4 Common Questions I Get Asked About Social Media

(Want to listen to this blog post instead? Check out Episode 1 of The Social Brain podcast.)

Social media marketing can help to grow your business, increase brand loyalty, and boost your sales.

But it can also be overwhelming and confusing when you don’t know what you’re doing.

If you follow me on Instagram and are part of my close friend crew, you’ll know I often pop up the little question box sticker to help you with your struggles.

I recently asked you what you most needed help with on social media, and these are the questions you came back with:

🧠 Why do you keep writing back to spammy comments on your posts?

🧠 My reels are getting lots of views but why is no-one buying from me?

🧠 Should you post less during holiday times such as in the summer or around Christmas?

🧠 Do you need to respond to comments straight away or can you wait a while?

In this blog post, I’ll be answering each of your social media questions so you can spend less time stressing about your socials and more time seeing the success you deserve.

(Psst: Want to join my close friends so you can ask me a question yourself? DM @thesocialbrainuk)

Question #1: Should you reply to spam comments on Instagram?

When you tag a location in your Instagram posts, a bot comments on your post. It’s typically a comment like “send a pic to @handle” or “get it promoted on @handle”.

This doesn’t happen for every location but when it does, it can be annoying.

I’m notorious for replying back to them and my community laugh along with me when I respond with a “No thank you!” comment. But the question is, do you need to reply to them? Does responding to spam comments help with the algorithm?

Replying to spam comments is actually a hack I learned at the start of the year. Whilst it might seem annoying, it’s actually a form of engagement. And when I write back instantly, I’m proving to Instagram that I’m really great at responding to people and I’m actively using the app.

Within moments of the post going up, I’ve got my first two pieces of engagement by simply tagging the location. That instant engagement shows the algorithm that my content is relevant and will then push that post out to more people, increasing the reach of the post.

It’s as easy as that!

You don't have to use this as a strategy by any means. You can just delete and block them if you prefer. As with anything in marketing, you have to do what works best for you.

Question #2: I’m getting lots of reels views, but no sales - why is this?

This is a common problem for many businesses who use reels to market their business. Unfortunately, a massive reach doesn’t always convert into more sales.

There are lots of different moving parts to this question so let’s take a look at why you might not be making lots of sales even if you have a huge reach on reels.

Firstly, location. The person who asked me this specific social media question has a business based in a static location, but Instagram doesn’t take location into account when sharing your reels with people.

Whilst you may be based in Essex, Instagram may push your reel out to people elsewhere in England or even to other countries as far away as Australia. If you don’t have a product or service that you can ship, your reels might be being seen a lot, but you won’t be able to sell more.

The 4 factors Instagram take into consideration when distributing your reel

There are four factors Instagram takes into account when choosing who to share your reel with. These are:

1. How likely you are to watch the whole reel
2. Whether you are going to like it based on previous reels you’ve watched
3. Whether you’ll find it funny or entertaining
4. How likely you are to use the audio to make your own reel

So those are the four factors that Instagram are really judging, but there are some more important signals to consider, too.

1. Your activity: The reels you’ve liked, commented on, or engaged with in the past
2. Your engagement history with the person who has posted that
3. Information about the reel itself e.g. the audio track, the video itself which is based on a whole bunch of techy stuff
4. The popularity of the reel
5. The information about the person who created the reel
6. Who else has interacted with them

However much we’d like it to, views on reels doesn’t necessarily mean growth for your business.

In some cases, the algorithm will push your reel out to check your relevancy which is why you might go through a phase where you get 200 views, 300 views, and then all of a sudden, one reel will go into the thousands.

It's happened to me and it happens to everybody across the board. This is because Instagram is forever checking your relevancy to see how important your information is and to push it out to the right audience.

If that reel gets pushed out to thousands of people and does really well with engagement, then Instagram’s actually going to show your other reels, your next reel and the reel after that to more people because it thinks that you’re important and your content is of great quality.

Removing followers who aren’t relevant to your business

If your views on reels are converting into followers, it is your due diligence to check that the person who has decided to follow you falls within your ideal clients.

If you’re location based and somebody starts following you who is based miles and miles away from your business, they’re never going to buy from you so there's no real need for them to follow you.

Although they're starting at the top of your funnel in terms of brand awareness, they're not going to get any further than a particular point because they can't physically buy from you as they're in the wrong location. In this instance, it makes sense to remove that follower.

Growing your audience on Instagram without using reels

It’s important to note that reels are not the only way to grow your Instagram following. We talk about engagement strategies in my Brainiacs program. We talk a lot about making sure that you’re interacting with your local areas of interest and speaking with those customers who are based specifically within that area.

For example: If you’re a child service provider and you’re trying to get involved with the Brentwood mums’ conversation, then it makes sense to engage with posts under the hashtag #brentwoodmums.

You can also use different types of posts to grow your following on Instagram. Static introductory posts, an educational carousel, or a video with a long lesson of up to 15 minutes can still be just as valid to your potential following and can help to convert people into followers and ultimately, buyers.

What to do if you’re not converting your followers into customers

If you’re not converting your following right now, then that needs to be addressed. You may want to look at new ways to nurture your current audience and build a relationship with the people already following you.

You might want to look at going live more often because your followers will get a notification when you go live so you can appear in front of them more often.

Or you can hop onto stories because generally, stories are for your followers. Non followers don't get notified if you go on your stories whereas your current audience do, so it makes sense to use the tools that Instagram gives you.

This will help to guide people further down your funnel so when they're ready to make that decision to buy from you. It's a no-brainer!

Question #3: How often should you post over the summer or Christmas period?

This is a question around general use of social media that I get asked a lot. I recently received this message from one of my clients:

“It's summer, me and my team are feeling lazy, people are going on holiday - should we reduce the number of posts that we do per week?”

The short answer is no, you shouldn't. You should stay consistent as much as possible and you should get into the habit of scheduling those posts, especially if you are going on holiday or if the kids are off school.

The reason being is, we know that engagement does decrease over the summer and during other busy periods throughout the year, such as Christmas, because people don't prioritise their phone time. They’re busy outside, enjoying the hot weather and making the most of their time with their family. That said, they don't disappear completely.

There are still lurkers hanging around on Instagram or people jumping on for a quick scroll when they get a spare second. Also, people don't go on holiday at exactly the same time in August or whenever, so just be aware that you’re still need to show up for that audience because they are going to be pushed further down your funnel.

And when everyone returns from their holidays, you’re going to be front of mind because you continued with your regular social media posts. You’re going to outshine those competitors that are taking time off from their social media – just by showing up!

Does posting consistently mean posting every day?

Consistently doesn't mean you have to post every day, or show up every day. As a social media manager, I show up daily, but a minimum of three times a week using a mixture of content types is a really great start.

Play around and experiment with your content and see what works during those low engagement seasons. Try a whole range of content, a whole range of different topics that maybe you haven't tried before. See what works best for you and get your creative energies flowing a little bit more.

Question #4: Should you respond to comments immediately on Instagram?

You don’t have to respond to comments immediately on Instagram as each comment will still be recognised as engagement. However, it makes sense to reply to bot comments straight away whilst you’re hanging around to do your follow up engagement.

If you’re scheduling posts to go out, make sure you give yourself time after the post has gone live to engage with other people’s posts and to respond to any initial comments you receive. You can engage with your following and with people who have liked and commented on your posts before too.

We're not about posting and ghosting over on Instagram! We are about nurturing and building those relationships with our audience and with our following so that we can convince them, later on down the line, to use our services and to buy from us.

Join me LIVE on Instagram every week, where I speak to some amazing industry experts or answer some more of your questions!