Page 12 - AeM_July_2014

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Facebook "Likes" among

the most common social

content effectiveness

measurements

Based on an April 2014 study conducted by Ipsos OTX Besides that, May 2014 polling by Contently found that
for the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), the these soft social metrics weren’t just common for meas-
overwhelming majority of brands are now measuring uring content on such platforms—they were also
their social media content effectiveness – or at least in among the most popular ways marketers were measur-
the United States. ing content marketing success overall. Nearly two-
thirds of US content marketers said they used social
Social media provides brands with another channel for shares and “likes” to determine success, the second
content sharing, but since it becomes the norm, content most popular metric. Conversions and sales fell at the
marketers are looking to the next step in the process, low end again, cited by 42.1%.
which is measuring the effectiveness of this content.
On the other hand, to take up the headlines of the
week, social media networks know well how to earn
their bread and butter and analyze data as much as
they can. Facebook just released the results of a study
where its data scientists skewed the positive or nega-
tive emotional content that appeared in the news feeds
of nearly 700,000 users over the course of a week in
order to study their reaction. The research caused a
great stir and discussions, but since Facebook’s prima-
ry business is advertising, their recent study is abso-
lutely in line with FB’s interest in order to stay in busi-
ness.

According to the research, 80% of US client-side mar- Considering that the very point of ads is to influence
keters measured the effectiveness of their social con- emotions and behavior, it’s actually a marketer’s duty to
tent, with social media metrics such as “likes”, mean- use data and psychological insights to achieve good
while usage statistics fell to the middle of the list and results. Just consider that the news feed isn’t a product
metrics that could identify business ramifications were that’s somehow “neutral,” but created with a particular
not used nearly as much, with financially based meas- goal in mind as well.
urements such as ROI and sales landing near the bot-
tom. Besides, given the fact that a large amount of content
on Facebook is already highly personal and emotional
In addition, ANA noted that many marketers were still in nature, it seems very hard to argue that Facebook
using soft metrics vs. solid metrics, indicating further did intrude its users’ lives, but let’s talk more about that
room for growth. and the flip side of the story later this month. ◊

12 Asian eMarketing July 2014 - Marketing Analytics By Daniela La Marca