How to Turn Facebook Followers Into Raving Fans (this tip works for Instagram, too!)

Replying to your social media follower's comments only takes a minute, but has a lasting impact on brand loyalty

If there is one thing that will increase your sales, it’s having an active social media community.

61% of loyal customers go out of their way to buy from specific brands and 60% will make more frequent purchases (70% for millennials) and 50% will purchase more products (inmoment).

I’ve done a lot of social media audits for clients lately and I have noticed a trend amongst the brands that have very active Facebook and Instagram communities. What is it?

They reply to their followers' comments.

Replying to comments is the simple secret to turning mere followers into raving fans on social media.

But why do I care if I have followers or raving fans?

Followers are audience members who see your posts occasionally but feel little connection to your brand. Fans feel invested in your brand and want to be a part of it.

Fans are:

-More likely to like, share and comment on your posts. This increases your posts’ value in the algorithm and gets your posts seen by a wider audience.

-Easier to convert into paid customers. They want a piece of you and they will happily invest in your products to get it.

-Grow your audience further. People talk on and off social media. If they feel connected to your brand, you can be sure they will be telling their friends about you. And that grows your audience.

So how do I find the time to comment?

“Okay, okay, I get it. But that sounds like it's going to take time I don’t have,” said every small business owner ever.

You are definitely busy, and the replies we are talking about are NOT lengthy. A simple “thank you” or “I love that you shared this story!” will work wonders.

And let’s be real, an engaged community takes time to build. If you are starting with a community that is inactive, you won’t have many comments to reply to. Less than 5 minutes is all it takes.

Going beyond thank you

Now, you might be thinking, “but Sasha dearest, saying Thank You a hundred times doesn’t seem very original or personable either.”

You are right.

But I’ve got your back.

Here are 15 comments that are all variations on the same theme that take no time at all to use. Feel free to use these to your heart’s content (and add to the list if you are feeling particularly creative!):

• Awesome!!!

• I definitely did not expect to see THIS today! Thank you for sharing!

• I was just thinking about this morning. Thank you for sharing.

• Wow, this is very interesting. I would love to explore this more.

• THIS just made my day!

• Dazzling!

• This is what I needed right now!

• Thanks for the insights- it means a lot!

• As Mike Meyers would say: yeah, baby, yeah!

• Keep them coming!

• Love, love, love it.

• Seeing this in my newsfeed made me super happy!

Let’s grow the comment bank!

I’d love more ideas to add to my bank, too. How else can you say “thank you and I value you” in under ten words? I’d love more pop culture ones like the Mike Meyers comment; if you can think of more, share in the comments below!

p.s. Is your Instagram growth stagnant? We wrote a blog post just for you here.