In some things I’m quick off the mark, but not when it comes to Facebook. I have a love-hate relationship with Facebook; I’ve got a page (and a profile of course) but I rarely use them, unless I can add content automatically when I’m doing something else.
So, I’ve seen websites that have comments using Facebook, but I didn’t realise it was widespread, until I came across The Pros And Cons Of Facebook Comments on TechCrunch yesterday. They have quite a few comments so I scrolled down to read them.
Well, I tried to!
They’re bloody tiny! I regularly delve into TechCrunch comments because I often pick up great tips, but now I’ll be missing that good stuff.
Unless I want to pretend I’m Sherlock Holmes and get out my magnifying glass!
No prizes for guessing I won’t be using Facebook to leave comments. I don’t think I’m alone in that, although my research only extended into the first 5 comments so I could be wrong.
The Topic Of The Month on Information Junkies Anonymous is Connection, so it’s apt that we discuss a comment system that could potentially reduce your connection with your readers and customers.
Would you make Facebook your chosen comment system?
There’s no ability to log in with Google or Twitter, so if you implement Facebook comments you’ll be limiting who can comment on your site. Similarly, if I don’t want to use Facebook to comment you’ll lose my interaction too; not a great loss, I know, but it could alienate some of your readers. And then there’s the problem of people who cannot use Facebook at work; you’ll be shutting the door on them too. (No, let’s not discuss whether people at work should be using Facebook in the first place!)
Neither can you make a backup of your Facebook comments. That might not be a problem, unless you decide to switch back to a different comment system because you don’t like it.
The biggest killer for me is that any Facebook comments I make will turn up in my followers’ news feeds, complete with an article link. How many sites do you leave comments on daily? Can you imagine the volume of information suddenly being thrown at you?
How on earth will we filter out all the noise?
Robert Scoble has interesting observations in his post, I Really Like TechCruch’s New Facebook Comments, notably that the quality of comments went up 1000%. He attributes this to the fact there is less anonymity on Facebook.
#10minsclub and #25To
I like to end each post with something actionable. Something you can take away and do today, because we all know that taking action creates momentum, and momentum means we get more done!
What pros and cons of using Facebook to comment can you see? Will you consider using it on your own site?
Do use the Twitter hashtags to tell us about it, and/or leave a comment below.
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