Social Media Metrics

Revisiting influence from social media has played an important role for organizations in this web 2.0 world. It is critical for any organization to collect data including traffic, views, and referring sources so as to conduct quantitative analysis for its strategies in marketing and communication. David Stout (2009) states that it is not always easy to measure the impact and value of social media. Yet powerful tools such as Tweetreach, Klout, and Google Analytics. They are able to produce tangible data such as exposure, engagement, influence, and action.

Exposure reveals how many people have accessed the information posted online; engagement measures how many people interact with the information; Influence indicates how social media has impact on the people—positive, negative or neutral; and Action, the most important indicator, shows the conversion of viewers to real consumers, which are the origin of profit.

However, how to translate cold data to practical decisions and then profits requires specific knowledge in the field or even acute business intuition. Meanwhile, it shall be attractive to measure individuals’ personal social media such as twitter, facebook, and Myspace, and then figure out methods to transplant business information into the top trending accounts in an implicit way so that the advertising effect would be maximized at minimal cost. It also leaves space for the development of consultant companies which specialize in offering customized advice and interpretation service according to the data collected from social media metrics tools.

In conclusion, powerful social media metrics tools are of great use and value in the web 2.0 world, yet its interpretation and strategy-making require professional skills in specific field.