Why Social Media Growth Alone Isn’t a Win

14-Main_Post-AD_socialmediagrowthGrowth is a necessary part of business. As marketers, anytime we see a downward trend or even a plateau in a metric that we keep tabs on, the impulse is to begin analyzing all the factors so that we can identify issues and make the necessary corrections.

In business, that quick response is paramount to maximizing opportunities and minimizing setbacks. However, there are certainly instances when growth, in and of itself, should not be our only winning metric. Let’s look at social media for a moment. For years, the social media gold standard was community size. Our goal was to amass as many Facebook fans and Twitter followers as was possible. More fans and followers meant our brand messages were falling on more ears and we determined those communities were our brand advocates.

As companies have gotten more creative with their marketing, luring in fans and followers by the thousands, newsfeeds have simultaneously grown more crowded. This combination creates two challenges: 1) not all fans and followers are interested in you beyond the shiny promotion that first captured their attention and 2) the bulk of your fans will not even see your posts on any given day. So what does this mean for the gold standard of constant social media growth?

It means that community size is no longer the most effective gauge of complete social media success. Community engagement and conversions (click-throughs to your website, or even better, your consumer database) are now equally important indicators for social grading. In other words, what have those community numbers done for you lately? Hopefully, they are providing dialogue about your product and brand and will eventually lead to insights about consumer interests and preferences that help you take your marketing to the next level. Hopefully, your social presence is an entry point to other areas of digital information and resources.

Certainly community growth is still an important aspect of maintaining a competitive presence on social media, but amassing fans and followers just to hit a numerical goal is not the best use of budget or resources. When formulating your social media S.M.A.R.T. goals, don’t just aim to spread your brand far and wide, but consider the value of brand depth and how you can measure success in relation to your company’s overall goals and focus for the year.

How has your thinking changed over time about social media success? How has that changed your approach? We would love to hear your thoughts.

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