Deciding whether to stay

This module exists because for most organisations X is now a genuine question rather than an assumption, and the decision usually gets made on feeling. Here is how to make it on evidence.

Ask what it is producing

Not impressions. Referral sessions, enquiries, support deflection, or hires. Pull the last twelve months and compare to the twelve before. Include self-reported attribution — people who said they found you there.

If the answer is "nothing measurable and nothing anecdotal", the decision is easy.

Ask what it costs

Include the honest number: hours spent, tools, paid subscription, ad spend, and the attention of whoever runs it. The opportunity cost is the real figure — that person could be running the channel that is working.

Ask whether the audience is active

Search your category and look at the last month. Are the people you need posting and replying, or are the accounts dormant? Dormant accounts inflate follower counts and produce nothing.

Ask about brand safety honestly

Your ad or post appears next to whatever the feed serves. Some organisations cannot accept that risk; some can. This is a legitimate business input, not a political one, and it should be stated plainly rather than left implicit.

Then choose one of three

• Invest. The audience is there and it produces. Pay for verification, post daily, reply more than you post.
• Maintain. Keep the account, respond to mentions and support, publish little. Cheap, keeps the name, no illusions.
• Leave. Post a redirect to where you now are, keep the handle so nobody else takes it, stop.

Maintain is the honest answer for most brands, and it is the one nobody writes a case study about.

Beware sunk cost in both directions

"We built this audience over ten years" is not a reason to keep spending on it if it no longer works. Equally, "everyone says X is dead" is not evidence about your audience.

What trips people up

• Deciding on sentiment, then finding numbers to support it.
• Half-leaving — an abandoned account that still carries your name.
• Counting followers as the asset.

You have got this when

You have made an explicit decision, written down the reason, and set a date to revisit it.