Most people are nice enough, but on social media, things can go south very quickly. 

Anger, trolling, negative feedback, and NFSW topics are just some of the issues you need to learn to handle as your business navigates social media for customer care and marketing. 

It’s clear that social media’s wide access and popularity make it an incredibly powerful tool when it comes to social media marketing, but this same power also makes it highly destructive if not managed properly. 

Dealing with difficult situations requires tact and knowledge of the people behind the keyboard.

The following tips will help you deal with some of the most common social media comments that come up time and again.  

How to Track Social Media Comments: Tools and Tricks

We have established that it is critical to keep track of and reply to social media comments about your business. 

However, do you know how to find these comments in the first place?

As your customers are likely to be talking about your company on multiple social channels, being able to track these cross-platform is an important skill. 

Here are some suggestions to implement now:

Set Up Monitoring Streams

There is an array of social media tools that social media teams can use to keep an eye out for comments and mentions relating to your brand. 

This is the easiest and best option, and these tools are usually very affordable. 

For example, TweetDeck creates streams and lists of social media comments from different platforms, all on one convenient dashboard. 

Track Mentions, Comments, and Replies on Each Social Media Platform

Brands that don’t have the budget or need of a dedicated social media moderation tool yet can use the native features integrated in each platform. 

These tools are often quite powerful, but they can take more time and effort. 

For instance, Facebook has a notification tab where you can get information about all replies, tags, comments, and other activities taking place on your account. 

Twitter also shows notifications whenever you have inboxes, mentions, retweets, comments, among others. 

With many of these brands, you can customize which events trigger notifications to help with filtering. 

Similar features extend to Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and more. 

Different Types of Social Media Comments and How to Respond

Once we find what customers and other social media users are saying about a brand on social media, the hard part is still to come. 

In this case, finding the right thing to say, in exactly the right way, can be more difficult than expected.

There are different types of social media comments and interactions that every brand encounters at some point or the other. 

For example, here are five common scenarios and how we would recommend you deal with them:

1. Questions

This is one of the most common comments we see.

 Some will be practical questions regarding your products or services, while some might be personal or even provocative, going into company culture, personnel, values, and vision. 

Whether the person behind the comment is genuinely confused or just curious, it is important to acknowledge the question and get an answer as soon as possible. 

2. Angry Customers

Disgruntled customers are a regular occurrence. 

They could be unhappy with a product, a service you offer, or just disappointed with your brand in general.

In this case, it is important to reply as soon as possible and let the customer know that you are working to resolve the issue. 

Then, find the cause of the problem because, in many cases, angry customers are the result of repetitive issues. 

If you spend much time on X (or whatever we’re calling Twitter this year), you’ll see real-time examples of brands either defusing or igniting anger, minute by minute. There’s a certain theater to it. Sometimes, a single well-timed joke or apology can flip the script—and you might even see a frustrated customer defending you in the replies after feeling heard. Of course, it can just as easily go the other way, so double-check before firing off that reply on a bad day.

It probably sounds like something out of a textbook, but brands genuinely have to pick their battles. Not every angry comment deserves a detailed reply. You’ll figure out pretty quickly when someone wants a solution versus when they’re after attention or just venting into the void. Reading between those lines—not just what’s written, but the tone and timing—takes practice, and frankly, a bit of gut instinct. Miss the mark too often, and you might end up as someone’s viral example of what not to do.

3. Support inquiries

Social media has become a legitimate customer support channel for most brands today.

From shipping inquiries to requests for refunds, you can expect to handle a lot of these every day. 

Sometimes, it helps to have separate customer support channels. If not, you can simply take these issues up immediately.

Just remember to be professional, polite, and helpful. Also, don’t be defensive but be quick to take responsibility and act fast. 

4. Indirect/neutral comments

Some comments are just users thinking out loud. 

In this case, you could choose to reply or not depending on the potential for further engagement.

5. Shares, retweets, mentions

It is great when social media users take notice of what you post and like, retweet, comment, and share your posts. 

Some will also quote what you post, which is a great way to validate and grow your social media presence. 

You don’t have to reply to these, but it would be nice to acknowledge the person and encourage them to continue doing that. 

Best Practices When Dealing With Social Media Comments

It’s almost impossible to anticipate every social media interaction and how a brand is supposed to respond. 

In many cases, just having a sound social media strategy and guidelines will keep a social media team in line with business objectives.

There are some best practices that we highly recommend when it comes to dealing with social media comments. 

Always stay positive and professional

Whether you encounter customers who are joking with you, using sarcasm, or outright provocative, retain a professional attitude when handling these comments.

Develop and maintain a distinct personality

Being professional doesn’t mean lacking in character. Customers love brands with bright and memorable persona. Feel free to use memes, GIFs, among others to add warmth to your tone.

Be honest

When you don’t have an immediate answer, say so. If a product has a problem that you are aware of, acknowledge it and say what you are doing about it. 

Being transparent and vulnerable is better at pacifying customers and building loyalty than ignoring comments or offering promises you can’t keep.

Take things offline when necessary

Interactions that could be potentially inflammatory, sensitive, or require sharing of personal information should be moved to private chats, phone, or email support.

Always measure and report on your social media activities

Keep track of user feedback, customer sentiment, and the levels of interaction to help you improve your services. 

Wrap Up

You are now better prepared to handle sweet (and complex) social media comments.

But responding to them is part of a wider effort involving social monitoring and listening. The world’s best brands carry out manual or automated social listening as a critical part of digital marketing. 

Want to know more about this? Read our blog post on the importance of social monitoring and social listening!

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