Struggle to measure return of social media to end this year, brands hope
They understand they need to get involved in social media, but it comes to measuring efficiency, so far brands have had no choice but just to hope for the best.
This could all change this year, according to a study compiled by Bazaarvoice, as 74% of company chief marketing officers hope to be able to pin a number on this murky area this year. This is a significant jump from last year, when 84% of those asked admitted they did not even try and measure the return on social media investment. At best, they would count the number of followers, click-throughs and ‘likes’.
Facebook remains the marketing platform of choice for most brands, with 15.4% of respondents seeing this forum as offering ‘significant’ return on investment. 11.4% believe Twitter is worthwhile, following 6.95 seeing YouTube as having high return value.
Site traffic and order sizes will be closely monitored as marketers try and pin figures to their social media involvement. But while having a Facebook page, or a Twitter team which responds to queries, can be positive for a brand, social media users are very sensitive to anything resembling manipulation. So maybe it’s worth remembering: try not to strangle the golden goose in order to measure it.
