Many businesses are delving into social networking as another facet of their online presence. Although the SEO results of social networking are not easily measured, there are a number of analytical tools available which can be used to measure whether their social networking efforts are paying off.
Google Analytics enables website owners to measure where followers come from, see how their blog is doing, and optimize their site’s keywords. Some social networking sites offer developer tools, such as Facebook Connect, which allow companies to link to their Facebook discussions from their websites, which makes it easier to track the activities of their followers.
Social media can boost a company’s public profile, and allows customers to interact and enter into discussions about your business. The industry is often seen as lacking a mechanism which allows businesses to analyze the long term aspects of social media for businesses, but given the relatively short history of social networking, there will likely many such tools in the near future.
