The data proves it: I’m popular and also unpopular

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I pride myself on being relatively in tune with the Cheese-It network and society overall. That I know what’s of interest, hot, on fleek.

(Use of “on fleek” makes you question the validity to the previous statement, huh?)

Looking at data, like what links get the most clicks in my newsletter, as well as what social media and blog posts of mine get the most likes, comments, and shares, backs up this claim. And also refutes it.

I’m often surprised at and dead wrong about what resonates and what doesn’t —
“Why didn’t anyone like XYZ article?!?”

“They went gaga for that?!”

This fascinated me. I began to pay attention to and note the data of the data, collecting links to my hottest Facebook posts in Evernote. In case you’re also a data nerd, or if you simply want to imbibe popularity, thought I’d share.

I love the randomness. I also love the solidification of the recent realization of mine that being a “Content Curator” is a thing. A thing people want. A thing from which people derive pleasure. A thing people will support, financially and otherwise. I recently made a joke about the one subscriber I had on Patreon and in two weeks, that joke netted me two more subscribers. I’m not about to retire on the subsequent funds but y’all, the fact that people set up monthly autopay from their bank account to mine in exchange for my content, most of which isn’t original, blows my mind, warms my soul, and gives me all sorts of motivation to keep on keepin’ on.

The joke also opened up the door to eye-opening conversations with the two cheerleaders, as they shared why they deemed lil ol’ me worthy of their hard-earned money:

“I was listening to a podcast and a journalist was talking about supporting literary publications that helps keep them unbiased. Though bias is not the reason I chose to become a patron, I did think of things that I routinely read or save to read and your newsletter is always one of those things. It is valuable to me and I feel that I should support it.”

“I truly appreciate your posts as I am an avid lover of travel… I would guess that I read 90% of your blog posts over the past 10 years and probably read 5-8 articles that you post to Facebook. You are a fantastic curator of content. (oh – and I also ordered the really soft jersey sheets that you suggested…) Basically, I am a big fan. I have thoroughly enjoyed your content over the years… I think Patreon is a great way to support content creators that bring joy and add value to your life. You do both well.”

I often think I’m doing good, that people like and appreciate what I offer, that I should continue to put in the time and effort, especially into the things that don’t directly pay the bills or further me in my primary goals (read: book deal or at least book writing). But sometimes, the crickets man, they’ll do a doozy on ya —

Does anyone care?!

Is anyone listening?!

What am I doing with my life?!

Give me that pint of ice cream, my comfy pants, and Netflix!

While Likes shouldn’t matter, let’s be honest — they do. Both in the applicable, real-world sense of social media capital and companies like Subaru being more likely to gift me a free Outback if I have high engagement, and in the feeling good about oneself sense of illogically and stupidly but realistically measuring yourself against others and their numbers.

Anyhoo, the list. Enjoy! (Or don’t. Maybe I’m wrong again…)

Now the question is will I collect the data from this post? Depends on how many very important projects I have from which I need to procrastinate.

The Most Popular Mac & Cheese Productions℠ Facebook Posts

Or at least the ones in the past year’ish that I’ve remembered to note

If you’d like to follow me on social and/or get my newsletter so that you get similar content to above thoughtfully curated for your pleasure, Twitter   Instagram   Facebook   Newsletter. You can also autopay me if you’d like; it’s a thing.

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