Guide · social media research
How to analyze social media comments
Analyzing comments means reading what people under a post ask, object to, complain about and want, then counting which of those keep coming up. Pick the posts that matter, read their comments sorted by newest as well as top, put each useful comment in a bucket such as question, objection or buying intent, and keep the exact words. A theme that recurs across posts is a finding; one loud comment isn’t. Or ask Oneirosea to read the comments for you in one prompt.
Pick the posts worth reading
- Your own posts, for what your audience asks and objects to.
- Your competitors’ best posts, for what their customers want and don’t get.
- Popular videos about your category, for the words buyers use before they’ve chosen anyone.
- Reddit threads about the problem you solve, read together with the post they answer.
Know what the platform hides
On YouTube, Top comments shows what viewers are likely to value and can leave out comments detected as spam or inappropriate; Newest first shows the rest. Channels can also hold comments for review, block words and remove comments.
On Instagram, accounts hide unwanted comments by default, can hide any words they choose, and can limit who comments at all. Hidden comments still count in the total.
So read newest as well as top, and treat a brand’s own comment section as moderated: a complaint missing from it may have been hidden, not unsaid.
Source: YouTube Help, Instagram Help Center
Put each useful comment in a bucket
| Bucket | What it gives you |
|---|---|
| Questions | Your FAQ, and your next videos. |
| Objections | What your ads and product page must answer. |
| Complaints | What a better product would fix. |
| Requests | Product and feature ideas. |
| Buying intent | Proof of demand: “where do I get this?”, “link?”, “does it come in…”. |
| Confusion | What your explanation leaves out. |
| Praise | Copy in your customers’ own voice. |
| Debate | Topics that get people commenting. |
Skip spam, duplicates and bots. Keep the slang and misspellings: that’s how your buyers actually talk.
Count the themes, keep the exact words
Group similar comments into themes and count them. A theme across many comments and several posts is a finding; one loud comment is an anecdote. Keep a few exact quotes for each theme: they’re copy you couldn’t have written yourself.
Note how many comments you read, and where. Two hundred comments under one video describe that video’s audience, not your whole market.
Comments read and sorted in one prompt
Oneirosea works like ChatGPT for social media, answering from live public data. Paste post links or name a topic and it reads the comments and replies on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Reddit and Rumble, then hands back the top themes with how often and how strongly each comes up, the questions people ask, objections with a way to answer each, buying signals, exact words to reuse, and content ideas, every quote linked to its post.
Read the comments on the five most-viewed YouTube reviews of standing desks from the past year. What do people ask, what puts them off buying, and which exact phrases should I use on my product page?
Common questions
How do you analyze YouTube comments?
Read them sorted by Newest first as well as Top comments, put each useful one in a bucket such as question, objection or buying intent, count the themes, and keep exact quotes. Top comments can leave out comments YouTube detects as spam.
Is there a free YouTube comment analyzer?
Reading and tagging comments in a sheet is free and works for a few hundred. For more, or across several videos and platforms, Oneirosea reads and groups them in one prompt.
How do I analyze TikTok comments?
Read the comments and the replies under them, where the answers and the arguments often are. Tag each useful one, count the themes, and keep the exact words.
What is comment sentiment analysis?
Scoring comments as positive, negative or neutral. It’s a start, but the value is in which questions, objections and requests recur, and the exact words people use for them.
Why are some comments missing?
Platforms and accounts filter them: YouTube’s Top comments can leave out likely spam, channels can hold or block comments, and Instagram hides unwanted comments by default.
Sources
- Learn about comments that aren’t showing or have been removedYouTube Help, read October 26, 2026
- Hide comments or message requests you don’t want to see on InstagramInstagram Help Center, read October 26, 2026