As a business owner or marketer, it‘s easy to get caught up in the hype of social media vanity metrics like shares, likes, and follower counts. After all, seeing those numbers go up can give you a temporary ego boost and make you feel like your content is performing well.
However, the harsh reality is that most social media shares are pretty much pointless in terms of driving any real business results or even referral traffic. In fact, a study by BuzzSumo found that over 50% of content gets zero external referral traffic from social shares. Let that sink in – the majority of content shared on social media doesn‘t result in a single visit to the original website!
So why are marketers still so obsessed with racking up those share counts? Here are a few reasons why chasing social shares is a futile strategy, especially heading into 2024:
1. Vanity metrics don‘t equal business impact
At the end of the day, shares and likes are nothing more than vanity metrics. They might make you feel good for a moment, but they don‘t necessarily translate to any meaningful engagement or business results.
Just because someone clicked the share button on your post doesn‘t mean they actually read it, found value in it, or will ever become a customer. In fact, a study by Columbia University found that 59% of links shared on social media have never actually been clicked on. Most people are just skimming headlines and reflexively sharing without engaging with the actual content.
As Avinash Kaushik, Digital Marketing Evangelist at Google puts it, "vanity metrics are good for vanity, not for sanity." Businesses need to focus on metrics that actually matter to their bottom line, like leads generated, email signups, sales attributed to content, and revenue. Shares and likes are just feel-good numbers that distract from what‘s really important.
2. Social platforms are keeping users in their walled gardens
Over the past few years, social media platforms have increasingly been shifting their strategies to keep users engaged on their sites for as long as possible. They don‘t want people clicking away to external websites – they want to keep them consuming native content in their apps to maximize ad revenue.
We‘ve seen this with Facebook Instant Articles, Twitter moments, LinkedIn native video, and most recently TikTok stories. All of these features are designed to give users less of a reason to ever leave the platform.
Even Instagram, which used to be a huge driver of referral traffic for many websites, has become more of a walled garden. With features like in-app checkout and the rise of Instagram Shops, they‘re making it possible for users to complete their entire buyer journey without ever leaving the app.
As a result, social media is driving less and less traffic to external websites, even when content does get shared. It‘s all about keeping users engaged with native, in-app content now. This trend is likely to continue in the coming years, further diminishing the already low impact of social shares on actual referral traffic.
3. Dark social shares aren‘t captured by analytics
Another reason to be skeptical about the impact of social shares is the rise of "dark social." This refers to the idea that a significant portion of content sharing happens through private channels like messaging apps, email, and text messages, which aren‘t captured by traditional web analytics platforms.
According to a report by RadiumOne, over 75% of all online sharing is now done through dark social channels. This means that even if your content is getting shared, you may not be able to accurately track and attribute those shares to your social media efforts.
What‘s more, dark social shares are typically more valuable than public shares because they‘re more targeted and personal. When someone shares your content with a specific friend or colleague, it‘s usually because they think it will be particularly relevant or interesting to that person. Those shares pack way more punch than a generic share to a broad social media audience.
Unfortunately, dark social is notoriously hard to track, which means businesses often underestimate how much of their traffic and conversions are actually coming from social media. But just because you can‘t see those shares doesn‘t mean they‘re not happening – or that they‘re not valuable.
4. Ephemeral content is changing the sharing game
The explosive growth of ephemeral content formats like Instagram Stories and Snapchat has fundamentally changed the way people share and consume content on social media. Rather than posting permanent updates to their feed, many users are now favoring more casual, in-the-moment sharing through disappearing stories.
Over 500 million people use Instagram Stories daily, and stories have become an increasingly important part of the platform‘s ecosystem. In fact, a report by Block Party found that 70% of Instagram users watch stories daily, and 86% post stories themselves.
This shift towards ephemeral content has a few implications for marketers:
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It‘s much harder to track and measure the impact of content shared through stories since that data is only available for 24 hours.
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Users are less likely to click through to external sites from stories since the content is designed to be consumed natively in-app.
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Feed-based sharing is becoming less important overall as more engagement shifts to stories and DMs.
While it‘s still valuable to post feed content and track those share metrics, ephemeral content is quickly becoming the primary way many users interact with brands on social media. This is yet another reason why traditional social share counts are losing their relevance and impact.
5. Focus on community and engagement, not vanity metrics
At the end of the day, succeeding on social media isn‘t about getting the most shares, it‘s about building a real community of engaged followers who care about your brand and content.
Instead of chasing share counts, focus on creating high-value, relevant content that resonates with your target audience. Engage in conversations, build relationships, and provide stellar customer service on social media. Run contests and interactive campaigns to get your followers involved.
Brands like Glossier, Wendy‘s, and MoonPie have built massive, loyal followings on social media not by chasing vanity metrics but by developing a unique brand voice and consistently delighting their audiences with entertaining, relatable content.
Glossier‘s CEO Emily Weiss is famous for engaging directly with customers in the comments of the brand‘s Instagram posts. Wendy‘s Twitter account has become legendary for roasting competitors and cracking jokes with followers. And MoonPie‘s absurd Twitter humor has earned it a devoted fanbase.
These types of efforts are what will help you build long-term brand equity and business results, not inflated vanity metrics. Look at indicators like comments, messages, branded searches, and repeat post views to measure the health of your social media community.
Better metrics to focus on in 2024
So if shares and likes are largely pointless, what should you be focusing on instead to measure social media success in 2024?
According to a survey by Sprout Social, the top metrics marketers plan to track in the next few years are:
- Engagement (71%)
- Conversions (61%)
- Brand awareness (60%)
- Customer satisfaction (51%)
- Sales/revenue (50%)
Here are a few specific ways to track each of those metrics:
Engagement
- Number of engaged users (commenters, repeat viewers)
- Engagement rate (engagements/reach)
- Sentiment analysis of comments and mentions
- Brand mentions and tags
Conversions
- Traffic referrals
- Email signups
- Form submissions
- Gated content downloads
Brand awareness
- Reach and impressions
- Social share of voice relative to competitors
- Branded organic search volume
- Earned media value (EMV) from social mentions
Customer satisfaction
- Social media sentiment analysis
- Net promoter score (NPS) on social media
- Response rate and time to DMs
- Social media reviews and ratings
Sales/revenue
- Customers acquired via social media
- Value of sales attributed to social campaigns
- Revenue generated from social ads
- Average order value from social referrals
These metrics go way beyond surface-level vanity metrics to give you a true understanding of how social media is impacting every part of your marketing funnel and your overall business goals. They might take a bit more effort to track than simple share counts, but they‘re infinitely more valuable.
Wrapping up
I hope this deep dive has convinced you that chasing social media shares is a largely pointless endeavor for businesses today. While shares may provide a temporary ego boost or fleeting spike in visibility, they don‘t reliably translate to meaningful engagement, traffic, or revenue.
In 2024 and beyond, social media success will be defined not by vanity metrics but by real business impact. Focus on using social to distribute high-value content, grow engaged communities, provide excellent customer service, and drive measurable conversions and sales.
Don‘t get caught up in the hype of gaming the algorithms to get more shares – that‘s a losing battle. Instead, focus on showing up authentically, consistently delivering value to your audience, and tracking metrics that actually matter to your bottom line.
Social media is still an incredibly powerful tool for building brand awareness, nurturing relationships, and driving revenue. But we need to think beyond just shares and likes to unlock its true potential.
