SmartPulse — our weekly reader poll in Smartbrief on Social Media — tracks feedback from leading marketers about social media practices and issues. Paul Chaney, Internet marketing director for Bizzuka and member of the SmartBrief on Social Media Advisory Board, helps create the questions and analyzes the results. We run the poll question each Wednesday in our e-newsletter and feature Paul’s analysis on this blog.

Last week’s poll question: What is the most important metric to track in social media?

• Virality (the reach of your brand and how much your message is spread), 35%
• Sentiment (positive, negative or indifferent consumer reaction), 32%
• Financials (the effect social media has on your bottom line), 20%
• Volume (number of comments, blog posts, tweets, links, etc. about your brand), 11%
• Other, 2%

“Measuring social media is still a work in progress, so it’s not surprising to see “financials” not ranking more highly. We’re still trying to determine how social media affects the ROI. We know it has an effect; we just don’t yet fully know what metrics to wrap around it. I believe we will — and soon. Software is being developed right now that will help that. But, to quote a line from a favorite song of mine, some of this is a “matter of the heart.” It has intangible benefits that can’t be charted on a spreadsheet.” –Paul Chaney

Image credit, gimbat, via iStock

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2. Privacy concerns linger
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