Evaluating social media presence: A practical application of big data and analytics in information organizations

The purpose of this paper is to provide a practical example of how big data and analytics can help answer questions related to a relevant problem many libraries and information organizations have: How to evaluate the effectiveness of social media efforts?

Drawing upon a number of disciplines, including marketing, consumer decision theory and evidence-based practice, the utility of big data and analytics is applied to a practical application in libraries and information organizations: the evaluation of social media presence.

There are a multitude of techniques (social network analysis, statistical analysis, geographic coding) that can be used as part of a project to evaluate the effectiveness of social media presence. Each technique provides its own “lens” on the data. By combining techniques, powerful analyses can be performed.

Practical applications of big data and analytics to problems in libraries and information organizations are still being developed. This paper provides one perspective on how this emerging area of study can help in understanding and improving the perception of products and services in information organizations.