Strong Opinions @marksbirch

“Small Firms Say LinkedIn Works, Twitter Doesn’t” via The Wall Street Journal

While I am sure LinkedIn is working for folks, this graph and the accompanying article miss the point.  What should be of more interest to small businesses is what are the measurable objectives of using social media and how to achieve those objectives.

First, the usefulness of any social media tool is a function of the goals of the social media effort, the nature of the business, and the strengths of the tool.  After all, a professional services firm selling to businesses is going to have much different needs and audience than a Korean taco food truck business.

Second, any social media effort should clearly result in measurable  impact to the business.  Page views and likes and retweets are not results, they are merely inputs to tracking more pertinent metrics such as revenue, customer acquisition and retention.