The only hope: let’s go back to the origins.
The best thing that happened to social media marketing was the hack of the US election of Donal Trump in 2016 by the Russians. Why? Because it revealed what many in social media marketing have known for a long, long time: that social media platforms are a joke, their ratings are based on imaginary users, and their integrity lies somewhere between Lucifer and that. movie.
For marketing consultants like me, recommending existing social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram has been increasingly difficult because, frankly, many of us don’t trust metrics. And why should we? Facebook no.
This is from Facebook’s 2017 SEC filing (emphasis mine):
The numbers for our key metrics, which include our daily active users (DAU), monthly active users (MAU), and average revenue per user (ARPU), are calculated using internal business data based on the activity of the account. ‘user. While these numbers are based on what we believe to be reasonable estimates of our user base for the applicable measurement period, there smm panel are inherent challenges in measuring the use of our products in large online and mobile populations around the world. The largest data management company in the world says it doesn’t really know if its numbers are accurate. Dear? Which marketer wants estimated results after the fact?
The situation is getting worse. I emphasize my:
In the fourth quarter of 2017, we estimate that duplicate accounts may have accounted for around 10% of our MAUs worldwide. We believe the percentage of duplicate accounts is significantly higher in developing markets such as India, Indonesia and the Philippines, compared to more developed markets. In the fourth quarter of 2017, we estimate that fake accounts may have accounted for around 3-4% of our MAUs worldwide.
Let it sink. Facebook admits that “about” 10% of its monthly active users are fake. Interestingly, they don’t mention the percentage of their daily active users who are fake.
And that’s the problem with social media. You no longer know what is real and what is false.
Social media hasn’t been real for a while. As a marketer and advertiser, we pride ourselves on accuracy. In the old days of marketing and advertising, we were obsessed with rating numbers for TV shows, readers for print promotions, and success rates for direct mail deliveries.
In all cases, the platforms of the moment were heavily scrutinized. You knew, with some certainty, that the audience was for a particular store or channel because there was usually a checkpoint somewhere for the numbers.
