Social Media: Why You Should Respond

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I've been around social media for a long time, and first started getting into online communities and talking to people online around 2009-- first it was through fandom/ficdom, but now it's mainly through a shared love of writing.

Something I've noticed is that while everyone wants comments and responses to things they write and say, but once they have them, some people don't respond.

I remember an incident where a fanfic writer threatened to friend lock their fics because they weren't getting many comments. I looked at a few of their fics and they never replied to the comments they did receive. The general consensus in my circle was that instead of stopping silent readers from accessing their fics, they should encourage others to comment by replying to comments. They thought that the fanfic writer came across as entitled for demanding comments, and rude for not replying to the ones they had. Obviously not a good impression.

This got me thinking. You choose to put someone online. Other people choose to leave you a (nice) response. Now...

Do you have to reply to every single comment or reply you get?

While no one has to do anything, replying or giving some sort of acknowledgement that you've seen them is a great idea, especially if you want to build connections, and encourage people to continue interacting with your content.

Replying thoughtfully will leave a good impression, and encourage that person to interact with you again, and perhaps even encourage a newcomer to interact with you. No one wants to feel ignored, or like they wasted their time trying to be friendly or start a conversation.

For example, let's say Mary tweets about a cake she baked. Cindy replies to the cake, saying that it looks delicious and asking what flavour it is. Mary never replies, but carries on tweeting about other things. Mary and Cindy are mutuals, and found each other by a NaNo forum thread where people swapped Twitter usernames.

A few things might happen, especially if this isn't the first time this has happened:

1. Cindy feels like Mary is ignoring her, and unfollows
2. Cindy feels like Mary is ignoring her, and stops replying/mutes Mary because she feels like there's no point
3. Bob sees the Tweet, opens it, sees Cindy's unanswered tweet, and thinks "why bother tweeting this person if they don't reply." 

None of those are very desirable results. Sure, there will be people who don't care if you don't respond to them, but there will be people who do. 

Whether it's a tweet, Tumblr ask, or blog comment, I always try my best to respond in some way, even if I'm just faving that tweet or replying with a quick "Thank you for commenting!"

How do you respond (or not respond) to comments or replies?