What Types of Comments Are Important to Pay Attention to When Growing Your YouTube Channel
YouTube is so much more than a platform for sharing and watching videos, and although it operates differently from mainstream social media sites like Facebook the ability to interact is still extremely central. Importantly, the vast majority of likes and comments are made by people who have no other connection to the channel owner or others leaving comments – which makes YouTube pretty unique.
Part of the basic strategy of growing your YouTube channel is based around attracting comments, as these boost your status on the site and your ranking in both internal and general searches. Seeing lots of comments rolling in is obviously exciting, but it’s not enough to simply sit back and gloat about your abundance of comments – you actually have to monitor and deal with them.
Developing a YouTube comments strategy
First of all, let’s be clear that you don’t have to answer every single comment made on your content, but if possible you do need to read them all and take action where necessary. So many people will tell you that responding to everything is essential to build relationships and grow your own mini-community, and of course, if you have time to do that then fair enough, but not everyone does.
It is wise to aim to answer the questions you need to within at the most a day or two of them being asked, to keep things fresh and relevant. Let’s look in more detail at which can be safely ignored, and which need to be actioned.
Comments with questions
If someone who has watched your video and has asked a question they really do need an answer. Responding shows that you care about those who view your content, and reassures others who see that there is an actual real person behind the content.
Comments with constructive criticism
Nobody really likes having to deal with critics, but so long as it is constructive then it is worth acknowledging politely. Tread warily though, as the last thing you need is to spark a comments war.
Comments from real customers or clients
If you run a business channel it is quite likely someone with direct experience of your product or service will get in touch. Hopefully these will be comments full of praise, and a pleasure to acknowledge with a thank you. Less positive comments may be based on a misunderstanding you can address.
If you want to find these types of comments then you should search them.
Comments which help you establish your authority
If anyone asks about your industry or service, in general, it’s a good chance to show off your knowledge and establish you are real and a trustworthy authority.
Fix your settings
If you are concerned about dealing with spam, trolls or any other kind of nuisance in comments you can fix settings to have you approve every comment before it is posted on your channel. If that is impractical you can also set things to filter out comments with certain words or phrases.
Have a YouTube channel you want us to check out? Feel free to post it in the comments below!
