A timely, well-judged reply to every comment and message.

What is community and DM management, and why is it a separate job?

Community and DM management means monitoring and replying to the comments, direct messages and tags that come to a brand's social media accounts within a set of rules. Unlike content production, the real job here is conversation: answering questions, directing complaints to the right place and keeping a safe, respectful environment around the account.

Why should it be considered separate from content production?

Content is prepared once and published at a scheduled time. Comments and messages, on the other hand, arrive at every hour of the day with an intensity that cannot be predicted in advance. On a day when a post gets a lot of attention, the inbox can fill up; when an ad goes live, the same question can be asked dozens of times. For this reason, community management requires regular monitoring, quick decisions and a consistent voice, independent of the content calendar. In many businesses we see that while content is posted without a hitch, the real loss occurs in messages left unanswered. When a follower asks a question, they have in fact taken a step; if that step goes unanswered, their interest may shift to a competing business.

The response guide: how do we speak on your behalf?

For an agency to speak on behalf of your brand, a shared voice must first be established. In the first step of the service, we prepare a response guide together. This guide usually includes the following:

• Form of address: formal or informal, official or friendly,
• The most frequently asked questions and the approved answers to them,
• Where to verify information such as prices, stock, address, reservations and delivery,
• Phrases that must never be used and promises that must never be made,
• Which topics go directly to you and through which channel,
• Steps to follow for negative comments.

When preparing the guide, we read recent messages together. In most businesses, the large majority of incoming questions fall under a few main headings: price, details of a product or service, address and directions, opening hours, reservation or order status. When clear, short answers are prepared for these headings, response time falls and every follower gets the same correct information. When a question arrives that falls outside the guide and is encountered for the first time, we consult you instead of replying with a guess.

The guide is a living document throughout the service. It is updated when a new type of question appears or when something changes in your business.

Negative comments and moments of crisis

Negative comments are what most businesses fear most. Yet a calm, solution-oriented reply to criticism also builds trust among other followers who read the comment. Our approach is as follows:

1. Instead of deleting or ignoring the comment, a brief, polite and non-accusatory first reply is given.
2. Matters that require personal information or order details are moved to a private message.
3. The information needed to resolve the issue is obtained from you; no promise of a refund, discount or compensation is made without consulting you.
4. If many comments arrive on the same issue, we notify you of it as a warning and, if needed, prepare a joint statement.

Comments containing abuse, threats, spam and scams are a different category. We hide or report these using the platform's tools. Especially during campaign and ad periods, scam comments from fake accounts that steer followers to external links can increase; clearing them quickly also protects your followers. Hiding criticism that is rule-abiding but unwelcome, on the other hand, damages trust; we define this distinction clearly in the guide.

Access, tools and reply hours

We manage Instagram and Facebook messages through the Meta Business Suite inbox. We obtain this access not by sharing passwords but through the permission you grant for your accounts in Meta Business Portfolio; you can remove the permission at any time. We also set up the tools the platform offers, such as saved replies, automatic welcome messages and frequently asked questions. Which hours replies will be given, what kind of greeting text will be shown for messages arriving outside working hours and how to reach you in urgent cases are decided together at the start.

At the end of the service, we report not only the number of messages answered but also the content of the messages. Findings such as which product is asked about more, which issue has a recurring complaint or which information could not be found on the profile can guide different units of your business, from the content plan to customer service.

On-site and online work

Community management is a service that runs largely online and can be provided with the same setup to businesses anywhere in Turkey. With businesses in Sakarya and the surrounding area, we prefer to hold the initial meeting on site; seeing how the business operates, who is on the team and where customers run into difficulties makes the response guide much more accurate.

Common mistakes

• Giving prices only in private: Writing a copy-paste redirect for every question tires followers; it should be decided from the start which information is shared openly.
• Getting into arguments: Defensive or sarcastic replies in comments can spread quickly as screenshots.
• Relying too much on automatic replies: Automation is useful for greeting, but it does not replace an answer to a real problem.
• Losing feedback: Complaints that recur in messages show what the business needs to improve; if they are not reported, this valuable information is lost.