by Staff writer
Most people these days rate content just by the number of “likes” it is able to get.
True, number of likes, views and shares matter but if you take these metrics to be the only bases you judge a content on, then you are wrong.
A lot go into how well an online post does in terms of likes and shares, such as the time of posting, the demography of the audience that receives it, etc, but this is not in any way an absolute measure of the success of the post.
I’ve seen people take down a post because it didn’t get any likes, or failed to get the number of likes they expected.
But this is a very wrong approach.
You should probably know this: as far as content marketing and online advertising are concerned, quality of traffic supersedes quantity of traffic.
A Facebook “like” does not in any way equal a closed sale. A lot of people will buy your product without even bothering to “like” the post, or leave a comment.
A few years ago, you could take “likes” to the bank, sort of. But those days are long gone, and they are never coming back.
In fact, a lot of people who visit this blog daily, read our stories, buy our eBooks and hire our services never actually leave a comment.
But that does not mean they are any less a great customer to us. At least they always consumed what we put out and always paid for what they bought.
When you really consider this, you’d realize “likes and comments” don’t mean money.
Because likes and comments have been found to biologically boost happiness and contentment by raising brain dopamine levels, it is easy to understand why we value them so much.
You feel happy and confident, and you want more of the same. Whereas no likes or shares leaves you feeling empty and insecure.
But now there is one very important thing to note:
The more sophisticated your audience is, the less engagement you will get from them.
The people who rush to like every of your post on Facebook are usually the young, naive and insecure ones who actually might not have read or understood what you posted.
You will always get many likes if this category of people make the bulk of your audience.
They see your content and recognize you and like it, but not necessarily because the content is so important to them.
They will flood your new product with likes but you won’t see them buying any.
On the other hand, if your audience are educated, secure and sophisticated people, you won’t get the same result.
These people are too busy to spend their time commenting on every tweet and post you make. In fact, the more sophisticated your audience is, the less engagement you will see — be it email, social media or online advertising!
Still wondering why Kim Kardashian gets more likes on Instagram than Oprah Winfrey?
It’s time we realized social media “likes” don’t do the tricks any more.
This is 2018, the time to focus on revenue, not likes, shares or comments.
The only true way to judge the success of your content today is to measure the amount of revenue it brings.
So the next time you push out content — be it email, social media, PR or video — consider how it actually makes you revenue.
Forget about the likes, shares and comments.
Forget about the dopamine spikes and how happy a popular post makes you feel.
Let go of the emotional attachment toward your content, and instead hone in on what it does to your bottom line.
It is now time to turn the attention away from vanity metrics (likes, shares, comments, hits, views, etc.), and toward more intimate measurables like direct messages and replies, people who contact you directly after you share a piece of content.
It’s not as easy to measure, but the insight this offers you is far more profound.
