20 key points about social media measurement and metrics
It’s been a week of social metrics and measurement for me.
On day one of this week’s Social Media World Forum, held at Olympia in London, I sat in no less than four different sessions on measuring the value of social.
Another discussion this morning, hosted by Waggener Edstrom on social advertising, took a similar line.
I thought it might be helpful to collate some of the quotes, learnings and case studies that were mentioned, to act as further reading or perhaps inspire new models for measurement.
Companies continue to struggle with social media measurement: report
Companies are still grappling with the issue of measuring social media, though fewer are reporting that they are unable to measure ROI (37%) compared with 47% last year.
For our State of Social 2011 report, produced in partnership with LBi and bigmouthmedia, we asked more than 1,000 online businesses about the challenges of social media measurement.
Here's a few highlights from the report...
Are you measuring the right social media metrics?
Earlier this week a post on the average clickthrough rates for popular Facebook brand pages reminded me of an article I wrote nearly three years ago, which was all about how to measure social media.
At the time I believed that social media sat somewhere between offline and online, as far as measurement was concerned. Yes, you can measure the hard numbers, but what about the softer metrics? Doesn’t there need to be a little room for interpretation?
Well, I still believe all of that. The key to measuring social media is to track all of the usual ‘hard’ metrics, but it’s also to step back and correlate performance against the major business KPIs. That’s pretty much the key to measuring everything. If it an engagement tactic or marketing campaign doesn't move the needle in terms of sales, satisfaction, loyalty or profit then ultimately what's the point of doing it?
Twitter for business: the experts' view
Earlier this year, Twitter celebrated its 5th anniversary. The social platform now has 200m users, generates over 200m tweets and handles over 1.6bn search queries per day.
Twitter is now undoubtedly popular and many businesses use the site as a tool for marketing, PR, branding, engagement, customer service, and much more.
Despite this, companies still face barriers to getting the most value from the microblogging site, which is why Econsultancy has produced its first guide to Twitter for Business.
If your business isn't using Twitter yet, it's worth considering the value it offers for your organisation. I've been talking to a number of experts about best practice on the platform, including business benefits, tips and pitfalls, and how to measure success.
11 ways to measure the value of social media
This article is the third in a series of ongoing extracts from Econsultancy's new Internet Marketing Strategy Briefing. The free-to-download report covers the most important online trends in digital marketing that currently occurring.
Topics covered within the document include customer centricity, channel diversification, data, social media and content strategy.
This extract, written by Econsultancy's US Vice President of Research, Stefan Tornquist, focuses on the ins and outs of measuring social media.
Brands buy 'influence', but do they really get it?
Forget 'audience', 'unique visitors' and 'page views.' Thanks to social media, more and more brands are looking to base media buys on new metrics like 'influence.'
Take, for instance, the brands that are turning to the Influencer Network put together by Condé Nast's Vogue.
AdWeek describes the Influencer Network as "a panel of some 1,000 women deemed to have sway over other women, based on how active they are on social networks like Facebook and Polyvore, a fashion site where people create collages of outfits and share them with other members."
How do you prioritise social media metrics?
A key part in creating a social media strategy is to ensure that you have a coherent set of measures that align with that strategy. But how do you prioritise the multitude of measures that are available to you?
Which is more valuable - a Facebook "like" or a twitter follower? This article seeks to set out why and how you can go about defining this for your own brands.
Context is king: especially in marketing metrics
Marketing metrics are so often delivered as raw numbers. They do not help. Gleaning meaning is the art of the analyst and it's not done nearly enough.
Can marketers accurately track audiences across devices?
Marketers and publishers are excited about the tablet boom. But there are signs that tracking audiences (and ads) across all these mobile devices will be more difficult than initially thought.
There's already concern about the accuracy of online traffic stats from companies like Nielsen and comScore. How can advertisers and publishers trust that their audiences will be measured appropriately on an iPad, Samsung Galaxy Tab or other mobile device?
Five rules for the data-driven business
What is the most valuable asset a business has? There are a number of potential answers, but for most businesses today, one of them is 'data'.
Thank technology for that. Most businesses, no matter what industry they're in passively collect data that can be analyzed to provide deep insight. From point of sale systems to computerized record keeping software to web analytics solutions, businesses have a wide range of tools that collect data on a 24/7 basis.
