One of my LinkedIn Connections and a close friend was quite tired of writing daily posts on LinkedIn as most of his posts did not cross double-digit Likes - forget about gathering Comments or Shares. His last post that crossed tripledigit Likes was in 2010. So it has been almost 11 years of suffering by now.

Having 10,000 + “Connections” and yet not able to “Connect”, will make anyone upset.

He even told me - "I don't know if I should be amazed by the reading speed of few connections or understand it otherwise. Few of my articles receive Likes in just few seconds, though they are a good read for about 2-3 minutes. Some even gather Comments like "Nice Sir" in same duration."

This feeling itself required “self-introspection”. So one day, he decided to do an “Internal Response Survey” with his own 10,000+ Connections on LinkedIn. He decided to find the real reasons for his suffering posts/articles.

With this thought, he drafted 5-Options and sent them to few of his “Connections” for their response - identifying particularly those connections, who had never responded on his posts.

The five options that he circulated to know WHY THEY DON’T RESPOND were:

1. “Do I Know You?”
2. “I Rarely Check My LinkedIn Account”
3. “I Don’t Like What You Write”
4. “I Generally Don’t Like or Comment”
5. “How Come I Missed Your Post”

You are right - now the battle had started to get the response. He had to give quite an explanation to almost all of them as to why he is doing such Survey. Some even wanted to know the hidden agenda behind this survey - third party sponsorship. Few also sympathised with his feelings and promised to respond the very same day, and the day never came.

Finally, after consistent harassment, he could gather responses in double-digit, though he had sent the survey to almost 300 connections.

The final outcome of the survey is reproduced below.

• Option- 1: Do I Know You?: 37%
• Option – 2: Rarely Check My LinkedIn: 16%
• Option – 3: I Don’t Like What You Write: 09%
• Option – 4: I Generally Don’t Like/Comment: 11%
• Option – 5: How Come I Missed Your Post: 23%
• Total : 96%

Few Connection also had their own option for response

• Option-6 : What is this Nonsense Survey : 04%
• Total : 100%

He told me - Few of the Connections who responded in "Do I Know You" had checked my profile a number of times. Those who responded in "I Rarely Check My LinkedIn" often post 3 articles in a week. Few who responded in "I Don't Like What You Write" did read my article and shared. Similarly, the one who said - "I Generally Don't Like/Comment" also included the ones who had Liked my article without reading. Genuinely, some Connections had indeed missed my posts.

Fortunately, I was the one who had liked his posts a few times and even wrote in the comments section – “Very Nice”, of course after reading the post.

Finally, he concluded - Socially Media is all about “Show-off Media”. It is a platform that deals with #numbers. Most of the stories & posts are unread, and most of the Likes are Casual Likes. ‘Shares’ do make a difference in response but not everyone wants to take that pain.

I believe, write for your own satisfaction and like Bhagwan Krishna said in Geeta - "Karm Kiye Ja - Phal Ki Ichcha Mat Kar Ai Insaan". Keep writing and don't bother about who likes and who doesn't.