Market Researchers Still Don’t Use Social Data. They Need To Start.

November 14, 2018 Nate Elliott

People create billions of social posts every day — and those posts carry insights. But early social data wasn’t ready to help market research teams. The result: Most market researchers still don’t use social data.

New Column: The disastrous consequences of measuring engagement

November 12, 2018 Nate Elliott

Chart: A Sprout Social survey says 55% of social marketers have trouble measuring ROI, making this their top challenge.

My new Marketing Land column reveals how engagement — still brands’ favorite social metric — holds us back, and how we can solve this problem.

Twitter Focuses Less and Less on Business Results

October 15, 2018 Nate Elliott

Chart: A Nineteen Insights study says in 2016, 26% of Twitter’s marketing case studies featured business metrics; that fell to 22% in 2017 and again to 16% in 2018.

Twitter doesn’t seem to care about helping marketers drive business success.

You Should Promote Your Products More on Social Media

September 18, 2018 Nate Elliott

Chart: A Sprout Social survey says social marketers think audiences want to see posts that teach, tell a story, or inspire; but really audiences want to see sales and new product announcements.

We’ve all heard social gurus say you shouldn’t promote your products in social media. They’re dead wrong. There’s almost nothing consumers would rather see.

'Jersey Shore' and the dark side of influence

July 13, 2018 Nate Elliott

Picture of the cast of MTV reality show The Jersey Shore, for which we apologize.

This week's 'Hidden Brain’ podcast recounts one of my favorite stories: In 2011, Abercrombie and Fitch offered Jersey Shore star 'The Situation' money to not wear its clothes.

Teens are (Actually, Finally) Leaving Facebook

June 4, 2018 Nate Elliott

Chart: A Pew survey says 85% of American teens use YouTube, 72% use Instagram, 69% use Snapchat, and 51% use Facebook.

You may think teens abandoned Facebook years ago, but they didn’t. The bad news for Facebook? Pew says teens are finally walking away.

Still Think Engagement Is A Success Metric? Ask Disney.

April 25, 2018 Nate Elliott

Screenshot of Disney’s Twitter account posting an objectionable Pinocchio meme.

Engagement often reflects failure, not success. For instance, 6 million people saw, and 30,000 retweeted, a Disney post calling Pinocchio “dead inside.”

Social Measurement Secrets for 2018

April 11, 2018 Nate Elliott

Chart: A Nineteen Insights study says that in 2017, 65% of social networks’ marketing case studies feature business metrics like sales, 59% feature digital metrics like traffic, and just 20% feature social metrics like engagement.

Marketers say measuring ROI is by far their biggest social challenge. Worse, they admit they're not getting any better at it. Download our new report to learn how top brands prove the value of social programs.

Social Marketers: Don't Invest Where You Can't Measure

April 3, 2018 Nate Elliott

Chart: The CMO Survey says that in February 2018, just 23% of CMOs could prove the impact of social media quantitatively.

Your boss probably doesn’t think social works. If you spend on social platforms that don’t deliver credible metrics, you can’t prove her wrong.

New Column: Advertisers didn’t leave YouTube, and they won’t leave Facebook

March 28, 2018 Nate Elliott

My new Marketing Land column walks through Facebook's very bad week, talks about how YouTube survived a similar crisis, and explains why the Cambridge Analytica scandal might not cost Facebook a penny.