Everyone would like you to think that social media is a numbers game, especially the social media platforms themselves. Numbers are easy to measure. They’re empirical. They make nice-looking graphs.
They’re not entirely wrong. You want numbers. You want a lot of customers watching your social media channels. What you don’t want is lots of useless followers. Are you a great business because a lot of people are watching you, or are a lot of people watching you because you’re a great business?
What is more important–and more difficult to measure–is how the followers you have interact with your business through social media. There are several things you should look for when evaluating the health of your social media channels. How often do your followers:
- Comment on or “like” your updates?
- Link to your updates?
- Ask you questions about your products or services, availability, or other information related to your business?
- Leave unsolicited endorsements?
- Post interesting information or links to your channel?
- Post customer service issues?
- Interact with other followers through your updates?
- Say online they’ll come to you and buy–and then do?
These metrics more than numbers of followers tell the effectiveness of your social media efforts. If you’re succeeding at the items above, the numbers will come–if they haven’t already.
Let me put it another way: Which would you rather have; 100,000 followers who may or may not read your updates but never interact in any noticeable way, or 100 followers who regularly interact with your business in the ways mentioned above? As a small business owner I know what I’d rather see.
Do you agree or disagree? Drop me a note in the comments! Or check out my own business’ Facebook page to see how we interact with our small, but enthusiastic (and growing) follower base.