Measuring Quality
What criteria do you use to measure a great song? Whatever it is, I am guessing it does not include the number of awards it has won, its sales figures, or its ranking on some singles chart. It is possible a song you love won an award, but that is probably not why you liked it.
More likely you love that song because it connected with you in some way, it was a quality tune.
And yet, when it comes to social media content, posts only seem to get measured by their stats. When asked to explain why a post was good, we default to listing its likes, comments, shares, etc. I am guilty of that too.
But I am going to make a concerted effort to get away from that. I think those numbers are very poor yardsticks. And based on how they can be manipulated, they really don't measure quality.
My clients are bands, individual musicians, and business experts. In terms of numbers, odds are anything they have to say will get trounced by a video of a dog catching a frisbee. But I still think it is better for them to post their own insights, stories, and music. Because their goal with social media should be to find and connect with their audience. They are smart, talented people. I think the better that is communicated the more likely they will find people willing to follow them not just for this week, but for their entire careers.
So how do we measure quality? I am not sure yet. I just don't think the stats are the way to go.
If you have a suggestion, let me know.
I think likes, shares and comments are good measurements. Sure, people could have seen the content and not commented, but if they don't make some indication, how else will you know if it resonated? We write for others, so we want to know how our content lands with them. That is the quantifiable data you need to guide your content. As a communicator, you can feel good about your content and think it's high quality -- you can have your own ideas about what you want it to include and what you want it to be. For me, it's a balance between what you want to share as a communicator and the metrics you see from readers.