The Social Media Impression Crisis

Didit Editorial

12 years ago

April 10, 2013: Are your social media “impressions” worthless? What is the difference between an impression as used in traditional print or display advertising versus an impression in digital? This is a huge issue, as many social platforms do not even define this vital metric. Didit’s Ana Raynes explores the difficult issues facing advertisers as they work to determine what an impression exactly is. This article — published on the site of Website Magazine — is a must for anyone who needs to understand what these “impressions” numbers mean to both engagement and ROI.

Ana notes that: “At best, a social media “impression” is a potential impression because it is impossible to know whether a given message – sent across thousands of busy Twitter or Facebook streams – is actually perceived by the observer. In the old days, it was thought that in order for that “impression” to actually impress upon the consumer a message it must be seen by the consumer or at least scroll past their field of vision. Social media impressions are not facts or events; only probabilities and potentialities. Effectively, advertisers are buying “chances” for exposure, not the exposure itself, which makes the game more like Lotto than traditional media buying.”