The Value of Social Media ROI

In reading our articles for this week's blog post, I found it hard to understand the debate on social media ROI. There is nothing about it that went over my head and the analysis of social media data seems to be an integral part of measuring Internet success. But that's just it: where does the debate lie?

The use of analytics tools in today's virtual world is indispensable. In order to successfully measure one's success on the Internet, it is important to see who is going to your site, what types of conversations are circulating about your site and how many of those conversations actually exist. A large part of the Internet is simply the fact that it functions as a bunch of interconnected cloud conversations. There is a discussion for any topic you can think of and those discussions are generated by consumers.

If a company wants to study the success of their specific brand or product, one of the best ways to measure that success is through the subject's digital footprints. Collecting data on these conversations, whether through clicks, pageviews or other social media metrics, gives the added bonus of dynamic, double-pronged information. Internet discussion is, timewise, close to immediate. You can quickly receive the information and measure its success as the discussions progress or regress. In the end, there really is no debate: social media data is essential to understanding the way modern consumers evaluate a product.

Articles for this week's post:
http://mashable.com/2008/07/31/measuring-social-media-roi-for-business/
http://www.visinsights.com/gauging-the-value-of-social-media-data/294/

Future Trends in Social Marketing

As Freddie Laker predicts in his blog entry concerning the top new trends in social media that by 2012 the term "social media" will be replaced by "digital media" due to its commonplace nature in the business world. As businesses scramble to figure out the implications of the vast social networking and marketing tools available to them, the fact remains that we are in a period of transition.

Pretty soon the veil will drop from before our eyes and we will be able to integrate effective marketing and lucrative business strategies seamlessly into our everyday world. Two aspects of Laker's prediction, also reiterated by Debra Aho Williamson in her blog, are that there will be a significant increase in social marketing as a means of understanding and reaching out to customers/clients while at the same time leaving behind the focus on "nowness" for the "semantic web."

In terms of the first prediction concerning influencer marketing, I feel that this method of reaching out to people through social networking tools is completely revolutionary. The idea that your social network will define the type of content you search for has both its positives and negatives.

Positively, your search options will be more closely tailored to what is relevant to you and those within your network, including friends, families and colleagues. Say goodbye to Google Reader and hello to Google's Social Search and Wave tools. Information tailored to your needs and interests will become standard, and in many regards, very useful.

However, it is important to still have the option to reach out to content outside of your network because, as connected as we may become, it is still important not to isolate oneself to just the things you think are relevant to you. One of the beauties of the Internet is the ability to stumble upon content outside of your element, especially useful in creating balanced, informed decisions about those that lie on the other side of the spectrum.

Evolving Search Engine Optimization

Online marketing is a critical component to expanding brand recognition for marketers and businesses and the best way to make sure that one's process for disseminating a brand name is through search engine optimization (SEO). It seems that up until this semester I have been hidden under a rock because in at least three or four of my classes we have discussed the potential benefits for using SEO tactics to attract viewership and loyalty to a product online.

The new resume in the field of journalism is the blog. While some may think that all you need to do is create a blog and people will magically read it, the idea is ignorant and uninformed. While I was unaware of the actual term "SEO," the basic tenets of the concept are well known to most Internet users and very clearly explained in a video produced by RT Design group. Provide effective keywords. Link, link and link again until your reader develops carpel tunnel (Ok, that may be a little much, but you get the idea).

However, the whole idea of the importance of linking and page clicks/views is currently being turned on its head by Microsoft's search engine Bing. An article on MediaPost.com argues that Bing is changing the face of web analytics by bringing "more content to the people in search queries, rather than pull searchers to the Web site that house text and videos." An important feature of Bing is the "rollover" view. On many video sites that I have visited, the ones that stick out most in my mind allow me to preview the content before actually clicking on it. In my mind, this is the best way for an Internet user to interact with web content. We want more and more for less effort.

I updated to a computer with Windows 7 this past December and the adjustment has been quick, painless and completely for the better. Leaving behind the old "tab" format and creating one that lets you preview the page/program you are about to open is an extremely useful tool. No longer do you have to click over and over again. With a leisurely glide of the mouse pointer, all the content is available at your fingertips. Although this poses problems for current analytics tools, it is a must for adapting to the new technological environment. Of course this reshapes the way we view SEO, but change, no matter how begrudgingly you accept it, is usually a good thing.