The comments section is becoming social media’s hottest real estate

• The comments section is becoming a key place for social media users to build influence.
• LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube are making comments more prominent and interactive.
• Brands have a chance to participate but should tread lightly.

Branding consultant Nadine Jarrard had been posting on LinkedIn for six years when she noticed something strange: her comments were getting more traction than her actual posts.

In October, three comments each racked up more impressions than any of her posts, despite her daily posting habit.

“It was a little crazy,” Jarrard told me.

Comments have become a hot area of activity on platforms like LinkedIn, TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, as they look to promote interaction to boost engagement and time spent.

The increased relevance of comments also presents brands with an opportunity to participate and boost their creator marketing. Instagram, for example, offers brands a way to pay creators for endorsements in the brand’s comments.

“Comments are culture currency and drive trends,” said Maggie Reznikoff, chief client officer at Open Influence, a creator marketing company. “We’re in this era where the comments can be as influential as the content itself.”

A Morning Consult survey published in January found that 77% of US adults who use social media at least once a week proactively seek out and read comments.

LinkedIn said it had seen an 18% year-on-year increase in time spent reading comments on the platform, and that members who commented on posts received 2.5 times as many profile views as those who didn’t. LinkedIn has taken steps to make comments more valuable, including limiting the visibility of automated comments, testing ways to show people comments directly in their feeds, and letting people pin comments to guide the discussion.

Creators have long paid attention to their own comment sections as a way to build connection with their fans and prove the worth of their communities to brands. Now, they increasingly see an opportunity to jump into conversations happening elsewhere. Creator economy insiders said this opens up another area of influence for brands to tap—and potentially incorporate into future sponsorship deals.

“Comments are one of the most interesting pop culture trends right now,” said Scott Sutton, CEO of the influencer marketing firm Later.

Creators are honing their comment strategies

Colin Rocker, a careers-focused creator, said he has notifications turned on for people who talk about topics he’s interested in, like careers and AI, so he can comment on their posts.

“They really like to promote content that triggers a conversation in the comments,” he said of LinkedIn. “It’s definitely a part of my strategy to not just post but, ‘How can I get involved in conversations that are happening across the platform.'”

Zack Starikov, a digital strategist, said he’s been leaning into comments on LinkedIn over the past few weeks.

“It used to be, you could try a video, and it would get a lot of impressions. Nothing seems to get the amount of impressions comments get,” he said. “I decided to be more strategic. Before, I would just say, ‘great, fantastic.’ I look to make sure if I share a point of view, I can back it up with a reason or data.”

The impact goes beyond vanity metrics. Starikov depends on LinkedIn to attract new clients and get more work. He said his profile views are up 27% in the past 90 days.

“I’ll see people looking at my profile and my business as well,” he said.

AJ Eckstein, a business-to-business creator — who posts about topics like the creator economy and B2B marketing — credits his commenting activity with helping him build his business, Creator Match, to seven figures. He routinely spends twice as much time on comments as he does on posts, including remarking on clients’ and prospective clients’ posts and those of other creator-economy players. He said people he engages with tend to return the favor when his own posts go live.

“It’s reciprocal by design,” he said.

There can be a risk of getting too precious about comments.

“Just try to be real. Don’t censor yourself in the comments,” said Yoni Frenkel, a content strategist for tech executives and investors. “Everyone on LinkedIn overoptimizes to be smart.”

Jarrard said she tries to make sure her comments reflect her personality, even leaving in spelling errors so they aren’t mistaken for AI slop.

The lessons for brands

Comment sections are a way for brands to participate online in a more down-to-earth way, Later’s Sutton said.

“I think the comments are here to stay, and they’re only going to ramp up,” Sutton said. “Brands are going to have to find new ways to be in the conversation without being cringe, without being self-serving, without being all of these things that they’re kind of known to be.”

Yahoo has used the comments to introduce itself to creators — which led to a sponsorship with leafeveryday, “the OG leaf cruncher” — and hasn’t been afraid to make fun of itself in others’ comment sections.

It also uses comments to see how its creator collaborations resonate with the audience, said Kemma Kefalas, head of Creative Lab at Yahoo.

Some brands also ask their creator partners to comment on each other’s posts as part of campaigns. This can backfire if the commenting is forced or pre-written, though.

Reznikoff encouraged brands to seek out creators who are already fans of the brand so their interactions are authentic. Brands should also chime in with their own comments.

“When brands show up to engage with the consumer, it makes a real difference,” she said. Some brands, like Duolingo and Wendy’s, have long adopted a sassy personality online, including when replying to others’ posts.

Creator marketers also said that comments are an opportunity for brands to go beyond sentiment analysis to learn what people are saying about them and about other cultural shifts.

While LinkedIn provides ordinary users a lot of intel about their own usage, Instagram and TikTok give brands the ability to do deep dives into broader cultural shifts and consumer trends, Sutton said.

Looking ahead, creator marketers envision comments becoming a unit of influence. Sutton said platforms could tie commenting behavior to a business outcome, such as sales.

Reznikoff said she thinks comments could become a new performance metric as brands evaluate creators based on what they say on others’ posts. She also thought there could be rewards for strong commenting down the line.

“I could see a world where we eventually monetize the people making that content more engaging,” she said.