If your company’s online presence is a part of your marketing program, then you’ve likely used a number of indicators to gauge the success of your efforts. These may include Facebook likes, Twitter followers, and email open rate. And while numbers don’t lie, they can certainly be deceiving. So before you post your next tweet, check out these five metrics that you should likely ignore.

1. Facebook likes. Liking a Facebook post involves just a single mouse click. The motivating factor behind that click can be virtually anything. That means there’s no way to know how relevant your Facebook community really is. Add to that the fact that organic reach is now less than 1%, and you might find yourself reaching out to no one.
2. Twitter followers. The number of followers you have says very little about your reach or influence. In fact many of them may not even be real people. Like Facebook, it’s impossible to know what motivates someone to follow you. And unless you’re an avid tweeter, you’ll likely get lost in the feed. And even then, they may place you in a list that rarely gets seen.
3. Email open rates. In theory, the more people that open your emails, the more people that read them. However depending on their email settings, they may read your email without technically opening it or open it without actually reading it. And even if they read it, you won’t know if they have any interest in what you have to say. Unless they choose to opt out.
4. Share stats. It looks impressive to have big numbers on those little social share icons you may have on your blog posts. But there’s two things to keep in mind. First, the number on a share icon only increases if someone clicks on it. That means that if they use a social media browser plugin to share – or just copy the link, the numbers won’t increase regardless. Second, you won’t know who shared, or how strong their networks are. So that blog post that got shared 36 times on Facebook might have been seen by 2 people.
5. YouTube views. Everyone wants a video that goes viral. However if you’re using video as a targeted marketing tool, then it’s not how many that matters, it’s who. Do you really care to be seen by the same person that religiously shares video’s of singing dogs and trick jugglers? Focus on getting your video in front of those who’s attention you most want.

Marc Gordon is a recognized marketing expert, speaker and strategist. His articles appear in over 200 publications worldwide. Visit marcgordon.ca or his online show at marctv.net for more business tips.