How to pick a good comment keyword, including the Turkish İ/ı trap

The heart of a comment-to-DM automation is the keyword your followers type. A well-chosen word catches the right people; a poorly chosen one either catches no one or messages people who never asked for a DM. This article covers practical rules for choosing a keyword, plus a pitfall that is specific to Turkish.

1. Short, easy to type, one word

People will type the word on their phone, often while watching your video. Single, memorable words with an obvious spelling work best: GUIDE, PRESET, LIST, COURSE. Multi-word phrases and abbreviations invite typos.

2. Pick a word that doesn't show up in everyday comments

If the keyword is something people already write all the time, people who don't want a DM will get one too. Words like “great”, “yes” or “thanks” are poor choices. Pick a word related to your post that rarely appears in casual conversation.

3. Choose the match type on purpose

In ReplyHook you choose one of three match types for each rule:

• Contains: matches if the word appears anywhere in the comment. “can you send the link” catches link. You won't miss people who write the word inside a sentence.
• Whole word: the word must appear as a separate word. “link please” matches; “links” doesn't.
• Entire comment: the comment must consist of the word only.

“Contains” is the most forgiving, but be careful with short words: a two-letter word like GO also appears inside “good”, “got” and “ago”. If you use a short word, switch to “whole word” or choose a longer word.

4. The Turkish İ/ı trap

If your audience writes in Turkish, there's a trap worth knowing about. Turkish has two different letters i: dotted and dotless. Uppercase İ lowercases to i, and uppercase I lowercases to ı. In English, I lowercases to i. Many programs convert case using English rules. As a result:

• Your caption says İNDİRİM (“discount”) and a follower types indirim: if the conversion uses the wrong language rules, the two may not match.
• A follower types INDIRIM in capitals without Turkish characters: lowercased with Turkish rules, that becomes ındırım, which doesn't match indirim.
• Someone without a Turkish keyboard may type indırım or ındirim instead of indirim.

ReplyHook solves this by simplifying letters before matching: İ, I, ı and i count as the same letter; ş/s, ç/c, ğ/g, ö/o, ü/u differences are ignored; case, emojis and punctuation don't affect the match. So İNDİRİM, indirim, INDIRIM, Indırım and indirim!! all trigger the same rule. You can type a test comment in the automation builder's try-it box and see whether it matches before the rule goes live.

This simplification has a side effect: two words that differ only in Turkish characters are treated as the same. For example, the Turkish word AŞK (“love”) becomes the same as the English word “ask”. When choosing your keyword, check whether removing the Turkish characters turns it into another common word.

5. Add more than one spelling

You can add several keywords to one rule. Use this for the ways people might write it differently:

• Singular and plural: GUIDE and GUIDES
• A translation: COURSE and the Turkish KURS
• Common typos

With “contains”, GUIDE already catches “guides” and “guide please”; extra spellings matter most with the “whole word” and “entire comment” types.

6. Write the word the same way everywhere

Use exactly the same word in the caption, in the video and in the voice-over. Writing it in capitals in the caption (GUIDE) makes it stand out; matching is case-insensitive, so it doesn't matter if followers type it in lowercase.

7. Test before going live

Before switching the rule on, comment the keyword on your post from another account and check that the DM arrives. Your own account's comments don't trigger rules, so test from a different account.

Curious about the Meta side of the flow? Read how comment-to-DM automation works.