How do you measure success on social media?

Likes, comments, and shares | Website traffic | Email signups | Messages | Phone calls | Purchases

Recently, a mortgage lender client did his first YouTube video. It was a lot of begging on my part to get the video recorded, then I edited it, added some minimal graphic art to aid in the storytelling, and finally, posted it on his social media.

Less than 100 organic views later, you might think I was disappointed.

Nope. The social proof was underwhelming, but that wasn't the metric we cared about most.

Why? Because the video can get 1 million views but if we don't get business from it, it's mostly a vanity metric. Yes, it helps with brand awareness, but we want the phone to ring.

Our primary metrics? Messages and phone calls that lead to DEALS.

And from that single video, ten people contacted him. TEN.

Make sure your posts aim at the right metric and don't just chase attention.

Yes, attention is good, but isn't closing deals better?