Social media and the Fortune 500: How the Fortune 500 uses, perceives and measures social media as a marketing tool

This study aims to explore if and to what extent social media are being used as a marketing tool at America's largest, most prestigious companies. More specifically, this study aims to determine what social media assets the Fortune 500 (based on the 2009 list) is employing, how communication and social media professionals at these companies perceive the importance of social media as a marketing tool and how the Fortune 500 is measuring the effectiveness of social media as a marketing tool.The rise of digital and social media has brought about significant changes in the advertising and marketing world. Firms are now being forced to look for new and different ways of communicating with consumers as social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have forced companies to approach consumers differently, more informally and more conversationally. This "new approach" to marketing and advertising also comes with its own set of rules to determine, identify and ultimately measure the effectiveness of social media. This study aims to explore these queries through a multi-method approach that includes Internet searches and a Qualtrics online survey.The theoretical framework of this topic is still in its early stages of development. Much of the current theory on this topic originates from industry publications and deals with how social media and digital technologies have changed the way in which people communicate, in general, and the way in which consumers interact with products, services and companies, more specifically. This study will add to that theoretical framework by exploring how firms perceive this change in communication and ultimately how they are measuring the effectiveness of social media tools when used in their marketing programs. Moreover the literature on how the measure social media as a marketing tool is very underdeveloped. This research will offer significant and original material to the academic literature on the topic of measurement.