Likes, follows, and retweets. They are all important social media metrics, but do they tell the whole story? Also, are they the social media metrics you should be following?
It is hardly a secret that as a business owner, it is vital that you measure results in order to determine the success of your marketing efforts. Unfortunately, many brands fall into the trap of measuring the wrong metrics. This can be particularly true of social media marketing. Marketers are caught up in the lure of measuring what is sometimes referred to as vanity metrics, rather than those metrics that really make a difference in terms of your brand’s bottom line.
Why Should You Avoid Vanity Metrics?
What is a vanity metric? A vanity metric is exactly what it sounds like: a metric that makes you feel better about yourself but really accomplishes nothing in the end. Such metrics could take the form of page views or downloads. In the realm of social media, it usually involves number of followers. It can certainly make you feel good to know you have a thousand people following you, but you have to ask yourself whether such a large number of followers will translate into tangible results. If a metric does not contribute to your bottom line, it likely is not a metric you should be tracking.
By comparison, engagement metrics provide a much more valuable and accurate insight into the effectiveness of your marketing efforts in terms of improving your bottom line. Keep in mind that social media marketing differs significantly from traditional online marketing. Therefore, the metrics you measure as part of a social media marketing campaign should naturally differ from the metrics you would track in a traditional marketing campaign.
Rather than focusing on passive followers who likely are not engaging with your brand, it is far better to focus your tracking and marketing efforts on the number of comments you receive per post and the engagement rate for each follower. To a lesser degree, also consider tracking the number of likes and shares you receive per post.
Shares and Why You Should Be Wary of Them
You should take tremendous care when tracking social media shares for a number of reasons. Broadly speaking, social media shares generate very little information regarding the overall success and effectiveness of your social media marketing campaign. One of the reasons is that social shares may not always stem from your target customers. It’s great to have people talking about your brand, as long as it is positive, but if the person doing the talking is not likely to make a purchase, in the end, it does not matter. Many brands fail to realize this, but social shares are often generated by bots. If you are tracking social shares as one of your most important metrics, you can see where it is entirely possible to have a large number of shares but still have an ineffective marketing campaign.
Finally, keep in mind that just because someone is sharing your content, it does not mean they are doing so in a positive light. There are two sides to social shares. Such shares can just as easily come from individuals who are speaking negatively about your products and services as those who are positively promoting your brand.
Be aware that likes and shares can also be perceived as a type of vanity metric. When viewed in terms of specific posts, these metrics provide your brand with significant insights into the type of content that your consumer base prefers and is most likely to engage with and share.
Invest Your Resources Wisely
Remember that measuring any type of metric requires an investment of money, time, and resources. If you are going to track a metric, it should be a metric that will provide you with valuable insights into what is or isn’t working in your marketing efforts. As a new business, you only have so much time and resources to give. By tracking the wrong metrics, you are sacrificing resources that could be spent in areas that will truly benefit your business.
Tracking the wrong social media metrics can also quickly cause you to veer away from what really matters. Far too often, many brands see that they have a lot of followers, yet they often wonder why their social media marketing campaigns seem largely ineffective. The answer often lies in problems that remain unaddressed because attention is being diverted to unimportant social media metrics.
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