I Delete Spammy Comments on Social Media
And why you should too
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Are you fed up with getting those “promote it on” posts on Instagram? People linking their books/pages on your Facebook? Those begging for traffic on TikTok?
You’re not alone.
If you sell anything on social media — books, crafts, marketing services, digital photography, it’s a fact of life and a constant frustration. Does anyone ever use these spammy services? Have they ever bought a book from a spammer? Have you ever promoted it on…?
You can (at least as far as Instagram is concerned), flag and hide certain keywords, but those spammers get wise to it and vary their comments. It isn’t enough though. As a small business owner, you must delete the comment and block the spammer.
Reason 1: It’s good business housekeeping
Imagine you ran a brick & mortar shop. Now imagine someone pitched up outside your front doors every day handing out leaflets to a competitor. Or a freelancer wandered around your shop asking your employees who designed this advertising board, who does your lighting, who delivers your stock, and they should hire them to do it instead because they’re cheaper and better.
While these comments are less harassing than such a person going into a shop to do that, their very presence is off-putting. I would also argue that it makes it harder to find the genuine comments, especially if there are lots of them.
Reason 2: If you don’t delete them, others will think you don’t read comments
Social media is just that — social. Firing posts into the void and waiting for the audience to arrive is not a good look, especially if you’re a small independent business. We need to use every outlet available, and we must be present.
Leaving such comments to stand suggests you are not present and only care about sales. They’re less likely to buy from you if you don’t engage and leaving spammy comments up tells them you don’t engage.
Therefore, why should they bother engaging if their thoughtful comments are just going to be ignored?
Reason 3: Genuine commenters are less likely to comment themselves
Have you ever seen a social media post with many such comments? Does it put you off from commenting when you see a post has one hundred comments, but ninety-eight of them are spam?
It puts me off bothering to look for any meaningful engagement and posting my own comments. I wonder whether my comment would get spammed, or maybe that a spammer would follow me to my own page. Maybe or maybe not, but the practice puts me off.
If it puts you off and it puts me off, there’s an extremely high chance we are not alone here.
So delete those comments and make social media a much more pleasant experience for everyone.
