Which Social Media Metrics Should You Ignore?
The term “vanity metrics” has made its way into the marketing lexicon as of late, and for good reason. What a great many use to determine “results” can frequently be misleading and due to this, it’s worth examining some of the marketing metrics you could (and possibly should!) disregard.
Those you can safely ignore:
- Facebook Likes, Twitter Followers and LinkedIn Connections – Whoever has the larger numbers wins, correct? If only. The reality is, more virtual bodies following you results in better conversions only if you are actively engaging with them, and creating a relationship. Having loads of likes or followers who never make the cross over to customers is essentially pointless.
- Comments – Since we are endeavoring to increase conversion, our goal with content must be more than just creating posts (video, tweet, share) that generate a large number of comments, but no leads. Provide them with a reason to comment that leads them down the path to conversion, such as a leading question on the topic.
- Impressions – Mainly used in your advertising, the volume of ad impressions is relatively useless, as it does not indicate any measurable action. Simply having your ad display in front of a couple of million computer screens is no real measure of how it performs. Rather, take a look at click-thru rates and conversion rates.
A terrific piece about this can be found at HubSpot.
Those you should keep an eye on:
- Shares – Having people share your posts, emails and other media is a step in the right direction. This means not only is your content making an impact, but it’s also being spread around.
- Social mentions and citations – Given that Google is now integrating social signals and citations into the search algorithm, this is an element that is very helpful. This aids your website in search, along with authority.
- Conversions – The holy grail, so to speak. If all your social media and content isn’t ultimately resulting in conversions, you should take a look at it.
Read more about this at Mashable.