For the last 15 years, we've been using social data wrong. We think that because social marketing programs create lots of social data that these two things — social programs and social data — should fit together. But they don't.
Social data doesn't prove social success. And yet most marketers use engagement as their top social metric.
Social data does offer vital business insights. But few marketers understand how social data relates to customers' preferences.
This is the social data disconnect. Most companies try to use social data for something it can't do: proving marketing success. And when they try to use social data for something it can do — providing insights — they very often fail.
My new Marketing Land column tackles the social data disconnect and describes four ways you can fix this problem. I hope you'll give it a read.