That was a test and ~70% failed Many thought I was engagement farming. Wrong. I put a hidden CTA in my post to check who read it Why? Let me tell you a secret: . Ever seen a post with 50k views but only 25 replies?And compare it to another with 2.5k views and 150 replies? And wonder: Why did the one with more engagement get less reach? I'll tell you why: It's because READ GUYS are 10x more valuable than REPLY GUYS. It's no secret that X favors screen time. It's written in the code. The more that users: > click into a post: "show more" > actually read it > bookmark it The further the post will go. So what's the problem? Current Reply Culture Look I love replies, and I am grateful for EVERY interaction I get on my posts, whether people read it or not. However, yesterdays experiment proved a problem I had long suspected: (Most) Reply guys are not reading. They skim the post, fire off a reply, punch their card, and move onto the next creator. And it will happen again: If you read this far, prove it by putting "golden" in a comment below. Try to make it subtle Unfortunately the current skim and reply behavior is guaranteed to limit a post's reach. As creators we need READERS not just reply guys. How I'm Fixing It 1) Just like I did in my post, I will run small social experiments to test for people paying attention to my content. Small details in the text, maybe even in pictures that only a dedicated READER could catch. 2) The people who pass the test get added to a list (already created, some people made it yesterday) 3) I will reciprocate by reading their posts, bookmarking, and providing responses when I have something to say Somber Reality I cant change the culture of everyone on X Some don't have time to read only want to fire off quick replies (It's okay I still love and appreciate you) However, I'm betting that there are actual readers out there, and I just need to find them. I'm betting that a small community of readers will be more powerful than an army of reply guys. So who wants to be a reader?
