Social Engagement and the Myth of Virality
It is believed among many that viral content is the key to being successful on the internet. Whether it’s Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, or anything in between, most people will not feel like a success unless they’ve reached this peak. But, here’s the thing– engagement doesn’t matter. Unless you’re an influencer, your key metrics should not rely on content popularity. (We’ve done a podcast episode on this in the past, you can view it here.)
The truth is, we all want to be liked. High levels of engagement on your content means people like what you have to say and that can really give you that warm, fuzzy feeling. However, when you’re a business owner, those numbers on your social media analytics won’t mean anything unless they equate to sales. After all, social media doesn’t pay the bills, and we have some case studies to prove it.
Case Study #1 - E-Commerce Wellness Products
This client came to Marketing Juice with a problem– their Instagram and Facebook pages were getting plenty of engagement and growing a consistent following, but sales were sporadic at best. This is because, as we mentioned before, engagement doesn’t always equal sales. In this case, the client had a fantastic presence on social media, but their website was well below-parr when it came to aesthetics, search optimization, and functionality. The problem for this client wasn’t content, it was conversion. Without an optimized conversion path, social media engagement is nothing more than a pat on the back. This essentially meant that potential customers were coming across their social media channels and liking what they saw, but were ultimately disenchanted with their website, causing them to decide against making a purchase.
In addition to this, this client was using an outdated website solution for e-commerce. All of their sales were driven by ad spend via paid search. As a result, Client A was spending exorbitant amounts of money on paid advertising to make ends meet. Without organic growth, advertising can become a ball and chain for many small businesses.
Enter Marketing Juice. We created a new website for this client with improved graphics, mobile optimization, and search optimized content. Alongside a revised social strategy, within 6 months this client was able to nearly cut their ad spend in half while maintaining fantastic conversion rates. They’ve been able to cut down their monthly ad spend little by little ever since.
Case Study #2 - E-Commerce Street Wear Apparel
This next client came to Marketing Juice with incredibly sporadic revenue spurts and a very high engagement rate and follower count they managed to grow organically since the inception of the business in 2019. Their periodic high sales months, however, were directly attributed to their use of boosted Instagram posts– in effect, they were paying for every one of their Instagram posts to “go viral”. In this client’s case, this worked for a while, but thanks to Meta cracking down on unethical marketing (more on that here), this strategy became less and less effective and their sales slowly dwindled until they reached zero.
As well as paying for high engagement, this client was also using an out-of-the-box e-commerce apparel website solution for their conversions. While the high volume months seemed like success, their profit margins were nearly non-existent after factoring in the nearly 14% of sales taken by the platform in addition to their advertising spend.
To add insult to injury, this client’s accounts had not been set up properly via the new Meta Business Suite. It’s more important now than ever to follow the directed protocols on each platform when setting up business advertising and marketing accounts. The consistent boosting of their organic Instagram posts lead to the loss of their Meta advertising account, and with it, all future projected sales.
While Marketing Juice was able to get the advertising account reinstated, this, in and of itself, was a harsh lesson on the myth of virality for this client. Despite netting thousands of dollars in revenue every month, that was still only coming from a fraction of the people who actually engaged with their Instagram account organically. Most importantly, when the visibility they were paying for disappeared, so did their customers.
Marketing Juice created a new custom e-commerce website for this client, performed search optimization on all content and products, and established a new (and above board) business presence for them on the social media platforms. With a solid foundation in place for conversion and a new diversified ad strategy, this client has seen a significant increase in online sales, but more importantly an even better increase in profitability.
Don’t Repeat Their Mistakes
Cases like these are exactly why it’s also important to consider the effort that actually goes into virality. You will never go viral on the internet with just one post– gaining any kind of traction, whether its engagement, social following, or sales, will always take time, even if the customer doesn’t see this effort from the outside.
On top of this, on the off chance that one of your posts does go viral, it won’t matter. In the long run, high engagement on a few social media posts here and there may result in higher sales for a while, but that doesn’t mean that this success will be long-term. As with many other things on the internet, that viral post will likely lose traction and without the proper SEO and other behind-the-scenes work, so will your sales.
At Marketing Juice, our priority is that our clients are profitable. We customize our approach to each client account to make sure our strategies meet your goals. Ready for a custom quote or free consultation? Click here for more.