Every founder feels a surge of validation as the follower count inch's higher. It looks like movement. It feels like progress. But if you have seen a post gain thousands of likes, only to find that sales have not budged, you already have discovered the hard lesson: follower count is not synonymous with revenue.
It's a case of vanity metrics, and it is a subtle but costly drain on any founder that can afford to do better.
What Are Vanity Metrics
A vanity metric is simply a number that makes you feel good while giving no direction for what to do next. Follower counts, likes, and impressions are all vanity metrics. They are going up and to the right, and they look good in a pitch deck, but they are rarely correlated to actual sales.
Actionable metrics, on the other hand, are metrics tied to a decision or a dollar. They can be as simple as how many people contacted you, how many replied, or how many people bought from you. The problem is that vanity metrics are much louder. A number like 10,000 followers is easier to celebrate than a 2% rate of people that contacted, to purchase.
An Audience Does Not Always Equal a Customer Base
This is a truth that many brands avoid speaking. Companies can have hundreds of thousands of Instagram followers, but still find that they struggle to even sell a single product or service to any followers.
There are multiple reasons for this. First of all, the majority of organic views are less than 10% for many channels today, meaning the majority of followers will likely not see your post. A large portion of any large account is also likely dormant, inactive, or purchased. Finally, many followers are gained through giveaways, or are only there because of a current trend, which means that they are unlikely to purchase what you sell. An audience, alone, does not guarantee demand.
Which Metrics Actually Drive Revenue
So if the follower count is noise, what is signal? Consider engagement rate, which is the percentage of followers that actually take action, rather than the majority that just scroll by. A brand with 1,000 followers and an engagement rate of 6% is typically going to outsell a brand with 100,000 followers and an engagement rate of 0.5%. Also consider the impact of saves and shares, rather than likes. These metrics are more important than the former, as they indicate intent from the followers as well as reach further into their audiences. Finally, the metric that is rarely measured: what percent of people that message actually send a message back, and what percent of these people make a purchase?
These are far from the most interesting metrics. But they are the only ones worth tracking.
Sales Are Happening in the Conversation
This is where an audience can become a customer base: in the direct message. Someone sees your product, has a single question, and then sends it to you. Whatever you do with that message next will make all the difference. Respond in minutes, and you will often close the sale. Respond hours later — or never — and you will lose that lead to just another vanity metric.
The bottom line is that responding to direct messages fast is more important than publishing more content. The audience you have is worth more than the audience that you do not have, but only if you are truly set up to engage your followers.
Spend 20 Minutes Doing an Audit
You do not need a marketing team or a growth agency to test this out. Spend 20 minutes looking at your last 10 posts to determine your actual engagement rate. Take a quick peek at your followers to determine how many are likely fake or dormant. Check how fast you responded to your last 20 direct messages. Finally, ask yourself: of people that did message, what percent actually made a purchase?
If the final metric is low, then getting more followers will not likely solve this problem. Improving your conversations with your audience will.
The Change Worth Making
This does not mean that you stop focusing on growth. You just do not measure success by a metric that is useless to you. Instead of asking the question, "how many people follow me," ask "how many of those people are actually taking action?" Shifting your focus from vanity metrics will turn a social media channel from one that appears busy, to a channel that is profitable.
