Social Media
Social media without vanity metrics
Reach and likes look good in a report but rarely pay the bills. How to measure social media so it supports real brand growth.
Vanity metrics are numbers that go up and feel good but say nothing about the health of a brand. Reach without context is a speedometer with no sense of direction.
Why likes mislead
Vanity metrics are easy to show and hard to argue with. The problem is that optimising for them teaches the algorithm and the team to chase attention instead of meaning. The result is content people watch and immediately forget.
That doesn't make reach worthless. It makes it a means, not an end — it only matters when it leads to something you can tie back to the result.
Metrics worth watching
- Saves and shares — a signal that content has real value, not just a moment of attention.
- The quality of conversations in comments and messages, not their count.
- Traffic and conversions attributed to social over a longer window, not day to day.
Don't count followers. Count how many of them would do something for the brand if you asked.
A healthy social presence isn't a race for numbers but the consistent building of a relationship with the right community. A smaller, engaged group is worth more than anonymous reach no one remembers.
