Stop Measuring Social Media

…unless you’re actively engaging!

You can spend all day measuring social media. But if you are not regularly publishing and engaging in social media, then all that measurement is a complete waste of time and money.

By regularly publishing, I mean multiple times per day, on all your pages with a good portion being original posts or links back to original content. I’ve spoken with many marketing execs who ironically don’t have the resources to post this aggressively because they’re constantly monitoring and analyzing every word on social about their industry.

Sure, monitoring and measuring the broad spectrum of social can give you some insights. The measurement industry people will tell you that you can make key business decisions with this information. Perhaps…but if you’re making important decisions about your organization based on what a few people may remark on social media, then perhaps you’re in the wrong seat.

Other Noise Versus Your Message

Look at the big QSRs – do they care? I hope not. Thousands of people say nasty things on social about chicken nuggets and $5 pizzas every week. But guess what? Millions of people still buy chicken nuggets and $5 pizzas every week. Those brands are actively putting out their own messages and not focusing on all the chatter.

What about the social channels you can’t monitor?

Those who over-measure have a particular fondness for Twitter. Why? Is it the most influential? No. Is it the biggest? No. But, it is the easiest to monitor and measure. Tweets are things that can easily be counted but might not necessarily count.

Facebook and Instagram have real barricades to monitoring anything but your own content. They count, but can’t be counted. And Snapchat? No chance.

So most “share of voice” reports out there are only measuring a less important portion of a tiny fraction of what might be captured about of what’s being said about the brand! Please reread that last sentence in your most sarcastic voice possible.

Next: More Noise?!?

As social and online conversations, chatter, and noise grow exponentially, each piece becomes less important. Where do you want to be a year from now…gathering more & more data that is becoming less & less relevant? Or, do you want to lead conversations and tell your story? Try these 4 tips:

1. Keep a finger on the pulse of social – not every inch of the body.

2. Of course be prepared to be alerted to any real crisis.

3. Focus all of your social listening on responses and engagements to your original content and your story. That’s all you can control anyway.

4. Focus the majority of your marketing resources on making news, not reading it.