How to encourage more comments on Facebook posts
Social media marketing is at the forefront of a brand’s success. The influence of social media is only continuing to grow as each year passes, making strategizing more important than ever before. With social media campaigns, engagement is key. The amount of interaction experienced across platforms is the decider on whether or not you achieve success online. A major aspect of online interaction is comments on Facebook, which go a long way in furthering your reach around the globe. If lots of users decide to post a comment, your post is far more likely to succeed and reach more individuals. For years, brands have been trying to perfect the method of gaining more comments on Facebook posts, we’ve taken a look at some of the key tips on how to encourage comments. Organic engagement is a huge aspect of a post’s success and user comments fall into this category. Facebook measures the quality of a post based on its organic engagement. If your posts are regularly considered to be of a high quality, you will become more visible on the platform. An increased number of comments is also valuable in encouraging more users to interact, as it signals to users that they are missing out by not interacting. All in all, a huge number of comments can have a lasting positive effect on the reach of your content.
Questions
One of the most effective ways to encourage more comments on your posts is the use of questions. It may seem simple, but it is an extremely effective method and will result in an exponential growth in comments posted. By tapping into the psychology of users, questions encourage users to feel compelled to answer. The best questions are usually open and require more than a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer. Another useful note to remember is that questions based on a specific hot topic are also likely to perform well. Another key factor to keep in mind is that questions that are easy to answer and don’t require a great deal of thinking usually perform better than others.
Questions to avoid
On the other hand, not all questions are effective in encouraging comments. It is best to avoid questions that are loaded one way or the other. In other words, questions that encourage users to answer in a certain manner are never as effective as those that don’t. It is also sensible to avoid political questions, as getting involved in politics can often damage an artist’s reputation. A final issue to avoid is over-complicated questions, if a user feels that a question is too complex or will take too long to answer, they will scroll past the post and not engage.
Other methods for encouraging engagement
Questions are not the only method for encouraging comments, there are plenty more options out there. The golden rule is not to force people to comment or use phrases like ‘please comment’ or ‘comment on this post’. Some options for encouraging comments include asking users to caption a photo – a humorous option that is very organic in its use. You may also want to ask users to fill in the blank or choose an option. For example, if you are releasing a range of merchandise, you may want to share the options with fans and ask which design they prefer. This is a very organic method for encouraging engagement and simultaneously demonstrates to fans that you care about their opinions and value them. In order to reliably increase the volume of comments you receive, it is also beneficial to interact with commenting fans. If users see that you are actively replying to questions and comments, they will want to also receive a response. Replying to comments is a great method for rewarding fans and provoking more engagement simultaneously. Even simply responding with an emoji can help to boost comment numbers. Interacting with your fans can only create a positive outcome for your level of engagement.
Ultimately, increased comments across your content can only be positive for your brand. It tells users that others are enjoying your content which psychologically leads potential fans to want to engage with your content too. Increased comments always enable your posts to achieve a better reach, as when a user comments, the post will often feature on their friends’ timelines too. Encouraging comments is a great organic method for reaching more users and with Facebook advertising becoming more expensive than ever, it has never been more vital to generate organic reach.
Whichever option you decide to use, make sure that all of your posts appear as genuine as possible and don’t appear forced. Forcing people to comment can only have negative effects, as your brand will appear less genuine and people will lose interest in your content. This concept is also an issue in advertising, where more organic advertising is key to an effective campaign. The bottom line is, people don’t like to be forcibly advertised to, so the less commercial you can appear, the better. Comments are invaluable to any artist’s social media content, so make sure to explore the full potential with your posts.