Bill Neal, a market research guru if there ever was one, offers his insights on the phenomenon of social media, and the pitfalls of measuring it, In a fascinating interview here.
In essence, Neal says we should measure the influence of social media participants, but we should do so with the understanding that they don't represent the input of a broad audience. He says,
I’ve seen too many brand managers observe a focus group or two and then make major changes in their marketing programs based on what they heard in the focus group. Many of those changes are utter failures simply because the focus group was not a reflection of the real world.
You have exactly the same problem with monitoring consumer generated media, except that now you have the equivalent of thousands of focus groups. Does that make the information more valid or reliable? Definitely not!
He concludes:
measures of those phenomena must be both valid and reliable, and most importantly, they must accurately reflect the thoughts and behaviors of well-defined populations.
Wise words for professional services marketers who are considering jumping on the social media bandwagon!
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