Stop Chasing the Vanity Metrics

Have you been telling yourself lately that it's not even worth showing up online anymore? I walk through what's happening online and why even content with zero likes, zero comments, and low reach is still worthwhile to get out there in the world. 

Connect: 

Website: www.brittajuneandco.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittablanski/

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:05

Welcome to the LinkedIn Lounge Podcast, a space where we dive deep into questions surrounding culture, community, employee engagement, employee experience, and what it looks like to help be an active voice to improve our workplaces. LinkedIn is an amazing place of connection and opportunity. So when you're willing to dive into that space and be a little bit vulnerable and lean into your authentic, genuine side when it comes to relationship building, you'll be surprised at what you find. So grab those earbuds, find a quiet space, and enjoy this conversation. Hello there. I am coming in with a short and sweet podcast for you today. And this was inspired from a conversation that I had with a friend not too long ago when we were talking about how we consume content and what our expectation is when we are producing content and we are putting content out into the world, especially on social media. And one of the things that both surprised us by sharing recent experiences of purchases that we had made online. And I had shared how I had recently um discovered a woman from another podcast that I follow, and so went and looked at her Instagram page and was already inspired enough to go and purchase something that she was selling. And I didn't have to binge a ton of her content. I didn't have to listen to really more than the one podcast that I had heard her be a guest on. And after perusing through the website, I was like, okay, yeah, like I I want to purchase this. I'm ready to go. And I made the $99 investment. And this other friend was saying, oh yeah, I just recently did the same thing from this other woman on Instagram. And it didn't take me very long to decide that, yeah, this is exactly what I needed. And I purchased a she purchased a call with this woman, uh, like a one-hour, 45-minute call. And we were both saying, you know, in terms of looking at our content and what we're putting out in our content, what really we both said, like we did not track by any means the number of likes or comments or shares or real views that these two different women had. Their performance of their content for us as a buyer made absolutely no difference. And with the reason we were talking about this was because oftentimes when we put content out online, we get really discouraged when we see that maybe it doesn't perform well, and maybe it doesn't get a lot of likes, and we really track the number of impressions, and we have a certain expectation. If you've been in the LinkedIn world for a while, you know, a couple years back, it was really easy that every single post you would put out would get a minimum of 1,000 impressions. That was just like the baseline of what you would put out. And with all the changes that have happened on the platform recently, everyone has seen this massive drop in engagement, massive drop in reach, and all of a sudden it's like, well, now my content's not working. And so this was we were talking about this, you know, being like, oh, well, that post only got two likes. And if someone looks at it, then what if they think that I'm not legit because my content only has two likes? And it's like, well, that's really not how it works, you know. Like you you don't always know what it is that's going to nudge someone to go and look at your website and go and open up your call offer link and book that call or purchase whatever it is that you're selling. It is so much more than any vanity metric that will be out there. And there's that famous quote that you can't measure what you don't track. And so, on one, you know, on one side and in one sense, yes, absolutely, you should have KPIs and know, okay, what do we want to be creating more of, what's working, what's not working. But also, this is for the person out there who understands the importance of visibility, understands the importance of consistency, and wants to be an active user online because they understand the benefits of having that consistent presence, just saying, like, I'm here, I'm open for conversation, I'm open, you know, potentially also for business. You might not be a business owner, you might be someone who is employed, you might be someone who's using LinkedIn as a passion project or a per, you know, you've set some personal goals, and maybe it's not necessarily business-minded. So I'm saying, like, in regards of you know, any industry, any role, whatever like your main objective is for being present online, this is your personal note and your personal reminder that it goes far beyond any amount of likes, comments, impressions, engagement that you will ever get on your content. And this is just demonstrated time and time and time again when you have real conversations with real people in real life. All the time, people tell me when I actually see them in person, hey, I've been seeing your content, I really like what you've been putting out. Just the other week, I even had a call with someone, a former client from several years back. She reached out, she's not leaving likes on my content. I didn't know that she was still following me, you know. No, no way whatsoever that I knew that I was still on her radar. And she reaches out inquiring about my services, wondering, you know, saying, give me more information. And then she said, by the way, I still love what you're putting out. I love following along. I love seeing what you're doing. And I wouldn't have known that. And it has nothing to do with any type of like on a post, right? It's not like she reached out to me because I had a hundred likes on that one, you know, on that one piece of content that went out. So this is my little rah-rah pep speech for you to continue to create. Don't get discouraged by the vanity metrics, but also keep in mind that when people see you and you speak to their need, and that's what they're looking for, they will buy from you. I just did that, my friend just did that, other people are doing that every single day all the time. And we're not tracking and trying to see how many comments someone left on your post, but it really is showing that you are a trusted resource because you have showed up consistently over time. So don't get distracted, especially. I know there's so much talk right now out there. Um, really, when it comes to I just I don't even want to say it right now, if I'm really honest. I don't want to say AI, I AI content, because it's up at this point, I feel like we've talked about it so much and we know what it is, and we can identify it, we can spot it from a mile away. There's no that's not even the question isn't even more whether or not, you know, should we be using it or like how I I would even beg to say right now the question isn't even how I should be using it. The question is, are you going to take the time to create something that's original enough in your own voice, in your own words, your own tone, your own perspective, your own EQ spec perspective. It might be shorter, it might not be as long, it might not follow the templates and the frameworks and formats that you're quote unquote supposed to be using on LinkedIn that you've been taught that you're supposed to use in the way and the manner that you write. You know, you might not have the bullet points, you might not have uh, you know, the first the the shocking statement and then the resolution followed by, you know, A B C and then one, two, three, whatever. Like you've all seen those frameworks, or maybe you haven't seen those frameworks, but they're out there. Um, and it's like you don't have to follow those anymore, that which can be a huge relief. Like this has totally we're we're beyond this discussion of AI and templates, and we're coming back to like the really gritty, raw, I'm gonna say authentic, even though that's now debatable, but this raw approach to sharing the real you in a way that when it like the right person comes across it and you are the exact solution that they've been looking for, or maybe they spoke into a very clear, exact, you know, pain point that you had, and maybe you didn't even realize you had that, but when you read it, you you were enlightened and were like, Yeah, actually that's something that I would be really helpful for me right now. I could use that, I want that. They'll be ready to buy, and the they are going to take the next steps to reach out to you, and so facilitating that journey, making it easy to contact you, making it easy to take the next steps, that's what's gonna matter. It's not having the perfect post that's going to make you go viral, it's about having the honest, authentic post that will be there at the right time because you haven't given up or you haven't chased trends and you haven't chased what's hot and working right now to say, and you're not chasing the likes, but you're chasing this is the real thing that I can offer you that I know will give you value because I've seen it work and I know it's of high quality. So get out there, keep creating, don't be discouraged, don't create for the machine, create from a place of your own unique, authentic, beautiful soul. Everything that you have to offer your community and trust the process because the right people will be attracted to your message, and that's a beautiful thing of having all the diversity online in the online space without trying to copy what everyone else is doing because you think it's gonna work, but you're coming from a grounded place of I know this is who I am, these are my strengths, this is what I have to offer you, and people will love you for being you. So keep on creating, friend, keep it real, happy networking.