What are vanity metrics and how can you avoid them in social media outreach?

Vanity metrics are the smoke and mirrors of the digital world—superficially dazzling but lacking substance. Followers, likes, and impressions may be the glitter, but true engagement, conversion, and retention are the gold. Don't be fooled by the allure; focus on metrics that measure genuine impact. It's not about the show; it's about the substance behind the curtain that truly defines success!

Vanity metrics are a slippery slope. They give the appearance of success while not necessarily providing proof. It is also important to note that most social media platform advertising tools will try to point you toward measuring one of these vanity metrics. That's how they make easy money. Remember, the most important metrics are or lead to action. Comments, shares, mentions, clicks, or saves; all indicate that your content was valuable enough for the viewer/consumer to act.

The true measure of social media success lies not in the quantity of followers, likes, or impressions, but in the depth of engagement, the effectiveness of conversions, and the strength of brand loyalty. Engagement metrics, such as comments, shares, and mentions, reveal how actively your audience interacts with your content, demonstrating their genuine interest in your brand.

Vanity metrics is the shiny packaging of a social product, is rarely going to reveal the overall value of the actual performance. Meme pages are a great example, millions of followers and hundreds of thousands of likes, but rarely any conversion. A lower performing post that sells 5 products is far more valuable than a post with huge vanity metrics and zero sales. When you are told you just need more likes and followers you can end up risking damage to your strategy and planning over short term bumps in engagement

It's a little like the smoking metaphor, the best way to avoid them, is to not start using them in the first place. This can be easier said than done, but understand what a SUCCESSFUL metric is for you, then understand what a vanity metric is. Take your time, and put in the work beforehand to avoid the pitfalls as you come to them.

It may seem enticing to buy followers to increase the look of your profile, but this does not equal increased engagement. Platforms also perform cleaning sweeps to delete inactive and fake accounts, which can cause your following number to drop. It can be not only embarrassing but instill a sense of distrust in your loyal followers.

The engagement rate is the gold standard for a meaningful KPI. If you have a high engagement rate but a small base of followers, that means that the content you put out is beneficial to them. The only hurdle you have then is trying to grow that community. But remember, it is easier to keep your loyal base than try to grow. Keep producing meaningful content consistently, and your follower count will follow.

Meaningful metrics are what you make them. Depending on your business, social platform(s) of choice, and executive-level expectations, meaningful metrics may be different from team to team. For some, engagements like comments may be what be the most valuable. For others, it may be mentions, shares, or saves. No matter what your most meaningful metrics are for your business, everything can ultimately be encompassed in engagement rate. Even if engagement rate isn't technically a KPI, you should track against it to keep tabs on your rate of growth vs number of engagements.

Meaningful metrics vary by organization, team, and even by time. Engagement rate is a great baseline metric showing how well your content encourages interaction. Going deeper, a company may focus specifically on clicks (counted with the eng. rate) to ensure content drives traffic to their website. For an organization working on its reputation, sentiment and share of voice (SOV) may be valuable insights. Video views, message response rate, and cost per click can also tell you about your business' content strategy, customer care, and ROI. As such, it's essential to regularly assess your metrics and how well they are aligned with your business objectives. As you achieve your goals, craft new milestones to scale your social media presence.

“Create valuable content” is what you hear preached, but what’s valuable in your mind doesn’t always translate for your audience. To know that you’re actually providing real value, skip the likes and follows. Instead, go to the invisible metrics that don’t get the public love on your posts: shares and saves. These two metrics tell the real story of your content’s value in the eyes of your audience. Saves mean your content has an impact that goes further than a single moment. They want to be able to return to it over and over again. Shares mean that your community is turning into fans, and they want others to have the same enriching experience. These are the metrics that prove your content’s immediate and long-term value.

Use this mantra "Regularly Reviewed Good Content, Produced Consistently whilst Engaging with your audience" will benefit your metrics to no end. This means using content that provides value through: Entertainment, Inspiration, Education, or Engagement. But an incredibly important part of this is to REVIEW what you are sharing, what went well? what didnt? why do you think this is? learn from your successes and failures and reinvest what works over what doesn't. Over time you'll learn more and more about your success factors.

Consistency is key! It may seem daunting to post quality content to what seems like no one, but even if there are no comments or likes, look at your click count. If your clicks seem like you are on the rise, keep up the schedule. It is more important to push your brand and not fall victim to a get-followers-quick scheme. The point of social media is to share, and if you feel good about what you are sharing, your growing fan base will too!

The definition of a meaningful metric is different for each business and while we should avoid just tracking vanity metrics, we need to find balance between vanity and meaningful metrics. I get it; sometimes that pesky follower count metric isn't the most meaningful or accurate representation of your work. But even the most educated executives often still care about follower count. So while it may feel like a vanity metric to many of us as SMMs, we must remember to find balance and continue educating our teams on what holds true value.