It’s Not “Engagement” If You Never Get Married: What Really Counts On Social Media

“Engagement” is one of the most common and misleading marketing metrics. Here’s what matters most…

by Freddy Tran Nager, Founder of Atomic Tango + Marketer Who Has A Proposal For You; photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash…

In his book Web Analytics 2.0, former Google exec Avinash Kaushik writes:

“The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines engaging as ‘tending to draw favorable attention or interest’…. The challenge in the context of measurement is that ‘favorable attention or interest’ is incredibly hard — if not impossible — to measure… Some have gone so far as to create torturous, complex formulas that calculate the baby, the bath water, and the kitchen sink. Result: nada. OK, there is some output, but it’s ugly and just about useless. Metrics masquerading as Engagement in the analytics-o-sphere are not really metrics, they are an excuse to (a) not accept the limits of possible and (b) hide what is actually been measured.”

Kaushik explains that typical measures of website “engagement” — time on site and repeat visits — reveal nothing about customer attitude and intent. What matters are the outcomes, which are the ultimate business goals:

• Increase revenue.
• Reduce cost.
• Improve customer satisfaction/loyalty.

If you can’t measure how your “engagement” leads to those outcomes, then your metrics amount to a whole lotta nada.

Kaushik’s thinking applies to social media as well, where most “engagement” counts for little if anything.

First, let’s rename it and break it down into its component parts.

The word “engagement” sounds nice and positive. “Hey, that post got a lot of engagement. Let’s learn from it!” But as you can see below, “engagement” combines many variables of different value, some important, some trivial, some organic, some purchased, some fake, and some completely negative (a comment that says “you suck” counts as engagement). That’s why many analysts consider “engagement” a bullshit metric.

So as our first step, let’s aim for a bit more objectivity and call all reactions to posts “interactions,” not “engagement.” “Interactions” is a neutral, matter-of-fact description of responses to social media.

(BTW, interactions are better proof that people saw your post than misleading “impressions” stats, since interacting with a post actually requires looking at it. “Impressions”? Not so much.)

OK, on with all the elements of engagement — I mean, interactions:

• Follows: While our egos love to boast about having a lot of followers, don’t forget that social media users follow indiscriminately, since they absurdly have no limit to how many profiles they can follow. And when it comes to brands, consumers follow them primarily for discounts and giveaways. (Note: giveaways and contests attract a lot of freeloaders hoping to win products that they can turn around and sell; they will never become your customers.) On another note, just because someone follows you doesn’t mean that they’ll ever see your posts again, thanks to algorithmic throttling (the platforms intentionally choking off your free organic reach). That’s especially true on TikTok. So don’t award yourself many points when a bargain-hunter follows you. Likewise, a lot of companies outright purchase followers or refuse to block spammers, so don’t be impressed by their follower counts. Unfortunately, since follower counts are public, and the media fawns over those numbers, they distract marketers from what’s really important: developing relationships with high quality potential customers and other stakeholders (investors, influencers, etc.).
• Shares: Shares and reposts do count as buzz (“going viral” or “earned media”). Note that shares can be purchased straight from the platforms in the form of “boosted posts,” so they’re not worth a lot of points either. Some marketers will also exploit hire interns and clickfarms to share their messages.
• Comments: A comment means the user actually thought about your content (though beware the illiterati, who comment on articles they haven’t read). And because commenting takes time and keeps users on the platform longer, nearly all social-media algorithms favor posts that attract them. That’s why many creators write provocative posts: they’ve learned that the easiest way to generate comments is to piss people off and have them argue with each other. Now, while controversy might be good for creators, it’s not ideal for a brand unless it’s fairly innocuous (“What color is this dress, blue or gold?” or “Which ice cream flavor is best, chocolate or vanilla?”). Watch the tone of the comments you receive, and prepare to delete them. Although algorithms and analytics tools don’t distinguish between negative and positive comments, brands should. (Here’s a worst-case scenario of a brand that didn’t moderate its comments.)
• Clicks: An actual click on a link that you share is both desirable and easily measured. After all, you should strive to drive users to your website, where all your clever content can lead toward business outcomes. At the least, user activity on your website can boost your SEO score. Of course, most social media platforms don’t want clicks, since it would mean losing users. Consequently, some will bury your post if it includes a link, or ban links altogether. You must be creative to encourage site visits, click or no click.
• Business Action: Sales! … Well, yeah, wouldn’t we love to have all our posts make money? But we’re realistic here: we all know that unless we’re selling a cheap and easy impulse buy (like a mobile game), we won’t score immediate sales, particularly if our products require a significant investment. What we can hope for is other actions that could lead to future sales: perhaps users sign up for our newsletter or visit our convention booth. (“I posted that I’m at the con, and three potential customers set appointments to meet me.”) We should also seek out non-customer business outcomes, such as scoring an interview with a journalist or a meeting with an investor. I befriended another marketer online, and we now help promote each other’s work and share tips and advice.

Note that all the elements can be purchased or faked by bots, but business actions are the ones most likely to be real — and most likely to help you keep your job.

Grading the results…

As you tabulate all the interactions on your social media posts, critically evaluate them as well, assigning points on how close each one gets you to your business goals. Any marketer who shares social media data without analysis is just another sales rep boasting about all the people he met, while not mentioning that he went home without a single phone number or email address. He can show you the numbers, but odds are they don’t add up.