Mark W. Schafer does an excellent job on his {grow} blog in engaging his readers in discussions in the comments of his posts. I participated on the post, “Wait a minute. It’s not about engagement after all!” In this post and its comments, two sides emerge to the question, is a blog successful if there are no comments? Does the success of a blog depend on the number of comments readers make?

Schaefer suggests that we re-frame our expectations for the corporate blog. Recent studies show that large percentages of blog readers are first-time visitors, which means that the assumption that blogs build community is incorrect, and that building community may not be a realistic goal for many bloggers.

This is what I mean by “The Call to Action Has Become a Call to Knowledge.”  A B2B company’s blog is an excellent way to take pulse—to learn a company’s philosophy and culture, observe its thought leadership, and to gather industry knowledge. In giving prospects more control over their engagement in the new buying cycle, we marketers must respect their option to engage passively, lurk, and learn.

Not every visitor to a blog has an opinion to add. Not every reader is a writer. And many blog readers are content being just that—readers—not community members, or even subscribers. While there are metrics that indicate a blog’s success, I don’t believe that the lack of engagement is a “fail.”