After Vanity Metrics Critical Analytics for Social Media Analysis

‘Vanity metrics,’ as they are critically termed (Ries 2009), measure the performative work one carries out on social media. Posting on social media and subsequently displaying and maintaining like, view and follow counts have been critiqued as both distracting modes of engagement as well as performance in a ‘success theater’. Each of these critiques is considered in turn in this chapter. The notion of vanity metrics implies another project, however: how one may consider reworking the metrics. In an undertaking called critical analytics, I propose an alternative metrics project akin to altmetrics in science but rather one designed for measuring actor activity around social issues and causes in social media. These measures for social research seek to highlight other modes of engagement (than distraction or vanity) in social media.
The critical analytics put forward are a means to analyse dominant voice, concern, commitment, positioning, and alignment of actors using social media to work on social issues and causes. In all, critical analytics seek to contribute a conceptual and applied research agenda to orient the study of social media use and activity metrics.