When Promoting On Facebook Do You Ever Wonder If This Works

Reading is hardly something that looks like it does above. That’s because writing has changed so much within the past few decades. Anyone that’s writing and using social media to promote their work has probably seen the statement, ‘Read, then drop your links, and I’ll return the favor.’ When I first started writing online, I noticed this becoming more of a trend over time, especially on Facebook. It does lead me to a couple of questions.

Why Use This On Facebook Posts

The statement makes me question why people use it with their Facebook posts. I can honestly say that I have never predicated my posts on “support” groups with a statement indicating to its’ readers, “I won’t read yours unless you read mine first.” What else can it mean?

Sure, I’ve read people’s stuff on Facebook, despite the phrase. Does the statement really work to ensure you’re getting “tons” of reads? Honestly, I don’t know, but I have my doubts.

Meanwhile, some people post their stories, tell a little about the story's importance or subject it covers, and are doing just fine. One only needs to look at the number of claps they have overtime to see that they likely are getting plenty of reads. If a story has over 1200 claps, that’s a minimum of 24 reads at 50 claps per reader. Most readers don’t clap 50 times.

Write things that make people want to read what you are putting out to the public at large. That should be the first thing a writer looking for a large audience focuses upon. Giving your prospective audience something that they are attracted to is a way to get people to click on your pieces, open them, and read them. Clicking on Facebook posts to read them is the first thing we all want people to do. That’s why most people use Facebook groups, to promote something they’re creating, selling, or something specific they want to share.

I feel comfortable saying this on March 1st, 2022 because in February I didn’t use this statement one time. Between Vocal and Medium, I have a combined 32,000 plus views with 16,000 reads during February.

I, by no means, could have read 16000 pieces in February, nor could anyone else that I’m aware of, without some trick to make it even possible. I’m by no means the greatest writer on these platforms. I guess if I can pull that down in a month, I don’t suck, but I’m not the most successful person writing on Medium, Vocal, or anywhere else for that matter.

Every month, as I go along trying to blog, write, work on my writings, hone my skills, and evolve, I learn something new and useful. One of the things I’ve learned is that no matter how prolific a writer you may be, not everyone is going to like every piece of content you create online. With less than 1,000 Facebook followers, Twitter followers, and an average social media following, I know that I’m depending on the groups and people that might not be friends or followers. However, when it comes to what I’ll read, I tend to read pieces by anyone that has put something out with a catchy title, has impressed me before, or are new and need support, as I found in the support groups a year ago.

I find the use of the sentiment read me and I’ll read you in the description of a post is an interesting approach and wonder if it’s getting the many people that use that as a tool or in their description of their post good results or if their results are leaving them with few reads to speak of.

If you use the statement in your Facebook posts, feel free to let me know in the comments whether you think it works or not. I honestly am curious to know what effect people think it has on their posts, their success promoting their work, and how their reads/views stack up against others that use Facebook. Thanks for hearing my inquiry into the idea of, “read first, then drop your links and I’ll return the favor.”