http://applications-development.biz Just another WordPress site Thu, 12 Aug 2010 13:12:01 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 http://applications-development.biz/2010/08/04/wordpress-disqus-plugin-why-you-should-get-it-today/ http://applications-development.biz/2010/08/04/wordpress-disqus-plugin-why-you-should-get-it-today/#comments Wed, 04 Aug 2010 10:13:43 +0000 admin http://applications-development.biz/?p=30
Blogging is no longer for the lone writer- blogging is for building community.  It’s being utilized by small and large business, corporations, moms and students. For the business owners, creating a business blog keeps you in touch with your current and past customers and clients. Posting new content with niche keyword density can also guide potential clients to your site. Not only this, but when they get to your community, it’s a great place for them to interact around a mutual interest, product or service and they will feel free to comment and share. With the Disqus (pronounced ‘discuss’) plugin from WordPress, your business blog can become 360 degrees interactive- you won’t have to be one of those businesses that puts up static ads and has no community following. This free little plugin turns a standard blog into a thriving community where people can connect, discuss, and help your blog find even more followers. So, how does it work, and why should you use it for your WordPress site? Here are a few good reasons to integrate Disqus into your blog. Easy Moderation and Admin Capabilities With Disqus, you have the power to moderate and control comments and discussions on multiple blogs all from a single dashboard. You might choose to read and filter comments before they are posted and get email notifications of new comments- this can come in handy for reputation control (something that BP could probably benefit from during this oil spill fiasco). You can even subscribe to a specific comment thread to keep tabs on a hot discussion.  You may want to set up multiple moderators for your comment threads, so you aren’t the only one staring, wide-eyed, at Disqus all night to catch any unnecessary or spammy comments that may come in. It Supports Many Social Networks Commenters can post remarks and comments name, email, and website, but they can also post comments via a social network account, to help spread word about your business. With any comment field, commenters have the option to login using their Twitter or Facebook account- this will show a link to their social media account. And, of course, you as the administrator can have all your comments show links to your business social media accounts as well to gain more traction. Enable Aggregated Social Mentions When enabled, Disqus allows readers to see an aggregated list of comments and entries through the aforementioned social networks. This is a great way to allow readers to see the “big picture” and view an entire discussion from multiple sites in one place- instead of hopping from platform to platform or being isolated in one. Filter Spam and Create Black and White Lists Spammers! Nobody likes spammers- they’re like really bad ninjas. You can prevent spammers from posting on your Disqus forums using filters. You can choose certain restricted words you do not want in your discussions, and you can mark certain comments as spam so the Disqus developers can update their spam detection- benefiting you and other blog owners. You can also create a blacklist barring specific commenters who are abusive or offensive, and a whitelist of approved commenters for your forum. I have implemented Disqus on my WordPress blog, and I’m very happy. I think it has controls that are easy to learn and use- so even if you’re new to the blogging world you shouldn’t have trouble navigating the options menu to set it up. Enjoy! ]]> http://applications-development.biz/2010/08/04/wordpress-disqus-plugin-why-you-should-get-it-today/feed/ 0