Be Sure To Respond To Social Media Comments: A Guide

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Updated: October 8th, 2022

Responding to social media comments shows your followers that you have read and you are concerned about what they said. Responding to your follower's reactions or comments is an important social media management technique.

If responding to followers' comments is part of your social media management strategy, you increase follower count, retain followers and even boost the engagement rate, which is important for boosting your SEO.

In this post, we share important tips on how to respond to social media comments. Further, we look at real-world examples of brands prioritizing responding to social media comments.

40% of consumers expect brands to respond within the first hour of reaching out on social media.
If you don't respond to comments on social media, it can lead to a 15% increase in churn rate.
Answering a social media complaint can increase customer advocacy by as much as 25%.

How Responding To Customer Comments Works

Social media occupies an important position in the consumer purchase journey. This is considering that the modern consumer reads online reviews before scheduling an appointment or considering a purchase.

Today, social media platforms have become the go-to place, whenever a customer wants to praise or even criticize the brand.

Therefore, social listening is an important aspect, when it comes to understanding customer pain points and even gaining an understanding of what pleases or frustrates the customers.

Whenever brands respond to customers' frustrations on time, it's a chance to make up the relationship with the complaining customers. Besides, responding to negative social media comments on time is an important aspect of protecting your online reputation.

Likewise, positive customer comments can help your brand stand out from the competition. Therefore, amplifying such customer comments by a way of “reposting user-generated content” could make your brand go viral, as everyone talks of your recent successes.

In that regard, brands need to invest time and other resources into social media listening. Further, the brand needs to respond to either negative or positive comments on time, as this can make or ruin the relationship with the customers.

Here is an overview of the top reasons brands need to respond to social media comments.

1. Customers Experience the Human Touch

With all the automation tools out there, it is easy for brands to start looking quite robotic. The problem with completely going robotic is that your brand may not be able to see and feel the rewards of social media, which include creating an online community of loyal followers. With social media comments, it is the best way for your brand to show the “human side” outside of the automated posts.

Therefore, make sure you have a social media listening tool, so you do not miss customer comments. The tool will help you classify positive and negative comments, and even highlight the comments that require your immediate response.

Further, have a customer relationship officer who responds to customer comments, and is on time. Adding a human touch makes your customers feel important, and so they remain loyal social media followers.

One of the strongest benefits of social media presence is the potential for building a loyal community based on trust.

Ideally, responding to the comments from your existing or potential followers makes them feel appreciated.

Eventually, such followers will be members of your social media community and even amplify your brand reach.

Thus, keeping in touch with your social media followers by a way of responding to their comments is one of the strongest approaches for building your online community.

With every response, show transparency and respond as quickly as you can. More importantly, do not just focus on positive comments, but also respond to the negative comments, and include unique responses to each comment.

3. Lead Generation

When it comes to responding to social media comments, brands often think it is about building their relationship with happy or agitated customers.

However, the reality is that many other potential customers are waiting to read your response, to reach a purchase decision.

Oftentimes, how fast and how well you respond, can generate unanticipated sales. Therefore, be sure to respond soonest possible, with the right response, and in a human way, as you never know who else is watching.

Are you looking for an inspiring example of why responding to social media comments is critical for your brand? Here are some examples to motivate you.

How Virgin Atlantic Ensures Quick and Efficient Response To Customer Comments and complaints Via Twitter

Virgin Atlantic is one of the top brands that ensure active social media listening.

In fact, the airline's social media accounts have become a customer help desk.

Whenever a customer complains about a service or even posts a suggestion, the customer care representatives get back to the customer quickly, and with an appropriate response.

Look at the example below for your inspiration.

embed:tweet

You notice that the airline offers to help the customer, and goes ahead to request the flight details via a private message.

This level of concern definitely makes prospective customers guaranteed of their satisfaction in the event that they book to travel via the airline.

GoPro ranks as one of the most versatile cameras globally.

The brand makes use of its social media platform very well by creating value, promoting its products, and most importantly, interacting with its loyal followers and prospects.

GoPro uses its Twitter and Facebook accounts to promote its brand, reach new clients and connect with its current followers.

embed:tweet

Key Tips For Responding To Customer Comments

Whether negative or positive customer comments, you ought to ensure the right response and one that will not hurt your brand.

Here are important tips to follow when responding to comments via social media platforms.

1. Respond to Customer Issues Helpfully

Prospective customers will most likely convert when they feel that you are polite and helpful when responding to existing customers' concerns.

If you do not respond, the response sounds rude, or if the response is not as helpful, chances are that the prospects will switch to your competition.

Therefore, come up with a social media policy guiding your relevant departments on how to respond to customer comments, to increase the chances of building a loyal social media community.

2. Do Not Ignore Prospects

Often, brands respond to social media comments selectively, favoring existing customers only.

Even if they respond to prospects, some brands fail to do so soonest as they should.

However, the reality is that you could be losing new leads, because of not responding to inquiries by prospects soonest you should.

This is considering that the prospects could be in their purchasing journey, and they are making inquiries to inform their final decision.

If you do not respond to the inquiry on time, you may end up losing the prospect.

3. Uplift Positive Comments

Responding to positive comments about your company can boost visibility.

Ideally, all you need to ensure is that you appreciate the time and the effort the customer put into posting the positive comment.

This alone will encourage the customer to keep posting about their positive experiences, and even share your post to their timelines.

4. Do Not Ignore Negative Comments

Whenever a customer posts a comment complaining about your products or brand, do not overlook the comment.

Instead, show that you care about the experience and request an opportunity to make up for the experience.

Use the right tools for social media listening, to avoid missing critical comments. The social media listening tools will classify positive and negative comments appropriately.

Examples of social media listening tools include:

HubSpot: Social Media Management Software.
Sprout Social: A social media management and optimization platform for brands and agencies of all sizes
Hootsuite: social media management platform that covers almost every aspect of a social media manager's role
Buffer: is a software application for the web and mobile, designed to manage accounts in social networks.
BuzzSumo: A cloud-based platform that helps you discover the best engagement, content, and outreach opportunities across social and search.

Conclusion

Customer comments make a great resource when it comes to gaining insights into what the customers think about your brand.

By following up the customer comments on social media you gain insights on how to improve the products and service delivery, to guarantee customers' satisfaction.

Further, responding to customer comments builds trust and credibility to your brand make sure you provide appropriate answers in a timely and polite manner.

meet the author

Pat Walls

I'm Pat Walls and I created Starter Story - a website dedicated to helping people start businesses. We interview entrepreneurs from around the world about how they started and grew their businesses.

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What Is The Importance of Responding First To Social Media Comments?

Respond To Social Media Comments: Key Take-Aways

How Responding To Customer Comments Works

Why Responding To Social Media Comments Is Critical For Your Business success

1. Customers Experience the Human Touch

2. Builds a Loyal Social Media Community