Hello,
I'm Mervi Eskelinen!
An artist, nerd and sorcerer, dedicated to make world softer and better for everyone, and to get you to make more art. Make art, change the world!
Does lack of comments and likes mean no-one cares?
You wrote an update to Facebook about something important. It gained no likes and very little comments.
Another update about something trivial, like getting a haircut, got a bunch of likes and comments. You think no-one cares about your important things, but everyone is into the trivial stuff.
Does this sound familiar?
Of course there's a point there: Trivial things, such as getting a haircut, are often easier to relate with. If your important thing isn't something that's important to the next guy, he's more like to ignore it.
But there are other reasons why this happens.
1. They missed your update
On Twitter, Facebook and web in general there's tons of people writing tons of things.
In case your update doesn't happen to happen at the very moment those people are giving their attention it's likely to vanish in the noise.
Now go to see the blog, Twitter, Facebook or Google+ timeline of your family member or good friend. How many updates did You miss from them during the last week or just yesterday?
2. Your wording was vague
Don't expect everyone to give their attention, when your update doesn't really summarize the situation without you having to comment it later.
Also a big mistake is to give your friends or followers non-specific instructions like: "Read the news today." Or: "See what's trending on Twitter." Instead give them a link straight to what you want them to read about.
Leaving it up to the folks, who are already swimming in too much information, to find out what you were talking about is not a good way to get your message out.
3. The update was too long to be noticed
The longer updates on Facebook tend to get more easily missed than the shorter ones. It starts to, very quickly look like "blah blah blah blah blah", so keep it short if possible.
I know, I know. I write long ones too. Sometimes they gain lots of attention. Especially when I get all verbal about something that frustrated me. I guess some people find my unchained crazyness funny.
But in general the long ones tend to gain less attention on my Facebook timeline too.
On Twitter this is often the other way around though. There the close to 140 characters long Tweets gain usually more replies and attention than the shorter ones.
4. They didn't know what to say
Often people read and move on without commenting or liking. There are many reasons not to comment and one of the most popular reasons is you don't have anything profound enough to say.
Especially difficult subjects are... Ahem, difficult. It can be hard to come up with a proper response, you know it yourself, I'm sure.
In case your update was something sad, liking or faving it would be inappropriate. Don't you agree?
Nevertheless, response is rare online. Be happy if you get any.
5. They were shy to respond
Besides not knowing what to say a difficult subject can scare a comment (or a like or other respond) away.
If I comment this, will someone get angry? Will liking this make me seem like [fill a thing you don't want to be seen as]?
Don't panic
If your update doesn't gain any attention, don't panic. Not all do. It happens for more reasons than you can realize.
If the subject is very important (to you), you can, after a little while preferably, try and write another update about it. Go with different wording. Use less words, more words. Include images.
Spamming your friends and followers is the way to get rid of them. Therefore be careful on how often you talk about the same subject.
And hey, remember that your own activity is important too: Liking and commenting other's updates makes them more likely to pay attention to yours.
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