Vanity Metrics: What Numbers Should You Be Watching?

In a world that is becoming increasingly digital, it is no surprise that social media marketing is one of the most beneficial ways for companies to reach consumers and make a lasting impression. While social media is easy to receive and interact with from the consumers’ perspective, interpreting social media interactions can get a little complicated from a business’s point of view. When interpreting data from consumers’ interactions with your social media profile, it is important to know which numbers to focus on and which aren’t essential to the performance of your company.

One common misconception is that the brands with the most followers are the most successful. This concept has been disproven time and time again through the ability of a single post for any brand, regardless of follower count, to go viral. Virality can bring an influx of engagement and an increase in business that is completely disproportional to a brand’s follower count. The more interactions a post has, the more it works with the algorithm to be seen by your current followers and new viewers, therefore increasing your overall audience. While it remains beneficial for a brand to maintain a large number of loyal followers, this metric is not as indicative of a brand's success as you might think.

There are a few main categories of social media metrics that brands should observe, analyze, and act upon: awareness, customer engagement, customer generation, and overall increase in sales. At its core, brand awareness is how much attention your brand’s accounts receive across social media platforms. Awareness is best measured by a post’s reach and impressions. Reach is measured by how many users, both followers and non-followers, see your brand’s content. Impressions are another key element in a brand’s awareness, as they indicate the sheer number of times your content has been viewed.

It is important to measure which types of posts reach the most accounts and get the most views so you can optimize your account’s reach by posting more of the content that generates the most awareness.

Customer engagement refers to the number of interactions your posts receive relative to the size of your audience. Interactions are defined differently depending on the social media platform, but they are most commonly known as likes, shares, and comments. You want to make sure your posts are seeing a high proportion of interaction relative to the number of followers your account has, as this indicates whether or not your followers find your content enjoyable and entertaining. An increased amplification rate, the number of shares you have in relation to the number of followers, shows that your followers are passing your content along and increasing your account’s reach.

Customer generation and an overall increase in sales go hand in hand, fulfilling the ultimate goal of marketing through social media. Certain platforms, such as TikTok and Youtube, allow you to monetize your content and make money solely based on how many views your content gets. This data is important to keep track of if your company decides to consider this monetization as a part of sales. Customer generation occurs anytime a consumer clicks on a link through your social media content to make a purchase or purchases a service or product after viewing a piece of content. In simple terms, when your social media convinces someone to become a real customer, your social media marketing is successful. It is important to monitor which types of content incur the most business for your brand, as this is obviously the type of content you will want to produce more of across your social media platforms.

Utilizing social media metrics to determine the type of content your brand produces will not only help make your business stand out online, but it will drive customers to your brand. At Ezer, our experienced social media management team understands the importance of analyzing the right metrics in order to fulfill your marketing goals. Contact Ezer today for a free audit of your social media channels, and let us get started on helping your company’s social media presence reach its full potential!