Navigating Your Brand’s Social Presence without Vanity Metrics

by Michael Burnley

As always, there are a ton of fun changes afoot in the world of social media. TikTok for example, is teaming up with Sirius XM and Pandora to create a “trending” radio station for the summer. Facebook and Instagram are also removing like buttons…

WAIT. Facebook is removing like buttons?

How am I supposed to know if people “like” my brand without vanity metrics?

Well, try thinking of it it this way: we used to be obsessed with the likes we got on pages and posts. We treated them all like tiny particles of gold dust in the hopes that eventually they could eventually transform into bars of gold, or revenue at the least.

But no Vanity Smurf, that’s not what likes translate to anymore. For the most part, your brand’s followers are most likely just mindlessly scrolling through their social platforms tapping that ‘thumbs up’ or double tapping a photo as fast as they can, then scrolling to the next image or video in a viscous thumb numbing cycle. 

Without a cohesive social media strategy, likes and follows are now rendered down to simple vanity metrics.

Basically, vanity metrics don’t mean anything if they’re not converting into sales in the backend.

So if likes aren’t valuable, whatever will we do without vanity metrics?

Well, put your mirror down and get to work.

If you follow some of these easy steps, you can be sure to see a boost in your business’s social presence without focusing on vanity metrics:

Account Optimization –

To get started, check out your business page’s logo, profile images, about sections, taglines, slogans and links. Are they aged? Up-to date? Do they link correctly to your site?

Social Search ability –

As social profiles begin to proliferate in Google searches, how you use key words, phrases and #hashtags in your business’s social bios can increase your brand’s chances of landing in those coveted spots. Be sure to complete your bio and your about sections. And be descriptive.

Content Strategy –

Organize your brand’s content and postings. Create a content calendar to establish a consistent posting schedule. Here is a link to the best times to post on social media platforms (Thanks Sprout Social!)

Individual Posts – 

Write content that reflects your business’s voice, tone, branding, current promotions and initiatives. Be sure to include appropriate #hashtags, keywords and calls to action.

Link Optimization – 

When posting, make sure you link appropriately. Simple hashtags, @s and appropriate weblinks help to round out your posts and increase engagement.

Areas of Engagement  – 

When posting, encourage engagement – pose questions, polls and other open ended calls to action to increase feedback from your audience.

Performance Checks – 

In Facebook Business Suite, you can check the performance of previous posts, identify the best performing ones and figure out what/why they worked based on your KPIs to see what you can do to increase your brand’s engagement in the future.

See? Not to fear, shedding your vanity and focusing on other metrics like engagement, shares, and comments will help you create more thought provoking and relevant posts, which in turn will increase your brand’s followers and engagement both on social and across the web. 

If you’re still wondering how social media can still benefit your business without likes or follows, feel free to reach out. We’re happy to build out a social strategy that will work for your business.