User blog comment:Jamie/Social Media – What’s the Point?/@comment-4519283-20131010004741/@comment-166-20131017161343

That's a good point. A 'like' isn't always a 'quality like'. Rightly or wrongly, we measure the success of our social engagement by total reach and engagement, but one can measure the quality of the audience by the frenquency and type of engagement.

For instance, when I post a cool picture of Spider-Man with a reach of 10,000 people, if it gets 100 shares and 500 likes I would consider that an engaged audience. If that same picture only got 20 likes and no shares, I can determine either the audience is not my target demographic or the content was not as cool as I thought it was.

I would hope it goes without saying, but buying an audience is all about targeting the correct demographic.