Matching Markets and Social Media
The Engagement Equilibrium: Social Media Strategy Meets Economic Theory
The theory behind matching markets and market clearing prices can be applied to social media and how one can successfully garner a sizeable audience. Social media has been and is continuing to dominate much of our lives, whether it be as the audience or the creator. These days it seems as if everyone’s either an Instagram model, YouTuber, Tik Toker, or simply a content creator. Their job is to create content with a main theme, whether it be posting a video of them reviewing a product or a picture of them on vacation in fashionable clothing, in efforts to increase their number of followers or subscribers.
It turns out that market theory is applicable to the relationship between social media content creator and social media content follower/subscriber. It states in the article that just like how supply and demand are inversely related, “post activity and post visibility” are too. If you don’t post very often, most of your posts are likely to be viewed; however, you will soon lose viewers as you won’t be providing much content. On the flip side, if you post too often, you will first attract many followers, but gradually, your posts are likely to be buried or tuned-out. The “sweet spot” that the article mentions is referred to as the Engagement Equilibrium. This is the spot between posting too often and not posting often enough that can boost your social media fame and presence. This can be thought of as the market clearing price for social media. It’s the point at which the people who post are satisfied because they are able to get more likes or followers while the people who like or follow are also satisfied enough to press that like or follow button.