As social media marketers, it’s so easy to get caught up in the “numbers game” — meaning, we can become fixated with seeing likes, comments, and followers increase on a day-by-day basis, as if that is our only indication of success. While measuring growth rates of different metrics is fundamental to our marketing efforts, another equally valuable measurement is your connection with your audience. It’s important to remember what social media is about: relationships. The connection is currency.

If you’re not connecting with your audience, you’re failing. And yes, you could have 100,000 followers and still not connect with anyone, sadly. There are a number of ways you can go about increasing your numbers on social media, but there is only one way to go about building a connection with your audience, and that is by reaching out and having conversation. Here are three reasons why you’re not connecting with your audience:

You Haven’t Made Relationship Building a Priority

Let’s face it: building authentic relationships with your audience takes a huge amount of time, and there’s no way around that. It doesn’t matter how much money you put behind a post, if your goal is to build connections, it’s going to take dedication and follow-up skills to make this happen. You can buy views on social media, but you can’t buy relationships. We want community growth to happen ASAP, but we end up frustrated when it takes longer than a week to build a community of quality. It’s silly to think we can rush relationships, because we know in “real life” that’s not how it works. It takes time to get to know people, and it’s no different online. Re-work your priorities so that this becomes one of them.

You Haven’t Been Persistent in Follow Up

I mentioned this briefly above, but it’s so important it deserves its own category within this post. Follow-up is key to building connections with your audience. Use Twitter lists to help you with this, or write names down on paper if you have to. You’ve got to go back to the people you want to connect with and engage them. Ask them how they’re doing, see what’s new with them, ask how their week is going, etc. Following up in this way will set you apart from many brands, and will keep you top of mind to your consumer.

You Haven’t Been Authentic

Perhaps you’ve been doing all of the points above, but you’re still not seeing results. More likely than not, this is because you’re not being authentic in your communications. Social media has created transparency in this regard. People can spot inauthenticity from miles away, and it will leave your audience running away from you, or worse, making your brand into a joke. It’s more important now than ever to establish an authentic voice, which will not only aid you in your efforts to establish connections, but it will also make your brand trustworthy. The key here is to brainstorm ways of communicating that will uphold your brand professionally, but will still feel personable to a person.

Establishing a deep connection with your audience should be something you want because it is in these connections where true consumer loyalty lies. You’ll only find success within your social communities if you authentically build relationships with your audience. Mix some of these tips into your strategy going forward, and you’ll start to notice some incredible relationships that will not only benefit your brand, but leave a lasting positive impression on people who eat.