Beyond likes: why vanity numbers no longer tell the full story

Meta recently announced that it would give users the option to hide view counts on Reels and replies on Threads. It’s a move that might feel counterproductive or alarming to everyone from CMOs and marketing professionals to influencers — how can we measure success without being able to benchmark views, comments, likes and replies? For those paying attention, though, this feels like part of a much bigger story: a real shift in how we measure and understand social media success away from ‘vanity metrics’. It’s a fascinating time for that to happen — becoming an influencer or content creator still remains the number one career aspiration for young people, but the metrics that have traditionally defined influence are being quietly dismantled. Things are changing, becoming more reflective of how people really engage with content, but also less obviously transparent.

For almost 2 decades, the “like“ and then the “view” has been social media's primary currency, shaping how brands measured success and how entire generations viewed digital achievement. Their decline puts us in an odd place, where the markers for measuring reach and engagement are becoming less prominent while the desire to build influence seems stronger than ever.

This might feel contradictory and slightly worrying for those who came to social media in the early days of Facebook and Twitter, and who cut their social marketing teeth in the 2010s, but for Generation Z and Alpha it absolutely scans. These generations, the children of digital native Gen X’s and millennials, have witnessed the entire lifecycle of social media algorithms and metrics – from the early days of organic chronological feeds through the rise of algorithmic prioritisation, paid social and now into an era of private sharing. As we are constantly reminded by world events, the way we are served and consume content is becoming ever more nuanced.

The mechanisms of content sharing have been rewiring themselves for a while now. Good quality, effective material might never surface in public metrics at all: instead it’s spreading through private messages, closed groups and direct sharing, both in DMs and on locked accounts on public networks or apps like Discord and Telegram. There’s a strong Gen Z preference for authentic, intimate connections over wide broadcasts.

To get our heads around this requires a shift in understanding of influence itself. Tomorrow's successful creators won't necessarily be those with the most likes, but those who build genuine connections with their audience and create content that resonates enough to be shared privately. For brands looking to connect with younger audiences, this requires new strategies. This isn't to say that public engagement metrics have become irrelevant – they’re still important indicators of content performance. The old models are still there. They're just not the only ones. The most successful brands are going to be those that understand this nuance and adapt their strategies. It’s going to require an understanding of how content actually travels through networks and communities.

It also means that measuring impact and sentiment is becoming more valuable than ever. We're seeing this in how younger audiences engage with brands. The metrics we’re looking for are buried deeper and they’re harder to process at a glance, but they’re also extremely valuable. Measuring and interpreting them is going to involve better processes than just scraping data from the top level — and that’s going to require both AI assistance and human expertise more than ever. It’s something we’re working on with BRIANN, the audience intelligence tool we’ve been developing for our partners in Pharma. The challenge, and the opportunity, for marketers is in developing new frameworks for understanding and measuring success.

For marketers, who've spent years optimising for visibility metrics, this shift is going to require both patience and adaptability. We’re going to need to be fast on our feet. We’re going to need to get our hands dirty. Flexibility and nuance are vital. It’s also very much worth the effort: we’re emerging into a new era, one where brands can build more meaningful, lasting relationships with audiences who increasingly value authenticity over popularity. This is an incredibly exciting time in our industry, in which new social languages are being formed, and where the potential to use social tools to reach customers and clients is greater than it ever has been. There’s one truth that remains constant, though, and it’s something we’ve always felt in our bones: listening to your audience has never been more important.

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Category: AUTHENTICITY AND CONNECTION OVER VANITY

Beyond likes: why vanity numbers no longer tell the full story