Social Media is exactly that for a large number of people. It’s
a way to engage in conversations and exchange content on the internet. For another group of people, in companies both large and small, the use of Social Media to build a brand, generate leads and provide customers with another mechanism to communicate has evolved and become a component
of most marketing plans.
Current statistics show that there are 1.6B internet users globally;
500M active users on FaceBook sending billions of messages each month; over 2B videos are streamed from YouTube every day; and bloggers spend an average of 10 hours per week blogging. Mind boggling when you think about how much time is spent to do all of this! As one of
those statistics, I am an active user of FaceBook, I have a LinkedIn profile and Twitter account, I read and participate in blogs relative to our business and I use the internet as a resource for anything I need or want to know. At home I enjoy connecting with old friends, chatting on
instant messenger or surfing the net for new recipes, vacation spots…I could spend hours reading.
It takes a lot of self-control to limit the time I spend doing these things so that something else doesn’t suffer….like feeding my children! It is the same kind of balance companies must find and maintain in order to derive value from their Social Media strategy. We know we have to do
it. Everyone does. But how? And when? And how do marketing organizations deal with yet another dilemma of proving ROI? This issue focuses on some of those questions around Social Media at work. If you have any suggestions on how to measure the value of Social Media at
your company, please contact me or our Associate Editor, Kayla! We’re all ears!
Sue Varner
Editor | svarner@rwd.com
Kayla Ratz
Associate Editor | kratz@rwd.com
