company, there are many instances when placing your company name first is like shaking somebody’s hand and saying “Hi, my name is Acme Widget Company. It is nice to meet you.” Maybe you do that, but I’ll bet big money that you could sell a lot more widgets if you were a person.
It seems that many people misunderstand this concept of human instincts, and the importance of emotion in business. In fact, this article was inspired by a question I recently received questioning the best usage of Disqus when commenting on blogs. The question was as follows:
“One question if I may ask, is it better to have co. name in discuss profile or keywords?”
At first, I thought it was the worst question I heard all day. Then I realized how common it is for people to think that spreading their company name will be more helpful than giving people a reason to like them as a human.
Why Do We Prefer Humans? Because We Can Choke Them!
Companies build respect and trust much more effectively based on actions of people than by advertising the company name. This goes for huge corporations, and it goes for small “John and Mary Lunchbucket” companies. A big brand may have implied trust, and you may not worry about whether they are going to rip you off at every turn. Even in those cases, there is a far greater level of trust when there is a personal contact at the company who you can complain to, complement, or reach out and choke.
When you have a name, face, or voice, to go with the company, you have a real person you can hold responsible for doing what they say. It creates a feeling of personal accountability, and that builds trust. That person, whether in reality or perception, binds the company to doing what they tell you, and they become the company. Have you ever tried to wrap your fingers around the neck of a company? It just isn’t as satisfying.
Big Brands Get This, and We Appreciate Them!
Maybe you didn’t notice this, but three of the four companies I mentioned at the top of this article have names and faces prominently associated to their brand name. Below are some examples of companies putting names to their social media profiles. This not only benefits the company by adding a name and a face, but it also creates the understanding that even if they screw up, they are human. Humans make mistakes sometimes.
Pepsi Shows Who is Currently Serving TweetsMcDonald's Has a Meet the Tweeps Page Ford is a Classic Example of Making Personal Connections
Yes, Humans Make Mistakes … Just Ask Red Cross!
Some companies worry that if they put a face with the company name, the human may make them look bad. After all, if Scott Monty from Ford was arrested for running naked through Central Park and screaming “Buy a Ford or I punch the old lady!”, it could look like Ford made an error in judgment. Of course, I doubt that is going to happen … right Scott?
Embarrassing moments do happen in social media. A classic one was when Gloria Huang of American Red Cross accidentally tweeted the statement below using the the wrong Twitter account.
Ryan found two more 4 bottle packs of Dogfish Head’s Midas Touch Beer…. when we drink we do it right #gettingslizzerd
Red Cross had a great response for that, just as they do for natural disasters. I suspect that even the most critical Red Cross supporters were forgiving after Social Media Director, Wendy Harmon’s response. Here is what she said:
Even today, just as I was writing this, they are not hiding the incident. I asked a question as follows:
Nearly immediately, I received two replies, first from Gloria, and then from Wendy. Here are the replies:
There were several other exchanges to follow, including birthday wishes to Ryan, and even Dogfish Head Brewery chimed in.
It was all a very human interaction, and a lot more friendly than communicating with a faceless institution.
Humans Achieve More in Social Media
Even with all the reasons people dream up to hide behind a company name or their favorite keywords when interacting online, humans win! Maybe you think that using your company name will bring more recognition to your company. Maybe you think that using your keywords will bring more web searches your way. Maybe all of the successful instances of being a human in social media are just lucky accidents.
Believe what you will, but my name is Mark Aaron Murnahan. I will take that over SEO and Social Media Marketing Consultant any day!
There are some blogs I feel bad to neglect, yet delighted when I make time for them. They are the blogs where I intend to be more active, and I want to share some of those with you. These are blogs by people who truly understand the many good reasons to blog, and they work hard to be useful to their communities.
First, I want to explain a bit about why I am recommending these blogs, and how I think you can learn a lot from them. If you don’t have time read, just hit the play button (top of page) to flip on my podcast and skip right to the list.
Did you ever go to a blog and find that the other people there were actually communicating with you? I don’t mean just a short and pithy answer, but rather an actual conversation that takes place. I mean the kind of blog where you see the same people every time, answering questions, solving problems, sharing ideas, and actually conversing just like they would in a coffee shop, or over lunch.
I know some blogs like that, and I enjoy them very much. It is not only because of their topics, either … I enjoy the people. Of course, I don’t spend a lot of time with blogs about things which don’t interest me, but if these blogs were about termite ranching or how to grow poison ivy, I would still be there … time permitting. I learn from them, and on good days, they learn from me.
If you have ever wondered why your blog is not as active as you would like, as a community filled with familiar faces who subscribe and come back regularly to read your work, there is probably a good reason. If it is filled with stuffy language about your industry, it will make many people yawn. If it is packed with a bunch of “buy this now” language, it will make people feel like the vacuum salesman just arrived at the door.
News Flash: It is easy to throw you out and slam the virtual door on you. All it takes is a click! If you want to avoid that “click” of people throwing you out the door, I suggest doing some reading and participating. Yes, of course I want you to read every one of the 300+ articles in my blog archive, and I want you to share your thoughts on every last one of them. I also want to help you to meet others to inspire you, teach you, and keep you moving forward.
If you want to learn how to build a blog community where people come to read what you have to say, and to see what all their friends are up to, take a lesson from the blogs listed below. I am not listing them in a specific order, or even by their topic. I am lumping them together as blogs where you can meet and get to know great people … people you will probably like. In fact, if you like my blog, and if you like me, you will find a lot of similar thinking people in these blogs.
These are blogs where people interact, learn, and share ideas. Some of them represent overlapping service offerings, but they don’t compete … they collaborate. They are blogs where people come together, and not just to spam a link to their website, or wear people down by being a blog troll. They are blogs where the community is consistent, and where that kind of thing would be pinched off like a wet turd.
A couple of these may not have the highest level of community involvement, but in those cases, I listed them based on the people writing them, and their involvement elsewhere in blogs. I read these blogs and pay attention as much as time permits, and they are on my RADAR … right near the center.
How Do These Bloggers Do It?
I am an observant guy. In fact, it is an important part of my job to be observant. A commonality I see in these blogs is that they each have a lot of the same people. This makes it pretty obvious that it is not all just about the topic of a specific blog, but largely about the people. They meet and interact across many blogs, and it becomes very social. After all, this is social media we are talking about. So let’s be social, people!
You will see many of the same people commenting and interacting with each other at several of the links I will provide. It is not some kind of secret club with a membership application. The application is just to come and get to know people and not act like the new kid in town who has to prove that his bicycle is faster than the local kids. These are very real and human communities that represent the greatest value of online communications. They are about the people, and not about the technology that so many people treat the Internet as.
Why Building Your Blog Community Matters
Let’s look at this from a business standpoint. A lot of business blogs focus on how to get people to buy their stuff. They want brand recognition, and they want a return on their investment of blogging. That is the focus of a business … more business. A common, yet tragic result is that they overlook the even greater value in finding people who love, love, love them enough to recommend them to every friend, acquaintance, and complete stranger. Those other people are the ones you want buying your stuff!
Do you want to know why the friends, acquaintances, and complete strangers matter more? They add up … huge! There are multiple reasons, and I will give you some examples.
I will use myself for the first example. If you think you want to sell me something, just imagine how much more potential you have of selling your goods or services if you make me a fan and I spread it to the squillion people I encounter and who read my blog, my Facebook, my Twitter, and my honorable mentions of others. You don’t really just want to sell me something do you? Sure, maybe that is good enough if you are short sighted in your marketing, but the real value is in my community. If you grab my attention with your community, my community becomes your community. Now doesn’t that sound nice?
Neglecting and Irritating vs. Cultivating and Nurturing
Now, to snap you into a seriously messed up potential reality, consider what happens if you are doing this all wrong. How tragic it is if, instead of making me a fan, you creep me out. Maybe you come and lurk around my blog, and maybe even get comfortable enough to spam my readers.
What if you never took the time to know more than just that my blog ranks really highly for a squillion different industry terms, and you want to throw your name and website link in my comments. Consider the example of a company that does not comprehend the value of community, or how to work with others. I made a case study of a company called “Suture Express“. Search Google for Suture Express (Google search) if you don’t already know that story. I hold roughly half of the top 10 listings on Google for their company name and the names of each of their corporate officers. Trust me, it is not the stuff that helps companies sell more, but it is what happens when companies get SEO and social media all wrong, and ignore the value of building their network, and working within a community.
It is my community that slaps the piss out of companies who cheat, lie, and spam. Companies such as Suture Express and Ray Skillman Auto Dealerships simply cannot match the power of a community.
Why do I tell you this? Because it shows the value of community, and the value of having more people who know you, like you, and defend you than you have people who are indifferent, or even despise your brand.
What if They Say You Are an Awesome ‘Possum?
Next, I want you to consider how much more valuable it is for somebody else to say you are awesome than when you say you are awesome. As an example, I will say it right now … I am awesome! I am awesome like sex, bacon, and a cold grape soda. Awesome is my job. In fact, my new mantra is this: “My job is to create marketing as awesome as sex and bacon. Even when I fail, it is at least as good as ham and a hand job.”
Fine, some people will believe it if you say you are awesome. Some people will do the research to see that it is true, but there is still a much better way!
Now consider how valuable is it if somebody else says “Mark is awesome!” It kind of sounds more valuable then, right? There is an implied credibility when it comes from a third party. I hope you get the point.
Stop Playing Opossum, and Be More Awesome
Is Your Blog Community a Waste of Time?
When you hear words like “blog community”, it may seem like a completely crazy concept. It may almost sound impossible, or a complete waste of time. Where does it begin? Where do those bloggers meet all these great people?
Building your community will not happen very efficiently if you are just sitting there staring at your own blog waiting for people to come and add their comments or to send their friends. It will happen when you get out of your shell and make time to meet people elsewhere. Spamming your blog to anybody and everybody will not help, either. I could write a squillion page dissertation on that formula for failure. Here is some thought candy on the topic for you to consider: “How to Comment on Blogs and Why You Should (or Should Not)“.
The SEO lies you may have heard will not help you, either. Good SEO (search engine optimization) happens when people such as some of the ones listed below whip out their keyboard and say the equivalent to “Mark is Awesome” about you.
Awesome Bloggers Who Attract Other Awesome People
If you want somebody to say that you are awesome, you had better get started building a community. I said I have some blogs to list, and I don’t plan to let you down. Here are some good people to learn from. Watch them, get to know them, and meet the great people who contribute to their blogs. Find out why I took the time to commend them. If you do that, you will better understand the value of reaching out of your shell, and why building a community by participating instead of siting like a bump on a stump is worth every bit of the effort.
Ingrid Abboud (a.k.a. Griddy) shows many signs of being nothing short of awesome. She is a great connector of like-minded people, and deserves the description I once gave her of “sweet, silly, and super smart”.
In a recent version of Ingrid’s “Superpost Sunday Weekly Roundup“, the blog is compared to Central Perk from the hit television show, Friends. It really is that kind of a place where all we need is Gunther the barista to bring coffee and we are all set. Do you make a great cup of coffee? Read this blog and find out why it is loved by many, and nobody is a stranger.
Erika Napoletano is a witty, intelligent, outspoken blogger who is a bit aggressive by some measures. I like her. In fact, I like her a lot.
Erika recently landed a gig writing a business column for Entrepreneur Magazine, and her rants draw people to communicate, for better or worse … usually better. You can give her a hard time about how loose she is with dropping the F*bomb, but she knows how to bring a crowd to their feet.
Considering that she is the author of “The Bitch Slap”, there should be little wonder about Erika’s free spirited style.
Mark Harai is a great guy. He lives in Costa Rica and, I’m not sure if he knows it yet, but I die just a little more every time he is on a beach while it snows here in Kansas.
Mark is the father to a squillion kids (actually just seven), and he is one of those guys you just know this kind of stuff about … because you like him. His likability sets him apart from others, and his blog consistently offers up thought provoking articles about business growth and better human relations.
When I find more time to break away, I will meet up with Mark for a tour of his local beaches. For now, we have the Internet.
John is very active with several of the blogs in this list, and a heck of a cool guy. Here is his take on being active within the communities he supports: “Why commenting isn’t for you“.
If you can’t like a guy like John Falchetto, your problems are much worse than blogging.
One day, when I make it back to France, or he makes it here to USA, we will go and enjoy a day at the gun club. Until then, we will enjoy our two-way communications across multiple blogs we each frequent, as well as Twitter, Facebook, and anywhere else I can track him down.
I have made a number of interesting trips to Mark’s blog, and I am a bit guilty of lurking without jumping in with my comments. I am not sure why this is the case. I am doing the same thing I wish people wouldn’t do with my blog (keep their thoughts to themselves).
This is another of those people, and blogs that I am a bit ashamed to neglect. It is all my fault, but it is on my “To Do” list, and blinking away on my RADAR.
Have a look at this recent article titled “Executives and the Ostrich Syndrome“ It is so sickeningly familiar to me that I didn’t even know how to reply … but I plan to … when I stop procrastinating.
Spin Sucks … and Gini knows it! Check her out and find out why I respect her work.
Ruhani does not blog as much as he used to, but I like him, and I like his style. I have to give him a serious shout out here, because of his active participation across multiple social media channels. He has built a community that sticks with him wherever he goes, and whether he blogs often or not.
What do I really think of Ruhani? Well, I can say this: Ruhani is one of only a few people I put on the back cover of my 2009 book “Twitter for Business: Twitter for Friends“, and not just because he said something nice about me.
It seems very appropriate that Ruhani is VP of the company that created “Friendster” (friendster.com), because he sure knows how to make friends. Ruhani Rabin is one of the most friendly guys with a blog you could ever know.
Some call him Mufasa. Actually, maybe only Griddy (Ingrid Abboud) calls him that, but most call him Marcus. I don’t directly communicate with Marcus very much. I am not sure just why that is the case. I hope it is not because I gave HubSpot a harsh review once upon a time. I know he is pretty tight with HubSpot.
We bounce into each other on a lot of the same blogs, and we have a lot of mutual friends and acquaintances. I read his blog, time permitting. I kind of feel like I know him. That is a mark of a blogger who “gets it”.
Jim Rudnick is one of those guys who soaks up information like a sponge. He is an “old-timer” like myself, who has been in the SEO business since most search engine optimizers were in diapers, eh?
Of course, with Jim being a Canuck, he feels more comfortable if you end each sentence with an “eh?” You know, because that’s what they do up there in Canada, eh?
Jim is active across many channels of social media, outside of his own blog, and because of that, I think it would be awesome to see Jim’s own community at Canuck SEO grow like a weed. Jim gives more than he takes, and you can find a lot of great blogs just by keeping a close eye on him.
I don’t read every article from every blog I subscribe to. I also sometimes forget to subscribe to some of the blogs I encounter. I have found many great blogs over the years, and I simply cannot read and respond to everything on the Internet. I try my best to keep up with the good ones, and I try to participate in the community, as my limited time allows. I will be working on this, and trying to give closer attention to these blogs. I hope that you will, too.
Now that you have the list, and I gave you some thinking points about working as a community, are you going to sit there like a bump on a stump, or are you going to kindly introduce yourself to my community of readers? You may just end up being the tenth blogger on the list. Go ahead … impress me!
Perhaps by now you have seen a few blogs using Facebook comments. If you have not seen it yet, you can witness it in action here on “SEO and Social Media Marketing Blog”. Go ahead and look, if you must … but we will get to that part anyway.
When I recently added Facebook comments I was so excited about the increased commenting and Facebook sharing that I knew others would want to know more about it, too.
I want to tell you about some really useful features of this free service, including SEO (search engine optimization) benefits, enhanced user-experience, increased social interaction, and more. Then, I will give you step-by-step instructions on how to add Facebook comments to your blog (or any website).
So, let’s get started. Before I give you the step-by-step “How To”, I want to explain some huge benefits. After all, it really doesn’t make sense to do this if you don’t know why, or how it can benefit your website.
Maybe I should have split this into two articles, but if you are just here for the installation, jump to the installation now. It could get a little geeky around here for some people, but haven’t you ever really wanted to know what makes geeks tick? Read on my “non-geek” friends. I have some love here for you, too!
Facebook Comments Search Engine Ranking Benefit
It is not a secret that Google and Bing use information from social media for ranking websites. Since December of last year, it has been speculated that one of the strongest individual signals Google uses is the number of Facebook shares. That is, the number of times somebody actually shares your website on Facebook. It is really hard to qualify this, and there is a lot of contention in the matter.
Regardless of any potential direct SEO value, when you use Facebook comments, it greatly increases the probability of people sharing your blog on Facebook. Of course, they don’t have to share it on their Facebook wall when they comment, but the option is selected by default. The way I see it is that unless I am ashamed of something I am reading, I will usually share my comments on Facebook, along with the originating article. Other people seem to react the same way, and since the option is so simple and right there in front of them, is it easy to see why it will increase the probability of a blog article receiving more Facebook shares. Facebook shares can lead to blog posts, Twitter conversations, and a whole list of other possibilities. So, in the end, the SEO benefits can come in many forms.
Although Google cannot see much of the information shared on Facebook, there is still a lot of reason to suspect that the crawler can find at least some of it. In case you are doubtful of the value of Facebook sharing to SEO, here are some influential third party references on the matter:
Below is a video from the third article in the list. If you don’t have time for it, just know that Facebook sharing can potentially benefit your search engine rankings, and that Facebook comments are a huge step toward a more interactive user experience … another big step toward good SEO.
Let’s not forget that in addition to the benefit of Google and Bing using Facebook sharing in their rankings, it also opens the floodgates to more people seeing your website. That means more people to potentially share it along to their friends. Oh, it all gets so exponential and mathematical … I think I may need another cigarette!
Facebook Comments Enhance User Experience
User experience sounds so cliché and empty to me, but you understand the notion. Making your website easy and familiar is imperative to its success. The end-user is why we all work so hard to make our websites feel easy and familiar, like sweatpants and a pair of flip flops. It has to be comfortable, or people will stop coming back … or coming at all.
On the other hand, if you focus the website on benefiting the end-user, before you know it, that hard work all starts to make a lot of sense. People start blasting it out to all their friends about how they almost peed their shoes when they found the one website on earth that actually smelled like bacon, and rubbed them like a teenager in the back seat of a Camaro.
Add More Nasty Camaro with Facebook!If you want to call it “User Experience”, go ahead … I am thinking about the party in the yellow Camaro with steamy windows! Then, before I fall asleep, I will paw through the fridge in search of that bacon I smelled. That is how I see “user experience”, and you can flop on my virtual couch any time. It’s comfy, isn’t it?
Here is how Facebook comments improve the user experience: Let’s face it, everybody who ever wrote a blog wants to see comments … even if only to point out a typosnaphical error. They want to know that they didn’t do all that work for nothing. If you are reading this, you probably have a blog, so you know what I mean. The challenge is in making comments an easy and natural response for the people who read your work.
Of course, you could look at it this way: Maybe everybody except you is a lazy, no-good, deadbeat blog lurker who soaks up your hard work, and laughs in your face when they click away to their next victim.
-or-
You could consider that there are a lot of busy people, and even a lot of them who really don’t know much about blogs, or the benefits of participating. They don’t all know the value of getting to know all of those other readers with the same interests. This makes it your job, the blogger, to fix the challenges. You need to make it easy, and natural to leave a comment, and Facebook comments do just that!
Shoe-peeing, Camaro-sweating, bacon-scented, unicorn-kissing, all-you-can-haul-out-the-door-for-a-dollar brilliant content is not always enough. You have to make it so easy that getting up to deal with a bad case of diarrhea can wait just a few more seconds while they shower you with their lovin’ words.
Facebook Comments Increase Social Interaction
With well over half a billion people using Facebook, it is a lot more recognized than your blog. People know how to use it. Facebook is a comfy, cozy, snugly, familiar place for many people. Those Facebookey people are not so shy to communicate on Facebook. They do it all the time. That is what Facebook is there for, and that is also why it is on my blog (and probably on your blog soon).
Facebook comments meet the challenges of familiarity and ease of use like a hungry blogger meets a greasy bacon sandwich. If people aren’t talking to you, and each other, with Facebook comments on your blog, you can believe it … they really just don’t like you, or other people … At All.
Some interesting things to note is that when somebody comments and elects to share it (along with the article) on Facebook, it will appear simultaneously on the blog, and on Facebook. Replies to that person will then be visible to them on their Facebook Wall, as well as a link back to the article.
For those who have their employer set up properly and visible publicly on Facebook, another neat feature is that their title and company Facebook Page link will appear. That can create additional possibilities for business networking. Of course, the user’s Facebook security settings still apply.
How to Add Facebook Comments to a Blog
The list of nice features goes on, but we can chat about that in the comments. That way you can see how neat it really is from a user perspective. Let’s get to the part about how you can add these nifty Facebook comments to your blog. I am going to explain it based on WordPress, but it is similar for other websites.
I looked for a a plugin for this, but I didn’t find one, so I may write a Facebook Comments WordPress Plugin (actually just a relatively simple installation script) if I get the time. The closest plugins I found were to import comments from Facebook notes, but that is not the same thing at all. This is how to actually include and synchronize Facebook comments, likes, and shares on a website.
This is really not very hard, but Facebook’s documentation is so lengthy that it could get confusing if you don’t know what you are looking for. So, I am going to include the links you will need to visit on Facebook, and what to do when you get there.
If you need help, that just makes a good case for why blogs have comments in the first place.
Step One: Create a Facebook Application – This does not mean going to school for web programming, and creating an app is much easier than it sounds. All you have to do is click here, then click on “Set Up New App”, enter an App Name (like the name of your blog), agree to Facebook’s terms, and then fill in a few more easy blanks.
Once you have the app set up, hold onto that info for a bit. You will need the application ID number in the next step.
Relax, you can do this … really. If you get confused, just add your questions in the comments below, and somebody will help you … probably me. If you start feeling a bout of rage coming on, just put down the weapon and ring me up. I will do it for you for a song. Well, actually a song along with some of your money, but not all of it.
Step Two: Load the JavaScript SDK – If that “creating an application” thing sounded hard, this one sounds like having to share a sleeping bag with your mother-in-law. It is actually quite simple. I don’t know why they make it all sound so difficult.
In this step, all you are doing is adding the basic information the application will need for your website, in the format Facebook needs it. It looks daunting to some people, but if you just look at the example, and find where it says “YOUR APP ID” replace it (the letters only) with the ID number you received when you created your app.
You can either go and copy the code on the Facebook Developers JavaScript SDK page, or just use the snippet below. I suggest using the version where it says “Loading the SDK Asynchronously”. You only need the one snippet of code, and this is the one I use here on my blog. Just be sure to put your new app ID where it says “YOUR APP ID” in this code.
Here is the code you will need:
Step Three: Copy and Paste the JavaScript SDK – If my mother is reading this, she is probably going to the kitchen junk drawer for glue. That copy and paste thing drives her guano-crazy. I will handle it for my mom when she gets hot on her blogging career, but for you, this will be a snap! Take that snippet of code from above (edited with your new app id) and open your WordPress Theme Editor. It is right there in that place where you add new blog posts. More specifically at http://YOUR-DOMAIN/wp-admin/theme-editor.php (unless you have some freaky-deaky version of WordPress). This is where you can see a list of your theme files sitting there ready to beat up like a row of red headed boys in pink high-water pants.
Pay Attention and Stop Beating Up the WordPress Redheads
The precise placement of this code is not a huge issue. You see … this really is easy! I added mine into the “Header (header.php)” file in my theme. It could have a slightly different name, but you have something like that, where it has all of that header-ish kind of stuff. Within that file, you’ll see words like “head”, “body”, “meta”, and a lot of others. I added my “JavaScript SDK” snippet immediately below the “body” tag. You can see where it is in my source code if you like, but just don’t go giving me any “Grandma Guilt” if you don’t like the html comments in my source code. Just search the code for the word “body”. It’s there … you can find it … I have faith in you.
Paste it your code somewhere right around there (or exactly there), but keep that same page open. You still need to shove some more stuff in there.
Step Four: Add Facebook’s “xmlns:fb” Namespace Attribute to Your HTML Tag – That sounds worse than it is, but we want this to be easy. So, while you have that header file opened, look for this: xmlns=”http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml” and add xmlns:fb=”http://www.facebook.com/2008/fbml” right behind it … well, with a space, of course.
So it should turn out to look like the example below. Just copy it and replace the old one.
Step Five: Add the Open Graph Protocol – I swear these Facebook guys smoke some crazy stuff to make this sound so darn complex. This is just a series of meta tags … little bits of information about your website and the specific pages, so Facebook knows what it needs to know.
Here is the code you need, with very minimal editing if you are using WordPress. All you need to do is edit the parts in CAPITAL LETTERS. You can pretty it up with line breaks and stuff if you like. It really makes no difference in function.
Step Six: Add the Comments Code – Ahh, this is the easy stuff. You are almost done. You need to paste the code below on your website where you want the comments to appear. In your WordPress theme editor, just click to edit “Single Post (single.php)” or the equivalent in your theme. It may be named differently, but don’t let that eat you up. I added it immediately above my existing comments. Just search the file for the word “comments” and you will probably find it really quick.
The only editing you will need to do here is to adjust the width (520 in my example) to the width you want it to appear on your blog, and also the “num_posts” for how many comments you want showing before the “show more comments” link appears to users.
That should do it. Save everything and start enjoying more comments and Facebook shares.
What About WordPress or Disqus Comments?
To me, WordPress’ built-in comments, Disqus comments, Intense Debate, and etcetera are not replaced by Facebook comments, but rather enhanced.
Disqus is Here to Stay
You cannot import your existing blog comments into Facebook (at least for now), and I still enjoy all of the features of Disqus. So I think it makes good sense to keep an existing comments system in place.
I am keeping Disqus right here where people can embed videos, upload photos, and all the other great networking benefits, but I am also pretty excited about the new addition.
Which one will you choose to use to add your take on the matter? If you don’t leave me a comment, I may just think you are a snob, so please redeem yourself! Oh, and give that share button a whirl, unless you are ashamed of me. 😉
More Useful Facebook Articles:
(You didn’t expect me to stop here, did you?)
I am relating this to blogs, but it can apply to many other things in life, and in business. In fact, the more I think of it, this really isn’t just about blogs at all. I hope that you can relate to this, and begin to uncover more of your bright ideas.
Do you ever have a great idea that you just have to share with the world … or at least the people who read your blog? I do, and I find myself jotting down a note about it. I am old school, so I end up with a squillion pages of notes stacked on my desk. Some of them make it to my handy dandy little notebook, and a decent number even make it to my list of draft copies here on my blog.
It is great to have a list of ideas for future articles to present to the world … or at least the people who read my blog. So, in those moments of inspiration, it is best to take some notes and remember to get back to it later. After all, it is often hard to be astonishingly brilliant on cue, and who wants to publish something that is less than “astonishingly brilliant”? Not this guy, but I still do it anyway.
Here comes the challenging part. Getting back on task with a particular topic can feel just a bit like hopping on a little pink bicycle to run to the grocery store … in your bath robe! Sure, maybe it is something different for you, but to me, it feels awkward. It is a huge challenge to resume astonishing brilliance after the initial spark fades away.
It is sometimes easy to wonder “Was that idea really all that great?” But you know, I sometimes question the same things while looking back at my blog archive. What I realized is that those sparks of inspiration add up to become the whole blog over time. The things we share in blogs, and in other areas of life and business cannot all be brilliant … Not for you, not for me, or anybody else!
This was inspired by the long list of blog article drafts stacking up in my list, but I think it can be applied to any other sort of great ideas that stack up on us. I still opt for quality over quantity, because volume of ideas is not impressive in itself. However, everybody has a different view of what is a “worthy idea”.
If you share more of your ideas, something amazing could happen. Somebody could be inspired or otherwise benefit just from the little bits of non-astonishing brilliance that you left in a pile on the corner of your desk. We are not all quite the same, and some of the stuff that you relegate to the “less-than-awesome” stack could just be worth “publishing” after all.
So then the challenge is to stop letting those semi-brilliant notes sitting in the draft phase from collecting dust. It makes me wonder how many brilliant ideas you have that are lying around collecting dust and getting shuffled out of your busy schedule?
Do you ever feel the same challenge, or is it just me?
I have been thinking about this topic for a long time. I tried to keep my inner voice to myself, but if you have read my blog before, you surely noticed that my inner voice has a bullhorn. I say what I think. I have said it before that “I do not try to please everybody, and that pleases some people very much.”
Call me a crusty old bastard if you like. Worse things have been said before, and you will not hurt my feelings. I only get my feelings hurt by people who care enough to create a meaningful dialog with me, and make a relationship. I welcome them to my table, and I will share my blog feast with them any day.
Conversely, trolls can have the corn preserved on the other side of my digestive system. Regarding lurkers, I kind of think of them like zombies. I am not sure if they have thoughts and feelings of their own, because they refuse to reveal them.
So what about the blog trolls and lurkers? I could take this examination to all new heights, because I know trolls, and I have enough lurkers to fill the Mariana Trench! Rather than drawing this out with a lengthy psychological analysis, I will just heave a heavy-handed slap in their direction and let you rip them a new one with your comments if you feel up to it.
Blog Trolls: Read the Sign!
Blog Trolls Read the SignTrolls suck! I have read multiple new blog articles that touched on the topic only yesterday*. Blog trolls are the bane of a blogger’s existence, and they insult our hard work.
Trolls leave pithy comments on blogs, and drop their website links in attempts to boost their ranking in search engines at the expense of hard working bloggers. Some trolls are out to cause an argument or to harass writers for missing a comma or spelling somtheing inkerektly.
Blog trolls don’t have any meaningful input, and they are just out for themselves. Some companies use blog trolling as their core online marketing strategy. If you want to see how “brilliant” that plan is, read about Ray Skillman.
When a blogger sits down to write about something, they are trying to communicate with you. They usually want to open a conversation with you, and they value your input as much as their own. It is how we learn together and often build meaningful relationships.
Two way communication is a basic concept of blogging. Collaboration is not something the doctor does when he lifts your gown and tells you to relax. It is a way for a community to enjoy the benefits of more than one mind.
Blog Lurker Bank and TrustBloggers often work very hard to research and produce something that is useful or interesting to you. Yes, you, and not the person standing over your shoulder reading your screen.
People often treat elections this way, too. They just assume that “the other people” will vote. In case you have not noticed the state of politics in this world, that is not productive thinking. It is not productive in politics, and it is not productive in blogs.
If you just suck up a blogger’s knowledge like free grape soda, without so much as nod of approval, or giving something back, don’t you feel just a tiny bit ashamed? Are you the kind who will walk up to the cash register at a convenience store and grab every coin in the “Take a Penny, Leave a Penny” tray?
Didn’t your parents ever tell you that it is nice to share, and that keeping everything to yourself is not polite? Oh, and seriously, do you really not think we bloggers see the 18 minutes you spent reading three articles, and then come back two days later to suck up another 43 minutes of our hard work? Yeah, we see that, and we know you are there.
We appreciate that you appreciate us, but why don’t you at least say “hello” and introduce yourself? I mean, we are your free labor, often doing the research that saves you countless hours of frustration. You could at least throw us your two cents between our long working shifts.
Trolls and Lurkers Say “Who Me?”
If you think this is directed to you, you are right. I am writing directly to you, whether you are a blogger, a blog troll, or a lurker. Until you take the initiative to introduce yourself to the other readers of any blog, you are missing the best value of blogs.
Sure, you can sneer at me and think I am an ass for saying what millions of other bloggers feel. I cannot speak for all bloggers, but this will cover a majority. We are working hard for your benefit, and what you failed to notice is that the greatest value comes to those who participate.
Maybe you think we get paid for this. Some bloggers do, but most are doing this to share good information above all. Some have advertisements to help cover their cost, and some blogs are there to promote a brand. There are many good reasons to blog, but most blogs are produced to be helpful and thought provoking, regardless of any other motivation.
For example: If you think that I write about SEO and social media marketing just to sell you something, consider this: If I sold my services to any more than one in 50,000 readers, my services would suffer, and I would be too busy to write this blog. I am not here to fool you, but rather to help you. If I get the benefit of a new client, or a little respect for knowing my job well, that seems pretty fair for both of us.
Don’t ask me for pandering, undue compliments, or to fluff your Teddy bear and pat you on the bum. Heck, just search Google for how to polarize an audience, and there I am … in your face! If you want somebody to tell you how it isn’t, go somewhere else. I will tell you how it is … according to Murnahan, of course.
