If you've gotten to the point where you have some followers then you've probably been here long enough to learn to obsess over them at least a little. When I write a post, I'm not simply writing the post, I'm also carving out about 30 minutes afterward so that I can be sure to answer comments that come along. This is the lifeblood of keeping an active user base- that is engaging with them.

Amanda Palmer give an excellent talk on why it's so freakin' important to engage with the audience you're hoping to maintain.

So, you've gotten your audience, but you're probably not getting all the engagement out of it.

What you probably do

You write your article. You have PALnet open. You're talking to your friends. You see a comment come up like a little DING on your screen. You click the button and rush to answer it. If your page is getting some traction you're probably missing quite a lot of the action.

See the way it works is that when you respond to a post it appears as a reply to the author. When you reply to comment made about the post it appears as a reply to the commentor and not the to the post author. Say What? If I post on an article by @ausbitbank he'll see it come up. If @teamsteem replies to my comment then @ausbitbank won't see it. If it's a lively discussion on your wall then it's possible that what you're doing is making you miss upwards of half the comments on your post.

What should you do?

Open up and refresh the whole article. Scroll down through the comments and stay engaged with the discussion that is directed at you. Now I can see all of what's going on. Now I can upvote funny shit that minnows post in the comments even if they aren't directed at me, and now I'm really engaging the full spectrum of people commenting on a post.

A note about upvoting your own comment

This is normally considered autoerotic curation, and it isn't cool, but in case you haven't noticed yet comments appear in order of highest value on a wall. So, as a dolphin commenting on a minnow post if I want to make sure everyone sees my comment first I simply upvote with enough strength to get in front of everyone else. That's not quite the same as autoerotic curation, but just be careful upvoting your own comments because people will call you out. Then again, if you want to make sure that the author sees it and it isn't buried in the post it's a great way to get visibility.

I will now proceed to answer stuff that comes through for the next 30 min. I'll see you soon.

I'm sexy rockin' this now-

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