Fyreside Newsletter - 4/7/25

Hey Reader,

Last week, I talked about how most marketing advice is bullshit. This week, I'm going to dig into that further by discussing "engagement." More importantly, I'm going to give you a definitive answer to the question: "What kind of engagement should I track/measure/care about?"

I won't even bury the lede, it's comments.

What is engagement?

I think most people are familiar with the word "engagement," but if I asked you what constitutes "engagement," would you know the answer? Beyond that, if I asked you to tell me the difference between "engagement" and "impressions," what would you say?

Alright, Merriam-Webster's dictionary defines "engagement" as "something that engages." That's a bad definition, but it's not wrong. In the world of social media, "engagement" is an instance of a user engaging with content beyond just consuming it. That includes commenting, liking, sharing and saving a post or piece of content. Each social outlet has their own flavor of engagement, but anytime a user does more than just view a post or piece of content, that's engagement.

mpressions" are the same as "views." Impressions is just a fancy word marketers made up to feel selm-important.

The value of engagement:

Every few months, someone breaks a headline that goes something like, "Instagram Changes Algorithm! Saves Now Most Important!" Then, a few months after that, a headline will come out saying "Instagram Changes Algorithm! Shares Now Most Important!" You've probably seen this and, as frustrating and confusing as it is, it's not entirely wrong. It is true that social outlets often shift their algorithms to value different types of engagement. This usually coincides with the outlet introducing or promoting a new feature.

But here's the thing: you're not the algorithm. How you value engagement should not shift with the algorithm, because that doesn't affect you. Put a pin in that, I'll come back to it in a minute.

Before I talk about you, I want to explain a concrete hierarchy of engagement value. No matter what the headline tells you about [Insert Social Media App Here], there is a definitive order to the value of engagement and it goes like this:

Saves - This means someone has saved your video and will come back to it later
Shares - This means someone has sent your video to someone else.
Comments - This means someone has added their thoughts to your post
Likes - This means someone clicked a button near your post, maybe by accident

I'm not going to go into depth here about why engagement is valued in this way, but I did in my eBook, so go read that if you want more. What matters is that this is how social media outlets value engagement. You can ignore this, because only one of these should really matter to you.

You need comments:

Comments. They're what you need.

I've used too much bold in this newsletter, but I need it for emphasis. Let me try caps lock: YOU NEED COMMENTS!

You need comments because they communicate more than interest. You can get thousands of likes, shares and saves and still have no idea how people feel about your content, but one comment can tell you what someone likes, dislikes, wants more of, wants less of, etc., etc. That, as a business owner, marketer, brand, or content creator, is what you need.

You need comments because it can direct your future content. I know from my clients (you know who you are) that knowing what to post is often the biggest roadblock. A single comment can solve that problem in a way that likes, shares and saves cannot. Common advice tells you to "identify your highest performing content and replicate it," but how do you do this when all of your content has the same few likes? Spoiler alert: you can't.

So how do I get comments?

Well that, dear reader, is for next week's newsletter.

-MC

p.s.

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