Comments under your own post are the only place where the audience speaks to you unprompted. Ignoring them costs more than it looks: a thread with no author in it dies quickly, and the post's reach dies with it.
Why replying pays
Every reply is a new message in the discussion, which brings back everyone who already wrote there. The thread lives longer and the post stays visible longer. This works regardless of channel size.
Second reason: a public answer is read by everyone who opens the thread afterwards. One good explanation in the comments answers a hundred people who were too shy to ask.
Criticism
Answer it on the merits and do not delete it. A deleted critical comment almost always comes back as a screenshot in a worse context. A calm reply to a complaint convinces onlookers far more than ten testimonials.
The exception is abuse and personal attacks, which go without discussion.
Price questions
Answer publicly when the price is fixed, and invite to messages when it depends on the job. "DM me" with no explanation reads as evasion; "depends on volume, let us work it out" does not.
What happens next follows other rules — qualifying leads and the price objection.
When to move to direct messages
- when details are needed that nobody types in public;
- when the case is specific and of no interest to the rest;
- when money and terms come up.
Otherwise answer in the thread: a public reply serves every reader at once.
Speed
A reply a day later is close to useless — the person has gone. The same rule that governs enquiries governs comments: speed of reply.
How Neurogram does this
Everything above is manual work that runs into the number of hours in a day. Neurogram does it on your own accounts and without you: it collects channels and audiences, writes comments and replies with a language model, and keeps limits and quiet hours so the accounts survive. See pricing or look at your case.