Author’s Quick Guide to Decoding Social Media ‘Silence’

Authors dream of social media pages filled with comments and interaction. Likes are lovely, but writers long to stir up the chatter with their clever posts. They want noise, but often experience virtual silence. Interpreting that silence for audience disinterest is a mistake. Fiction readers who consistently comment are more rare than might be expected.

Social media is about you—it isn’t actually you.

As an author, you want your social media to promote a representation of you and your work. This fragmented version isn’t your true self, but an intentional, crafted version of yourself. You aren’t self-promoting, you’re presenting and interacting in a public space in a consistent and participatory way.

You’re providing people with an understanding of who you are, what you do, and what you stand for, but you are also bringing others together. Its your party; you’re the host, so the event is bigger than you and again, its not about you. It’s about the common interests of those present. Just like a party it’s your task to bring people together and if its been a good time, they will talk about you and your work behind your back. 

That’s a good thing. Talking to you and talking about you (and your work) are different things.

Look Whose (not) Talking

Characteristics of non-commenters:

• Roughly 40% of all online users fall into the silent category.
• Are more likely to be introverts.
•  Are more likely to be women.

Characteristics of commenters:

• Roughly 60% of social media users fall into this category.
• 24 % of commenters prefer to debate issues. 
•  21% prefer chatting.
• Spend on average 1 hour a day commenting.
• Are more likely to express ‘dark’ personality traits.
• Are more likely to be a troll than non-commenters.

Commenting is a slower, reflective, more cognitive process than liking, which is intuitive and reflexive. Additionally, commenting patterns will be influenced by the presence of other comments as well as the types of other comments. Therefore, commenting requires a decoding of the post but also a decoding of the contextual (other) comments. If your followers are too busy to read the comments of others, they are less likely to comment themselves.

Silence (can be) Golden

Characteristics of all social media users:

• Extraversion and openness to new situations are the most common of the personality traits among users.
• People who are emotionally stable use social media less frequently.

It’s significant to note that visible online interactions are performed by a specific group of people who express a specific set of personality traits. Thus, much of what occurs visibly is limited to and dominated by a specific group. For example, emotionally stable, introverted women are less likely to comment than extroverted men. And so, many of the people who are out there, reading and engaging with your brand, you won’t hear from and many of those you do hear from come from a probably smaller, specific group.

Keep in mind, your social media isn’t about you personally. It’s about the community you are creating. Your approach should be fun, sustainable and incorporate all your work or areas of interest. Do what you like, what seems right, not what people tell you. In fact, I’d say if someone tells you not to do it—do it. And if your virtual ‘people’ are on the quiet side, it probably means you’re being followed by hard-working, introverted women who are interested in what you’re about but don’t feel the need to debate things—probably because they’re busy reading a book.