What Chain Emails Knew About Impressions
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Remember those?
If you're familiar with the sounds of dial-up internet, I'm certain you remember chain emails. The misspellings, the vague threats, the excessive capitalization. It was a simpler time in our digital world when we weren't so averse to the occasional spam message in our inbox. But like, what the hell was that? In fact, why the hell was that?
Chain letters have been around literally since the dawn of human history. Historians believe many early examples have been lost to time, but here's an NPR piece about a chain letter from 55 AD. From physical letters, to pamphlets, to the invention of Hotmail, the simple chain letter has been one of the most prevalent forms of mass media. That's honestly kind of crazy considering most chain letters have no way to generate return.
What’s The Worth of Going Viral?
Chain letters, even all the way back in 55 AD, are the best physical manifestation of virality. You get the thing, you read the thing, you share the thing, end of transaction. There are, of course, plenty of more nefarious chain letters. You've got your Bill Gates memos, your Nigerian Princes, and your pyramid schemes of the 1930s, but most chain letters didn't ask for much. They didn't take your data, they didn't want your money, they just wanted you to help them spread.
So then, what was the point? What did the authors of these viral concoctions have to show for their success? The answer, I believe, is a place in the cultural zeitgeist.
The Power of a View
Even before YouTube introduced the idea of paying creators for the views on their content, being seen held power. Perhaps these views couldn't be directly monetized, but they created community; they fostered a shared understanding of experience. And it is this community, this shared understanding of experience, that paves the way for strategy. As noted above, most chain letter's didn't have a price tag or a way to steal your credit card, but they did grow your contact list. These chain letters created a bucket brigade of communication, and taught new users how to pass the bucket.
The modern version of a chain letter is a social media post. Here's a great article about their place on TikTok. These days, we use apps and algorithms to find the chain letters best suited for us. Our FYPs and IG feeds are riddled with content that exists for no reason but to be seen and shared. But again, I ask the question, for why?
In Conclusion
I had a TikTok do really well this week. It was an example of a common growth trend and it landed around 6k views. As nice as 6k views is, I was quick to dismiss the success. I've said it before and I'll say it again, impressions don't equal engagement. Beyond that, I'm not big enough on TikTok to monetize my views (yet), so it truly felt like a wash. But I'm forcing myself to look deeper.
For literally thousands of years, humans have created content to be seen and shared, myself included. The process of growing a business presence online can make this feel fruitless, but it isn't. Content without ulterior motives creates community. It fosters understanding of shared experience and, most importantly, it builds familiarity with your audience. So the takeaway: impressions don't equal engagement, but that doesn't make them worthless.
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