As the web editor of TheHotJem.com and lifestyle blogger, one of the things I love about blogging is, it doesn’t limit me to any topic in particular and allows me to use my voice through my content to voice my opinion, spread messages to the public and most importantly, to create change the best way I can through my content.
This is one of those rare moments where I will divert from my usual editorial style focused more on fashion and lifestyle, to do an opinion post, to address an elephant in the room, that is, a topic I am passionate about and that has been a pain point for many African bloggers and content creators, especially Cameroonian bloggers, for a long time now.
What I am about to talk about right now is nothing new to some but hasn’t been formally addressed per se. It’s a trending topic that I sort of instigated and decided to follow up on it by turning it into a blog post here.
Yesterday, a Cameroonian blogger friend of mine, Braun Hill, (creator of Braun Hill’s Blog), posted a url link on her Facebook profile page leading to a new blog post she had published on her blog’s website. The blog post was entitled “Is African Wear Not Good Enough”.
After she posted the link, as expected (or should I say as usual), most of the Cameroonians who saw the link on her Facebook page actually did click on it taking them directly to the article her blog’s website, where they read the blog post (“Is African Wear Not Good Enough“) mentioned above.
This is where it gets interesting. After reading the blog post, they decided to comment about it in the comments section of Braun Hill’s Facebook profile page and not in the comments section of her blog’s website. I noticed this and thought it was weird that they didn’t leave their comments on her website where others reading the blog post could see it and would be more inclined to join the fun and comment as well after reading the post.
I decided to act as the “COMMENT POLICE”, whereby I took it upon myself to ask everyone who commented about the blog on Hill’s Facebook to leave the same comment on her blog’s website under the post their comment was pertaining to. Mind you, in the Cameroonian community, people don’t like being told what to do and i may have slightly rubbed some the wrong way with my simple request as they don’t understand the bigger picture of this request.
Many Cameroonians content creators including myself tend to use Facebook as key platform to promote and share urls to new blog posts and articles on websites we work or blog for. This is more of a call to action to alert friends, family and followers who haven’t subscribed to our blogs and media outlets to go read the articles on our websites. The only issue is that, after reading the blog posts, they never comment on the blog’s website; they comment in the Facebook comment section where they saw the url posted.
Do you really want to know what the problem with not commenting on blog site is?
*Clearing my throat*
Well, the problem is over the last few months I have been trying to advocate and encourage Cameroonian online community and Cameroonian bloggers (especially Anglophone Cameroonians) to be a lot more interacting, engaging and supportive of content created by their favorite Cameroonian bloggers and content creators whose blogs they follow or subscribe to.
When I say engaging what do I mean?
Well what I mean is to be able to read their blog posts and to comment on it directly on their blogs. I have noticed that for the most part, Francophone’s in general tend to be a bit more interactive and engaging by leaving comments on the blog sites of their fellow Francophone bloggers compared to Anglophones who rarely ever comment on actual sites! But for the sake of this message I am going to generalize all Cameroonians together.
The trend I have been seeing for a long time among Cameroonians in general is that when many Cameroonian bloggers have posted a new blog article (which they take time to write up or prepare) on their blog site, they send the link to their readers and friends via Facebook. Once the link(s) have been seen by their friends and others on Facebook, people would then click on the link which takes them directly to blog post on the bloggers site.
What happens after this is the real problem and makes no sense at all… they would read the article on the blog site and then leave the blog site to post their comments about the blog article they just read on Facebook instead of leaving a comment in the comments section of the blog!! The comment section of every blog is usually found right after the blog post so what I can’t understand is why do we leave this comment section blank but go to Facebook to post about it?
For those of you who don’t understand why this is a big issue for blogger’s…I will try to explain it here. The problem with this is that when people land on a blog and read a blog post, if they do not see any comments about it, then their natural reaction would be to not also post a comment as they don’t have any motivation to as they see that no one else has posted.
This can make the blog post or article seem as if it is not good or interesting enough for comments to have been made. Obviously if something you read is interesting you would assume that others found it interesting too and you would also expect to see comments by others who read it.
Now lets take it from another angle; if you came to my blog and read a blog posting or article that I posted and noticed that there were many comments below in the comments section, you would most likely think that people found it interesting enough to comment on it (even if you didn’t find it as such) and your immediate reaction might be to either read the blog post again to see if you were missing the point and/or to also make a comment as you would feel more inclined to acknowledge the comment (it can be a positive or negative comment but it is still a comment).
Even if the article wasn’t interesting, people who see a lot of comments would be bound to want to read it as they would be curious to know why many people commented about it! This creates a buzz to the site for those who came to that blog post and enabling others to come and read the blog and would drive traffic to the blog.
I personally believe that if you really enjoy a bloggers blog, you would naturally want to see many others go to it too and this helps to create traffic to their blog which would allow their ranking on Search engines to be placed higher which makes it easier for people to find the blog when they search for it on Google, Yahoo and other popular search engines. Ok, maybe I am going into too much detail so I will save the whole ranking talk for another blog post but I’m sure you get it.
The point I’m trying to make is when people leave positive and negative constructive comments directly on the blog where they read the article they are commenting about, this would allow the blogger to see what people are saying about it and would help us bloggers to improve on how we blog or present out blogs as comments are the main way for us to know that you are actually reading our blogs.
Why would we blog if we don’t feel that people are reading them? How would you feel if you took time out every day to prepare your best meal but those who eat it everyday never comment on it by either complimenting you cooking or by providing you with constructive criticism? How would I know what to improve on if I am never provided with comments?
I personally take my time out to prepare blog posts for my readers and you might not know this but we actually do LOVE to hear from you all who read though our blogs. Its the best part of blogging!! If you all go and post your comments on Facebook how would people who come to our blogs know that there were many comments made if there are not on the actual blog but else where??
Why are many Nigerian, Ghanaian, Kenyan, South African (the list goes on) bloggers much more successful and recognized than Cameroonian bloggers?
It is not because they have better articles or topics to blog about! I follow several Nigerian and Ghanaian fashion bloggers, some of who don’t even type much but only post pictures of what they wore and even if I didn’t like their outfit much, when I glance at their comments section, they rank up to an average of 10+ comments.
The comments can be as simple as “Lovely dress” but it shows that someone came and read the blog! Whereas with Cameroonian fashion bloggers or any blogger in general you would be lucky if you received even one comment from a friend. That’s how bad it is.
If you are going to argue that the reason why people from Cameroon (living in Cameroon and the diaspora) do not leave comments is because they do not want to leave their footprints or be made known, then that argument does not count because you can always post as an Anonymous person where no one would know who you are!
I find that argument to be quite ironic given that when people post on comments on Facebook all their Facebook friends know their identity. So what difference does it make? Why are we so “COMMENT SHY”?
Dear readers let’s change this ‘bad’ habit and start commenting on more Cameroonian bloggers blog sites or websites. It is the best way to show your appreciation or dismay of a post. It is also a great way to help us improve on our content.
To all my fellow Cameroonian bloggers, beware of the “Comment Police” and practice what you preach by also commenting on your fellow bloggers blogs because f we don’t support your colleagues work, who will? After all, charity begins at home.
Thank you Braun Hill for letting me reference you and your blog for this blog post. For those of you who would like to know more about Braun, you can check out her blog called “Braun Hill’s Blog” here.
I will end my rambling and as always thank you all for your continuous support and please leave a comment here. You can also find us on Instagram.
UPDATE: In 2022, the editorial team of TheHotJem.com decided it best to disable the comment section. It is worthy to note that this post received a high volume of positive comments on the website’s comment section. Our message was well received. In March 2024, we enabled Facebook comments, therefore, all previous comments to the website using the original commenting system will no longer be visible.
