1. Research marketing expenditure trends in social media marketing as well as other forms of online advertising. Compare these trends with traditional advertising media expenditures. Develop a presentation illustrating those trends.
2. Visit www.comScore.com and www.Nielsen.com to learn more about the metrics these companies have developed for measuring the marketing exposure of brands on Facebook. How do these metrics differ from those that have been used with regard to measuring online advertising impact?
Marketers know that Facebook is a force to be reckoned with, but until now they have not been able to measure that force and compare it to traditional media. Whereas traditional media have established ratings and other metrics to measure what marketers are getting for their money, an entirely new set of metrics-such as "click-through rates" and "impressions"-has evolved for online media. Unfortunately, the two metrics are not comparable. ComScore and Nielsen are two companies attempting to rectify that situation by developing a rating system based on "gross rating points" to show the power of Facebook as a marketing tool.