Before posting online it is vital to understand the psychology of the platform that we are using.
The psychology? What on Earth am I talking about? Bear with me for a minute.
You see, we need to remember that each individual platform has its own business goals. So, what are they trying to achieve? These networks make the vast majority of their revenue through showing people advertisements. Therefore, their algorithms will show content that is designed to keep people on their platforms for as long as possible.
It is important for brands and businesses to try as much as possible to post natively on the platform. Let’s say for example you have a five-minute video explaining a product or service. There are a couple of options for distributing this video.
Most content creators will upload the video on one platform, say for example YouTube, and then share it on the other social media networks. But a YouTube video that is posted as a link to Facebook almost always sees less engagement than the same video that is uploaded directly to Facebook. This is what it means to post ‘natively’. The same notion applies to all the other platforms, too.
There are some exceptions; if your sole purpose is to build a presence on YouTube, then it makes sense to share a link to your audience on Facebook. But it is often more effective to capitalise on native engagement and spread brand building efforts across different platforms.
A second aspect for businesses to consider when delving into the psychology of platforms is to take advantage of when new features are rolled out. Platforms will always reward people who use these new features with free engagement. They will show your content on more users’ newsfeeds.
At the moment Facebook Groups present a great opportunity for businesses as content from groups are receiving terrific engagement. Many industry leaders and those looking to build brand are engaging their community through a Facebook Group strategy.
Similarly, we see a live video engaging well on most platforms that offer this feature, particularly Facebook and Instagram.
So, pay attention to what is changing and what new features platforms are introducing.