Conceptualizing and Measuring Online Behavior Through Social Media Metrics

The measurement of social media becomes crucial when businesses and organizations rely on them for word-of-mouth marketing. However, few organizations know how to quantify the impact of social media. This chapter reviews the evolution of social media and why the measurements are important. A framework based on multi-dimensional network of actors and memes provides the conceptualization of social media networks. Existing measurement frameworks based on web metrics and business objectives are different representations of this multi-dimensional network. The ultimate goal of measuring economic values needs to rely on the quantification of this network, its evolution and connection with business performance.