Is Social Media Good For A Company? Experimental Research Could Tell You Why

Experimental research is a great quantitative method because you are able to gain some valuable information that pertains to the population, as opposed to specific publics as you often learn about through qualitative methods. Social media has become more prominent in the professional world, and companies are relying on social media to get word out to the public about all different aspects of the company. Social media is a great outlet because it allows a live connection between the company and the public, making this a great tool for public relations practitioners. Because the involvement of social media as a part of public relations practices is still so new, there is little research to prove if social media is in fact a positive tool for a company's public relations. Here is where experimental research comes in.

I found some interesting research whose purpose was to find out if using social media had some sort of value for "service-based businesses." The goal of their particular experiment was to see how many followers they could gain on social media sites based on a service-based business. The one piece of information this experiment lacks is telling whether the use of social media would help create stronger relationships. This is a good question to pose for an experiment regarding any kinds of businesses, not just service-based businesses. In order to prove whether or not social media is positive for a businesses public relations, an experiment could and should be done in order to test not only increase in followers on the social media outlets, but also the actual relationships that are built as a result of the social media being put into practice.