It’s easy to fall in love with numbers that make us look successful. Who wouldn’t want 10,000 followers or a video that racks up 100,000 views? But those social media vanity metrics don’t always tell the whole story.
When a custom home builder client came to us for help with their marketing, they had successfully built an impressive following on TikTok and achieved high levels of engagement. While their posts were popular, the likes and comments weren’t converting into meaningful business results.
Herein lies the problem with social media vanity metrics. High numbers of social media likes, shares, and views are shiny. They feel good. But they don’t pay the bills. They’re designed to make you think you’re gaining traction, keep you coming back for more, and convince you to spend some real money on paid ads.
The flattering trap of vanity metrics on social media
Social media platforms are designed to keep people scrolling. A like doesn’t mean someone is thinking about your product. It often just means they saw something pretty or relatable in passing.
If you’re measuring success by vanity metrics, you’re playing the wrong game. Sure, vanity metrics are easy to track because all platforms provide them. But these indicators are often ambiguous and insufficient to point out a return on investment. Likes don’t equal loyalty. Comments don’t guarantee sales. What matters is whether your social media activity drives action—website visits, emails, sales, or long-term customer relationships.
Stop chasing the wrong numbers
Think of it this way: would you rather have 10,000 passive followers or 100 loyal customers? A small but engaged audience can outperform a massive but indifferent one every time.
And, without going too far down the rabbit hole, can we even trust the numbers that social platforms serve us? (Looking at you, LinkedIn.)
Back to the custom home builder client: their social media fans and followers increased by 16% from June 2023 (when we took over) to October 2024. Not bad, but not exactly shooting them to internet fame. The more important number is their engagement rate, which has increased from 2% to 9%. What this means is that their audience is growing (albeit slowly and steadily), and, crucially, it’s the right audience (people who want to engage with their brand). See the difference?
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How to spot vanity metrics
Vanity metrics can be tempting. They look good on the surface and give an instant sense of accomplishment. However, they often lack real value when it comes to driving meaningful outcomes for your product or business.
Here’s how to identify a vanity metric:
- Lacks depth: These metrics are overly simplistic and fail to provide meaningful insights
- Misleading: They can create a false sense of progress without reflecting actual success
- Lacks context: Without nuance, these numbers don’t tell the full story
- Non-actionable: They don’t offer clear next steps to improve your product, marketing strategy, or business outcomes
- Superficial: They focus on surface-level achievements rather than meaningful results
- Out of your control: They often stem from factors you can’t replicate or influence meaningfully
- Distracting: Instead of diving deeper into data for actionable insights, teams may get stuck celebrating hollow victories
- Disconnected from business outcomes: If a metric is meaningful, you should be able to trace it to a component of your business strategy
What really moves the needle?
At its core, marketing isn’t about numbers or algorithms—it’s about people. When marketing focuses on genuine interactions and audience needs, it evolves from a numbers game to a people-centered strategy.
Successful marketing understands your audience members, anticipates their needs, and meets them where they are with products, services, or information that solve their problems, inform, or delight. Metrics should serve as tools to gauge your progress, not distractions that steer you away from your ultimate goals.
Take our builder client’s revamped online presence, for example. Since we’ve taken on their marketing content, they have received plenty of positive feedback, more inbound calls, and improved credibility in the market. This kind of anecdotal feedback might not fit neatly into a graph, but it reflects what truly drives results: building relationships.
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3 ways to get it right
1. Focus on actionable metrics
Identify metrics that directly impact your business goals. For example, track website clicks, form submissions, purchases, and data points that signal real engagement and conversions. While likes and views might inflate your ego, they’re not useful if they don’t translate into business outcomes.
2. Use social media as a tool, not the goal
Think of social platforms as a bridge between your audience and your business. Use them to educate, build trust, and guide people toward meaningful actions, such as exploring your services or making a purchase.
3. Test and adjust
Every audience is unique, and what works for one business may not work for another. Experiment with your content, calls to action, and campaigns. Pay attention to how real customers interact with your efforts and refine them based on what drives results.
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Vanity metrics are the junk food of marketing
They’re easy to obtain, they give you a quick dopamine hit, but they’re not necessarily fueling your business in the right way. Don’t let them distract you from what really matters: creating real connections with your audience and driving results that count.
We can help you stop chasing likes and start chasing outcomes. Reach out to learn more!
