There’s never enough numbers for Twitter

During #Twitter4Brands I tweeted on the event’s hashtag that it was really refreshing to see some case studies that actually showcase numerical results, unlike some other (social) media events do.

Lara O'Reilly

However, as a new media owner that is fighting for attention in a nascent digital market, there are never enough numbers to prove your value to the marketers who are so vital to your future success.

This was only the first Twitter marketer event in the UK, but at the next conference I would like to see not just “cost per engagement” stats – which are no doubt helpful – but the all-important return on investment figures too.

Tony Wang, Twitter’s UK boss, agreed that often brands do not want to share precise business results with their rivals – but surely there is a marketer out there willing to fly the flag for the social network and say that it has actually led to a revenue or profit lift?

Until that marketer steps forward, it is still going to be tricky for some marketing departments to convince their finance divisions that they should be investing a major chunk of their digital budgets in Twitter. We’re still in experimentation stage, but that argument could soon wear thin.

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