It’s awkward, isn’t it? It’s like those moments when a public speaker asks the audience a question and no one says anything. It turns into a staring contest between the speaker and the audience. Who will crack first? Well, there are awkward smiles all round. 

Getting comments on your social media posts isn’t just about saving face. One, comments show the algorithm that your post is good and therefore your post is more likely to be shown to more people. Two, more importantly, comments are a way to build relationships with your audience members. Your relationship with your audience determines whether they are willing to work with you. Sparking an emotional connection makes a real difference to the success of your business. 

The practicalities 

So encouraging commenting on at least some of your posts is a good idea. There are some practicalities we need to cover to make this happen. 

• Post at a time when your audience is active. They can’t comment on your post if they’re not online. 

• Create a scroll stopping post that your audience starts to read in the first place. An intriguing first line, appealing graphic and ideal client-specific hashtags will help you out here. 

• Ask for engagement. Have dedicated posts each month that you share to encourage engagement. They’re not distracted by clicking on a link or anything else. They’re focusing on your ask to leave a comment like answering a question or sharing their opinion for example. 

• Engage back! Relationships are a two way street after all. Knowing they’ll get a personal response from you increases the motivation your audience has to leave a comment. 

With these practical elements in mind, let’s dig deeper into what could be holding your audience back from leaving comments on your social media post. 

You’re asking for something irrelevant

Is your call to action meaningful to your audience? If they are going to be bothered to leave a comment on your post (instead of just scrolling on and finding another interesting post), they really need to be motivated. Do they really want to leave a comment on what they’re having for dinner or the name of their favourite teacher from school?

People love sharing their opinions but they’ll only bother writing a comment if it’s something they’re passionate about. That doesn’t mean it has to be serious. Although sharing a personal story will encourage others to be vulnerable and connect over similar experiences. It could be something funny or silly or that really grinds their gears. Whatever you ask people to comment, make sure your audience has the motivation to leave a comment about it. 

You’re asking for too much

That being said, if you ask for their whole life story, is your audience actually going to write all that out? Asking your audience members to comment something meaningful, doesn’t mean commenting something really long. Actually, I’d advise against it. 

Consider how much time and effort social media users are willing to spend on writing a comment. For most people, it’s probably 5 or 10 seconds - 30 seconds max! There are exceptions because the stronger your relationship with the audience member, they longer they’ll spend commenting. Social media is innately fast-paced and that includes the pace of engagement. Ask a question that won’t take forever to think about and write down an answer. 

They aren’t getting to the end

If your audience members aren’t reading your call to action, they’re not going to fulfil it. Simple as. That means your post should guide readers through the topic your exploring from paragraph to paragraph, landing them at the call to action. 

While I encourage engagement-focused social media posts to feel like a conversation, wordy content that goes off on tangents quickly puts off your audience members. Again social media is a low stakes world. Readers can just scroll on if they aren’t interested. Keep your audience engaged to get them to engage with your content!

I know, I know, easier said than done. Unless…

I have put together a structure for how to write a conversation starter social media post. It guides you step by step on what to write from beginning to end with some prompts to get the words flowing. You can download it as a Google doc so you can literally start writing immediately. 

Get your hands on the conversation starter social media post structure by joining The Content Oracle, my monthly membership where I add new content structures, frameworks and resources every month to fast-track your process of writing compelling content. 

If you want to get more comments on social media, you need to write social media posts with comments in mind. What will interest your ideal client enough to take time out of their day to leave a comment? This determines the topic you discuss, the opinion you share and the language you use. 

My top content writing tip is to write with the end in mind. It makes it so much easier because you know your destination.