The power of engagement

I have been a member of Facebook for more than six years. I am also a member of Instagram but I use them in different ways. The Facebook is a way that I found to be connected to every single person that I had the chance to meet, including family, friends and peers from work. On the other hand I have been using Instagram in a more restricted way, dedicating it only for very close friends.

Since I first signed up for Facebook I have been sharing different things of my life: trips, moments of extremely happiness but also sad moments of life, status, thoughts and mood. I have observed that a regular post (where I am, what I am doing…) usually get 20% of like of my base on Facebook. Most of this post are usually just “one way”, it is just about to share with Facebook friends what I am doing. But I also had the experience to post some other things that would bring up my thought followed by a doubt and a question to the audience of what they think I should ado, or simply showing them my wonder. I have noticed that whenever I post something that requires an engagement of the people on Facebook, their opinion rather than a simple “Like” the number of “Likes” go beyond the regular 20% and can reach something around 40% of my base.

I believe this phenomenon happens due to action required on my post, a call for an engagement. When it happens, more people engages to your post. The more people you have engaged to your post, the greater the number of times that it comes up again on the “new histories” of my network and the more people would see it and have the chance to “Like” or “Comment”. This is a way that the post keeps itself fresh and does not disappears on the news feed of my network.

I have learned that the engagement of the people is crucial to increase the of “likes” on your post not only because of the way the software works and makes it alive and fresh on my network feed but also and mainly because people like to be required and participate on your post. A “two way” post is definitely more successful than “one way” posts.