The X,X/2,X4 Rule of Social Media Engagements

Disclaimer- (this is purely based on my observations and reflections and very original piece of work; this is not meant to offend or criticize anybody directly or indirectly ??)

?

It is no brainer that social media, like a strong vacuum pump tries to suck the attention out of us. For the people who are not mindful, this may wreak significant damage to them in the form of reduced productivity, poor relationship and its cascading debilitating effects.

In a social group setting, such a WhatsApp group, many of us like to stay engaged, because of one or more of the following benefits, such as building network (realizing that a Good network implies a Good net worth!), learning and contributing and also relaxing and stress busting. Some engages just to avoid FOMO.

So, what is the price we need to pay for getting the above benefits? We have a pay a small piece of our ‘attention’. Like we are shelling out a small ‘chiller’ or ‘loose coins’ which does not hurt. Hence, when there are any jokes, birthday wishes, good quotes or motivation, we spend our ‘attention’ in the form of ‘like’ or ‘short comments’.

Little do we realize that the ‘attention’ that we are willing to spend as ‘chiller’ is closely coupled with ‘time’ and ‘energy’ (refer the iron triangle or pyramid). ?So, the more attention we give to a particular social medial topic (like birthday wish, jokes, quotes etc), this indirectly puts pressure on us to dispense the other two closely coupled currencies (‘time’ and ‘energy’)

Of the three currency, ‘attention’ has the least weightage (which can be dispensed by liking, commenting etc on the social media post). Next weightage we give to the currency of ‘time’ (which can be dispensed by participating in virtual meetings, say zoom meetings) which is followed by currency of ‘energy’ (which can be dispensed in the form of physical meeting, by traveling and spending both time and money)

So, if there are say 60 people (X people) in a social media WhatsApp group, once the initial euphoria as subsided, this is how people will behave:

~30 people (or ~X/2 people) will NOT engage as they don’t want to dispense their ‘attention’ currency,

~15 people (or ~ X/4 people) will spend their ‘attention’ currency by liking/commenting etc on the post (say by wishing channel members Happy Birthday, Good morning etc)

~ 7 people (~ X/8 people) will spend their ‘time currency’ to participate in virtual meetings such as zoom meeting for any discussion or for some Zoom B’day celebration.

~3 people (~X/16 people) will spend their energy currency to participate in physical meetings, by traveling and spending money etc (note they will be also spending their time and attention currency along with)

So the person who is administrating the particular social media ?WhatsApp channel and wants to get an good outcome need to keep this in mind to plan and get the desired outcome

"This does not apply to messages in social medial channel that becomes viral"

?

Does this resonate with you. Would love to hear what you think?