At last, a simpler way to measure social media impact

The new toolset aggregates all relevant activity from social networks and online communities into a single application and identifies how that activity affects brand perception and business indicators such as revenue. It also allows marketers to track how other online channels - such as display advertising, search, mobile and email - drive social engagements.

Says Richard Mullins, director at Acceleration, Adobe Omniture's first Professional Services Partner to achieve Platinum Status: "One of the major challenges marketers face as they roll out their social media strategies is showing return on investment in terms of quantifiable business metrics. Marketers also battle to link social media engagements and understanding to their other online channels."

Current solutions are not able to answer important questions about social media's impact on business performance in a multichannel environment.

"To date, marketers have analysed social media data and it's relation to the business and other online media, through unreliable, manual processes that deliver little in the way of real insight because they have to draw the data from multiple systems," says Mullins.

Adobe SocialAnalytics addresses these challenges by integrating social media analytics, measurement, and monitoring with multichannel analytics. It allows marketers to monitor and measure social conversations across multiple platforms, including Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, blogs, and forums to see their valuable social data in context with all of their online initiatives.

Adobe SocialAnalytics provides answers to burning questions such as:

• How does display advertising or email marketing drive social media engagement?
• How do engagements such as Facebook "Likes" and Twitter followers drive action such as orders and revenue?
• Who are the social influencers for the business?
• What impact does negative or positive social sentiment have on Web traffic?

"These insights can help marketers shape social media strategies around the business outcomes they are looking for," says Mullins. "They can adapt their marketing strategies and messaging to optimise interactions with their customers."

Marketers will also be able to break social media out of its silo and make it part of an integrated online strategy that encompasses email, websites, mobile devices, and display ads.

Concludes Mullins: "This removes the guesswork from social media engagement and replaces it with strategies based on accurate data and insight. As such, Adobe SocialAnalytics can be used to drive better return on investment from social channels."