Spot the difference...
Tik Tok tells me someone followed me.
Instgram tells me someone followed me from my reel.
Which do you think would be more effective at getting me to post again?
When encouraging more of a behaviour, a powerful yet underused technique is to remind people what they did to receive the reward.
TikTok gives me the reward (a new follower) but leaves me guessing what earned it. Was it the video I posted yesterday? Something from months ago? My profile? I have no idea, so the reward doesn’t tell me what to repeat.
Instagram cleverly closes the loop. It links the reward to the action, and tells me which reel earned me followers. That makes it more likely I’ll post again.
There are two main takeaways here:
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It’s not just social media
If you thank a colleague, say what they did. If a customer gets a discount, tell them why they earned it. If your team hits a target, name the behaviours that got you there. A reward on its own feels nice. A reward tied to an action tells people what to do again.
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A few words may be all it takes
Instagram added just three words: “from your reel”. What could you add to your thank yous, invoices, or emails?
P.S. One of my reels got over 100,000 views on Instagram and 25,000 on TikTok this week.
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