How to Get More Comments Without Asking - What Do You Think

You have seen the advice a hundred times: end your post with a question to boost engagement. So you write a genuinely good post and finish it with "What do you think?" or "Let me know in the comments." And then nothing happens. The comments stay empty, and you conclude that your audience just is not the chatty type.

The problem is not your audience. It is the question. "What do you think?" is so vague and so overused that people scroll straight past it. It asks for effort without giving anyone a real reason to bother replying.

Comments come from posts that make responding easy and worthwhile, not from a tired question tacked on the end. Here is how to get more of them.

Why "What Do You Think?" Falls Flat

A good comment prompt lowers the effort required to reply. "What do you think?" does the opposite. It is a blank, open question that forces the reader to work out what to say, how much to say, and whether it is even worth saying.

Faced with that effort, most people do nothing. It is not that they have no opinion; it is that forming one into a comment feels like homework. The vaguer the question, the harder it is to answer, and the harder it is to answer, the fewer people bother. To get comments, you have to make replying almost effortless, and give people a genuine reason to want to.

Make it easy and give them a reason, and the comments come.

Ask Questions With Easy, Specific Answers

The simplest fix is to replace broad questions with narrow ones that are quick and painless to answer. A question with an obvious, low-effort response gets far more replies.

Instead of "What do you think?", ask something specific: "Tea or coffee while you work?" "Which of these two would you pick?" "What is the one tool you could not run your business without?" These are easy because the reader knows exactly what to say and it takes seconds. You are not asking them to compose a thought; you are giving them a quick, simple thing to respond to. Specific and easy always beats broad and open.

The easier the answer, the more people give one.

Give People a Chance to Talk About Themselves

People are far more likely to comment when the reply is about them. Questions that invite someone to share their own experience, situation, or opinion tap into something people genuinely enjoy doing.

Ask about their biggest challenge, their favourite approach, their experience with something. "What is the hardest part of posting consistently for you?" gets more replies than a general question, because the answer is personal and people like talking about their own situation. You are giving them a small invitation to be heard, which is far more appealing than being asked to comment on you.

Let people talk about themselves and they will happily do it.

Use Prompts, Not Just Questions

A question is not the only way to invite a comment. Sometimes a prompt or a simple instruction works better, because it tells people exactly what to do.

Try things like "Name a business you think does this brilliantly," "Finish this sentence: the worst social media advice I ever got was...", or "Drop a word that describes your week so far." These give people a clear, contained task rather than an open question. The structure does the hard work for them, so replying feels like filling in a blank rather than composing a thought. Prompts often outperform questions precisely because they are more specific.

A clear prompt is easier to answer than an open question.

Share an Opinion People Want to Respond To

Some of the best comment sections come not from a question at all, but from a post that takes a position. When you say something people have a reaction to, they comment without being asked.

Share a genuine opinion, a mild challenge to common advice, or a stance others in your field might disagree with. People naturally want to add their agreement, their experience, or their counterpoint. You do not need to be controversial or combative; you just need to say something with a point of view rather than something safe and neutral. A post that stands for something invites response in a way a neutral one never does.

Say something worth responding to, and people respond.

Actually Reply to Every Comment

The comments you already get are the key to getting more. When you reply to every comment, you encourage more of them, because people see that commenting leads to a real conversation with you.

Reply properly to everyone who takes the time to comment. This does three things: it makes the commenter feel valued and likely to comment again, it doubles the comment count on your post, and it shows everyone else reading that you actually engage. A post where the owner is replying and chatting in the comments looks alive and draws more people in. Ignored comments do the opposite.

Reply to the comments you get, and you get more of them.

Advanced AI Prompt You Can Use

Copy and paste this prompt into ChatGPT or Claude to write comment prompts that actually work.

"I want to get more comments on my social media posts, but tired questions like 'what do you think?' never work for me. Here is my context:

Business type: (e.g. coach, photographer, product seller, local business).
Target audience: (describe them, including their goals, challenges, and interests).
Topics I regularly post about: (list three to five).
My tone of voice: (e.g. warm and friendly, direct and clear, relaxed and conversational).

Please help me by:

1. Writing ten easy, specific questions with quick low-effort answers, tailored to my audience
2. Writing five questions that invite people to share their own experience or situation
3. Writing five fill-in-the-blank or prompt-style calls to comment
4. Suggesting three mild opinions or stances I could take that would naturally prompt people to respond
5. Reminding me how to reply to comments in a way that encourages more conversation

Keep everything specific to my audience and genuinely easy to respond to. Avoid vague prompts like 'what do you think?' or 'let me know below.'"

More comments do not come from asking "what do you think?" They come from making replies easy and worthwhile. Ask specific, low-effort questions, invite people to talk about themselves, use clear prompts, take a real position, and reply to every comment you get.

Do that, and your posts stop ending in silence and start ending in conversation, which is exactly what tells the algorithm, and everyone watching, that your content is worth paying attention to.

Want help creating content that actually gets people talking?