By Editor Morten B. Reitoft 

A couple of days ago, I watched an episode of "The End of Day with Ray," and he ended his video talking about his spread and popularity based on analytics from LinkedIn. The numbers were quite impressive; I was still surprised as Ray Stasieczko "only" has 1,350 subscribers on YouTube but impressively more than 30,000 contacts on LinkedIn. The combination of daily content and the above numbers gives him, in 365 days, 1.7 million impressions.

I never really looked into my numbers, but it got me curious, as we are often asked about numbers for INKISH, which we never share. I will revert to this in a moment! I had to check, and just for comparison, my numbers are WAY less impressive than Ray Stasieczko's, with about 1,120 YouTube subscribers (which we NEVER market or encourage) and 5,800 LinkedIn contacts. However, the impressions of my posts are still more than 1.3 million in a 365 days view.

Yet another reason why we don't provide numbers is that we consider ourselves a global player. So let me share a 'secret' with you. Most companies have tight connections to their community, so when we post something from a Swiss company, there are more Swiss people than when we post an American film - despite both being in English. We get considerably fewer viewers from outside the DACH region when we produce films in German. When we make films about PSPs, we get more views from people I believe live close to the PSP, so numbers are funny - because what do they show?

Before discussing the numbers and what they show, I want to share something disturbing. When you post something on the Internet - a film, an advert, a message, whatever, you expect it to reach your audience. Platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube deliver much value to their users, but it also opens up some quite dodgy business.

There are several companies out there, but here is an example: The company Views.biz offer you clicks, subscriptions, and even comments on various platforms from YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and more. You simply order how many likes and clicks you want, swipe your credit card, and voila. Minutes after your film, channel, or whatever has now added the number you paid for. It's SO easy cheating on almost every channel that you have to stop believing the data you see.

They don't even pretend to be 'real.' I purchased 1,000 likes on YouTube for about $30. Seconds after, I had more than 1,000 likes on a film only viewed by about 300 people!

I am not implying that established media use tricks like this, but you can ask yourself a simple question. Are clicks vital if you have delivered the right content? I believe content is king and, therefore, must be produced as good as possible within the available budgets.

So my point about numbers is simple. No single channel or communication will convert into sales in a B-to-B market. Several vendors have told INKISH that, today, PSPs are way better prepared when they start talking to vendors. They prepare themselves with relevant content on the net, networking with colleagues in the industry, and maybe even asking independent consultants for advice before buying. Therefore the key to sales is not the short-term views, clicks, and likes but the availability of films asking the right questions, in great technical quality, and asking people that can bring their relevance and point of view to similar-minded businesses.

This is, of course, just my opinion, but when I judge websites, films, and companies in general, I dare to trust my opinion about what I see. Maybe you should trust your judgment and look at the films you see, the websites, the newsletters, etc., and then judge whether they support your brand or product and whether you would like to be associated with them. I for sure can point at a few media I wouldn't like to be associated with, simply because of bad websites and questionable journalistic integrity - but hey, that's just me :-)