What are Vanity Metrics? (And Should You Chase Them?)
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As much great inspiration does, this topic began with a question from a friend.
Q: I’m taking over social media for the store I work beside and I’m trying to gain followers on Instagram. Their Facebook is doing well, but Instagram is struggling. Any tips?
Since we’re in the marketing biz, we get outreach like this all the time, especially about social media.
And it rings our “vanity metric” alarm bells every. Single. Time.
Shortly before recording the companion podcast episode, Jenné taught me what a “thirst trap” is. And I got to thinking that vanity metrics are like the thirst trap of analytics.
You can get caught up in views, likes, follows, but what matters more is if you moved someone off the platform to do the thing you want them to do, like sign up for your newsletter, buy tickets to an event, or buy something from you.
What are vanity metrics?
Vanity metrics are those numbers that look impressive when you grow them, but don’t actually move your business forward. They can definitely boost your ego, but they don’t necessarily lead to more customers, sales, or real growth.
Examples of vanity metrics
Followers: The accounts that follow you and are more likely to see your content in their feed
Views: The number of times accounts have looked at your video
Likes: The number of accounts that have liked your content
Impressions: The number of times your content has shown up in someone’s feed or a particular search. This one can get pretty misleading because you might have like 50K impressions and feel on top of the world, but there’s no guarantee that anyone actually saw your post, just that it was available in the feed. Yikes!
Comments: The number of accounts that have commented on a particular post
Shares: The number of times accounts have shared a post with someone else
(Quick note: You’ll notice above we referred to “accounts” instead of “people.” That’s because bots are a big problem and there’s not necessarily a 1:1 correlation between a follower or like and a real human.)
On social media, it’s easy to chase these because they’re visible and validating, and the lil tool boxes show you ‘numbers’ so you get excited and sucked in. But if 10,000 people view your reel and not a single one visits your site, books a service, or joins your email list, do those 10,000 views really matter?
You might say yes, the views make me feel good. Or yes, the views matter because now I can get sponsors.
But what do sponsors want? Sponsors want an engaged audience that’s going to buy stuff from them. So if nobody’s buying from you, sponsorship might actually be a bit farther away than you think.
But we digress. Ultimately, our hot take is that social is for socializing, not for getting people to buy your stuff. AND we also believe that a small, engaged following is approximately 7 million times more valuable than a huge audience of followers who don’t actually know or trust you.
One of the main things we help our clients do is shift focus from performing to actually connecting. That means tracking things that matter: engagement with intent, conversations in the DMs, email sign-ups, or website clicks (whatever thing aligns with your actual business goals).
But if you’re just here to snag more followers, we share a few quick tips that might help down below.
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But if you really want to grow vanity metrics…
We’ll be completely transparent here, growing vanity metrics like a social media following is not our forte. But because we’re in the biz, we have some tips and ideas to get you started.
Opt for reels over static posts. Reels tend to have much greater reach/visibility, so we would choose them whenever possible over static posts.
For 5 mins before and 5 mins after you post, go engage with other content, view stories, make comments, like stuff. This is an algorithm tricking thing, but allegedly, it can help boost your visibility!
Guerrilla follow tons of people by finding your competitors and following their followers. (This one has always felt a little more icky to us, but it can be a quick way to get followers.)
Watch what’s going viral and copy it. Okay, don’t literally copy it. But see what’s trending and be willing to jump on the trends quickly. Trends have about 4-5 days before they fade nowadays.
Post AS MUCH CONTENT AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE. Do more. There are some larger influencers out there who are pushing hundreds of pieces of content per day on a single platform. So that type of volume is what you’re up against.
Encourage people to take action. I.e., comment “BIGBAD” for our list of marketing levers. The more things accounts do, the more it could help boost the post’s visibility in other accounts’ feeds.
Consider partnering with micro influencers. These are people with a few thousand engaged followers who actually have trust with their audience. If you can get a recommendation from one of these accounts, you get exposure to their audience, which could mean new followers for you.
We make zero promises that any of this will work because growing a following is hard, and you have to be prepared to push a heck of a lot of content out if you wanna do it. But if you’re invested in posting consistently and engaging with other people’s content on the platform, it is possible to increase these vanity metrics pretty quickly.
And don’t forget to be social & real!
Here is some universal social media advice we give to all of our clients (and do our best to follow ourselves!)
Don’t post all willy nilly. Operate from a strategic social media content plan.
Only promote stuff every 10ish posts. More than this, and people are more likely to hide you from their feed or unfollow because they just think you’re here to hard sell them again.
Otherwise, make it funny, entertaining, informative, or social! You’re on these channels to bring value to your audience, so figure out who your audience is, what they’re looking for on the platform, and give it to them!
Be as real and authentic as possible, using videos of real people as often as you can. If you’re the face of the brand (like we are), then show your face! People want to see other humans, not logos.
Now get out there, be social, have fun, and don’t get bogged down in chasing vanity metrics!
