CRE Services, Inc Initiates A Study To Evaluate The Economic Impact of Social Media Marketing.

PRLog (Press Release) - Oct. 31, 2011 - According to Wikipedia, Social Media entails the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into an interactive dialogue. Internet forums, weblogs, social blogs, micro blogs are all examples of Social Media.  Social Media are different from traditional or industrial media given the relative inexpensiveness and ease in accessibility to access or publish information.  However, one commonality shared by traditional and social media is the capability to reach small and large audiences.1  
In the USA, the number of these audiences’ using Social Media is large and growing.   More than 40 million Americans use Social Media websites multiple times a day. 2   Given this high traffic volume, it is logical to assume that various for profit and non-profit industries would utilize Social Media either as a marketing tool or as a platform to promote their respective causes. CRE Services, Inc after a thorough search found a lack of substantial published information that reveals the economic value of using Social Media to promote products and/or services to consumers. With thousands of marketing professionals and business owners asking, “Does the use of Social Media as a marketing tool pay-off?”   Right now is probably the time to delve into and gather fact-driven data to answer this question.  Therefore, the objective of this pilot-study is to understand the financial impact of using Social Media as a marketing tool.  As such, the intent is to conduct multiple focus groups and/or interviews of marketing and / or non-marketing professionals from various for profit and non-profit industries and obtain data.  With this data, the goal is to create a survey instrument and conduct a broader study that might provide us with directions on whether or not Social Media could be successfully used as a marketing tool.  
References:
1.   Social Media.  Available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media.  Accessed on September 19, 2011.  
2.   Merchant RM, Elmer S, Lurie N.  N Engl J Med. 2011 Jul 28;365(4):289-91

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