Do Social Media Engagement Metrics Really Matter for Your Business?

If the internet world were up to Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, engagement would likely be the top metric.

Why do advertisers love engagement?

Think about it. The more you click, the more you comment, the more you engage, the more content that gets seen. The more content that gets seen, the more ads that can display.

How and why you measure social media engagement is critical for success.

While I agree that content engagement can be a top priority metric for many brands, I also believe it is not a top priority metric for all brands.

I also know from experience with our own platforms as well as in working with brands of all sizes that measuring engagement is not as simple as looking at public engagement such as comments and likes.

I think there is much to be learned from engagement and it is always a good idea to want and drive for engagement with your content. However, you MUST do the double click and understand exactly how engagement metrics matter to your business and exactly what you should be measuring to help measure your success and progress toward achieving your content marketing goals and objectives.

When you think about content for the social and digital web of today, without eyeballs reading and watching, ears listening and fingers typing, content would be meaningless. It's people we are connecting with and without people engaging with our content at some functional level, it becomes meaningless.

However, I also believe that too many marketers are blindly listening to the words of social media self professed leaders who tout in Mark Zuckerberg's shadow that engagement is king and nothing else matters.

What did 3,000 top marketing leaders say when asked if they engage publicly on Facebook? 

I was recently the keynote speaker at an event with over 3,000 marketing leaders of the world's greatest brands. These people were all at minimum executive director to c-level professionals such as CMOs, CEOs etc.

I asked them a simple question… “How many of you are engaging with content from brands you want to buy from on a regular basis on Facebook.” When I asked this question there was nothing but crickets. Literally crickets. Maybe 3-4 out of 3,000 people raised their hand.

I asked a similar question about live Facebook video and the response was about the same.

This is very similar to the same experience we have found with our target market buyers for many of our higher end training and consulting services. They simply do not engage with our content or our competitors content on Facebook.

What does this mean and why does this matter? If I were to only look at engagement as top metric for content success we would fail. Our target market will not and does not engage with our content on public forums. Yes, they may engage with content on LinkedIn or Twitter but more often than not, Facebook is a no go.

We have even had an EVP level executive at a Fortune 10 brand who followed my personal Instagram account for 6 months before deciding to hire our agency, Marketing Nutz.

We have more than 2 million followers in our community across the different social platforms we own. We serve small business up to large enterprise brands with our agency and online digital and social training academy.

Our audience varies. However, there are some key similarities when it comes to how they engage with content that go directly against what Mark Zuckerberg is pushing for when it comes to business focused content.

Does our target market do the following? 

  • Subscribe to our podcast and listen to every episode?
  • Subscribe to our email newsletters and other offers and actually open our emails on a regular basis?
  • Open our emails and click through to engage with our content we provide to them?
  • Read every blog post, social media post and others we publish?
    Register for and listen / watch our free webinars?
  • Purchase our annual webinar pass to make certain they don't miss a webinar even though their schedules are jam packed?
  • Refer us to their friends and colleagues because of the great content we have been providing for years that they know and love?
  • Give us hugs when we meet them for the first time because they feel like they know us intimately?

The answer to all of the above questions is a BIG fat yes. They watch, listen, subscribe and engage with our content. Our podcast has been listened to more than 1.6 million times.

We have an email list over 100,000 with open rates up to 50%+ on average.

Our conversion rates on free offers on all of our landing pages are at minimum 65% to 85%+.

We have and are using content to build authority, trust and relationships. We have earned the clicks, subscribes, downloads, listens and watches.

However, many of the metrics that we track for success are happening behind the scenes with only metrics we can track. This is not what Mark Zuckerberg wants. However, it IS what drives our business. This is because the majority of our target audience does not want to publicly engage in content on platforms such as Facebook for their own specific reasons.

What are the metrics that drive your business?

What are the metrics that matter?

Does engagement matter? How do you measure it?

Take a listen to the 254th episode of Social Zoom Factor to dive in deeper to the topic of digital and social media engagement to discover and determine how you should be leveraging engagement as a metric to improve your online marketing results. 

This episode is filled with some tough love. You must quit listening to every social media guru touting the next Facebook meme and shiny object. Watch the trends, jump on the hot technology that will truly help you drive your goals to success and deliver the highest value possible to your target market and audience.

You must plan your work and work your plan. Own the plan. Own the results and cherish the life and business you build because of doing such.

Be careful who you listen to. This is your life and your business. Own it!

Supporting Resources:

Need help taking your brand to the next level? Social Profit Factor Training Academy and Marketing Nutz Can Help! 

Social Profit Factor can help you ignite your content and brand architecture to grow your online tribe and business with social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter. 2019 is where those who have simply been “hustling” to get by realize they must hustle and work smarter. Before you even think about posting that video on Facebook you must know who you are, what your audience needs from you and how your efforts are going to deliver value for your audience and your business.

You need a structured plan to be successful using social media. Social Profit Factor will help you develop your plan with goals, objectives and priorities within 30 days!

Sign up now to become a founding member and receive some incredible deals plus bonus offers.

Need help honing in your branding strategy, architecture, message platform, online presence,  or launching a new product or service? Want to leverage social media, digital marketing and branding to grow your business? Our agency, Marketing Nutz can help you build, launch and  optimize your digital and social brand presence to achieve your goals. Give us a shout and let's get to work!

How to Subscribe to Social Zoom Factor Podcast