#codyliew

I was right. But the surprising thing was that it wasn’t actually that hard to reply with a “Good! What about you?” These four simple words led to stories. Stories I heard and connections I formed that changed my perspective, and I started to look forward to these little interactions each day.

I met, said hi, and engaged in conversations with more people alone in the five days at SXSW than I have this past year. Every single one of them has changed me. Whether it was getting to know more about my fellow ambassadors (who are painfully smart, driven and so much fun), or talking to random strangers on the street, I’d gotten something good out of every exchange — a personal human story.

SXSW was a whirlwind of sessions, panels, workshops and exhibitions all crammed into five crazy days. I spent most of my days running from session to session trying to cover my track, Content and Distribution, and gather as much content as possible to feed the blog. From learning about how data is now being used not just by advertisers and marketers but even newspapers, to feeling a teeny bit scared by the oncoming Adblockageddon and even seeing how a machine is being developed to define beauty in photography, there were a whole lot of tech and digital advancements being made at break-neck speed.

One thing became clear: all the technology I witnessed was striving to further the evolution of the human race and make it easier to create connections with one another. However, we as advertisers cannot be blinded by the allure of sparkling new tech. No matter how advanced the technology we have at our disposal, if we do not come up with human stories that really connect with our audiences at a human level, it will be useless.

Even though this session focused primarily on the comments sections of news sites, what was shared can and should be applied to the way we, as advertisers, treat the comments sections of our content.

All three of the presenters admit that they’ve had their fair share of trolls, but for every troll they encounter, they’ve had five good comments that have not only shown support, but also given them new ideas and angles for stories.

Erica kick started the panel by sharing a video she did over at Philly.com, where she got journalists to read the bad comments they’ve gotten on their articles (very much like “Celebrities Read Mean Tweets” with Jimmy Kimmel). You can check it out here:

For Greg, he believes that the comments section is important and should be paid more attention to because it is the place that lets you connect and engage with your audience. More likely than not, the people who actually bother to comment (the good ones at least) are most probably your most loyal readers. 

Talia, who did very extensive research on commenters (that she later shared) also believes that the comments section is a great place to learn more about your audience. It’s a gold mine of data for journalists to find new sources, new stories, and also what resonates the most with your audience.

For the research that she did with the Engaging News Project, Talia shared key learnings that include:

How is this relevant to us as marketers?

While we might not get as many trolls on a brand social media post because most of the people who opt to see your posts already like your brand, we still get our fair share of haters. And the thing to remember is that some of these people might actually have a point to a bad comment and review.

As marketers, we should be paying more attention to the comments section and take the time to reply to good AND bad comments to better engage with our audience. The comments on a social media post may not be as insightful as those on a new post because of the nature of the content, but it still shouldn’t be ignored.