Why a lower 'Like rate' on note is more ideal than a high one → The average Like rate is truly meaningless

Hello, I am Shichau Ojisan (hereinafter referred to as "Shichaoji").

In my previous article {Analyzing the 'Like rate' calculated from the ratio of note views to likes does not reveal the demand or evaluation of an article}, I wrote the following.

In the previous article, I wrote the clear reasons why it is impossible to analyze the quality (demand or evaluation) of an article from the 'Like rate' calculated by 'Number of Likes ÷ Number of Views × 100'.

Furthermore, since I also wrote that a lower 'Like rate' is more ideal than a high one, I imagine most readers are in a state of 'Wait! Why?'

But you know, this is a fact.

My 'Shichaoji' note (currently) focuses on sharing information on how to earn money by making full use of the web, centered on this note. However, those who talk about managing a note while saying 'The higher the Like rate, the more popular the article!' are people who don't really earn much (or aren't earning at all).

In this article, I will explain the details of this!

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Example of 'Sakana ga Kuru'

First, please take a look at the screenshot of the 'Top 3 Most Accessed Posts' posted in the following article by 'Sakana ga Kuru', which I found by chance while surfing note.

The article above was written by 'Sakana ga Kuru' to commemorate achieving 100 consecutive days of posting, and the contents of the dashboard they made public are transcribed as follows.

Now, let's calculate the 'Like rate' for each of these top 3 viewed articles. The formula for the 'Like rate' was 'Number of Likes ÷ Number of Views × 100', right?

As you can see from the results above, the 'Like rate' drops the more views increase. But then, is the 1st place article with a low 'Like rate' of 0.3% {Pros and cons of GoToEat (Eat) heard from restaurants} a low-quality article and an unpopular one?

The 2nd place article {After 'Fly Me to the Saitama', it seems it will be 'Fly 20,000 Light Years to Niigata'} and the 3rd place article {Thinking about how to use the 'Go To Eat Campaign' profitably} also have a 'Like rate' of less than 1%.

Does that mean they are also low-quality and unpopular articles?

That's not the case, is it?

In fact, these top 3 viewed articles are much more likely to be articles that truly meet reader demand and are read seriously, rather than articles with unnecessarily high 'Like rates' of 5% or 10%.

This is to be expected, as all of the top 3 viewed articles by 'Sakana ga Kuru' have increased their views through readers coming from Google organic search.

Perhaps there is no need to explain it here, but users of search engines are actively searching for the information they want to know by typing in search keywords.

In other words, readers who visit via arbitrary search keywords from search engines like Google, unlike mutual followers within note, are highly likely to read the article seriously to obtain the information they want to know.

And since a 'Like' is just a minor feature within note, these readers from outside note don't even know what a 'Like' is, so they won't press it in the first place.

For articles they like, they use browser bookmarks instead of note's 'Like' button (they don't comment, nor do they go out of their way to create a note account and follow).

Conversely, mutual followers within note will easily press 'Like' as a way of saying 'I read this!'

You can see why 'Shichaoji' said, {While talking about note operations, those who say 'The higher the Like rate, the more popular the article!' are people who don't earn much (or don't earn at all).} right?

To put it simply, those who say 'The higher the Like rate, the more popular the article!' are essentially admitting that they are failing to attract traffic to note.

To earn money on note, you need to succeed in continuous traffic acquisition, but when you succeed in that, the 'Like rate' will inevitably drop.

This is not limited to traffic from search engines. Even when you guide readers to note articles from other SNS media such as Twitter, the 'Like rate' will naturally drop.

This is the reason why celebrity notes with tens of thousands of followers have surprisingly few Likes.

If you talk about note operations while being trapped in the experience only within note, you might end up bringing up metrics like 'Like rate' and even saying 'The higher the Like rate, the more popular the article!'

'Shichaoji' might say, 'The more views and the lower the Like rate an article has, the more successful it is at attracting traffic.'

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'Like!' ≒ 'Whatever!'

I would like to touch on one more point while I'm at it: the 'Like' on note also contains more than a few elements similar to Facebook's (now Meta) 'Like' ≒ 'Whatever!'

One of 'Shichaoji's' clients lamented, 'It's frustrating because opportunistic articles get more Likes than articles I put my heart and soul into,' but that is certainly a trend on note, isn't it?

It's a community culture of 'let's all get along peacefully without making waves.'

Therefore, sharp opinions and arguments that hit the essence of things tend to be avoided on note.

By thoroughly understanding the backbone of a medium like note, I think you will no longer be swayed by whether you have many or few likes, or even by the high or low of your 'Like Rate'.

What you should care about is 'how well you can grasp reader demand and how consistently you can write articles that meet it?' (getting likes from irrelevant people is nothing more than self-satisfaction).

I will add a supplementary note, but since the 'Like Rate' itself is a useless metric, it goes without saying that trying to find the average 'Like Rate' is also nonsense.

(Added on August 5, 2023)
'Shichaoji' has come up with a 'New Like Rate' to replace the 'Like Rate'!

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That was – Why a lower 'Like Rate' on note is more ideal than a higher one → The average Like Rate is truly meaningless –.

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