The Problem with Your Favorite Social Media Tracking Tool
Listen.
I’m a huuuuge fan of these social media tools that let us schedule things ahead of time and spread out our messages.
(I know you don’t want me tweeting at you every minute for an hour straight just because that’s when I happen to open up Twitter, right?)
BUT.
There’s a huuuuuuge problem with these tools that no one talks about.
What’s the problem?
They’re stealing your attention from the important stuff.
Almost every one of these tools also likes to tell you how many clicks or tweets or likes your posts get.
Because if you pay attention to THEIR metrics, you might not pay attention as much to YOUR metrics and spend more time with that tool (and as such probably spend more money with that tool).
Let me let you in on a little secret:
- It doesn’t actually matter how many people retweeted your link.
- It doesn’t actually matter how many people gave your post a thumbs up.
- It doesn’t actually matter how many people repinned your pin.
BECAUSE…
- What actually matters is how many people become leads for your business.
- What actually matters is how many people become customers for your business.
- What actually matters is WHERE those people are coming from so you can rinse & repeat your success.
Sure, tweets and likes and repins can give you an indication of how well you’re doing on a particular social media platform but what does that tell you about your bottom line?
Retweets don’t pay the bills. Measuring what matters does. << Click here to tweet that.
I know, it’s not your fault.
Measuring tweets and likes is eaaaasy. Which is why so many of us do it.
But tweets and likes and repins are part of a kind of “vanity metric” << a number you pay attention to because it makes you FEEL GOOD not because it actually helps your bottom line.
Unless you know tweeting is bringing you customers, you’re wasting your time.
Stop wasting your time. Start maximizing it.
Death to the Vanity Metric.
Vive la Metrics That Matter.
And watch your business skyrocket.
How? Don’t miss next week’s post where I’ll spill the deets on some totally free training on the how. Get on the first to know list here.
This is the third in a series of posts. You can check out the rest of the series here:
–Before You Buy Your Next Info Product – Read This
–The Secret Power You Get From Being Immune to Shiny Object Syndrome
LOVE this post. Sometimes though, it’s hard to connect between the “tweet” and the “sale” without being super spammy and only posting links to my landing pages in every tweet (if that only worked!) how about those 80% of tweets that fill in with useful information to pepper in the “you really want to receive our services tweet”. How do you balance your social post plate?
Oooo great question, Erica! Stay tuned for some free training on this
all retweets are not created equal. you’re correct that in and of themselves, the number of retweets and their ilk don’t matter. the importance (beyond the invaluable little hits of affirmation
is in the link between them and the metrics you cite. the real win is in the incremental exposure (aka reach). so count the +1’s if you like, but don’t stop counting there!
say you promote a white paper as a lead generation device. if you are smart, you include a hash tag to capture additional people not in your network who are interested in the topic. you wave as your message in a bottle drifts out to sea. (x) people see that bottle, the majority of whom are in your network.
a small fraction likes your bottle so much they create a copy and set it adrift from where they stand on the shore. people also in your network see your message again (aka frequency). it also reaches people who didn’t see it the first time – some from your network, others with whom you are not connected yet.
count the retweets. then look at wheat was retweeted. take out the kitten videos. then count the exposures (total followers of retweeters, etc.) did you get more conversions than expected in the timeframes (downloads, page visits, etc? count the new followers on your networks.
Hey there! Thanks so much for your comment. I’m *almost* with you. I like your last point – focusing on conversions! And if you can concretely link those to retweets, than by all means… But in the end, your focus in conversions. It’s easy to get distracted, especially as a small business owner who’s starving for some positive reinforcement on marketing efforts!