Social Media Engagement: Why prioritizing your comments and DMs is a winning strategy

Kait Richmond is a writer, producer and contributor to the M.T. Deco Blog

When it comes to digital strategy, you’ve probably heard some people say that content is king. We don’t disagree, but we also don’t think enough people consider what comes after you hit “publish.” The conversation that follows in the comments and DMs is what completes the content circle.

To win at that last piece, you have to be engaging with your audience. It’s a two-way street: if you want people to engage with your content, and build a meaningful connection with you or your brand, they have to know someone on the other side is listening [and, when it applies, willing to help].

Gone are the days when brands and creators could ignore the comment section. Social media is officially part of our daily lives, and to have success, it’s time to meet the customers where they are. Research from Sprout Social shows that it’s what people want, but that not many are succeeding:

You’re probably thinking: yes, I need to be better at engaging with my audience, but who has the time?

We get it, because it’s well-known that even the best social media teams are strapped for time and resources, and many can only keep up with posting. On top of that, customer service is a very different job, and if there is a dedicated team, they face many of the same constraints as their social media counterparts.

There are plenty of tips and tricks to get started, but let’s be honest: engagement needs to be prioritized on a consistent basis. Unless you have the budget to hire a community manager, it might take some reassessing of priorities. But those numbers above show that you’ll have a big competitive advantage if you commit to doing it well.

Let’s get into some ways you can get started:

  • Time blocking – It can be very easy to spend all of your time reading comments, especially if you run a big account. To avoid this, choose one or two 20-minute time blocks each week that will be dedicated to going through your comments and inbox. You’ll find yourself getting into a rhythm and able to get through more messages over time, and from there you can adjust your schedule.

  • Draft common responses – As you dedicate more time, you’ll probably start to see trends in questions and comments. Start a document with FAQs so you can easily pull the responses you use the most, leaving room to make them personal to each person reaching out.

  • Collaborate with other teams – If you’re working for a brand, collaborating with the Customer Service or Sales teams to identify the best tools for customer success and even sharing the work can have a big impact, especially if part of the problem you’re facing is volume.

  • Use the UGC as content – Why not accomplish two goals at once? There are plenty of content opportunities to be found when mining the comments and DMs.

There’s no sugar-coating here: this is a process and, to many people, one of the less fun parts of digital strategy. But it doesn’t have to be. 

We take a lot of inspiration from Tinx, who's been a top creator since 2020 and is especially good at that last point on UGC, which we’ll get into in a second. But what’s especially important to know about Tinx is that her audience is her mission [AKA her North Star].

“I had no concept that you could actually care so much about people that you’ve never met,” she told Glamour. “I had no concept I could have such a connection with these women. And I am utterly obsessed with them. Everything I do is for them. And that is the most fulfilling aspect of my life, period.”

Because of that, Tinx has made engagement part of her content strategy. It’s not a follow up to the work, it is the work. You can see that the most on her Instagram Stories, where she regularly shares screenshots of conversations happening with followers in her DMs, and does AMA [Ask Me Anything] question boxes, at least once a week but sometimes more.

It’s not just on Stories. She is always responding to comments on her Instagram and TikTok posts, many of them often videos showing her talking to fans on her Sirius radio show. Glamour wrote about an example: “In a recent video, Najjar asked her audience what the worst thing a partner has ever said to them was, sharing her own. The comments were filled with replies from women sharing painful and embarrassing anecdotes, with Najjar responding to many with words of encouragement.”

Tinx is the master at engagement, but there are brands who do it right, too. Everyone always talks about Duolingo, whose impressive social strategy has earned the team tons of accolades, but most don’t have the time [or let’s be honest, the humor] for that kind of execution. If your priority is being reliable for your customers, we suggest taking a look at Nike.

Instead of mixing customer service with its marketing messaging, Nike maintains the @NikeService Twitter account for customers who need assistance. A quick browse through the feed shows that the account is timely [they responded to this tweet in less than 10 minutes] and conversational [“Hey there, we're bummed to hear this. Mind meeting us in DM with when and where you purchased those shoes?”]. Customers don’t need witty; they just want a fix for their sneakers.

There are a couple of other things we love about this account: the aforementioned tweet is not a message a lot of brands would want to amplify, but it’s more important to Nike to be in service of its customers. Also, the Twitter bio is on-brand, and makes the purpose of the account clear: “Athletes helping athletes, 7 days a week.”

The right ways to engage with your followers is an ever-evolving conversation, but these basic tips are evergreen and will start you on the road to success. Do you have a favorite brand or creator who is engagement #inspo and #goals? Let us know in the comments!

Need To KnowEmma MarshallComment