Vanity Metrics

I was in a conversation recently and the marketing person doubted the success of a business because the Facebook Page’s following is so small.

This is another sign of outdated thinking. People like this shouldn’t be in high marketing positions nowadays TBH.

If you think having a big number of likes on FB pages correlates to a successful company, then that’s dead wrong. It’s not just black and white. I do understand the importance of vanity metrics, especially when pitching to work with other companies.

If you look at things clearly, it’s not worth it for MOST new companies. I’ve seen companies with great potential eventually die off because they just relied on social media.

Sure, social buzz can work but content on social media isn’t evergreen for the most part, not to mention that your audience has to see what you’re posting, which means you need to improve engagement and keep putting up content.

For SaaS companies, especially bootstapped ones, spending X for increasing likes, content creation and engagement is just too much.Plus you have to factor in the targets, local tends to be more expensive.

If you’re thinking of a viral campaign, sure that can work and can be cheap but that’s a hit or miss, then you still have to worry about the costs mentioned above just to continue.

Even Facebook Groups’ engagements have a similar algorithm now.Sometimes, SaaS companies don’t understand social media, but many choose to not invest in it. It’s a long term game. Getting 100k likes now won’t mean a 100k audience.If you check the other pages on Facebook, a 50million likes page will get wayyyy less than 1% engagement. It’s just a fact.

My take, build your brand over time, encourage people to join you on social media organically - run ad campaigns in short bursts when you are ready and use social media to keep your brand top of mind, again, when you are ready. There’s no point lowering your engagement % further by posting lackluster content just for the sake of it.

You’re just gonna shoot yourself in the foot if you aren’t ready and waste precious cash that your startup needs at the start. Social media is a commitment, not just for vanity. I understand the face value but screw your vanity metrics.