If you have a business blog, you already know that comments and conversation are your blog’s bread and butter; without them, your blog will quickly become stagnant and your readers disinterested. Ultimately, the goal of a good blog is to keep interaction with your readers high, and to encourage dialogue, feedback, and comments. But how do you achieve that? Part of the answer can be found by looking at what NOT to do.

So many bloggers make the mistake of heavily moderating reader’s comments before publishing them. Although the temptation to want to screen out negative or insulting comments is understandable, this practice can backfire.  Allowing comments to post immediately before being approved helps to foster a sense of trust and loyalty in your readers.  But requiring comments to pass through a screening process before being posted feels a lot like censorship to most people, and often discourages them from posting at all.

Another big mistake is not allowing commenters to identify themselves with a URL. This is kind of like holding an executive board meeting, opening the floor up for discussion but forbidding people from identifying who they are. Again, the logic behind this is valid: if you allow unmoderated comments, you fear your blog will become clogged with trolls and spam. While this is a possibility, there are other ways around the issue. Use a good spam filter on your blog.  For the ones that slip through, and for the outright malicious comments, there is nothing wrong with removing them after the fact. The trust you will gain in your readers by allowing unmoderated comments far outweighs the risks of having a reader see some spam before it’s taken off.

Finally, don’t make the mistake of being absent from the discussions on your blog. Interact with your readers, respond to their comments, and give feedback to their suggestions. Ultimately, your business blog is an open line of communication between you and your customers.  Don’t forget that communication requires interaction. Without a back and forth dialogue, after awhile your readers will feel like they are talking to themselves, and will move on.