Beyond Likes: Unveiling the Real Value of Social Media Engagement

People often confuse social media success with likes.

But in reality, they are mere “vanity metrics”.

This means they may look impressive in the first place but are not yet that meaningful.

Not denying the fact that they make a big impact, but solely relying on them to measure success isn’t fair still.

In short, they paint only a little part of social media marketing; the real value remains behind the curtains.

In this article, we will explore what “real” engagement means and how it unlocks true value on social media.

The true value of social media engagement

Likes, shares, and comments are just numbers and are known as vanity metrics, as mentioned earlier.

What actually tells if your social media strategy is successful are actionable metrics that you mostly pay not much attention to.

Actionable metrics are those that help you improve, optimise and make the right decisions.

Let’s know about them.

Reach vs. Plays

If you publish content in the form of videos, no matter how many likes they get.

You must check the number of people it reached vs. the number of times users played it.

If plays seem more than reach- that simply means users have replayed your video.

Let’s say,

Number of Reach = 1000

Number of Plays = 1500

Average user plays = 1500/1000 = 1.5 times

This shows that your content is good enough. And people are showing much interest that they watched it more than once.

And this way, you can have a positive perspective on your social media success- despite getting only a few likes on it.

Even if the scenario seems the opposite, there must be no disappointments

These insights work as a signal guiding you to improve your content strategy.

Read Also: Social Listening: Understanding Sentiments and Trends

Watch time

Again, if you use video content, how long people watch it matters.

Social algorithms note watch time.

If it is good enough, it’s a kind of success for you.

You should calculate the average watch time and compare it to the total duration of your video.

Let’s say your video is of 10 seconds.

In total, 2000 people watched it, and the total watch time was 500 minutes.

Total watch time in seconds =   500 (mins) x 60 (sec) = 30000 seconds

Now, the average watch time is = 30000/2000 = 15 seconds

So, on average, a person watched your video for 15 seconds.

Now, compare it to the total duration of the video, which was 10 seconds.

That means your average watch time exceeds the time of duration.

10 seconds (total duration) <<<<< 15 (average watch time)

This shows you’re getting success on social media. Congrats!

Profile Activity

Profile activity is when people come to your profile (usually after seeing any of your posts in their feed) and take any action.

This action can be in any form, e.g., people liking or sharing your posts or starting to follow you.

If you are using Instagram marketing, you will see the profile activity data in insights.

However, it doesn’t tell what action has actually been taken (except the number of follows); instead, it only shows the number of times people take action on your profile.

The positive thing here is that no matter if you don’t get many likes.

When people visit your profile, it creates brand awareness among them.

Ad it’s a kind of success when more and more people are getting to know about your brand.

This gradually makes your brand credible. Once people become conscious of your brand, they will hopefully start following in future.

Also read: Social Advertising vs. Organic Engagement: Which is Better for Your Business

Click Through Rate

Click-through rate is how many times people click on the link you want them to.

Businesses usually have different intents when they go for social media marketing services.

Of them, the most notable one is bringing traffic to websites, social profiles or any other location- depending upon the goals.

So, when you put a link to get people diverted to the intended destination, CTR comes into the scene.

CTR means click-through rate.  It is calculated in proportion to the number of people your post reached vs. how many of them actually clicked on the link.

Let’s say 2000 people reached your post.

Of this, 20 users end up clicking on the link.

Now, this makes your CTR = 1 %

So, no matter how many likes you get on a piece of content, if your CTR remains high, your social campaign is successful in this way.

Low Conversion Cost

The ultimate goal of any social media campaign usually remains to get conversions.

These conversions can be in any form.

Like you want to bring people to your profile

You want people to message or call you.

Or maybe your intent is something else, depending on your needs.

No matter what the intent is, budget allocation usually remains limited.

In this scenario, if your social campaign successfully yields maximum conversions out of a very low budget, you must consider it a social success beyond likes.

Let’s say you want more and more people to visit your social profile

For this, you run a social media campaign worth Rs. 1000.

For this 1000 Rs., 2480 people visit your profile, making the cost per profile visit 1000/2480 = 0.40 per visit.

0.40 is a good conversion cost because, in various cases, it goes very high- depending upon the niche.

So, no matter what the number is, if the conversion cost is low, it is kind of a social media success.

However, your niche, audience, and other factors are there that may impact your conversion cost.

Also, when analysing profile visits, check if it is not full of random people. That would be of no use.

Visits only from your target audience are meaningful.

 That’s All

That is all you can analyse to have a positive perspective on your social media marketing strategy, even if not many likes your content receives.

These metrics not only unveil the real engagement in front of you but also give you an indication to improve your strategy, if not going well.

Simply, by analysing you will know where you are lacking and gradually, will overcome all the shortcomings in your strategy.

But all these things are ongoing activities and require time and some sort of expertise.

In case you lack even one of them, consider going to a social media marketing agency.

Tell them about your requirements, they will work towards its success.

Or if you are already looking for professional social media marketing services, we at Bivero are happy to help you.

Talk to our marketing consultant right now!