Look at the page Facebook For Every Phone. It’s currently the Facebook page with the most ‘likes’ on the social networking site, boasting a whopping 503.74 million followers. Facebook’s own page comes in second at a relatively meagre 171.7 million, followed by A-list celebrities Cristiano Ronaldo (115.64 million), Shakira (104.96 million), and Vin Diesel (99.91 million).
You may think that these are the top five most successful Facebook pages. Far from it. In the world of social media engagement and leverage, the amount of ‘likes’ and/or followers are not indicative of success. Backers of professional social signal service would agree.
Are Likes Now Useless?
Facebook likes are mere numbers. Organisations must focus on a metric like shares, for instance. When people share a post, it means that they approve of its content. It means that the post resonates with their personal ideals or preferences. A post with lots of shares is an extremely engaging one containing a message that multitudes can agree on. The content creators for said post reached the pinnacle of their craft, essentially.
In terms of metrics, a post shared by one individual is shared with his/her personal connections. A post’s reach is then increased massively. This way, a post’s message can spread much quicker and create more awareness over time. And the best thing is that post shares are the best way of increasing post reach for free.
Another critical metric is post engagement. Though a bit vague, it is broadly defined as ‘the number of people who clicked anywhere on the post’. They may have liked it, shared it, or commented on it, or even did all three. This metric goes to show that such people are engaged enough with the content that they did more than just press the like button. In other words, it’s the number of people who interacted with the post itself.
Even on Facebook, organisations need action-takers, not mere followers or visitors. These active folks form the lifeblood of a business. After all, what’s the point of having a lot of fans, if they don’t really prove their following by acting on calls to action?
