COMM 597: Social Media Evaluation

COMM 597: Social Media Evaluation: Module 1 - Instructor Blog Post There’s much wisdom in this saying, which has been attributed to both W. Edwards Deming and Peter Drucker...

I initially had a difficult time applying the readings to

myself as I currently do not use any social media platforms in my employment position,
as the Albert Government (Human Services) has not been an early adopter of
these platforms. Kane, Palmer, Phillips and Kiron (2014) discuss the ideal of social
business maturity in 3 stages:  early,
developing, and maturing. The area, in which I work, falls under the early
stage because social media is only used to market services and no measurements
of possible data occur (p.84).

As a Career & Employment Consultant, social media can be
used to increase social business maturity in many ways. Facebook and LinkedIn
can be used to advertise job openings. Twitter can be used to provide job
seekers with information on how to find employment. Two way conversations can
occur on any of the platforms. These opportunities focus on the external
business (developing stage of social business maturity) and can be measured
with conversation, amplification and applause rates, as well as, economic value
(Kaushik, n.d.). These measurements can help identify and target the audience
and areas of labour market shortages.

As the measurements become more sophisticated they begin to
help management make decisions about how to operate their business internally, reaching
a maturing social business (Kane et al., 2014). I could measure the number of
audience comments to a post to inform me of what kind of information job
seekers are looking for. I can then providing the most relevant information to
job seekers, which could result in increased clientele and profits. Applause
rates could help us identify which careers are in high demand and allow us to
reach out to organizations with those careers to develop potential paying
customers and increasing profits.

Social media metrics provide us with predictive data, but
don’t always give us a better understanding because not all data is measurable
(Baym, 2013). For example, when we help an individual find employment they may
provide us with message to thank us. It is not something that can be measured/ tracked
through various social media channels, but is impactful information.

References:

Baym, N. (2013). Data not seen: The uses and shortcomings of
social media metrics. First Monday, Vol. 18, No, 10 http://www.firstmonday.org/ojs/index.pjp/fm/article/view/4873/3752

Kane, G.C., Palmer, D., Phillips, N., & Kiron, D. Finding
the values in social business. MIT Sloan Management Review. Spring, 2014, Vol.
55, Issue 3, p.81-89.

Kaushik, A. (n.d.). Best Social Media Metrics: Conversation,

Amplification, Applause, Economic  Value.
http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/best-social-media-metrics-conversation-amplification-applause-economic-value/