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Why is measuring social media so difficult despite all the tools available today?

MeasurementAnalytics

Drawn from Lutz Finger's Forbes column, LinkedIn writing, and Cornell teaching. Sources are cited inline so you can read the originals.

Tools are everywhere, but strategy comes first, not scores.

The problem is that measurement used to require specialists with big databases and tooling. Now with social media, you suddenly have all these tools that give you cloud scores and metrics instantly. People see a score and decide something based on it without planning what they actually want to achieve. If you haven’t formulated your business goal first, any measurement won’t work. People start with the measurement and then think about what to do with it, while the correct way is the opposite: start with a question, then come up with a measure.

Measuring Social Media What Marketers Need To Know · Social Media Examiner


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