Measurement is one of social media’s key advantages over traditional marketing and advertising.
Prior to social media’s rise as an essential business solution, marketing campaigns were primarily through print, media including TV and radio, and direct mail. The use of flyers, posters, billboards and print editorials were the staple method of promotion, often complemented with radio spots or television ads.
The main problem with these methods is that it was difficult to pinpoint which ones were working and driving foot traffic to a brick and mortar store.
- If a business sent 10,000 flyers out, how could they guarantee their intended recipients saw all 10,000?
- Or if a radio spot played during a certain time of day based on that radio station’s demographics, how could the brand be sure a certain percentage of that audience heard and acted on that ad?
The answer to both questions is simple – they couldn’t. If there was increased foot traffic to a location or more calls to a call center for a company’s information pack, more often than not the source of that referral was virtually impossible to identify.
Social media changed that.
The ability to create extremely targeted campaigns, combined with platforms that measure which networks and content create the most return on investment, has made social media a key part of every smart business owner’s toolset.
This ability to measure business results is easily transferrable to measuring influencer results – the difference is in what, and who, you measure.
