social-media – A Slice of My Trash, Travels and Tots

This is something that I want you to remember: the next time someone tells you not to post a controversial or provocative Facebook post or the next time they chide you “Facebook is not the place”, you can remind them of this:

Nobody (or, almost no one) reads a dense non-fiction book to completion. They skip around or don’t finish it.
Fewer people are reading lengthy articles on the internet of any kind.
Fewer people are reading at all.
When people are “reading” they’re usually scrolling and capturing quick, short bits of information in a hurry.

The next thing you can mention is the EVIDENCE STRONGLY SUGGESTS that people spend LOTS of time hovering over and READING comments from various Facebook posters/accounts, especially if the posts are intriguing, controversial or even just slightly provocative.

I’m not talking about near nudity or explicit posts that generate the SAME kind of expected commentary. I’m referring to written posts that nudge people to read and then respond with their own intellectual take or perhaps push back with a logical and fact based retort. People are often considering all the other comments before posting their own. They don’t want to sound like they’re just repeating the same thing but have taken the time to think about the various comments and have arrived at a slightly nuanced angle. In other words, they END UP SPENDING MORE TIME on that post with lots of comments.

People are naturally curious. People also don’t always have the time to plow through a dense book that may be regarded as controversial. But somehow Facebook analytics and all the research we have until now suggests that people DO spend quite a bit of time in comment sections. If they’re not actively responding, their passively reading. And posts that make a person think for a moment will always generate more engagement, more time spent on that post.

This nonsense BS that FACEBOOK IS NOT THE PLACE TO POST SOME IDEA is NOT backed by evidence or what people are ACTUALLY engaged by or act upon. By far, Facebook is the place because people are more likely to be actively scrolling through Facebook than to be flipping through the pages of book–even if the book is controversial or engaging.

We need to rethink the common phrase “Facebook is not the place”. If you’re a digital creator, Facebook is most certainly the place. Of course you can lose followers but your reach directly expands for potential new followers or friends. Also, the algorithm constantly takes notes. It sees beyond quick likes where people scroll past rapidly vs. people hovering and reading and actually being fully immersed in a post or a string up comments below the post–even if they don’t click “like”.

I recently discovered that length of time spent is a STRONGER INDICATOR of reach and engagement than likes. Someone won’t like your post but they’ll hover over it and spend their precious time on it anonymously. Always remember that. The algorithm knows.

So if you have any interest in success measures like MAKING MONEY $$$$$$ or building a FOLLOWING in the digital sphere, you’ll need to rethink these overused expressions that really don’t have any bearing on reality.

The SOCIAL MEDIA SPHERE may already be saturated with accounts.

Here are a few things to remember while you’re vying for presence, subscribers, followers, noticeability, views and engagement:

It will always be easier to CLICK and SCROLL and CONSUME than to CREATE and to create regularly.

There will always be MORE PEOPLE in the population willing to waste several minutes of their day (and from the research literature, SEVERAL HOURS) scrolling than several minutes CREATING. Always. This is a fact. The most rudimentary fact of human nature is probably our tendency towards ease. We have an entire country filled with health problems and obesity, not bodybuilders. And most of this can be attributed towards our human tendency towards relaxation, comfort and often laziness.

Humans choose the easier path. This is good otherwise we wouldn’t have invented technology in the first place. But this is also good for YOU because it means that you as a content creator or blog-post writer or aspiring influencer have a distinct advantage.

Remember, you want to create. You LOVE the process, the act of creating both physical items and digital items. You’re spurred not solely by gaining some kind of number or position but simply by the fact that you love the creative flow you experience while making anything. You know what this feels like. You’ve done it before. You know how much better you feel after you’ve put in some effort. Sure, you’re flawed. Sure, other people will notice too, but you’re on this creative trajectory.

Think of it like this: some people try to acquire a college education for the sake of getting good grades or simply for the high paying career at the end. Other folks pursue education because they enjoy amassing tangible and abstract truths about the world. They love the interplay between disparate things. They love the “Aha moment” when they discover a useful link with something they’ve learned. They learn because they know it enriches their character, performance and intelligence. Learning becomes a long-term life goal.

In the same way, creator types who want to create and have that instinctive drive to create, are not motivated by gaining a following or establishing some kind of internet notoriety or making lots of money.

While it may be fun to track your progress and to see the views you’re getting, it’s even more fun to jump back into the act of creating, producing and synthesizing relatable ideas.

As much as I try to take a break from posting on various social media platforms, I find myself inexorably compelled to create and post whether it is my art attempts, my woodworking creations, my decorations, my gardening activities, my children’s summer fun moments etc.

I enjoy the process of making original stories on Facebook or composing short reels. I like posting on my ART facebook page. I like wrestling with my thoughts in my blog. I like attempting Shorts on Youtube every-once-in-a-while. I have an entirely separate blog where I posted philosophical ideas for YEARS and it has almost 300,000 views but only 98 subscribers. And, while I haven’t posted there for over a decade, I’m still gaining views! My 2009 posts are still getting views.

If the above felt relatable, you know you’re certainly a “creator type” and you have an edge already. You have intrinsic motivation and nothing can ever take that away because you’ve felt it too many times before. You notice you spend hours making things but only minutes (or less) scrolling. If that’s you, YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES!

Think of all the BIG content creators out there. Do you think they spend a ton of time or effort scrolling through other people’s content? My guess is RARELY. They’re going to have to spend tons of their time working on, editing and thinking about THEIR NEXT PIECE OF CONTENT. It becomes a constant pursuit for them. And believe me, when they start to grow, it’s even more time consuming. So NO, they’re NOT SPENDING VERY MUCH TIME SCROLLING. I can guarantee where they’re spending their moments. They spend their time thinking about their projects and tossing around ideas for their next one.

The only thing you need to do is to convert SOME OF THAT TIME STARING AT YOUR PHONE BRIEFLY ON THOSE BIG ACCOUNTS TOWARDS directly working on your own projects. It’s a habit that you must inculcate into your brain. If you’re going to spend any time in the social media sphere, always do it for you!