In business there is an old saying and it goes “you can’t understand what you can’t measure”.

Recently, there has been a backlash against the “S word” being thrown about by consultants looking to make a quick buck from unknowing audiences. Social is changing as businesses are crying foul and the buck is stopping. Or is it?

As everyone gets ready for the Social Bowl, the ad watching during the Super Bowl, there are a few companies out there bringing real results to advertisers with social media. The ones that do bring value are being rewarded for their success. One company having success is Thismoment.com. I had a chance to talk to John Bara, the CMO, and some of his executive team about the trends in social media advertising. Is social media really working and where’s the value?

Bara’s company, Thismoment, is an enterprise software company in San Francisco that is using social media and big data to drive real time results for advertisers. We’ve seen Thismoment score the leading enterprise brands such as Coca-Cola, Microsoft, GM and Target.

Today, Thismoment announced their 2012 performance.  The company announced a 7x year over year monthly recurring revenue growth for 2012. This validates that brand marketers are actively investing in social technology in order to reach and engage customers in any location, at any time, and on any device in a way that is both personal and relevant.

This isn’t Thismoment’s management first rodeo.  They’ve experienced and drove media transformation in the past with creation of the web publishing and display advertising with companies like CNET and Yahoo.  “We have been on a journey with enterprise brands in social.” said Vince Broady, Thismoment CEO and founder, “The social market is changing rapidly and growing up before our eyes. We are trying to be unique in the market and bring real business results to our enterprise brands while still enabling creativity.”   What’s impressive about Thismoment’s management is that they are very experienced industry professionals and are not new to major changes in the media business.

As social media becomes more about result, business, value and big data, Thismoment’s customers are having success. The company uses a cloud-based software platform to help major brand marketers reach the audience on any social platform on any device. Thismoment’s advertisers are averaging more time on site, increased engagement, and more importantly satisfied users who consume targeted relevant content. These new metrics are directly measurable which isn’t the case for a typical thirty second TV commercial.

As the audience has dramatically shifted away from live TV, the value of live TV commercials has eroded, and marketers are scrambling to find a way to reclaim their audiences. Having measurement and real time analytics is the most important aspect to any advertiser. At the end of the day it’s about serving a distinct customer audience and big data the key ingredient for advertisers -“you can’t understand what you can’t measure”.

The Super Bowl this year will be about “proving” in “real time” that social media works. Advertisers are realizing that the Super Bowl audience will be online using their mobile device, tablet or computer. Advertsiers need the proof points.

Companies that can address the real time nature of the crowd and provide the business analytics will be rewarded for keeping it real as in real-time.