This is the most popular social network by engagement… and no it’s not TikTok
If you are running paid ads, it’s obvious that Facebook and YouTube drive the most volume.
But on the flip side, try posting anything on Facebook without spending ad money.
Chances are you’ll get little to no engagement.
So, forget which social network has the most "active users".
Let’s look at the social networks that provide the most engagement (likes, shares, comments).
For this study, we looked at 3,495,109 posts across Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, X, and Pinterest.
Here are the results:
Some of the best social networks are the ones we don’t talk about often like LinkedIn.
These networks are craving content and your attention.
So, what do they do? They reward you with engagement, so you keep posting content.
How Kevin Systrom pivoted a failed check-in app into Instagram
“We cut features, we focused on what we thought the world needed, and then we got to the heart of the issue of why people wouldn’t use it—that they didn’t feel comfortable sharing their photos. We solved those things right in a row and kept it uber simple.”
The first product Kevin launched was a check-in app called Burbn, which he was able to raise money for because check-in apps like Foursquare were all the rage at the time.
Kevin admits that Burbn was a “me-too” product that he mostly created because he wanted to be his own boss and work on his own ideas.
After three months, it was very clear that Burbn wasn't working, peaking at 100 users. Kevin and his cofounder Mike Krieger decided to pivot.
Somewhat counterintuitively, they arrived at the idea for Instagram by cutting features rather than adding them.
They looked at how users were using Burbn and noticed that people loved sharing photos to show their friends what they were doing at various locations. So Kevin and Mike decided to cut every other feature of Burbn and focus solely on photo sharing.
To arrive at this decision, they looked at the world and asked themselves: "what opportunity is there to fill?"
At the time, there were dozens of other check-in apps, but there wasn't a great solution for posting great photos to lots of your friends all at once. It was the only thing that felt like a greenfield opportunity--everything else felt crowded.
They also noticed that mobile phones were becoming more pervasive and more people would have cameras in their pockets.
So they went all-in. They stripped all of the features away from Burbn except for photo sharing, and launched the first version of Instagram.
However, when Kevin asked his wife if she was excited about the new app, she told him she didn't feel comfortable sharing her photos because they didn't look as good as everyone else's.
Kevin said: "Oh, that's because they use filters."
And his wife replied: "well you should probably add filters."
That day, Kevin hopped on his laptop and made the first filter for Instagram (X-Pro2). This ended up solving the #1 reason people wouldn't use it and is ultimately why Instagram ended up working.
Today, 1.35 billion people use Instagram.
Source: @tferriss
Jeff Bezos: “Every startup is unlikely to work… But that doesn’t mean you can’t be optimistic”
When Jeff started Amazon, he told his investors that he thought there was a 30% chance they’d get their money back:
“Because that’s the truth. Every startup company is unlikely to work. It’s helpful to be in reality about that. But that doesn’t mean you can’t be optimistic. You kind of have to have this duality in your head. On the one hand, you know what the baseline statistics say about startup companies. And on the other hand, you have to ignore all that and just be 100% sure it’s going to work.”
He continues:
“You’re holding that contradiction in your head, but it was so exciting. From 1994 when the company was founded to 1995 when we opened our doors, all the way until today. I find Amazon so exciting and it’s full of pain. Full of problems. There’s so many things that need to be resolved and worked and made better, and et cetera. But on balance, it’s so fun… I feel so grateful that I’ve been part of that journey. It’s just been incredible.”
Source: @lexfridman
This is how I doubled my reach (screenshots for proof)
Creating amazing content doesn’t guarantee reach.
The main reason is humans have a short attention span.
Humans have an attention span of 8 seconds… goldfishes on the other hand have an attention span of 9 seconds.
The key is the hook people.
It’s the first sentence in your video or text-based post.
Just look at this screenshot.
As you can see, that post reached 2400 people in the first hour.
The hook I used was “Stop focusing on follower count, it’s useless”
It was about how you shouldn't obsess about follower count because most of your followers won’t see your content anyway and how social networks want you to focus on content quality.
I felt the content was good, but the post wasn’t doing well.
So, I deleted it and reposted it with a new hook.
The content was the same, I changed the first sentence and then of course adjusted the next few for it to flow.
The new hook was “I have 3.8 million followers and it’s useless”.
Look at the results.
It had a reach of 2600 and that was just within 23 minutes.
Way better than 2400 reach in an hour.
I increased my reach by more than double by just changing the hook.
The key to a good hook is…
1. Share something new that no one has talked about before.
2. Have a unique take on whatever you are talking about.
3. Be bold when possible.
4. Consider using a fact or a stat.
5. Or address a common misconception.
Try it out. It will help you get more engagement.
Hey All, just wanted to you know that we have so less followers and we are following too many people, so now we are going to unfollow who aren’t following us. Thanks
Should you clone your voice?
Well, a company called ElevenLabs just raised $80 million to do so.
I know it sounds creepy and it can be misused but let me tell you why you SHOULD have your voice cloned.
First off, I’ve already talked about how podcasting isn’t that competitive.
Sure, there are 4 million podcasts, but to put that in perspective there are over 1 billion blogs.
Podcasting is still a wide-open ocean.
Imagine being able to generate podcast ideas, and then content leveraging AI… now imagine it being able to spit out thousands of podcasts for you automatically.
Imagine how many listeners you can get with much less effort.
I spend 2 plus hours a week on my podcast. And I have been doing it for 7 plus years.
That’s over 728 hours spent… that’s roughly 18 working weeks spent on just podcasting.
And cloning your voice opens so many more possibilities.
Imagine being able to help people through support, but it being in your voice.
Or being able to create a virtual you that can answer anyone’s questions.
Or better yet, imagine your loved ones being able to communicate and talk to you even after you pass away.
The possibilities are endless.
It may be a bit creepy to clone your voice but worth it in the long run.
Stop Overthinking Social Media
I was using social media before Facebook even came around.
And now we have over a dozen popular platforms, and they’ve continually adjusted their algorithms.
And although social algorithms have gotten much more complex, social media marketing isn’t complex.
It’s still simple.
Your goal is to post stuff that people want to consume.
You don’t need any fancy hacks…
You just have to post really, really, really good content.
That content is typically something that people haven’t seen before from someone else.
The easiest way to figure out what kind of content people want to consume and don’t want to consume is to test it out.
Just post on social media (preferably X because they don’t penalize you for posting often or posting mediocre content) and see what hits.
Once you have content that people love, go and post it on other social networks.
It really is that simple.
Social media isn’t complicated.
3 Social Media Stats Everyone Should Know
If you are going to post content on the social web, you want it to get the most reach.
Most of us aren’t lucky enough to have millions or even hundreds of thousands of followers.
But that’s alright, we gathered data from 15,000 social profiles over the last 3 years to help you out.
Here are 3 stats that will help you get the most engagement even if you don’t have tons of followers.
Stat #1: Short-form content generates 31.18% more reach
If you are going to create content, by far, short-form videos get the most engagement.
It’s what people want.
Stat #2: Social posts with 10 or more comments have 194.26% more engagement
Ask questions within your social content. It helps encourage comments.
And when people leave a comment, reply back.
Many platforms notify the commenter, which causes them to come back and leave another comment.
Stat #3: Linking out to an external site on average decreases your reach by 219.49%
Do not send people off any social network.
They reward you for keeping people on their platform.
If someone is going to leave, they want them to leave by clicking on an ad, not a link in your post.
Keep those 3 things in mind when posting on social media.
I have 3.8 million followers and it’s useless.
You should stop focusing on your follower count and here’s why.
But first, let me break down my social media follower count per network:
YouTube – 1.2 million
Facebook – 1 million
LinkedIn – 571,821
Instagram – 495,000
X – 465,500
TikTok – 138,000
Total – 3.8 million
Everyone wants more followers.
Well 3 or 4 years ago I would tell you that you are right, followers are great.
But that’s not the case anymore.
There has been a big shift in how social platforms work.
What social networks have done over time is democratized social media.
In other words, they don’t care if you have 1000 followers or 10 million.
What they care about is, what percentage of the people who see your content engage with it.
Engagement is typically measured by things like:
Watch time/drop-off point
Liking
Commenting
Sharing
If the engagement rate for your content is better than most of the stuff on their social network, they start showing your content to everyone.
Especially those people who don’t follow you.
That’s how people can get tons of views when they have little to no followers.
It’s also why some people get little to no views or likes when they have millions of followers.
Stop stressing about your follower count. It’s a useless metric.
And start focusing on your content quality.
Oh, and for anyone who follows me, I appreciate it even though the social networks don’t.