Stop Chasing Vanity Metrics
Warning: I'm about to get on my soapbox.
In the past week, I've seen the same challenge from entrepreneurs and small business owners, who use social media for marketing. They see their biggest challenge is follower count, and are actively trying to increase it in general, not their specific audience.
Social media is a great way to market your business, but focusing solely on follower count is a mistake. Followers are a vanity metric - it looks good, but it doesn't mean it meets your objectives for using social media. Which leads to me this:
Follower count does not matter.
I see people wanting to raise their numbers, and I get it, but I want to ask them why. It's not about numbers. It's about having the right people following you. You want your specific niche, period.
Part of this is #comparisonsyndrome. You see someone who looks successful on social media, and you see their follower counts and think "I need X amount of followers to be successful like they are."
What you can't see as Follower, is what their Conversion is. Notice, I'm not saying Likes or Comments. Some of this you can see. And while creating engaging content is key to building and nurturing an audience, it doesn't necessarily mean it's translating to clients or sales.
Here are some real life examples:
Entrepreneur A: posts fun, sassy quotes that get a ton of likes and shares. But the quotes have nothing to do directly with their business, and they posted in an FB group that they were now struggling because their IG wasn't yielding leads.
Entrepreneur/Biz Owner B: in one week, had 10K Impressions from their content. Their Interactions were 450. Looks pretty good, right? Well, let's do some math. Out of 10K impressions, 450 interacted (the actions people take when they engage with your account, eg profile visits, shares, saves). I look at this as 4.5% interaction rate. Only they know how this converted to sales or clients. And only you can decide if this is an acceptable rate.
Entrepreneur C: has a 300 Followers, that convert and buy products.
What is Entrepreneur C doing that's working? Most likely, they're followers are their specific target audience. C also shows up consistently (that doesn't mean every day) and provides content that is valuable to their followers.
That is what's key: targeting the right people, consistently, with valuable content
I don't share these to disparage these people. It's a common issue, and quite frankly, most people start a business because it's something they're passionate about. It doesn't automatically mean they become instant business and marketing experts - and that's OK!
That's why I'm sharing this today. Worry more about having the right people following you, than the number of people following you.