I “cross-post” most of my blog entries as links on Facebook. My intent is to have most of my writing here on my own blog, mostly so I can retain some semblance of ownership over my own words. And I want my Facebook friends to stay in touch as well.
But I have observed an interesting phenomenon. People, at least some of them, ‘respond’ on Facebook with a thumbs up or smiley face without following the link to the post. That is, they never come here and read my words. That strikes me as odd.
Not fixable
I don’t think this is ‘fixable’. It isn’t 100% of the people, and I don’t really have a good way to prove it other than a rough count of views of posts on this blog versus reactions on Facebook. That is, there are regularly more reactions on Facebook than total views of the related blog entry. Regardless: I am confident that it is happening.
So all I can really do is observe. I don’t want to add a bunch of words to my Facebook posts like “Please click the attached link before responding” or anything like that. I’ve tried that approach in the past and it didn’t work any better. And it feels a bit pedantic: clearly the link or link preview is a link, so clearly the person responding without clicking on it is doing so knowingly.
I’ve tried other things: this post provides a good example of my efforts to “keep it short, stupid”. A variation on KISS, the basic idea is that long posts are too much for most people to retain interests. So I’ve been aiming for something around 500 or fewer words per post- it is hard for me to do that, but it is good practice.
Or maybe not. Facebook has also taught people to not trust links on Facebook. So why should my blog fare any better? But on the other hand, I know people click the worst of the worst links on Facebook all day long- I see it in my feeds with people reposting AI generated slop and chain letters. So I’m not sure what the ‘winning’ approach looks like.
But this is my blog, and if there is one thing I would “trust” it would be a blog being run by one of my friends. So… as I say, not fixable since I don’t really understand why people aren’t following my blog links to begin with.
Keep smiling
Netting it out, I have resolved that the tendency for folks on Facebook to skip the step of viewing this site is ‘unfixable’. But I will look for more subtle ways to encourage people to read my actual posts, not just the link on Facebook. They will do whatever makes them happiest, of course.
With time, perhaps ‘happy’ and ‘reading my blog’ will intersect more frequently. In the mean time, welcome to an exclusive club consisting of the people who read my lovely blog! You can quote this in your reply on Facebook if you want to prove you are a lifetime reader 😉
