Wealthy Clients Read Your Posts in Silence

Imagine a family photographer named Tessa Lindgren who posts in bursts. In her busy months, she posts something every day: galleries, trending sounds, and a poll about outfit colors. Each post draws about 60 likes, mostly from other photographers. Then from November to February she posts nothing, because she is editing the fall sessions.

In March, Mrs. Calloway hears Tessa’s name from another mother at school pickup. On Sunday night, she opens Tessa’s account and scrolls back. She reaches the three months with no posts and wonders whether Tessa is still working. She books the photographer her sister used.

Suppose instead that Tessa posts one photo every two weeks, all year, each from a family who has given permission. Under each photo, she writes three sentences about one choice she made. In one post, she writes that the grandfather could not sit for long. She moved the session to the garden bench where he reads the paper. These posts draw about 12 likes each.

Mrs. Calloway opens the same account on the same Sunday night. She scrolls back through a year of posts, two weeks apart, each one showing Tessa noticing something about a family. She does not like any of them. On Monday morning, she writes to Tessa to ask about a session in May.

Tessa took photos of the same quality both times. What changed was what Mrs. Calloway found when she scrolled back. In the first version, she found a gap of three months. In the second, she found a steady year of Tessa’s judgment. The posts with five times the likes were the ones that lost her.

So post what shows your judgment, at a pace you can keep for a year, and stop counting the likes. Here is why most readers leave no trace, and what two professionals found about the readers they could not see.

Most readers of a post never leave a trace

In 2006, the usability researcher Jakob Nielsen wrote about what he called participation inequality. In most online communities, he wrote, 90% of users never contribute. Another 9% contribute a little, and 1% account for almost all the activity. He gave it as a rough rule, not an exact count.

Here is the course’s view of why a wealthy client is likely to stay in the 90%. A like is public. It can show up in a friend’s feed and tell the client’s circle what they are planning. A like on a home organizer’s post might tell friends that the family is about to clear out a parent’s house. Many wealthy households keep the names of the people they hire to themselves. So they read your posts and leave nothing behind.

That means the likes you get come mostly from people in your own trade, from friends, and from followers who enjoy responding. Most of them were never going to hire you. The count can rise while the clients you want stay silent. It can also fall in the week one of them decides to call.

An agency for designers found that luxury clients rarely like a post

Kate Greunke founded The Socialite Agency, which does marketing for interior designers and others in the home trades. She wrote about why luxury design firms rarely get clients from Instagram. Some designers come to her agency frustrated that fans like and comment on their posts, and still do not hire them.

Her agency works with enough luxury design firms, she wrote, to know that their clients spend little time on social media. When those clients do use it, they rarely like or comment. The agency calls them “silent stalkers.”

In Greunke’s account, these clients hire on a referral from someone they trust, or after a search online. Then they go to the designer’s website. She tells designers that a client at that level who comes from social media is rare, and not to expect one. She suggests three jobs for a designer’s posts instead. They can show that the firm is open for business, share photos of the work, and tell the story of the brand.

A silent reader looks for judgment and for steady work

Here is the course’s view of what a client who arrives by referral looks for in your posts. As they scroll back, they want two answers. Do you know what you are doing? Are you still working, month after month?

Posts that show your judgment answer the first question. A post that says “Booking now for fall” shows nothing about how you think. Another post might describe a problem a client faced, what you noticed, and what you advised. This post shows the part of your work that is hard to copy. So does a post about a time you told a client to wait, or to do less.

The dates of your posts answer the second question. They do the first of Greunke’s three jobs, which is showing that you are open for business. A post every two weeks for a year shows a business that keeps going. A burst of 20 posts in September and then nothing until April can make a client wonder whether you are still working. Mrs. Calloway wondered the same when she reached Tessa’s three empty months.

A consultant writes down every mention of a post

Michelle Garrett is a public relations consultant who wrote in 2019 about the readers her numbers miss. She calls them lurkers. They see and read her posts, but they do not like, comment, or share.

Garrett manages social media for a client in manufacturing, which posted only now and then before she took it on. Her client told her that the executive he reports to mentions seeing the posts. The executive never responds to them. Seeing the posts, she wrote, helps the executive understand “that the company is doing things.”

Garrett sees the same readers in her own business. People she meets at events or online tell her, “I see your LinkedIn posts, and we could really use some help with our PR.” They have not liked her posts or commented on them. In some cases, they hire her.

The likes cannot show her those readers, so she suggests a different record. “Every time someone mentions they saw one of your posts, write it down.” She also suggests noting the platform, what the person remembers seeing, and what they did about it.

Why chasing the likes goes wrong

Imagine a personal trainer named Callum Pike who posts every Tuesday about one client problem. A recent post was about a client who wanted to run a marathon 12 weeks after knee surgery. Callum suggested the half marathon instead, and the post says why. It drew eight likes, three of them from other trainers.

A friend tells Callum that polls do better. So for the next two months, he posts polls, a plank challenge, and a free session for anyone who tags a friend. The plank challenge draws 140 likes.

In March, Mrs. Ferris hears Callum’s name from a friend at her tennis club. She opens his account and scrolls past two months of polls and challenges. She finds nothing about how he trains anyone, and she books the trainer at her club.

Callum’s mistake was taking the likes as a count of the clients he wanted. The plank challenge pleased the people who were already liking his posts. It also pushed the posts that showed his judgment out of sight.

In the version that works, Callum keeps posting one client problem every Tuesday. The post about the marathon is near the top when Mrs. Ferris opens his account. At their first meeting, Callum asks how she came to him. She says that her friend gave her his name, and that she read the post about the knee. Callum writes it in his log that evening.

A quieter mistake is to stop posting when the likes stay low. The gap that opens is one a client can see in the dates. If you need to slow down, post less often and keep going.

How to post for the client who reads in silence

Open your last ten posts. Beside each one, write “judgment” if it shows a problem you handled and what you did. Write “asking” if it asks for something, such as a booking, a follow, or a comment.
Choose a pace you can keep for a year, and put the dates in your calendar now. For example, an event planner might post every other Monday. A steady pace shows a silent reader that you are still working. A slow pace is fine, because with fewer posts, the ones that show your judgment stay near the top.
Make each post one piece of judgment. Describe a situation a client faced, then say what you noticed and what you did or advised. Leave out anything that could identify the client, and ask before you post a photo of their job. For example, a private chef might write, “A client wanted seven courses for 40 guests from a small apartment kitchen. I suggested four courses and a rented second oven, and every plate went out hot.”
Stop checking the likes, and keep a reading log instead. Each time a client or an inquiry mentions a post, write down the date and the platform. Add the post they remember and what they did next.
At every first meeting, ask how the client came to you, and whether they read anything of yours first. For example, a specialist realtor can ask, “What brought you to me? Had you seen anything I’d written before you called?” Add the answer to the log.
After six months, look at the log. Write more of the kind of post that clients mention.

Next: You will see how to keep turning up in the same room without working it. You will also see why the hours you spend there matter most.