Recently Datran Media released the findings of its “4th Annual Marketing & Media Survey.” The survey revealed that more than 87% online marketers said accurate online audience measurement was at least somewhat important for driving increased brand awareness, revenues or performance.

Not sure I understand why they would use the phrase “somewhat important” cause in my mind, there’s nothing somewhat about it… it’s vitally important.

Reading about this survey though reminded me of something I read last week.

It had to do with a new study that was being released by the Nielsen Company called “Nielsen/Facebook Report: The Value of Social Media Ad Impressions.”

Sounds like a great read, chock full of uses facts and figures and all that good stuff, right?

Yeah, well about the word “facts”… that’s a bit of a misnomer when it comes to the study.

What they report is absolutely factual. It’s just what they didn’t report is what’s disconcerting to say the least.

You know the old adage “You can make the numbers say anything you want?”

Well hold that thought…

Verbatim from the study: “We have now conducted six months of research consisting of… more than 125 individual Facebook advertising campaigns from 70 brand advertisers…”

So far so good.

But… a few pages later in the study they reveal this gem: “For the purposes of this case study, we examined the impact of Facebook advertising on 14 campaigns…Campaigns selected were representative of more successful campaigns …”

Huh?

How can you possibly present this as a Study, an objective, impartial study one would surmise, yet only use the top 11% of the campaigns, the most successful of the bunch as a representation of your findings?

“This study demonstrates that advertising in the social context works for brands and works well.”

The bottom line is this is an example of Social Media Caveat Emptor… buyer or in this case, reader beware. You can’t always believe everything you read.

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