Nowadays consumers can seriously impact the image of any brand. Internet technologies progress has opened a spot for users to share their shopping experience freely. And social media, Instagram in particular, have allowed people to express their opinion without censorship – it is not a secret that many brands could moderate the incoming reviews and delete them, since having them sent to their personal sites.
The reviews consumers can get on social media seem much more reliable because, for the brand, it is practically impossible to impact the contents of what the user has posted. Thus people get a rather independent opinion of the product they showed interest in. In modern shopping, it is quite a common practice, when buyers monitor different brands from the same niches and search comments and reviews on social media to get a clear understanding of their choice.
So, the communication that happens in your comment section, is one of the markers that create your image for potential clients. And your task here is to learn how to empower your brand through real Instagram comments from the site buytoplikes.com, for example, and try different practices to boost engagement. Here are some useful tips for you.
Go For More Replies, But Aim For Quality First
One of the common practices among brands on Instagram is not mentioning the price of the product, to motivate users to leave comments questioning it. Some consider that such a method is improving the rates on Instagram, pushing the growth of interest to the brand.
However, in the reality, many people find this practice inappropriate, because:
- They want to have access to comparing the prices from different brands and are not ready to communicate with the brand yet.
- They don’t feel comfortable asking for price specifically.
- Many similar comments are irritating and make your comment section look spammy.
Besides, the law in most states of the world considers the exact pricing to be an obligation because consumers have the right to receive this information freely. If you are worried that your feed is empty, you can order some real Instagram comments. These would be more useful to your growth, than dozens of the same questions, because your goal here is to create a friendly communication channel with your potential customers, that embraces something beyond your price range.
Avoid Robotic Replying
Of course, automated copy/paste text is good in terms of saving time, but users regard such replying negatively. People would expect such an approach from big corporate shopping sites because the amount of queries is imaginably huge. Consumer reaches social media because they seek more personalized communication, so your best decision here would be to provide genuine and somewhat unique replies to the comments your posts get.
In case if your brand is established enough and you have a possibility and budget for hiring a social media administrator for your profile on Instagram, who will secure the maintenance of lively and personal chatting with all your customers.
Don’t Ignore Incoming Negative
Every business has unsatisfied customers. And on social media, unhappy clients often enter the comment section to provoke an immediate response from a brand or simply leave their opinion obvious to other users. Some businesses leave such entries unattended, even if the situation was resolved in direct communication.
That is a huge mistake. Other people can hesitate and make choices for your competitor because they can’t see how you manage the problematic case. Giving the smallest note like “We want to reach you in direct” will work better for your public image. If the problem was solved positively for the unsatisfied consumer, there is a great chance they would update their opinion and mention your support and customer care.
Important note: try to drive the unhappy client to direct communication at all cost, for any issue – the deal between the seller and consumer is personal, and you shouldn’t be manifesting it in your public comments.
Use Comments As A Monitoring Tool
This practice is part of social listening, and to use it properly, you should analyze more than just the comments in your profile. Look through prominent influencers in your industry and see what people are buzzing about. This is a method to receive vital information for improving your performance discreetly, so you can implement the changes seamlessly.
Things you should explore are:
- Clients’ expectations from customer care
- Content users prefer seeing
- Most engaging type of communication
- Insights on preferences for the product
- Most exploitable topics for discussion.
Yep, all that and much more stuff can be found while lurking through the comments on Instagram, so there’s no time to waste!
Encourage Users To Comment
The easiest way to drive people to active communication is by suggesting a topic for discussion right in your post. Make it a question, and this way you can also get the insights you need. Replying to people in comments is a way to show your values and inspirations once more, and increase awareness of the brand.
Also, from time to time you can step out of the industry-related themes. Users will gladly talk about hot trends that appear over the platform, so just look through the explore page to find something hot for chatting. You can also make small-talk regular, and thus create a more powerful bond with your audience.
Moderate Comments
Although it is totally wrong to hide real problematic comments, there are exclusions to that rule. Brands have haters as well, such people just like messing up with others. Sometimes, people can leave negative comments for money – competitors can spend big budgets for diminishing their opponents. Another annoying thing that often happens on brands’ pages is spam comments from bots that offer jobs, inconvenient information, lead to fraud, etc.
The best decision to prevent that is moderation. Nowadays exist many tools that can be set up to delete spam. You should also check your posts manually to exterminate unobjective criticism, trolling, etc.
Respond Quickly
Today the offer is exceeding, and each brand is fighting to gross as many clients as possible. One of the proven ways to get more deals from comments is a swift reaction as they appear. There is a ton of questions that people can ask about your product or service, and a fast response is increasing the chance to drive the potential client to the purchase. There is nothing much to say as this matter is pretty clear.
Don’t forget to check out how long does it take your competitors to respond – and try to do it faster and better.
Conclusion
For brands, the comment section is a powerful communication channel and there is no way you can neglect its importance. Users come to social media to talk. And they want to reach brands in a more personal and direct way.