The One where we had to Measure Up!

This week in class we looked at the different ways we use to measure the effectiveness of the use of social media by business. This is a very interesting topic as in previous weeks we have looked at how companies use social media, this week we effectively looked at why.

Although social media is relatively cheap in comparison to other forms of marketing it still costs money as such its use needs to be justified and measured in some way. In the lecture we looked at the different methods which companies used to measure their effectiveness. The biggest issue with this is how to measure the effectiveness? A study by Johnson (2011) highlighted that 60% of business's do not believe that they have accurately measured the impact of their social media activities.

In the seminar we looked at the different ways that companies use social media and then looked at the possibility of measuring the impact. We found that in most cases that although we can look at sales increases and customer satisfaction surveys it is difficult to conclude that the social networking activity has been the sole reason for the improvement.

There are however quantitative methods beginning to be utilised by companies such as word and context recognition software which picks out key words like "good" or "happy" and quantifies them and draws conclusions on how effective social media has been used. This however is not a full proof option as people regularly speak sarcastically something which a computer may find difficult to identify.

As the use of social media increases so too will the technology and methods used to measure the effectiveness. At the moment it is generally accepted that social media is effective for companies, this assumption may have to be justified in the near future if we are to see any major improvements.