The Psychology Of A Like

The Psychology of a ‘Like’

4/8/2019

Just the other day I was passing in front of the building where I live, and I stopped to talk to a colleague of mine - a student of economics. In between the brief chat he congratulated me on my new book - which is carded for release on 9th August 2019. I was thankful and shared my gratitude with him. The encounter passed to the back of my mind as almost any other encounter would. Later on that night, while reading Sapiens: the Brief History of Humankind - a remarkable book by any measure - an almost random thought came to my mind. That same colleague obviously must had seen the social media posting about my book, but he did't like the post. Why?

Although in all honesty it didn’t really matter here or there whether he liked the post or not, what intrigued me on a deeper level was the rationale. Why would he effectively acknowledge the post in person but wasn't willing to do so online? Was he too busy? Was he just quickly scrolling down his timeline?

What's the deciding factor in someone choosing whether or not to engage with particular content on social media platforms?

They Decide Who Sees What

One of the things I’ve picked up on over time is that although a post on social sites may not get a reaction - as in a like, or frown, or heart, (engagement of any-kind) it’s still being seen. The question is by who? The top social media sites like: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, SnapChat, and others, have worked,- through their algorithms-, so that at the bare minimum your posts are seen by as many within your own social network as possible i.e. your friends and followers. At least at the beginning. As time passes they’re capable of aggregating who is more likely to like your posts. Over time this chizzles down your overall audience (your audience being those who see your posts) to those who are most likely to react to the actual posts themselves.

Don’t believe me? Think about this for a second. If you have 1000 friends on Facebook, I can give you a 100% guarantee that all 1000 of your friends do not see every single post you make. It’s impossible. And this goes for Instagram as well. The amount of time that would be needed for someone to see the posts of all of the users he/she is following, coupled with the other content that bombards one’s timeline i.e. ads, etc. would be enormous. The fact of the matter is, as a pragmatic reality, your featured content is narrowed down to what you’re more likely to be interested in given your activity. And this goes for those who like and interact with your posts as well. In short, you develop a core, a sort of network within a network.

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How Do the Top Social Media Sites Make Their Money

Why would Facebook give away free advertisement? The ‘bread-and-butter' of the top social media sites is their advertising. In 2018 alone Facebook’s ad revenue was rounded out at a whopping 15 billion dollars in the US alone. Worldwide, their revenue doubled, to 33.8 billion thereabouts.

Why in the world would Mark Zuckerburg give you free advertising? The more small businesses, and corporations spend on ads, the more is added to Zuckerburg's stunning 65 billion dollar net worth. And with that in mind, over the week March 7th, Zuck’s net-worth increased by some 3 billion - check that.

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So Why Didn’t My Colleague Like My Post?

Well, the catch is, I can never really know. The human psyche and the decision making process is much too complex for even Mark Zuckerburg and Facebook, or Larry Page and Sergey Brin at Google, with all their billions of dollars and brain power to fully understand.

At best, all that the algorithms designed by the brilliant minds at Google and Facebook can really do, is determine broadly, the options afforded to the user. They can make a highly informed guess as to who will like this or who will watch that, but every so often they’re apt to get it wrong.

So if you’re into marketing, or producing social media ‘news’ of some kind, don’t beat up on yourself (or your employees) too much if your social media strategy doesn’t appear to be bringing in as much dividends as you would like. Quite a few people work extremely hard to ensure that you’re forced to spend your money on advertising through their own mediums.

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