Measuring Social Media Success

Measuring Twitter Success: Forget the Numbers

1/22/2020

When we're discussing success on social media—specifically Twitter—the first question people ask is, "How many followers do you have?" And although having a ton of followers can make you feel successful and valued within your community, it is not an accurate measure of success on the platform. So what is?

Engagement

What are some common goals for Twitter users? Many are selling products (e.g. books) or services. Others are building a readership before being published. And many are simply looking for support and a community of likeminded folks.

Individuals pursuing any of these goals should value engagement over followers.

Would you rather have a hundred followers who never read your posts, never retweet, and never reply to you, or would you prefer to have ten followers who do those things? I'm going to choose the ten engaged followers every time. Because guess what? Those followers are the ones who are going to purchase your books and services. They're going to read your work. They're going to send you funny gifs when you're having a tough writing day, and they're going to celebrate with you when you have a major success. That is who I want in my corner.

Unfollows

Unfollows can sting. It feels like the person is saying, "I thought you'd be interesting, but you didn't live up to expectations."

That is the wrong way to look at it.

Think about this in terms of email lists. When maintaining email lists, we periodically scrub emails that receive no opens or clicks. We don't want to send emails to addresses of people who are not engaging with our content. Unfollows on Twitter are like an automatic scrubbing process. When people unfollow, you're clearing your list of folks who aren't interested. And that's okay! Because they're not important to your community. (And let's be honest, half of them are bots.)

Remember Why You're On Social Media

Most of us aren't looking for internet fame. We don't care if our posts get a thousand likes, and we're not trying to make money from our social media content. Most of us want to build a readership for our work and connect with other writers.

Remember that, when you're out there in the Twitterverse. It may seem tough, and it may feel like you're spinning your wheels, but the numbers are not the only—or even the best—way to measure success. Are you meeting people? Are you learning and having good conversations? Are you having fun?

Then you're succeeding on Twitter.