Head faking our way to social media success

Ah, the head fake.  According to “the Internet”, a head fake is a sports term used when a player moves their head to fake a change in direction.

I can’t help but think that the majority of social media “gurus” and agencies are head faking their clients into thinking that they are running successful campaigns and programs.

This same thing used to happen in the early days of the web.  Remember when it was all about the page views?  Who cared if someone actually interacted with the site, bought the product, filled out the form, etc.  Look at how many people came to our website!

We’ve learned over time that traffic numbers aren’t the answer.  They are a part of the funnel, sure, but they aren’t the end result you should be striving for.

It’s the same thing with social media.  Fan/follower count is NOT the final result.  Increasing your Twitter followers is only worthwhile if you’re engaging with them and somehow your business is benefiting financially from that relationship.

Enough with the smoke, the mirrors, and the head fakes.  If you’re creating the strategy and/or executing on social media campaigns for a brand, you have a responsibility to measure the success of those campaigns against REAL metrics.