Ross, Becky, and Shannon Gorman. "Measuring The Impact Of Social Media On Your Business." Forbes. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Jan. 2016.

     Only 15% of companies have proved there was a positive impact due to social media. Since social media is so new, companies are not completely educated in measuring the impact and maximizing their profit from social media. Most companies only measure based on likes or page views (engagement metrics), not actual sales. When social media metrics are used to find statistics, all categories have increased from 2010-2014, except sales levels, revenue per customer, customer retention costs, profits per customer. When marketing experts were interviewed about how to measure the impact of social media on marketing, the responses were summed up in 11 points. They include using goal- driven metrics, demonstrate validity, uncover and verify leading indicators, create dashboards, develop meaningful benchmarks, conduct experiments, allocate funds to measure, consider the cost of ignoring social media, build predictive models, guide future actions, and stick with your metrics. Many marketing experts argue how metrics should be used. This is a debate that will never be solved, each company will use metrics in different ways based on what they believe.

     This article is full of quotes I can use for my project. Some of them are, "the most common metric is “hits/visits/page views” which represents the beginning of the funnel—awareness—but is not very diagnostic of purchase." Another quote I will use is, "although abandoned shopping carts also increased, in general, we observe fewer companies using actual purchase activities or financial outcomes, such as profits or revenues, as metrics to evaluate their social media programs which was discussed in a prior post." There is also a chart full of social media metrics that will be very useful in my project. 

     Even though this source might not be considered "credible" since it is composed of articles written by authors, I do believe it is. This specific article contained multiple statistics that I researched and are accurate based on what I've found. It also interviewed marketing experts and quoted Google's Director of Quantitative Research. The article is also sponsored by the American Marketing Association, Duke University's Faqua School of Business, and McKinsey, Inc. Based on the strong reputation of these sponsors, I don't think they would back up just anything.

     I will use all of the statistics found in the article for my project. They compare social media in one year to social media in another, which is exactly what my project is based on. The interview responses might not fit perfectly into the topic of my project but I do believe I will be able to use the information I learned in my marketing career.

Daley, Jason. "How Social Media Is Changing Business." Entrepreneur. 23 Nov. 2010. Web. 10 Feb. 2016.

     This article states that every corporation has thick "walls" built between every department. The marketing department is isolated from the executive floor and the product development team is in their own space. It has been hard for the marketing team to hear opinions from clients and customers. Social media has helped chip away at these walls that divide everyone. The product development team knows exactly what the complaints are and they can address them. Customers and businesses are now able to easily communicate directly. Up until the point in time when this article was written, it was optional for businesses to use social media. Now since it is such a prevalent thing to utilize, Charlene Li, one of the world's leading thinkers on social media, predicts that if a business or company is not using social media within the next 3-5 years, they will not last. This article was written in 2010, so that time frame has now expired. Now almost all successful businesses use social media to the fullest potential. The creator of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, always thought the internet would be used more to connect people and less for housing data. However, there is a lag with businesses to jump on the social media bandwagon. Businesses had just begun to use Facebook when this article was written. Social media has been used in ways that make things possible that would never be possible in a restaurant or store. For example, the 4food burger has allowed customers to completely customize burgers. They can add anything from edamame to the usual bacon, lettuce, and tomato. Social media is also being used to repair negative reputations. Dell has used social media to try to reverse the uproar caused by the quality control issues in 2006. There is a long list of companies that used social media early in the "race" and they have drastically expanded their marketing departments and employees are more passionate because they see results of their marketing efforts immediately.

     "According to a University of Maryland Smith of Business poll, in 2009 the percentage of small businesses using social media doubled to 24 percent from 12 percent."
"Charlene Li, one of the world's leading thinkers on social media and co-founder of the Altimeter Group, a research-based advisory firm in San Mateo, Calif., predicts that companies that do not get on the social media bandwagon soon-- within three to five years-- will not survive."
"The web is more a social creation than a technical one. I designed it for a social effect-- to help people work together-- and not as a technical toy," -Tim Berners-Lee
"We have yet to really see how social media will reshape business--but we are starting to get glimpses of that future." 
"Building a new enterprise from the ground up using social media is much simpler than retrofitting it into a long-established business culture."

     While this source does not seem like a credible source due to the fact that URL is .com. However, this article was published in the Entrepreneur magazine which features articles from some of the most prevalent business gurus. It is trusted by many companies and it has aided companies to either become bigger or start up. The author, Jason Daley, has articles published in many national magazines. The source is out of date for my overall research but it helps me get a better understanding of the transition to using social media. The article was published in the mid-point of the years I'm comparing. I never would have known how slow the transition was unless I had found this article.

     This article will fit very well into my research. Since I do have such a big gap between the years I'm comparing, it gives a good idea of what happened in between the 10 years. The source was very helpful, I gained a lot of insight that I otherwise wouldn't have. This research will help me explain how businesses adapted to the idea of using social media.

 Geho, Patrick., and Jennifer Dangelo. “The Evolution Of Social Media As A Marketing Tool For Entrepreneurs.” Entrepreneurial Executive 17.(2012):61-68.

     Business Source Complete. Web 23 Sept 2015.

     This article contain information as to why traditional marketing methods are no longer applicable and what techniques can be used to replace them. However, the time it takes, effort, and ability to measure outcomes has deterred small businesses from relying heavily on social media. Since businesses have started using social media, sites such as Hootsuite and Facebook Pages Insights have emerged.

     “The number one deterrent of social media for small business has always been the time commitment required to keep profiles active and the almost impossible task of calculating the return on investment.” page 61

“Overall, 90% of marketers surveyed agreed with the statement ‘Is social media important to your business?’ and 66% of small business owners strongly agree with the statement.” page 62

“In 2009 Quantcast.com reported an average  on 23.5 million monthly users on Twitter. Today, that same website reports 87.4 million monthly users.” page 65

“To stand out, business users must become proficient in the language of Twitter and learn to utilize hashtags, retweets, and mentions to expand the reach of their brand.” page 65

“For small business owners, devoting the time and effort to post on their social media outlets every Tuesday Thursday at 9:00 am is not reasonable.”page 65

“Posting is only half of the social media equation. Monitoring the networks is critical for an entrepreneur.” page 66

“When social media were first introduced to the small business marketing scene, the learning curve and the time needed for implementation made it too cumbersome to be a viable marketing platform for most entrepreneurs.” page 66

“Although tools have been developed to minimize time commitments and learning curves, entrepreneurs should still proceed with caution when implementing social media marketing campaigns. … An outdated Twitter feed or stagnant Facebook page can be detrimental to the overall marketing brand of a small business.” page 67

     This source is credible because it was written by Patrick R. Geho, a professor at Middle Tennessee State University, and Jennifer Dangelo, a professor at Tennessee Technological University. It was also in the Volume 17 of the Entrepreneurial Executive which is a journal that publishes highly accessed peer reviewed entrepreneurship articles. The writers also quote Fox Business, R. Fishkin, and many other business journalists.

     I will use this article to show how detrimental or helpful social media can be for a small business. I will also try to find another article that goes more in depth about the advantages and disadvantages to social media used for businesses. I will also use all of the statistics found in the article to emphasize the potential customer base a business could gain from using social media. I will also use everything I learned in the article to take back to my mentorship and go over with my mentor in order to better use our social media outlets.