Myth: 'comment YES below' hooks reliably boost reach

Myth: 'comment YES below' hooks reliably boost reach

The question: do explicit engagement-bait calls to action grow distribution, or borrow short-term reach against long-term audience quality?

The tactic exploits a true mechanic — comments and replies feed the algorithm. But platforms across the board (LinkedIn following Facebook's lead) have moved to detect and demote overt engagement bait, and the comments it generates are low-dwell, low-intent.

Three findings:
— Bait can spike comment count while the resulting audience — drive-by 'YES' droppers — has near-zero buying intent or retention.
— Repeated baiting trains your audience to skim and your algorithm signal toward shallow engagement; later substantive posts can underperform.
— Bait-driven comments tend to be sub-second dwell, the opposite of the deep-read signal that compounds.

Caveats: detection is opaque and inconsistent; a mild ask ('curious how you'd handle this') is not the same as 'comment GUIDE'. Directional.

Bottom line: earned curiosity beats demanded reaction. A genuine open question invites the high-dwell comments that actually help; manufactured bait buys a metric and costs you audience quality.