An organization can have a high number of "likes" on its Facebook page and lots of "followers" on its Twitter account, but does that mean anything from a financial perspective? Is it worth the organization's effort to maintain an active presence on social media in order to generate more revenue? Is it possible to use social media metrics such as the number of "likes" and the number of "followers" to predict an organization's "success" even though those metrics are nonfinancial indicators? Prior research studies have looked at how organizations should utilize social media, but few studies have provided strong empirical evidence to support how the outcome of using social media should be measured and why. Focusing on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and YouTube, this book examines how Fortune 500 companies use social media. Collected over a five-year period, the authors assess the companies' social media activities and their business performance data, such as stock return, total revenue, net income, and earnings per share. These data, both financial and nonfinancial, are matched and statistically analyzed to see whether a company's social media activities are significantly associated with its business performance.

Winner of the 2011 National Communication Association PRIDE Best Textbook Award, given by the PR Division.Contemporary public relations practice has developed over the last several decades from the weak third sister in marketing, advertising, and public relations mix to a full player. Part of that development can be traced to a change in the way that public relations is researched, measured, and evaluated. Both Drs. Stacks and Michaelson are members of that Commission and have been in the forefront of taking public relations research, measurement, and evaluation to the next level. This book will provide the business reader with the necessary understanding of the problems and promises of public relations research, measurement, and evaluation and the public relations practitioner as guide to effective use of methods, measures, and evaluation in providing grounded evidence of the success (or failure) of public relations campaigns.