Influencing “Likes” & “Follows”
Psychology of Social Media
Everyone comes to social media to feel connected locally and internationally based on their interests, skills, and communication. A simple keyword search can turn into joining a community of lifelong friends. Users of social media feel ‘fulfilled’ when they are presented with visuals and conversations that hundred, maybe even thousands, of others also are positively stimulated by.
“Public self-consciousness is how an individual feels about how others perceive them, while loneliness is how an individual feels in relation to others; self-esteem is an emotionally independent evaluation of one’s own worth that measures a self-presentational orientation.”
Reference: How Affective Is a “Like”?: The Effect of Paralinguistic Digital Affordances on Perceived Social Support. Donghee Yvette Wohn, Caleb T. Carr, and Rebecca A. Hayes.Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking 2016 19:9, 562–566
Homophily
Homophily is defined as a joining of efforts towards similar values, vices, and other societal factors. Most people literally use social media to watch videos that are popular whether it’s music or vlogging, to look at photographs such as weather, homes, and animals, and also there are ones that congregate for dark sides of social media such as abuse of substances or even other humans, unfortunately.
The benefits of homophily on social media allow the joining of support groups for major life improvements such as physical health (exercise), and parenting life, and there’s a major increase in entertainment industry activity on social media. If you were losing weight and joined an online group and someone famous is also in the group looking to lose weight, imagine the amount of MOTIVATION that would be projected onto the followers of the group in a positive way!
Algorithms
Platform algorithms provide an easier way to view the content of your specific interests based on how much you view or search terms or based on your engagement. For example, I have a YouTube channel for reading Tarot cards, so every time I open YouTube I have a list of other tarot card readers. I use my Twitter social media platform for Affiliate Marketing and sharing positive messages for physical and emotional health. With that being said whenever I log into Twitter, there’s news about stocks and investors, traveling, and self-improvement profiles that Twitter suggests for me to follow. I do find it helpful that platforms monitor homophily and algorithm because they try to ‘accommodate’ what you’re looking for on their platforms regardless of how much time you actively spend on the platforms. Just remember for every ‘like’ and ‘follow’, your energy is present, and social media platforms are tracking it ALL.
