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Ever feel like you’re in a popularity contest and everyone else is ahead? Sometimes social media can feel that way, especially when you’re just starting up your brand. There’s an ever-present temptation to build, build, BUILD upon those numbers so you can brag at conferences how many likes, followers, and fans you have.

But beware. Resist the temptation. (**waggles fingers at your eyes.**)

There may be a benefit to having bragging rights when it comes to your popularity, but remember that what you’re going for in social media is ENGAGEMENT.

Yes, your reach (the number of people who see your content) is important. And the more people you can reach, the better, right?

Not necessarily.

As an author, you are, in effect, a small business. You’re a brand. Which means you’re in social media to market your brand. (Yes, you’re there to have fun and learn, too. But let’s talk about selling something–in this case books.) In marketing, you need to reach the right people at the right time with the right message. Sounds easy, right? (Hint: it’s not.)

In order to reach the right people, however, you have to know who they are. Are they the 5,000 followers or fans you purchased online from a click farm…or are they the 500 followers you’ve built up by engaging and interacting online yourself?

I’m guessing you don’t need me to answer that.

Quality vs. Quantity

Last year an interesting study compared Tiffany and Wal-Mart’s social media activities to see which giant was more successful.

In the first half of 2013, Tiffany & Co. garnered the highest engagement ranking of any retailer–defined as fan actions per post–by focusing on relatively few but aspirational, high-quality, image-driven content. In contrast, Wal-Mart published more posts than any other retailer but generated far less engagement per post.

Overall, Tiffany & Co. had 5.3 million fan actions in the first half of 2013 and Wal-Mart had 11.8 million. However, Wal-Mart published nearly six times the number of posts in that time period.

Wouldn’t you rather get more bang for your buck? Me, too.

So know where to find your audience. Are you looking for older women? Pinterest is your best bet. Are you looking for men outside the U.S.? Then Google+ is where you should be.

Also know when to put your message out. Posts between 11 AM and 2 PM have been found as the best time, with Thursdays and Fridays the best days.

Work smarter, not harder.

Thwart the Spammers

When I get a suspicious friend request on Facebook, I always go to that person’s profile to determine if it’s a spammer or if it’s a real person. (How can I tell? The person has only a few friends or we have only a few friends in common. If the profile picture is a man and the gender claims to be female. If they’ve joined Facebook in the last week. These are a few red flags.) 99 times out of 100, it’s a fake FB account. And what is astounding is that I see the number of my connections who have blindly accepted this friend request.

Look, we all want to be NICE. I like having friends. I’m not saying don’t friend me on Facebook. But if you’re a spammer…yeah, don’t friend me on Facebook.

So check your friend requests. Beware of spammers. Be choosy. You don’t need more friends, more followers, more fans.

Facebook Down Plays the Likes

Even Facebook is down playing the number of likes a page has. Check out where the likes are in the old fan page design:

Now see the new design:

Hard to find it, isn’t it? The likes are on the far left hand side of the page, under the photos. Likes, fans, and number of followers are not the end result. The end result is to find people who care about what you’re doing/saying and to build relationships.

How to Gauge Your Social Media Success

• Are you getting out what you put in?
  If you aren’t bothering to spend time on social media, then don’t be surprised not to get anything out of it. Yes, Lady Gaga has tons of followers, but even she posts obsessively on Instagram.

• The stats
  You can use Google Analytics, Klout, Wildfire’s Social Media Monitor, and even HootSuite to keep track of your analytics. It can help you determine which messages are working and which are not. Facebook Insights will tell you all sorts of interesting info on your fans, too.

• Are users engaging with you?
  Do you get retweets? Reposts? Repins? If you do, then chances are you’re successful.

• Do you enjoy it?
  If the answer is no, then find a social media platform you enjoy and stick with it. There are many to choose from and you may find Instagram or Pinterest more interesting than Twitter or Tumblr.

So whether you have 5 or 5,000 fans, have fun on social media and remember: it’s not just a numbers game.

Joanna Shupe can mostly be found on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest. Unless you’re a spammer.