📲A Reality Check: Managing Social Growth and Feedback
Hello!
It’s Melissa here with a story to share with you about viral videos.
The excitement of overnight virality can seem so thrilling. I had a friend who ran a business helping women. One day a video she posted went viral overnight.
Woohoo!
It felt like she had arrived. Hundreds of thousands of people watched her video and tens of thousands followed her.
And then she kept posting thinking things were about to take off.
She quickly realized, her content about her business received barely any engagement.
Isn’t virality supposed to bring success?
It can, but often it’s vanity metrics. Especially if your content gets pushed to the wrong crowd that you can’t convert to sales.
I’m not saying that virality isn’t great for getting brand awareness, but the future of sustainable social media growth and a solid business foundation isn't about fast numbers—it's about building genuine connections that last.
🥳Think Differently About Success Metrics
Early on in my own social media journey, I would look at other creators posting about their success and their wins. Then when I look at their follower count on social media, I would see that they sometimes had dramatically fewer followers than I did. Yet, they were hitting milestones that I still aspired to get to.
I would get so frustrated. How is this possible?
I felt like I was working so hard and doing all the right things
I soon learned how different the results can be between prioritizing vanity metrics like followers vs. quality engagement and community building.
The same is true for followers and book sales.
It’s time to stop obsessing over follower counts. Instead, focus on:
Comment quality: Are followers sharing reviews after they read your book? Are they talking about excitement over an upcoming release? Are they tagging you in their own posts about our books?
Share context: Are people adding social proof when resharing? (i.e. how much they loved reading the books, that they recommend it for others to read)
Conversion to sales: Are you leading them to your funnel? (i.e. adding them to your email list, turning them into repeat buyers of your book)
📈Action Plan: Track Your Growth
It’s important to choose the right metrics for your goals.
Not all metrics are created equal. Your measurement strategy should directly reflect your business objectives:
What Are You Really Tracking?
Visibility: Want more eyes on your content? Track views and reach
Community Building: Seeking deeper connections? Focus on comments and interactions
Broader Impact: Looking to expand influence? Monitor shares and content spread
Converting to Funnel: Starting to grow your email list? See how many new sign ups you get after sharing an awareness post about your newsletter.
Metric Alignment Strategy
When we are trying to figure out what metrics to look at, we need to explore the chain reaction. What’s the GOAL, what are the KEY METRICS, and WHY IT MATTERS.
Brand Awareness, Audience Engagement, and Content Resonance are three areas that I often analyze in social content. Here’s what the breakdown would look like.
Brand Awareness > Total Views, Unique Viewers > Understand how users are finding your content
Audience Engagement > Likes, Comments, Direct Messages > Measure content reaction
Content Resonance > Shares, Saves > Evaluate content's perceived value to evoke a response
It’s All About Growth
My TikTok experience taught me that social media growth is about the long game, rather than looking for a quick win. Initially, my content seemed to only be viewed by a small group of people.
But growth isn't always visible in real-time. Months later, I discovered older videos gaining hundreds of views. Random comments appeared on content I'd nearly forgotten about.
Let this be your reminder (and a reminder to myself) that content has a lasting impact that isn't immediately apparent. Keep going, but also keep analyzing over time.
What does success look like for your content? Define success beyond immediate numbers and consider how your content can provide lasting value.
Pro Tip: Don't get discouraged by initial low engagement. Consistent, quality content builds momentum over time.
Think about your plan. Apply what you’ve learned. Perfect the process as you grow.
✅Perfect As You Grow.
Sometimes all your content needs is a little revision. It’s all about perfecting as you grow.
One time I did a reel for a client and it had 350 views. I felt that the video was good, so I changed the music and swapped out a few of the hashtags and guess what happened… The same video, slightly changed, hit 50k views, but the big win was that readers were commenting how excited they were to see the next book in the series coming out. Score!
The lesson? Analyze what you post and see how you can make it better, or you can message us at hello@theaustenpathway.com for personalize help with your social media and business. It’s all about learning as you go. So don’t stop sharing, just analyze to improve.
THINK, APPLY, PERFECT Exercise: Grab your calendar and set one measurable engagement goal based off the Brand Awareness, Audience Engagement, and Content Resonance metrics we talked about earlier. Once you’ve chosen you goal, choose the metric that will help you get there and track it for the next 30 days.
At the end of the time you’ve designated, see what worked and what you might need to adjust. Learn from the data you’ve created for yourself.
Examples: Generate five meaningful comment threads weekly by asking thought-provoking questions. Or, post 3 times a week to your social platform of choice talking about issues that characters in your book have dealt with.
Now It’s Your Turn
What does authentic growth look like for you?
For me, it’s seeing engagement, excitement, and of course growth in the community and with sales.
Define your personal growth markers and share them below.
What does meaningful engagement look like for your audience?
Let's build sustainable growth together.
Don’t forget to check our our podcast episodes as well as weekly social media trend report.
Very knowledgeable information. Thank you.