The numbers that actually predict enquiries, and the ones agencies report to look busy.
Follower count is reported because it always goes up. That is precisely what makes it useless for judging whether social media is producing anything.
The numbers that predict enquiries
Saves and shares indicate content worth keeping or passing on. Profile visits and link clicks indicate intent to find out more. Direct messages and comments asking about price or availability are the closest thing to a lead. These are the numbers to put on a monthly report.
Why reach flatters
Reach and impressions are heavily influenced by whether the platform decided to test your post, which is not something you controlled. Engagement rate on reach is more honest than raw reach, and it makes a small account with an interested audience look correctly better than a large indifferent one.
Follow the path, not the platform
Tag your profile links so you can see social traffic landing on the site and what it does next. If a thousand followers produce four site visits a month, the content is entertaining people who will never buy, and that is a strategy decision rather than a reporting one.
Agree the three metrics that matter before the next reporting cycle, and let the follower number sit at the bottom of the page where it belongs.
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