Stop Treating Social Media Like a Billboard: Why Most Agencies Overpromise and Underdeliver

You’ve probably seen the ad: “If we don’t get your content one million views in 30 days, you don’t pay.”

It sounds bold. Risk-free. Maybe even revolutionary. But here’s the catch; they never said organic views. Paid ads can rack up a million scroll-by impressions in days, and none of them have to care who you are. That’s not strategy. That’s spectacle. And it’s the exact problem with how most agencies still treat social media: like a billboard you rent space on, not a community you build.

The Familiar Frustration

At Monarch, we hear it all the time: “We’ve hired social media help before, but it never delivers.”

When we dig into what those services actually included, it’s usually some version of the same thing: a content calendar, a few graphic templates, and a monthly report showing reach and impressions. No engagement plan. No active community management. No system for responding, participating, or listening.

So of course it didn’t deliver. It wasn’t designed to.

Most agencies are still approaching social media like it’s an advertising platform. A place to push messages out, not draw conversations in. They sell deliverables, not outcomes. They promise visibility, not relationships. And they miss the entire point: social media was never built for broadcasting. It was built for conversation.

The Billboard Problem

Billboards talk at people.
Social media talks with them.

That single difference defines whether your brand builds community or burns money.

When your posts only promote, when they exist to announce, sell, or “boost awareness” you’re not using the platform, you’re renting space on it. You’re building visibility without trust, presence without participation.

And that’s what most agencies still sell. A feed that looks full, feels professional, and checks the deliverables box, but doesn’t actually connect with anyone.

If you’re measuring success by how many posts went out instead of what conversations came back, you’re treating social media like a billboard. And billboards can’t talk back.

The Metrics That Mislead

The easiest way to hide a lack of connection is behind a pile of numbers.

Reach. Impressions. Followers.

They look impressive in a report, especially with graphs and percentage increases. But most of those metrics don’t measure what matters, they measure exposure, not impact.

A view might be two seconds long. An impression might be someone scrolling past your post without remembering it. These metrics tell you how many people saw something, not how many people cared.

Here’s the difference:

Vanity Metrics:

• Views

• Impressions

• Reach

• Likes

• Post count

Meaningful Metrics:

• Comment sentiment

• Saves

• Shares

• DM threads

It’s not that awareness is bad; awareness has a place. But awareness without depth is empty.

I once worked with a company that hired a PR agency to promote a major launch. The agency came back with a glossy post-event presentation showing massive view counts and “estimated reach and impressions.” On paper, it looked like a success. In reality, the views were paid and fleeting. The audience didn’t remember the brand a week later. That’s the danger of mistaking exposure for impact.

We see this same story play out every day in social media. When agencies report on vanity metrics, they’re validating a billboard model. They’re selling you numbers that feel good instead of results that mean something.

Comment sentiment matters more to us than total views ever will. Because a view can be empty, but a comment tells a story. It reveals trust, alignment, emotion, and connection.

The Conversation Advantage

Conversation is the new conversion.

Comments, DMs, and organic community moments are the modern version of word-of-mouth. They build familiarity, confidence, and loyalty long before a sale ever happens.

Every thoughtful comment, every reply that turns into a discussion, every DM that leads to a new client, that’s the compounding value of doing social media right.

And here’s the hard truth most agencies don’t want to admit: You can’t automate connection.

AI can fill a feed. Templates can make it look pretty. Scheduling tools can make it seem consistent. But none of those things can care. None of them can replace the human act of listening, replying, or building a real relationship with your audience.

That’s why so many founders feel burned by “social media management.” They didn’t hire social media, they hired posting and a content calendar.

Monarch’s Approach: Relationship Infrastructure

At Monarch, we treat social media as relationship infrastructure: the system that keeps your brand human, visible, and trusted long before a sale ever happens.

That means every post, every comment, and every analytic is part of something larger; a living system that builds trust over time.

We don’t sell visibility for its own sake. We sell strategy that connects. We measure what matters:

• How your community speaks about you.

• How your audience interacts behind the scenes (through DMs, shares, and saved posts).

• How your content contributes to credibility and awareness before a sales conversation even begins.

The difference is intentionality. Posting is tactical. Building relationships is strategic.

Our work starts with conversation design, ensuring your content invites response, and ends with active engagement: real humans talking to real people. Because when your community feels heard, your brand earns authority.

This is how social media actually works when done right: it becomes your most consistent touchpoint for credibility and connection.

The Call to Clarity

Stop treating social media like a billboard.

Partner with an agency that actually understands the nuance of social media and does the job in its full context.

Don’t settle for a million views that mean nothing. Build relationships that last.