The true business value of social media likes, retweets and favorites is questionable, at best, and 2015 could be the year that marketers shift their focus to more tangible business goals and organizational objectives. A focus on social media engagement metrics — the likes, re-tweets, favorites, re-blogs, pins, comments, shares, followers, fans and friends — could be holding companies back from realizing social’s full potential. In fact, Forrester Vice President and Principal Analyst Nate Elliott warns clients against measuring social engagement. [Related Magazine Feature: How Social Media Can Influence High-Stakes Business Decisions] From a Forrester research note written by Elliott: “Marketers tell us measurement is their single biggest social challenge. And I know that tracking engagement feels like an easy option. But the simple fact is, engagement is not a useful social marketing success metric … We’ve spoken with scores of social vendors who measure engagement, and none has proven if — or how strongly — engagement correlates to business success metrics like loyalty or sales.” Social media metrics and the associated analysis by marketers has “failed to live up to its promise as a panacea for customer-centricity,” according to a recent report from customer intelligence platform Vision Critical, based on research compiled from three global brands. “It turns out that the people who participate and post on social media are not representative of your customers.” [Related News Analysis: Twitter Flips Ad Model to Rival Facebook’s Structure] From the Vision Critical report: “Almost 85 percent of what you hear on social comes from slightly less than 30 percent of the social media audience — a slice that has distinctly different shopping, media and social media habits. That means that social media analytics can’t tell you what you need to know about your customers.” One reason why today’s marketers are so reliant on social analytics is the abundance of measurement tools. Twitter, Facebook and other social platforms make it easy for businesses to track the people who follow them and what they say about the brands. [Related News Analysis: How Facebook Plans to Control Digital Advertising] Conclusions based on this data are meaningless, though, if they can’t be linked to actual sales or other business objectives. Facebook and Twitter both recently reorganized their ad platforms and products to focus on these goals, but many marketers are still lost in the tangle of numbers and engagement. Savvy companies could start to put significantly less focus on social engagement in 2015 and redistribute their efforts toward achieving demonstrable mission-critical sales goals and other objectives. Related content brandpost Sponsored by AWS in collaboration with IBM How digital twin technology is changing complex industrial processes forever As the use cases for digital twins proliferate, it is becoming clear that data-driven enterprises with a track record of innovation stand the best chance of success. By Laura McEwan Dec 05, 2023 4 mins Digital Transformation brandpost Sponsored by AWS in collaboration with IBM Why modernising applications needs to be a ‘must’ for businesses seeking growth Around one-third of enterprises are spending heavily on application modernisation and aiming for cloud native status. The implications for corporate culture, structure and priorities will be profound. By Laura McEwan Dec 05, 2023 5 mins Digital Transformation opinion 11 ways to reduce your IT costs now Reorienting IT’s budget toward future opportunities is a big reason why CIOs should review their IT portfolios with an eye toward curbing unnecessary spending and realizing maximum value from every IT investment. By Stephanie Overby Dec 05, 2023 11 mins Budget Cloud Management IT Governance news analysis SAP faces breakdown in trust over innovation plans The company’s plan to offer future innovations in S/4HANA only to subscribers of its Rise with SAP offering is alienating customers, user conference hears. By Peter Sayer Dec 05, 2023 6 mins SAP Cloud Management Innovation Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe