How To Write Helpful Comments With Honesty And Be Loved By Your Community

Create an environment instead of an audience

You wake up and go straight to your computer. You open Medium and you see something unbelievable: hundreds of new followers and a huge audience reading your articles.

Lots of comments, people cheering you, your favorite author excited to see you growing so fast. It must be a dream, right?

Actually, no.

Today, I’m going to share with you a technique every successful person knows and applies in his/her daily routine. Most of them are quite unaware of this magic secret, but is something YOU are doing, but in the wrong way.

Are you ready to listen to something so simple, yet complicated, that is limiting you from being the author you always wanted?

Comments sections in Medium are the doors to heaven. They are the places where every writer would like to be appreciated, criticized and glorified.

While many of us simply share a “Great job!”, other great authors or editors spend their time REVIEWING the article. They understand the effort the author put in the writing process and they congratulate with him/her giving a personal opinion.

Why is it so important to give opinions?

Building Trust

While is comfortable to say “I love it, thanks”, being honest and review an article builds trust between you and the writers.

They will actually stop from what they’re doing and will listen to what you have said, feeling that someone cares about their work.

Time builds incredible rapports, and if you take your time to give a honest and long review, writers will feel understood and helped.

Too many of us think when we are writing a comment we will be seen as rude if we give our personal opinion. You need to express your intention to help them to be attentive to the readers’ needs.

And I will tell you exactly how you will become a great reviewer without being classified as a monster.

Expressing Good Intentions

I usually start with a “Thanks, I really enjoyed the article”. Obviously you must mean it, if not skip this part.

Then, I give writers opinions about my experience. These are the phrases you can use to start:

• “I find the article to be really well structured, I really liked… But I have to say…”
• “I think the article should have been structured differently, because (reason 1,2,3…)”
• “When I read this part, I was a bit confused, because (reason 1,2,3…)

If the article was perfect for you, you can share the thoughts that you’ve found helpful too. This will help you to remember what you’ve read even better, and the writer to know people are actually reading, instead of skimming.

The last part is used to close the conversation. I usually begin saying:

• “Thanks again for publishing the article”
• “The article is helping me because (your experience 1,2,3…)
• “I hope you won’t feel offended by my critics”

With these three phrases, you will reinforce the trust the reader will have in you, feeling you are there to help and to share a common experience.

These are great examples to start with if you find difficult to speak both honestly and gently with writers in Medium, and if you have other ways to comment effectively with people I would like to hear them from you.

Try to comment on my article right now using my scheme. If you implement it in you everyday writing, you will meet amazing people sharing great thoughts.

This article was born from a comment by Kathryn A. LeRoy, Ph.D. and that’s why you should definitely start interacting more.

Thanks for reading, it’s time to comment!