Say it with me: engagement doesn’t pay bills

Most social media marketers I work with still feel like engagement is the king of KPIs.

Yet, likes, comments and shares don’t pay bills. Revenue does.

Unless you’re selling directly on social channels (and even then we can argue semantics), don’t expect “ROI” from social media marketing. It’s a fool’s errand in the long run.

Instead, benchmark your return against the impact social has on other revenue-driving (or cost-saving) business KPIs, like:

• Foot traffic
• Web traffic (and traffic quality)
• Time-to-hire
• Time-to-close
• Customer satisfaction

If you agree, but your boss or CMO is still all about that engagement, a simple way to challenge their thinking is to ask, “why?”

Dir of Mktg: “We want to increase followers by 30% in 2020”
You: “why?”

Repeat asking “why” long enough, and you’ll eventually peel that onion all the way back to a reason that impacts revenue.

Then, and only then, can you build a strategy where engagement actually means something.

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Stephan Hovnanian

I am a Strategy Consultant on Sprout Social’s professional services team. As a speaker and trainer, I focus on developing world-class practitioners of social and advocacy programs. Before joining Sprout, I ran a marketing consultancy for 15 years, and use that experience to shape the strategy of social programs so they launch successfully and drive measurable business value.

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