What does concrete data really say about the quality of a click. How can we measure the quality of concrete data to better understand online users within our communities?
If 500 individuals “like” a post or a page, it is simply 500 individuals who clicked the “like” button. We can assume if the number is high, then the probability of a genuine click is higher. But this does not necessarily provide us with a clear picture of the quality of the clicks and users.
I’m not sure that we can effectively track social media efforts, yet. This might be one of the reasons why companies across the globe are having a difficult time justifying cutting their ad dollars out of traditional media to fuel social media. But, if social media efforts were brought to a halt at a brand that currently utilizes online social channels, there would be a measurable dent in their bottom-line, even thought we can’t track the upfront efforts.
Looking at hard data is a classic quantitative approach. And there’s always validity with numbers. But, how do we measure the quality of the data? Certainly we can make educated interpretations of the data, but this will not give us a true understanding of the quality of our users, followers or community.
I’m a firm believer in numbers and concrete data. Numbers cannot lie. But numbers are representative of quantity, and not of quality.
(A response & dialogue to Mitch Joel’s post on The Almighty Endgame Of Marketing on Six Pixels of Separation)
