Evaluating Social Media

I was shocked after reading Share This. In Chapter 19, the book gave a detailed list of the types of things that companies evaluate in an article. I was blown away. Half of the list, I would have never have thought of! I always thought that evaluating parts of a campaign was common sense. You could use surveys or read review, but the book gave a much more in-depth look into evaluation. Of course you want to evaluate the tone of the article, number of brand mentions and if the article is positive or negative, but the book takes it so much deeper. They analyze the articles size, date, journalist, position in the paper, if it includes a photo, type of publication or media and whether a spokesperson were included. It makes a lot of sense. All of the parts to an article help you interpret the message the media is sending out. It helps you figure out who read the article and how important it was at the current time. Share This definitely changed the way I thought about evaluation. My professors have alway emphasized the importance to evaluate your campaigns, but it is hard to figure out how to evaluate such a complex forum. With social media, you can measure likes, retweets or views. But how do you measure the success of a post? How do you know that your message reaches your intended audience? In todays age, people can respond to posts in real-time. Organizations have to be prepared to evaluate right away. It created a whole new timeline for campaigns, especially ones that include social media tactics. With the Bateman Competition coming up, this chapter really helped me. Evaluating social media has always confused me, but the chapter gave me specific steps to follow to help me in future campaigns.