There it is in my feed again. It's a week before Christmas 2017, and you'll have seen it too. "Facebook has changed its algorithm again and I only see the same few friends. If you're reading this, just comment hey so we stay connected. Copy and paste to your own wall."
Then there are the pages asking you to like if you're a cat person and share if you're a dog person, or to tag a friend who needs to see this.
That's engagement bait. Posts that try to game the system by begging for likes, comments and shares.
Facebook calls time
This week Facebook announced it's had enough. People had told it they hated these posts, so it's started pushing them further down the feed, and going harder on pages that do it over and over.
I wasn't sorry to hear it. Engagement bait always felt a bit desperate to me. It's the online version of standing at the door of your own party asking everyone to say they're having a good time.
What to do instead
The answer was simple then and it's simple now. Post things your audience actually cares about. Stuff that's useful, or that makes them smile. Be accurate and be yourself. Treat people with respect, especially when they disagree with you.
And remember the quality of your audience matters far more than the size of it. A hundred people who care beat ten thousand who clicked like because you asked them to.
If people respond because something you posted mattered to them, you've started a real conversation. If they respond because you nagged them, you've got a number on a screen and nothing else.
The same bait in a nicer shirt
The platforms have changed, the tricks have changed, and the bait has got cleverer. "Comment YES and I'll send you the link" is just the same thing in a nicer shirt. Sometimes it works for a while. Then the rules change again and everyone who leaned on it starts from scratch.
The people who keep doing well are the ones who give first. That's why I always say watch and listen before you post, and why quality versus quantity is the wrong argument anyway.
Look at your last few posts. Did any of them ask people to do something just to get a reaction? Next time, swap the ask for a real question you'd love to hear the answers to, and reply to every one that comes back.
First published December 2017.
