Disqus and Intense Debate: If you’re doing social media marketing you should be there
For all the discussion of Twitter, Plurk and FriendFeed there are two other social media services that are, IMHO, far more valuable for marketers and PR folks. They’re commenting systems like Disqus and Intense Debate. If you’re not registered on these systems I strongly recommend you do so because they will change the way you engage social media.
I use Disqus (pronounced ‘discuss’) on this blog. This is not an endorsement of one system over another- I just happened to reading about them when we put the blog together. As a registered commenter on their system others can go to Disqus and see comments I’ve left elsewhere, respond to them, vote on the value of my contribution, etc. The comment stream becomes a stand-alone form of social media.
If you choose to, you can receive any responses to your comments in email or a feed. This has proven very valuable for relationship-building with a wide range of people who share my interests. As my reputation within these systems expands (hopefully favorably!) my influence and reach also increase. This is due to the exponential or network effect of social media. While we often speak of ‘conversations’ in social media there is a striking difference between a real conversation and a social media conversation: In social media your conversation starts at one-to-many and evolves to many-to-many. Participating in commenting systems is a great way to multiply the reach of your particular message. Not only can a comment be read by hundreds or even thousands of people, if it creates value some of those readers can now read more of your comments without having to uncover what other blogs you’re commenting on.