Screw The Stats

​The more I learn about social media stats, the more I think you should not pay attention to them. Yes, I get excited when a post gets a lot of likes, comments, and shares. I'm sure there is a dopamine connection there. But when you make big numbers the primary goal (or tragically the only goal), you become a slave to that platform's algorithm and your post quality takes a nose dive.

Yes, a great post can get great stats. But a great post can also get poor stats. A great post that really resonates with someone and convinces him or her to spend money on you sometimes gets amazingly weak stats. And sometimes a post that gets great numbers does nothing for you. 

If you want to post something silly, that's fine. But do it because it reflects who you are or what your business is about. Don't do it to make some algorithm happy. 

I know bands comprised of interesting, intelligent people. But they post dumb stuff that has nothing to do with their music or who they are because the dumb stuff gets bigger numbers. 

However, if I told them to stop writing their own music and just cover Taylor Swift songs, they would be offended. And yet, if they just care about big numbers, they should just do Taylor Swift songs.