Social media has huge influence on online sales

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The title of the article in Mashable - Social Media Drove Just 1% of Black Friday Online Sales - is misleading and irresponsible, I'd say.  Editors either didn't know enough about how to interpret a scientific study, by IBM in this case, or, if it did, it purposely chose a controversial title to generate more copy.

"I would essentially describe it as being flat year-over-year, no dramatic change," Jay Henderson, strategy director at IBM Smarter Commerce, told Mashable in a recent interview. While these findings may frustrate some marketers who poured resources into social media campaigns, Henderson is quick to note that social networks do have a "huge indirect influence" on shopping decisions by building brand and product awareness.

For one, the metrics for determining buying behavior are constrained by (a) the limited tracking ability of online behavior and in-store purchases, and (b) of course privacy laws around tracking of personal information.  For another, even if tracking were better and open access were available, (c) determining the causal relationships among social media activity, brand and product awareness, and buying behavior are challenging indeed.  Not impossible, but not so easily set up or demonstrated.

In any event, evidence of just 1% direct sales impact does not mean social media had little influence on online sales.  Better metrics may in fact bear out what Henderson himself pointed out about the huge influence of social media.   

Please feel free to contact me at DrRonontheInternet@gmail.com, if you'd like to better determine social media influence and better clarify those causal relationships.  I can help you figure it out and set it up.