Every comparison of social media platforms judges how far your own posts travel. Most of those comparisons ignore a second way to grow an account: replying to other people's posts. Growing by replying needs no audience of your own to begin with. Only two platforms, X and LinkedIn, really reward replying. The full comparison table puts all nine social media channels side by side.
On X and LinkedIn you can grow by replying instead of posting
Growing by replying to other people, not only by posting your own content, is the one real edge X and LinkedIn hold over the video platforms YouTube, Instagram and TikTok.
- On X, replying to other people's posts is the main way a small account gains followers. A thoughtful reply to a large account's post can be seen by that account's whole audience, and a reader who likes the reply is one tap from your profile.
- The "boost" that X Premium, X's paid subscription, sells is reply prioritisation, which pushes your replies higher in crowded reply threads.
- On LinkedIn, commenting on other people's posts is one of the main ways to gain followers, not just a courtesy. A sharp comment on a big LinkedIn post puts you in front of that author's network, so this site's LinkedIn breakdown advises spending about as much time commenting on other people's posts as writing your own.
- Replying to other people needs no audience of your own to begin with, so replying is the cheapest way to start an account from nothing. Each good reply is seen by the audience of the account you replied to.
Replying on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok or in Facebook Groups brings you few new followers
On YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, your own posts gain you followers, and your comments in someone else's thread mostly do not.
- Commenting on someone else's YouTube video does almost nothing for your channel. A YouTube comment does not spread your channel to new viewers, and it gives a reader no direct way to follow you.
- Instagram comments on big accounts get little visibility and carry no clickable link.
- Commenting on TikTok helps more than commenting on YouTube but less than replying on X, because a top comment on a viral TikTok video can get thousands of views of its own. A top TikTok comment can send curious people to your profile, but whether a comment reaches the top of the thread is down to luck.
- Replying in a Facebook Group earns you a reputation inside that group and direct messages (DMs) from its members, not followers for a brand. In someone else's Facebook Group you reply as a person, not as a brand, and even a comment posted as your own Facebook Page has no prominent "follow this brand" button, unlike an X reply, which is one tap from your profile.
| Platform | Does your reply or comment reach other people? | Path to a follow from it? | As a growth lever |
|---|---|---|---|
 X (Twitter) | Yes, into the whole thread's audience | Strong, one tap to your profile | Strong, stronger still if Premium boosts your replies |
 LinkedIn | Yes, to the author's network and readers | Strong, readers click through to your profile | Strong, one of the main ways to gain followers |
 Facebook Group | Yes, a Facebook Group exists for discussion | Weak, you reply as a person, not a brand | In-group only, reputation, not brand followers |
 TikTok | Sometimes, top comments on viral posts | Possible, a tap to your profile | Hit and miss, depends on luck in the comment thread |
 Instagram | Barely, low comment visibility | Weak, no clickable link to your profile | Weak |
 YouTube | No, YouTube comments do not spread your channel to new viewers | None to speak of | Negligible |
| Facebook Page | No | None | Negligible |
Use Camera to Clipboard to put a phone photo into an X reply
A reply only gets people tapping through to your profile if it adds something the thread did not already have. The quickest thing to add is a picture, but the picture is usually on your phone while you type the reply on a computer. Camera to Clipboard, one of my own apps, moves a phone photo straight to your computer's clipboard.
- A photo you take inside Camera to Clipboard is on your computer's clipboard the moment you take it, ready to paste into the reply box. The photo travels over your own local network, with no cable and no upload.
- The photo arrives as an ordinary clipboard image, so a reply box, Word, Google Docs, Photoshop or GIMP all accept it.
- Camera to Clipboard can send several photos out of the phone's library at once, so every screenshot your reply needs is on the computer before you start typing.
Conclusion: how replying grows an account on X and LinkedIn
- Replying to other people is a second way to grow a social media account, besides posting, that needs no audience of your own to begin with. A reply is seen by the audience that the account you replied to has already built.
- Of X, LinkedIn, Facebook Groups, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook Pages, only X and LinkedIn give a reply both reach into somebody else's audience and a clear path to a follow.
- Spend about as much time replying to large accounts on X and LinkedIn as you spend writing your own posts. X Premium, X's paid subscription, pushes your replies higher in crowded reply threads.