Blogging Does Not Equal Conversation
This debate keeps popping up: Can it really be a blog if you can't comment? My answer is yes, without any doubt.
The thing is that blogs have many distinctive features, and conversation is one of them. But it is not the only one. And it seems a bit old-fashioned to try to tell bloggers what they must do (or allow). If I blog I can do whatever I want, that's kind of the point. Don't like it? Don't read it.
Of course, as in all business communication we must understand the audience and what they want. But who says that the typical customer of any randomly selected company wants to comment, wants to have an online conversation?
I think that the most attractive feature of blogging for most organizations is the prospect of becoming more human - not constructing anything that is not there, but finding a way to share thoughts and ideas in a way traditional corporate communications just don't have the tools for. And in that case we are talking about writing style and voice. Not conversation.
If you have read this far, you are probably wondering why there is a comment function here... Well, I like comments. I like the conversation. And here I think it's a good idea to use both comments and Trackback. For my own corporate blog, on the other hand, I choose not to use those features. These kind of choices I do based on what I want to achieve. So should you, without feeling restricted by some idea of what blogs "must" look like.
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