How to Get More Comments on Social Media

Speaker 0 00:00:00 One of the keys to getting more engagement on your social media posts is to grow the number of comments that you see. But that's easier said than done. In this video, we're gonna break down some of the tried and true methods that we've found to grow the number of comments on your posts and your videos. Let's do this. Your, you are listening to the Reach right podcast, the show dedicated to helping your church reach more people and grow. Hey guys, I'm Thomas. Speaker 2 00:00:29 I'm Ian. Speaker 0 00:00:30 And today we are talking about how you can get more comments on social media. Uh, getting comments is really important. Yeah. Uh, because comments is one of the chief signals of engagement on social media posts. So if you want to engage with more people and get the algorithms to show your posts to more people, comments are one of the best ways to do it. And so it's a tried and true strategy. Uh, some of that is changing a little bit with some of the algorithms out there for TikTok reels, YouTube shorts. They're more driven based on, uh, how long people are watching your videos. But I gotta tell you, we have done some research on this and on our videos when I can get a comment when someone comments on them, which we encourage you to do right now on this video, right. We see a much larger engagement just from that. So there's definitely something to be said for it. It is not a lost art. And so today we're gonna talk about some ideas that you can implement Yeah. To get more comments and grow your audience Speaker 2 00:01:27 Well, and I chose that you're interesting too, right? So that's another reason why it matters, but, uh, well, yeah. So what's, I guess the first one, uh, we would say that people, what should you implement to get comments? Speaker 0 00:01:40 Well, the first one is ask your audience their opinion on things. So just asking people, so you'll notice that we'll probably end this episode the same way we always do. Yeah. So we say, Hey, what do you think about this? Let us know in the comments down below. This is one of the things that we just have to get over. Like, I know for a while it was hard for me to ask people to like, and subscribe and comment and do those things. Cause I just didn't wanna feel like that guy, but Right. You know what you have not because you asked not. That's right. Something you have to ask. And especially with comments, it's just trying to have a conversation with your audience, especially as a church. I'm sure there's all kinds of questions, ideas, yeah. Things that people would want to chime in, whether it be about a sermon or some other post that you had out there. Yeah. Asking for comments, I think, and their opinion on it. Um, and keeping that open-ended I think is really, really good. Speaker 2 00:02:30 Yeah. So open-ended. That's a good one. Yeah. That's a good, yeah. Yeah. <laugh> for that too is that, Speaker 0 00:02:35 That was one of our other pieces of advice is make sure your questions that you're asking your audience are not open-ended. So a bad question is, um, you know, do, do, do people that, uh, that look like this or do this, do they go to heaven? You know, yes or no? That's a bad question. Right? <laugh>. So you want questions that are more broad and open-ended and give people a chance to share their opinions and the, there's not really a lot of wrong answers. And listen, it doesn't have to be spiritual. We've said this in other episodes many times before. It could just be fun. In a lot of cases, it's better to ask a fun question like, yeah. What is the best candy bar? And tell us why you think that is. You know, kind of an open-ended or, uh, yeah. You know, doing some of these things that are, uh, in three words, it's kind of close-ended. But if you do something in three words, tell us where you're from, uh, you know, without using the name of your state, you know, something like that. Yeah. Those kinds of open-ended questions where people can be creative, they tend to do better. Speaker 2 00:03:35 Yeah. And another idea I think that's cool, uh, is you can make it easy for people to comment, uh, with just like maybe one word or an emoji even, right. Emoji's expressed so much now and they're fast. Right. So would that be make maybe a little more convenient? People would respond, be more likely to comment if you keep it short? Speaker 0 00:03:54 Yeah. There's different research on this, on whether a long comment or a short emoji comment is more valuable. I, it tends to point that like a long thoughtful response that's, you know, a hundred words is gonna be more valuable to the algorithm. Yeah. But any comment is good. And so, especially when you, like, I think I love that idea of like, Hey, what's your favorite food answer with an emoji? Or something like that. Yeah. That really goes a long way. People can choose the best emoji for Yeah. What they're thinking. Or maybe they'll put together a series of emojis. Yeah. But yet giving some parameters to not make people have to overthink it, uh, but just saying, Hey, you know, answer this in one word or two word, or something like that, that really goes a long way. Speaker 2 00:04:35 Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, maybe also incentivize people with something creative like a giveaway or a, or a contest. Do you think that's a good idea? Those things? Speaker 0 00:04:46 I do. I like the idea of a contest. I have never personally run one. Um, I think that it's something that churches can, uh, take a look at. Um, I, I, I wonder like, you know, what is something that would be engaging it, it has to be something that's worthwhile. Like, so I don't know that like a church bumper sticker or something like that is gonna cut it. Uh, but I do think that, um, you know, if you can find something that's of real value to people, maybe it's a, a trip to a retreat or a camp that you guys are running there as a church, that kind of content or that kind of a, a reward or a prize is really good. And the way you enter the contest for the drawing to get a free, uh, admission to financial peace university is by leaving a comment down below that explains why you think this is a great thing for people to do, or something to that effect. So yeah, running a a comment contest is a great way to do it. Speaker 2 00:05:36 Yeah. Because I'm dead broke, I need financial peace. So, yeah. No, so at last, but not least, we end with, uh, maybe one that's a little more controversial. So em, should churches embrace debate? Uh, you know, and to be able to get more comments? Speaker 0 00:05:51 Yeah. So healthy debate, yes, we should absolutely embrace that because when you can embrace debate, you'll actually breed more comments that'll happen on your post. So we don't wanna stir up controversy for controversy's sake, but controversy will find us as churches, right? <laugh> people are gonna comment. Oh, yeah. So if people have inappropriate con comments or they're just straight up, you know, promoting atheism and using obscenities, don't debate with that. That's not worth your time to do those kinds of things. But if someone has legitimate questions or they think, Hey, maybe, um, you know, I, I think that maybe we should think about it this way instead, and someone else answers on that, sometimes you have to just let that sit. It's good to sit in that conversation and let people have that back and forth and work out some of these things. Now, if someone's just criticizing your last sermon and saying, that was terrible and pastor was dead wrong about this, those are better to delete. But if someone's asking a question and it's a heartfelt, true, sincere question, that's something I think that's worth embracing and it'll actually help to breed more comments. Speaker 2 00:06:57 Yeah. That's good. Speaker 0 00:07:00 Awesome. Yeah. Anything else to add as we close? Speaker 2 00:07:03 No, we want comments. If this was engaging and uh, we did a good job, please give us comments. Speaker 0 00:07:09 Please let us know when the comments. Yeah. And if you have a debate, you wanna start with us, we're open to debating as well too. Whether, if you think comments are a bad idea for churches, <laugh>, let us know. When the comments below, we'll debate it out. Just don't cuss at us and we'll be fine. So please Speaker 2 00:07:21 Don't know. Thanks Speaker 0 00:07:22 Guys, for, thanks for watching and we'll catch you next week.