Using Community in Buffer
Stay on top of every comment with Community, your central hub for replying to conversations across Facebook Pages, Threads, Bluesky, LinkedIn profiles and pages, X/Twitter, Instagram professional accounts, Google Business Profiles, TikTok, YouTube, and Mastodon.
Built right into Buffer and free to use, Community helps every type of creator connect directly with their audience. Optional AI features can even learn your voice, so you can engage faster while staying true to your tone. Strengthen relationships, build trust, and keep the conversation going, all in one place.
📝 Looking for network-specific details, like how quickly comments sync or which networks support @ mentions? See How comments work across each social network.
📝 Looking for mentions of your brand from people other than commenters on your own posts? See Using Mentions in Buffer Community (currently in Beta for X/Twitter).
Video: Engaging with Community comments
In this article:
- Replying to comments
- Sorting comments
- Liking comments
- Saved replies
- Filtering by post
- Resolving comments in bulk
- Getting notified about new comments
- FAQ
Replying to comments
📝 Notes:
- Only users with Full Access or View Only access for a channel can see that channel's comments in Community; No Access hides the channel entirely in Community. Only Full Access lets you reply, like, or resolve. This is set independently from Publish access.
- Here's how a Buffer organization Owner or Admin can change user permissions in their organization.
- New to Community? If you've connected your channels but haven't received any comments yet, you'll see an empty state with a few options to get started. Comments will appear here automatically once they come in.
- Go to the Community tab on the left side of your Buffer dashboard.
- On the left sidebar, select the social channel you'd like to engage with.
- Find the comment you'd like to reply to.
- Click into the "Reply…" field beneath the comment.
- Type your response, or get a quick start from the reply suggestions and add your own thoughts. Paid plans include unlimited suggestions; Free plans include 5 suggestions per week.
- Press Enter or click the Reply button to post your comment.
💡 Tip: Use Up/Down on your keyboard to quickly toggle between unanswered comments.
📝 Good to know: Some post types, like reminder posts, stories, and Google Business Profile posts, don't support comment collection. They'll appear in the side panel marked "Comments not available." See the FAQ below for more details.
Sorting comments
By default, Community shows unanswered comments first, so you can quickly see which conversations still need a reply without scrolling through ones you've already handled.
You can change the sort order at any time using the sort/filter dropdown at the top of your comment feed:
- Unanswered first (default): Shows comments that haven't received a reply yet at the top.
- Newest first: Shows the most recent comments first.
- Oldest first: Shows the earliest comments first.
📝 Good to know: Your sort preference resets between sessions. Each time you return to Community, the sort goes back to "Unanswered first." The list also won't re-sort in real time while you're replying; it only reorders on reload, so you won't lose your place mid-workflow.
Liking comments
You can like comments directly in Community to quickly engage with your audience, though the experience varies slightly depending on the social network.
- LinkedIn: Hover over the 👍 icon next to a LinkedIn comment to open the reaction picker. You can react with any of LinkedIn's six reaction types: Like, Celebrate, Love, Insightful, Support, and Funny. Click the reaction you'd like to use and it's applied right away without leaving Buffer.
- Bluesky, X/Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube: Click the ❤️ or 👍 icon next to a comment, and your like is added right away without leaving Buffer.
- Threads and Instagram: Clicking the ❤️ or 👍 icon takes you directly to the comment on Facebook or Instagram, where you can add your like.
📝 Good to know: Likes made in Community don't sync with likes you (or your team) make natively on Facebook. If you like or unlike a comment in the Facebook app or on facebook.com, that won't be reflected in Community, and vice versa.
Saved replies
Saved replies help you respond faster to common questions or comments, like your refund policy or shipping details. Instead of typing the same message over and over, you can save it once and reuse it anytime.
Why use saved replies?
- Save time replying to FAQs or recurring comments.
- Keep your messaging consistent across your team.
- Customize before sending if a saved reply needs a personal touch.
How to save a reply
- Go to Saved Replies settings, or navigate there manually: click your profile avatar, choose Settings, then scroll to Features and click Saved Replies.
- Click New Saved Reply.
- In the Name field, add a name for your reply (for example, "Refund Policy").
- In the Write your saved reply field, type the message you want to store.
- Click Save to store it for future use.
📝 Good to knows:
- Each plan is allotted a different number of saved replies: Free includes 1, Essentials includes 5, and Team includes unlimited.
- Saved replies are shared across your organization. Anyone with Full Access on any channel available in the Community tab can access them.
- The character limit for saved replies is 1,000 characters per reply.
How to insert a saved reply
- Click the speech bubble icon in the lower right corner of the composer.
- Select the saved reply you want to use.
- Click Reply.
How to edit or delete a saved reply
- Click the clipboard icon 📋 in the lower left corner of the Community composer, or go to Saved Replies settings.
- Find the saved reply you'd like to edit or delete.
- Click the pencil ✏️ icon to edit it, or the trash can 🗑️ icon to delete it.
- Follow the prompt to save your edits or confirm the deletion.
Filtering by post
When using the comment filter, you can choose how you view your comments for each channel. Community opens in By Post view by default, showing comments grouped by their original post for more context as you review and reply.
If you'd rather see everything in one place, select List to view comments from all connected channels in a single feed. You can switch back to By Post view at any time.
📝 Good to knows:
- By Post view only displays posts that have received at least one comment. Posts that have never received a comment are filtered out to keep the view focused on active conversations.
- If you're looking for a specific post and can't find it in By Post view, it likely hasn't received any comments yet.
- Posts where you've already replied to all comments will still appear in By Post view, since they did receive comments at some point.
Using the grid view for TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram
When engaging with comments on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok, you can switch to a grid view of your posts by clicking By Post. This makes it easier to recognize posts visually, find a specific post by its thumbnail, and jump into its comments faster.
You can see grid view in two places:
- Single-channel view: Select a TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube channel from the left sidebar, then click By Post.
- All Channels view (with filters): Use the Channels filter to narrow down to one or more grid-capable channels. As long as every channel in your filtered selection supports grid, you'll see it when you click By Post.
📝 Good to know: If your filtered selection mixes a grid-capable channel with one that doesn't support grid (for example, Instagram + LinkedIn), grid view will be hidden and you'll see list view instead.
Resolving comments in bulk
When you've been hit with a wave of comments and want to clear them out quickly, you can bulk-resolve comments instead of resolving them one at a time.
Click the three dots below the By Post and List toggle, then hover over Bulk resolve comments to pick from:
- All Comments: Resolves every unresolved comment in the current view (across all channels if you're in All Channels, or for the selected channel).
- Older than 1 month: Resolves only unresolved comments older than 30 days. Handy for cleaning up a backlog without touching anything recent.
- For this post: Resolves every unresolved comment on the single post you're currently looking at. Only available in By Post view.
📝 Good to know: If you're in List view, you'll only see "All Comments" and "Older than 1 month." Switch to By Post view first if you want to resolve comments on just one post.
Getting notified about new comments
To help you stay on top of community engagement, Buffer offers email notifications when new comments come through on your connected channels.
Email notifications are sent hourly for unreplied comments on Community-supported channels during the first 24 hours after a post is published, so you can stay updated without checking the platform all day.
- Free plan: You'll receive an hourly email showing the number of comments received in the last hour.
- Paid plans: You'll also see previews of some of the actual comments, so you can gauge tone and urgency without logging in.
You can toggle these notifications on or off anytime via the "Community Notifications" preference in your email notification settings.
💡 Tip: These alerts are especially helpful if you're managing active communities or time-sensitive posts and want to respond quickly.
FAQ
Why aren't new comments coming through on my Community posts?
If new comments aren't coming in, there may be an issue with the connection between Buffer and your social channel. Try refreshing your channel.
Also confirm your Community access level: View Only shows comments read-only; you won't be able to reply, like, or resolve until an Owner or Admin gives you Full Access in Community. To get full access, the Owner or an Admin of your organization can change your user permissions.
Still stuck? Email us at hello@buffer.com and we'll help.
Why does my Community look empty?
If you've just connected a channel and haven't received any comments yet, Community will show a welcome screen explaining what the feature does and how to get started. Comments will appear as they come in from your connected channels.
Why does Community say my connection needs refreshing?
If one of your channels has a connection issue, Community will show a prompt to refresh it. Click the refresh button to reconnect your channel. If the refresh doesn't work, you'll see a message directing you to contact support. For more, see Refreshing a channel in Buffer.
📝 Need help with Community? Send us an email at hello@buffer.com and our Advocacy team will be standing by to assist!