Scroll Top
19th Ave New York, NY 95822, USA

Are Social Media Rankings Pointless?

In a recent article posted on Gigaom.com, author Jeff John Roberts asks the question: are social media rankings pointless?

At Points Group, we are certainly concerned with rankings, at least as far as with the businesses we serve. However, when dealing with companies, like Unmetric, whose sole purpose for existence is gathering statistics on social media and publishing rankings for every category imaginable, the answer to Roberts original question has to be a resounding “It depends.”

It depends on what the category is and whether or not it is financially relevant. Roberts uses the example of NFL social media rankings by team, published by Unmetric. While this chart may seem utterly pointless at first glance, when you think about the financial ramifications, this chart becomes fairly important. The number of Facebook and Twitter followers of each NFL team is no doubt a reflection on the size of their fan base, and since NFL teams are businesses, the size of their fan base is integral to their bottom line.

The article goes on further to mention how a site called PeekYou has ranked Supreme Court justices based on their web presence. While it makes for an interesting read, there is no denying that this ranking is pointless. Not only is there no financial aspect in this ranking, but also Supreme Court justices are appointed for life and thus are never affected by their popularity.

Roberts wraps up the article by asking if social media rankings will continue to grow or are they simply a passing fad. Social media rankings are too important from a marketing standpoint to fall by the wayside. Knowing how your company stacks up against the competition helps to define how you approach your marketing strategy going forward. And in an Internet climate that is always so hungry for new content, even the “pointless” rankings have some value.