Continuing on part 3 of the “ReThinking Social Media” Series, I briefly covered a section that many of you are probably already familiar with, and that’s “silence.”
Specifically, closing off sections of “engagement” can sometimes be advantageous, if used well, to spur others into action and can actually be more effective in terms of community development than first realized.
For example, the primary communications channel for a blog is typically the commenting section. But what if you turned it off?
You can probably think of a few, like Seth Godin, who turns their comments off, and in the right context and culture (as you develop it as well) sometimes it can be extremely helpful, encouraging engagement in another form and fashion.
Seth, for example, is a genius. As he has closed down the comments he’s forced others to engage with him by blogging about him instead of doing it directly. The result is that he’s built a bridge from the blogger’s community to his and his traffic ranking goes up as well as his SEO results and equity.
Genius.
Now, you don’t have to necessarily have to have the same motivations, but keeping areas on your blog “silent” can produce some profound effects.
anivus says
I was going to blog about this post… but I see your comments are on 🙂
human3rror says
PUAHA. nice catch.
Josh Wagner says
Silence breeds new thought, I think. When we quiet ourselves, we hear new things (whether they be spiritual things or not). This might turn into another post on my blog…
Jim says
I'm new enough to blogging that I haven't been able to hit an active spot yet. I wouldn't be comfortable with silence at the moment.