drywall compound - dry, wet or no sand?

I haven't painted in years and doing a bedroom. I'm dealing with nail pops now. I am using a gallon bucket of 'sheetrock joint compound' to fill in the holes / cover the screws.

There's not much of the compound on the wall.

Is that something that might not need sanding? What is the purpose of sanding? just to remove bumps in the compound? feather around the edge of the compound? Roughen up the surface?

And then if you were to sand, do you use a sanding block? Or I learned about a wet cloth a while ago. Made less of a mess than dry sanding as I remember,

Thank you!

 

Wet cloth may work for very tiny imperfections but for a nail pop it's going to take 2-3 applications of compound, followed up with some sanding and several coats of primer to make them invisible.

There was just a post the other day where nail pops were discussed.

Nail pops - pull them? Wack them down? Where to screw?

 

You almost always need to sand or smooth out the repair with a damp sponge to achieve a nice repair. While sanding does the nicest job, a wet sponge eliminates sanding dust.

One other thing to consider is matching the wall's texture, even roller stipple. You can thin down j/c and use it to texture.