BennyEast.Com/Blog The official blog of Kenny West

3 Likes Rule

A while back I was out at an event and in a conversation with a random stranger talking to someone who said they only post things on Facebook (Or Twitter or Instagram or any other social media site) that are likely to get at least 3 likes.

I thought that's an interesting idea.  Basically if you don't think at least 3 people will give it a like, or some kind of interaction, it's not worth posting.

I've decided to give that a shot... There's a lot of stupid or funny things the last few days that I immediately wanted to post... But then I was like... There's no way this will get 3 likes.  So, I didn't bother posting it.

Or there were things that I was going to post that I thought would be funny, but then I was like... Well, some people might find that annoying.  Basically though, a lot of stuff has not been posted because it's not likely to get 3 likes.

Plus, people can only do so much liking in a day... So, it also makes you post less because you think, if I post 1 or 2 things, or even go a day or two without posting, people will be more likely to like something I do post... But if you post 5 or 10 times a day, there's just not enough time in the day for people to like all that material.

So, you basically prune out the material you post and say, if this were American Idol of Facebook posts.... Which post would be more likely to make it to the next round.  It also makes you spruce up posts.  Add a Giphy to something, or edit a post a few times until it's worded better.

People like funny... So, that means more posts get humor instead of something that sounds more like a complaint.  People will like a complaint but more in the way that they can relate to it... So, it's tricky.

To post things that get likes... It's not easy, that's for sure.

I've also been looking at friends' posts to see which ones get lots of likes and which get very few...

Obviously, a recent post by a friend of mine with her boyfriend at a wedding where they took a photo of the two of them side by side and captioned it "We clean up well".  That got lots of likes and comments.

I suppose I could take a photo of me with my cats or something, or dress in a tux and then put my cat in an outfit and then post that and caption it... "We clean up well".  That would probably get a lot of likes.

I'm also trying to get people to interact more with the posts, that's hard too... Although the problem I think as well is that Facebook maybe doesn't show posts consistantly.  I think they have a special method of rotating posts.  Like, I'll post something that will get no likes at first, and then 2 days later, it gets 2 or 3 posts and a comment in the span of an hour.  It's weird.

So another part of the conversation was that this person also was trying to beat their record likes... So, they will kind of think of things that might get a monster number of likes.

Life events seems to bring monster likes, as they told me that since they started tracking their likes, they got the most like when they graduated their master's degree.  Makes sense.  I feel like things of that nature get tons of likes and interactions.

I mean, post a photo of you getting your master's degree with you in your cap and gown on graduation day, and then post a photo of a sandwich.  Obviously, the cap and gown will get lots of interaction.

Life events get big time likes... Life milestones... For example...

The "ring show off" post for engagements.  TONS of likes for that.  I've seen a few of those in my feeds.

I'm having a baby also gets lots of likes.  Graduations, job promotions, new cars, buying a first home... Etc. etc.

Successes get lots, like reaching a goal of some sort, one of my friends got a single on the radio in England with the BBC, that got a TON of comments and likes.

So, I mean, a lot of success in Facebook and likes is about success in life.  People respond to success.  People don't respond well to boring things, like, check out this sandwich.  Unless it's funny, like if you're on vacation and the sandwich is the size of your face, that gets likes.  I've seen that posted before, and liked it myself.

It's all about thinking of something that people might say "NO WAY!" to.

People interact with shock and awe stuff, like, if you post something crazy interesting, selfie with a celebrity is a post... Or there's always society related posts, like two of my friends always post injustice related posts because they are teachers so they post about the school systems in public schooling and there's always a comment trail like 10 pages long where people get into debates and such.

Obviously birthdays get TONS of likes... Although, that's not really a post, that people posting on your wall, so it doesn't really count.  At least in the conversation I had, it didn't count for that person.

Anyway, so this person kind of inspired me.  The thing I find completely hilarious about all of this, is that even though we talked at length about social media (as we drank a couple of beers)... We never bothered to link up or exchange any info.  SO, the person left and went his way and I went my way, and I honestly?  I have no clue any of his contact info.

I don't even know their name.  All I know is that he was in the military about 10 years ago he's roughly my age and works a super corporate-y job now in the city and lives in the city.

File that one under epic social media fail.

Well, here's to 3 likes or more, and trying to figure out which posts bring in monster likes and which ones just get a tumble weed rolling in the wind in the desert.  Or crickets.  Lots and lots of crickets just chirping away.