Join the conversation . . .
Jason Fry |
Oct. 5, 2009 8:01 a.m.
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As you’d probably guess, I follow a large number of people who cover the New York Mets, love them, or both. It’s a list that includes Mets bloggers and passionate fans, as well as some of the New York papers’ more-interesting sportswriters. Taken together, their tweets offer me an invaluable feed of real-time Mets news and unvarnished fan reaction.
Great stuff, but something unfortunate happens nearly every Friday. The sportswriters tweet their #followfriday recommendations, and they’re almost exclusively other sportswriters. Rarely, if ever, will you find one of the pros recommending a blogger or a passionate fan.
It may seem like a little thing, but it’s a small example of a larger problem: a failure to communicate.
It’s now common to find reader comments attached to sportswriters’ articles and blog posts. But seeing a writer actually join the conversation happening down there under his or her name? Total solar eclipses may be less rare. And therein lies a lost opportunity – one that’s quickly becoming a requirement online.
Publishing used to be almost entirely a one-way affair: Writers’ work appeared in newspapers, magazines, books or on TV, all of which demanded a lot of money to produce and distribute. Writers spoke to readers through articles. If readers wanted to talk back, they wrote letters to the editor, a few of which were picked from the pile, edited and published in another part of the newspaper days after whatever article had prompted a reaction. The effect was not unlike handing commandments down from the mountain, with an occasional response heard dimly from the valleys below.
But things have changed. Technology has given readers the tools to publish and distribute their own writing, and sports is one of their favorite subjects. They’ve set up printing presses on the mountain’s slopes, which now echo with a cacophony of voices. Those readers, once silent, now write their own game stories and post analyses of newspaper articles and columns and comment on articles and blogs. There’s a huge conversation going on, but too many sportswriters remain aloof from it. They’re up there on the summit, wondering where all the peace and quiet went.
I spent years as a columnist for the Wall Street Journal Online, and I was as guilty of this as anybody. Despite earning a dot-com paycheck, my interactions with readers were largely limited to emails. I answered these irregularly, and often as part of a weekly roundup of (culled and edited) reader reaction. Which was just letters to the editor in a new guise.
I was still up there on top of the mountain, and it showed. One of my assignments at WSJ.com was to coach a veteran Journal writer through his first months as a blogger. When he asked about responding to comments, I gave him some of the worst advice I’ve ever offered. Treat comments like hosting a good cocktail party, I said. People will feel flattered if you come up and chat, but if you stay in their circle too long they’ll wonder if you’ve got nothing else to do, and start thinking that maybe this isn’t such a cool party.
No. Absolutely not. What I advised, under a veneer of cleverness, was arrogant, top-of-the-mountain thinking. I was encouraging him to pass up a big opportunity. Those people commenting on your articles and blog posts and following you on Twitter are your readers. They’ve paid you the compliment every writer craves – they’ve read what you wrote. More than that, they’ve cared enough to respond to it. That’s the beginning of a conversation – one that’s potentially very valuable to you as a writer, and that it’s incumbent on you to join.
I’ve changed my ways – I’m now an active part of the discussion on my two blogs, and I track and join conversations about my books. Sometimes I think this will never feel natural to me, but that’s not the point. It’s part of the job. And, I’m happy to say, it’s proved much more enjoyable and rewarding than I would have thought.
This may seem like I’m ignoring the fact that Web comments can swiftly devolve into personal attacks and mean-spirited abuse, much of it misspelled and in capital letters. I know – I hate it too. But you can engage without endorsing the ranters and haters. Respond to the comments that offer something of substance, or that at least seem reasonable. Correct the record where it’s needed. Acknowledge good points where they’re made. Answer what questions you can, and ask some back. If nothing else, agree to disagree and thank people for reading and writing. (And once you’ve done all this, by all means ask if somebody in your paper’s IT department can’t institute a comment system that lets readers reward good comments and punish/eliminate bad ones.)
The conversation doesn’t just happen in the comments area of articles and blog posts. It also unfolds through blog posts written elsewhere in reaction to your articles, and on Facebook and Twitter. Engage there too. Read (and follow) outside of your professional circle. Link out to sports blogs when they make good points, and set them straight (politely) when they don’t. Wade into their comment sections when your work is discussed.
This seems like extra work, but it will soon be just part of the job, so get used to it now. Besides, it’s in your own interests. For all the talk of revolution, spots blogs still crave attention from established media outlets – the so-called MSM. If you engage the good ones, they’ll be happy to help you. Do so – good, successful blogs aren’t one or two people, but highly loyal communities that are full of people who are already your readers, or who should be.
Everywhere you reach out, you’ll win fans and loyal readers – and you’ll turn critics into champions. (You might even enjoy yourself.) But the first move has to be yours: Come down from the mountain and join the conversation.
Jason Fry spent more than 12 years at The Wall Street Journal Online, serving as a writer, columnist, editor and projects guy, and is now the Web evangelist for EidosMedia, a maker of editing-and-publishing software for newspapers and other publishers. While at www.WSJ.com he edited and co-wrote The Daily Fix, a daily roundup of the best sportswriting online. He blogs about the Mets at Faith and Fear in Flushing (www.faithandfearinflushing.com), and about the newspaper industry at Reinventing the Newsroom (www.reinventingthenewsroom.com). Write to him at jason.fry@gmail.com, visit him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/jason.fry, or follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jasoncfry.
