Why social media platforms are a lot like print ads

26 August 2010  |   Reading a couple of articles this week about how social media platforms fail to deliver comprehensive analytics, it struck us that social media and print ads offer quite similar challenges to marketers in terms of measuring ROI. Think about it: neither are very good at providing the marketer with statistics - or direct conversions. They're both great for brand building and awareness though and that's why there will probably always be a demand for both media.

Online, we've come to have high expectations of measurement - from what should and must be measured, to how you can use that data to monitor the ROI on your online marketing campaigns, to analysing it to fine-tune and enhance your communications. It's interesting that while social media is hugely popular with marketers (and is definitely here to stay), its shortcomings are generally brushed under the carpet. Social media platforms simply can't deliver the kinds of detailed customer data that you can capture on your own brand's website. And while they raise awareness and engage customers, conversions don't take place there - they simply drive customers to (trusted) brand sites on which sales take place. Sales are what keep a company in business - not volumes of fans, retweets and likes.

Social media has the edge over print in that you can see how many fans and followers you have (compared with eyeballs seeing a print ad) - and you can gauge customer sentiment. But as with print, you can't easily obtain customer contact and profile data on social media sites. So it's important to get customers to your website as soon as possible, where your detailed analytics will kick in.

Your social media presence and website - and print ads - each have very different roles - make sure these are clear and very closely connected.