“Things I’ve Learned from Lately” is a regular compilation of articles that have made me a smarter social media marketer. Hopefully, they’ll help you, too.

Engagement as a Metric – John Koetsier writes in VentureBeat that there’s one metric that takes all social KPIs (fan growth, fan interactions, etc.) into account—engagement. Engagement allows you to see that your post or tweet did something in terms of changing behavior by taking an action.

Key Takeaway: Engagement is one interpretation of social KPIs. The issue is that engagement differs across platforms, and some platforms deliver better “engagement” than others that are better equipped to deliver other measures of success. There isn’t ‘one metric to rule them all.’ Metrics should be tied to business objectives, so I take issue with the article in that respect. Although, it brings up some excellent points worth considering as a business evaluates its objectives.

Using YouTube to Deliver Value – Andy Sernovitz of SmartBlog uses NVIDIA as an example of a brand using YouTube to effectively launch new products by making content easy to share, keeping it simple and preparing/planning early on.

Key Takeaway: Video content can be challenging for marketers, but if you keep your audience in mind, you can deliver the right video in a way that matters to them. A video doesn’t have to be viral to be successful. If it delivers information that’s both useful and relevant to the audience, it will do its job.

One of my favorite examples of this is Lowes. As a new homeowner, I’m constantly turning to their YouTube channel for tutorials on how to get a job done. They didn’t set out to create viral videos. They set out to deliver value to their audience by being a trusted resource for home improvement.

Experience Trumps All – Geoff Livingston cuts through the clutter and buzzwords that often fill our work every day to make the point that no matter what you do or what you communicate, the experience with the product will make or break your other efforts.

Key Takeaway: A brand isn’t shaped by what it says it is. It’s shaped by a combination of how it communicates, how customers discuss them and the brand’s actions. Start with getting what you’re selling right. Then decide how you’re going to sell it.

Social Network Users Aren’t Satisfied – CNET discusses about a new report from ForeSee evaluating user satisfaction of top social media platforms, including Google+, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and others. Google+ users are most satisfied overall, while Facebook users are least satisfied. But one of the shocking revelations is that social media companies are consistently among the lowest-rated companies beating only airlines, television services and newspapers.

Key Takeaway: Facebook users are fed up and not happy with what they’re getting. Everything from privacy concerns to ads are making users question what they get from Facebook. Still, it’s the network you love to hate… or hate to love. People keep on coming back. They’ve invested a lot of time and capital into developing their networks. Only time will tell if that investment is worth it, and platforms like Google+ are hoping they decide it isn’t.

Worthless Facebook Fans – Kelly Rynard discusses a statement made at the AllFacebook Conference that suggested brands asking their fans to unlike their Pages. Some brands have grown fan bases only there for the prize or the giveaway, not people truly interested in the brand. Sometimes it’s good to ‘cut the fat.’

Key Takeway:. Have you been going after the number or the people? The number might look good, but if it doesn’t represent the right people, it’s worthless.

Marketers that create a brand presence on social media platforms lack one very important thing in the beginning: an audience, and that is what marketers and their bosses constantly hunger for. From Facebook fans to YouTube subscribers to Twitter followers and so on, marketers want more of them and often they have no idea why. They just want them.

An audience is one thing, but it’s another thing to define what kind of audience will best serve business objectives. Do you want a following or do you want a community?

We want a following.

A following is essentially a body of people that has subscribed to your brand's content by clicking 'like,' follow, subscribe and so on. This group has seen something from the brand that they'd like to see more of in one way or another in their social streams, but beyond that, they may not want more.

Marketers are often after a following. They don't care who it is or why. They just want to see the number go up. That number, for better or worse, is one way that marketers can easily point to in company meetings or hold up to a competitor's number and say, "See. We're doing it."

But the number is only cosmetic. A following is great, and it's important for a brand to build an audience in the social space, but efforts can't stop there. Any brand can get a following and for much less time and energy just by buying a traditional ad and getting its content in front of millions of people. Social media isn't made for just building followings. It's made to take them a step further.

We really want a community.

A community is a group of people living together and practicing common ownership. Now, that's powerful. A community is a following that's evolved to a more invested and more valuable long-term group of consumers invested in a brand. They want to spread the word and help the brand succeed by sharing their personal thoughts and opinions.

A following is about quantity and growing the numbers, but the number means nothing if the following isn't invested. They can hide posts from their News Feeds and ignore tweets. A community is on the lookout for more content.

While a following can be bought, a community must be earned by proving value over the long-term to those who have chosen to follow.

Building a following is a short-term objective, but marketers shouldn't be short-sighted. The true value that social media can deliver like nothing else is the ability to build a community. Don't get caught up in the numbers associated with building a following. Gauge the quality of that following and the potential for it to turn into a community of invested advocates eager to spread online word of mouth related to the brand.