Social media is being widely used in various ways. Businesses are jumping in with both feet before they test the depths of the water. There's a huge anxiety around being involved in social media. Unfortunately, very few are or understand how to measure the benefits of social media. A recent survey from MarketingProfs showed 47% were very interested in measuring their social media and 32% were somewhat interested in measuring their social media efforts.
The same study also showed that only 21% feel they are
currently measuring their social media effectively. The top three reasons for those that feel they are not measuring it affectively are 30% lack of resources, 25% don't know what to measure and 20% said that social media measurement isn't about ROI.
By far the highest use of social media right now is in the area of brand monitoring. When asked why they monitored social media the top three answers were brand-reputation management, prospecting and identifying brand advocates.
Seventy eight percent of the respondents said that they plan on increasing their social media budget within the next 6 months. No one said they were going to reduce their social media budget.
Social media cannot be measured and compared to advertising. It's not an apples to apples comparison. Social media is different than all other forms of marketing and should have it's own measurements that pertain to the profitability of the effort involved. However, it's not just about eyeballs. A huge part of the value has to do with research and brand integrity.
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