It’s not hard to get likes on Instagram. You use a few hashtags, then follow all your friends, fellow small business owners, and clients, and the likes seem to pour in! But, for whatever reason, you’re not having as easy of a time with comments.
While you appreciate every like you receive, we all know that likes alone are not enough to grow your account as much as you’d like to.
The number one thing that’s going to help you build relationships and ultimately, gain new clients, is comments!
Why Are Comments So Important?
You post your photos on social media and get a good number of likes, but you still have one problem — your comments section is nearly empty! While likes are certainly helpful, getting your number of comments up will really take your posts to the next level.
Comments tend to be more beneficial than likes for a few reasons. They help you build relationships with your followers, increase engagement on your posts, and encourage repeat customers.
While large national or regional brands can reach their target audience and find new customers through expensive digital and print advertising campaigns, your business mostly comes from word of mouth. How do you get people talking about your business? By giving them a personalized experience that they’ll remember!
Relationships are essential in the small business world. While some people may become customers without any personal attention, the ones you take the time to get to know and let into your personal life are the people who will become your repeat customers.
When your clients know more about you as a person, rather than just the face of the business, they feel more of a personal connection to you and your products. People are much more likely to support someone they see as an acquaintance or even a friend than just a random business they find on Instagram and leaving and responding to comments is the first step in building this bond.
How to Turn Likes into Comments
You know just how important comments are, but despite your best efforts, you’re still struggling to get more than one or two comments on each post. If you’re ready to take your social media game to the next level, try out some of these tips on your next few posts!
Ask Questions
If you’ve taken steps to increase your posts’ engagement in the past, you may have tried asking questions in your captions for people to answer in the comments. Maybe this helped you get a couple more comments than usual, or maybe it didn’t make much of a difference at all. Whatever the results were, there is a way to take this step further!
Think about the way most people, including yourself, use social media. Unless something is particularly eye-catching, you probably look at the image, give it a like, then scroll on to the next post without taking much time to read the caption. This means the majority of your followers and people who see your post on their feed never even see the questions you’re asking, moving on without offering much in terms of engagement.
If you want more people to see and respond to the questions you’re asking, consider asking them within the post rather than in the caption. You might want to do this in a video, or you could create a graphic that asks the question through text. More people will actually see the question, meaning more people will be inclined to answer in the comments.
Respond to the Comments You Get
One of the best ways to encourage conversation in your comments section is to respond to the comments you’re already getting. Whatever type of comment a follower leaves, whether it’s a question, compliment, or general statement, reply quickly with a follow-up question or comment that encourages them to comment back!
When most people receive a comment on social media, unless it’s a question, they’re inclined to respond with a generic “thank you!” or yes/no response. Although there’s nothing wrong with these types of replies, they definitely won’t encourage further conversation.
For example, let’s say you post a photo of a new top you have available. One of your followers comments saying, “I love this piece!” Now, think carefully of how you’ll respond.
While you could just say “thank you,” you know now that doing that won’t help you build relationships or increase future engagement. Instead, consider saying something like, “Thank you! I love this color during the summer, but I feel like I’m running out of things to match it with. What other colors do you think I should try?”
With any luck, the same person will reply to your comment offering their thoughts. Others may even chime in if the conversation is flowing well enough! This will not only help you get more comments on a particular post, but it will also help you build friendly, trusting relationships with your followers and let other people know that they can expect a friendly, personal response on future comments.
Focus on Engaging Content
If you’re ready to take a bigger step to get more comments on your posts, consider switching up the type of content you’re posting.
As a small business owner, your feed is probably full of product photos and videos, information on sales and promotions, and details about purchasing. While these are all great types of content, you need to switch it up a bit if you want more engagement.
A few of the types of content you can consider incorporating into your social media feed include:
● This or That? - Ask your followers to comment for “this” and like for “that.”
● Q&A Time - Create a graphic telling people to ask any questions they have about you, your business, or your products in the comments. Then, reply to each comment or create a separate video or story post to answer the questions you receive.
● Tag a Friend - Post a product and ask your followers to tag friends in the comments. Ask questions like, “Which of your friends could you see wearing this?” Not only will this encourage comments and open your posts to a wider audience, but you might even see an increase in followers or sales!
The most important thing to remember with this type of content is that, even if a follower does not respond to your “prompt,” you should always reply to their comments. While these posts focus on gaining comments about a specific topic, you don’t want anyone to feel left out or hesitant to comment again in the future!
Comments Are Essential for Small Business Owners
As you already know, the relationships you build with your clients and followers on social media are essential for your continued success. While comments will absolutely help your engagement numbers, that’s not the only reason to strive for them! When you and your clients have quick but meaningful interactions on your posts, it creates the building blocks of a relationship and encourages repeat purchases.