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💬 How to answer every comment (without living in them)
Welcome back to TWISM!
Are you actually remembering to answer your comments?
On Nov 2, Meta's free Creator Assistant started drafting replies to Facebook comments (Social Media Today). Pair it with a few free settings you already have, and you can answer a lot more of your comments without living in your inbox.
Here are 5 ways to do it, starting with the one screen that holds all of them. 👇
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🌅 Every comment from overnight, on one screen
Meta Business Suite puts your Facebook and Instagram comments in one inbox, so you can answer both in one sitting. On desktop, open Inbox, go through the comments on each post, then click Move to done so you know where you left off (Meta).
Two-thirds of comments arrive outside 9-to-5 hours, and one in five is spam, bots or abuse (Respondology). I'd hide the junk instead of replying, because the person who wrote it (and their friends) still sees a hidden comment and never knows you hid it.
Do this: tomorrow morning, open Inbox in Business Suite and work through every unread comment on both accounts before you post anything new.
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🔑 Let a keyword answer the question you're sick of
Business Suite can DM people automatically when they comment a word you pick. It's called Comment to message, and you set it up on desktop under Inbox → Automations → Create automation, then check which of your accounts it offers (Meta).
I'd start with whatever people ask you most, like price or a link, because that's the reply you type the most times. Keywords are case-sensitive and must match exactly, so add a few spellings ("price", "Price", "PRICE"), and the DM waits 15 minutes in case you reply yourself first (Meta).
Do this: set one automation for your most-asked question, then put the keyword in your next post ("Comment PRICE and I'll DM it to you").
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📩 Take "how much?" to DMs within 7 days
Answer buying questions in public, then send the details by DM. Every comment in Business Suite's Inbox has a Send message button, but on Instagram it stops working once the comment is more than 7 days old (Meta).
Keep the public reply short, like "Just sent you a DM!", so other people can see you answered. The DM is where the price, the link or the photos go.
Do this: go back through this week's comments and DM everyone who asked about price or stock before their 7 days run out.
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🤖 Meta will now draft your Facebook replies
Meta's Creator Assistant finds the Facebook comments waiting on a reply and drafts answers in your voice. Nothing posts until you review and edit it, and it also alerts you when a post takes off so you can get into the comments while they're busy (Meta).
It's live first for Facebook creators in the US, Canada and India. I'd treat every draft as a starting point and rewrite any line that doesn't sound like you, since the reply goes out under your name.
Do this: open your Creator Dashboard homepage on Facebook and check whether the assistant is there for you.
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📈 Your replies count most on Threads and LinkedIn
Replies are linked to the biggest engagement lift on Threads, LinkedIn and Instagram, and the smallest on Facebook. Buffer's data team looked at about 2 million posts and found that posts with replies got 42% more engagement on Threads, 30% more on LinkedIn, 21% more on Instagram and 9% more reactions on Facebook (Buffer).
The study can't prove replying causes the lift, because strong posts may draw more replies anyway. So I'd let the drafts and the keyword DMs cover Facebook and save your hand-typed replies for Instagram, LinkedIn and Threads.
Do this: reply to every comment on your next 5 Instagram or LinkedIn posts, then compare their engagement with your usual.
✅ What to do this week
Set up one keyword reply. Comment to message answers your most-asked question by DM, even when you're offline.
Clear comments from one screen each morning. Two-thirds of comments land after hours, so a morning sweep catches most of them.
DM this week's price questions now. Instagram won't let you DM a commenter once their comment is 7 days old.
☝️ The one-sentence version
Clear your comments from one screen each morning, let a keyword and Meta's drafts handle the repeat questions and save your hand-typed replies for Instagram, LinkedIn and Threads.
Hit me with yours: what's the question you answer most in your comments?
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📚 Sources
That's all for today. Thanks for reading. Now…
Go BIG or go home!
~ Josh from "This Week in Social Media"
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