Caption: Knowledge gains value when it is preserved, connected, and shared with others over time.
You’ve taken the leap.
Maybe you just started a brand-new business. Maybe you’re a brick-and-mortar owner finally moving your storefront online, or adding an e-commerce side to your physical shop. Or maybe you’ve been around for a while, but you just spent weeks revamping your entire website and social media presence for a fresh start.
Whatever your path, you’ve probably spent hours reading articles, watching videos, and listening to advice from people who have gone before you.
Again and again, you hear the same recommendations.
- Build a website.
- Create social media accounts.
- Publish helpful blog articles.
- Improve your search rankings.
- Stay active online.
- Be consistent.
None of that is bad advice. In fact, it’s good advice. And you followed it.
The only way you know if anything is working is by staring at your phone, waiting for it to ring, or refreshing your email, hoping for a message. In some cases, when you’re looking at social media, you can see likes, shares, comments, and impressions, if there are any.
But most of the time, there is nothing.
And in that quiet space, when you lock your screen and set your phone back down on the desk, the same three questions start playing on a loop in your head:
Why is nothing happening?
You did everything they told you to do. You invested the time, the money, and the effort. Why does it feel like you are shouting into an empty room?
What do I need to be doing?
Should you write another blog post? Post three times today instead of once? Try a new platform? The pressure to do more is exhausting, especially when you don’t know what “more” even looks like.
How do I know if what I am doing is doing anything?
This is the hardest part. When the phone is silent, you are flying completely blind. You are waiting on that very first notification to prove that what you just built received any attention at all, and you have no idea if you are one inch away from a breakthrough or completely wasting your time.
These aren’t just questions; they are a heavy weight that anyone navigating the digital world carries. And the reason they are so painful is that the standard advice tells us what to build, but it rarely explains how to actually connect the dots.
Instead, they tell you to look at the data.
So, you do and you are not alone. Many business owners are struggling with this issue. Most likely, they do one of two things: hire someone to help or return to the research station.
Many choose to do more research. If they hire someone, they do not know what to ask, and there is a strong possibility they will wind up in the same position they were in before hiring.
The first thing many business owners look at is social media. The main reason for this is that there is some form of control. You can write something, post it, and if people on the platform are paying attention and it resonates, they may respond. There may be results in time, such as likes, shares, comments, reach, and impressions, sometimes called vanity metrics. This content could be photos, articles, advertisements, or links to their website.
The Illusion of “Vanity Metrics”
So, you start looking.
And this is where a layer of complexity—and confusion—sets in.
On social media, you may see likes, people may share posts, impression numbers increase, and there may even be comments.
At first, a little spike in those numbers feels like a victory.
You post a photo, and it gets 15 likes.
For a second, you feel a spark of hope.
Maybe it’s working.
But then you look back at your empty inbox.
You look at your phone.
Still silent.
That’s when the frustration turns into deep confusion.
What does any of this actually mean?
Here is the truth that most marketing articles gloss over.
Many of the numbers you’re encouraged to watch are often called vanity metrics.
They look pretty on a screen, and they can make you feel like something is happening, but they don’t tell you whether your business is actually moving forward. We will review the meaning of these metrics in a future post.
We mentioned that on social media, you may be directing people to your website. But how do you know it is happening? Yet another wrinkle to the complexity. Yes, more metrics, but we need to understand what we mean by metrics.
The Concept Behind Metrics
Let’s take a quick moment to present a concept. We will use business cards. In our example, you are preparing for an event where you will have the opportunity to mingle and communicate with many people. This is similar to your website being connected to the Internet. Many people have the opportunity to visit your website and communicate or engage with your content. People visiting the website are similar to the people communicating with you during this event.
You prepare for this occasion by bringing 100 business cards. You may talk with people and provide a card to each. This is similar to people visiting your website. For our example, we will use the number 50. This means you have the attention of 50 people. On the Internet, this would be considered traffic.
Of the 50 people who took your card, 25 laid it down and did nothing. With our website, this could be considered a bounce. They were there for a few seconds and went elsewhere.
However, the other 25 kept your card for review. If we were thinking of the website, this could be an increase in session length, or the time they spent browsing.
Going one step further, let’s say that out of those 25, 15 make an appointment to have a conversation at a later time. This means you have their attention. The last step involves your conversation with the 15 people who made appointments. Out of those 15 people, 5 say yes and buy something. The results are 5 conversions. This shows up in the financials. The question becomes, what does this have to do with my website?
Our example is a simple analogy and not very complicated. The website’s metrics are more technical with many factors to consider, making them more complicated. Also, these metrics are not readily available on the website like they are on the social media platforms. We have to rely on third-party tools that have to be connected to your website.
On the internet, people search for different things. As you are most likely aware, two of the popular search engines on the Internet are Google and Bing. The numbers from these searches can be captured. What you capture then becomes the metrics of what the people review and do on your website.
The third-party tools that were connected to your website capture this data. You either use their dashboards or add plugins to your website to view some of the data.
Suddenly, you aren’t just a business owner anymore. You’re supposed to be a website guru and a data analyst.
It adds a massive, exhausting burden to an already stressful situation. You went into business to do what you love, and now you’re trying to decode graphs and track thumbs-ups.
In The Journey Ahead
In the articles that follow, we’ll discuss the different analytics. This way, you will be better equipped to make more informed decisions about which analytics best meet your needs.
Understand that these articles cannot tell you what to capture. To do that, we would need to look at your specific business. Every business is different, and your needs are unique, which is why those details are best discussed via a personalized appointment. To create an appointment, click on Schedule a Call.
This is only the beginning of the journey. Return often to see what has been added.
Next Article is What Is a Metric? A Business Metrics Guide for Beginners
0 Comments