The article really addressed online CONNECTIONS (which can be called followers, friends, etc) but are not “real” friends. (if they disappear from your friend list & you don’t notice, they aren’t friends)

Connections, however are of great value, and I think the passive/active measure is a good idea. And yes at some point you need to survey to get the answers (and yes we do that as well as the link so kindly dropped in the post), observational research of online activity is only part of the answer.

You can see part of what someone does but not all & you don’t know WHY.

And associating the various online streams and matching up to one user is not a simple task (if it’s even do-able without using intrusive measures like tracking cookies).

If you do actually associate a sale & how someone got there to make it, without asking you’ll never trace the steps preceding that started the push that ended as a sale.

As I’ve blogged elsewhere, separating the medium from the message is tricky in this environment.

Bottom line is social media activity by business needs to be part of  a total communications strategy. Like advertising it is an awareness engine. People can’t buy if they aren’t aware. And like ads the influence of social media is subtle, people making a purchase may not be able to tell you precisely where they first heard of something. It takes repetition and part of this should be via social media. You need to go to the people & that’s where they are & what they are paying attention to.

What the price you pay if you DON’T do this, I think is the better question.

Cheers