One of the problems about writing a personal blogs is that you don’t have any deadlines to force you into writing! I wrote this a week or so ago and meant to return to refine it, but I’ve only just got round to it. Excuses over! Here’s the (belated) post…
I’ve been closely following a debate that initially stemmed from an article in Research, where the IAB’s Amy Kean and Nielsen’s Brad Little locked horns.
I’ve been meaning to blog about it, but have failed to do so until now, when a thoughtful post from Michael Litman stirred me into action!
I can see what Amy is saying: that measurement for measurement’s sake is meaningless. And she is right. Whereas measurement tied directly to business value (could be) meaningful. And again, she is right. Amy concludes:
“If your social media activity generates 100,000 views on YouTube, gets you 40,000 Facebook friends and 20,000 positive blog mentions over the period of a month and your net promoter score rises, this may show incredible brand engagement. But what are we to measure it against for the campaign to be deemed a success?”
She answers this last question with ‘case studies’. And yes, case studies are certainly a useful self-improvement vehicle. But I can’t help but think she misses the point here.
What is really missing from the example given is a concrete business aim or objective that has been put in place from the start.
And this aim can be different from campaign to campaign or from company to company (and/or both).
For me, there are three questions that need to be asked – the why, what and how of social media measurement.
The answers are not straightforward and will change from case to case and even within projects or campaigns, but are in my mind a good starting point. It is worth also stating that these aren’t mutually exclusive for social media, but the answers often will be.
Why?
This first question – why? – seems straightforward; why are we doing this? It’s crucial though and so often neglected. Why do we need/have/want a Twitter/Facebook/Myspace account or blog? Is this right for our business?
So much of this stems from proper audience insight. Social media is dependent on conversation amongst communities, either already in existence or that are created or nurtured by the brand or business. So the question here is, will social media work for your target audience (or their influencers)? Are they where you think they are, and if so, where is that?
This is one of the reasons why I think there is much value in having a non-specialist agency (or an internal department) at least initially in control of social media strategy. It’s sometimes tough to say: “no, social media isn’t right for us/this business objective”.
So how does this affect measurement? Well, if you don’t know why you are doing something, then you won’t be able to measure it. And if you don’t have a sound business reason for doing something, then it probably isn’t worth doing.
What?
Intrinsically linked to the previous question is the decision about what to measure. A brand looking to increase brand awareness in a community will likely be looking to measure something different that a brand looking to maximise web sales.
How?
There are many different ways to measure things. There is no right or wrong here necessarily. Social media is still a (relatively) new thing and an agency that tells you they have all the answers is worth dumping.
Again, we come back to the previous two questions – what do you want to achieve and what will indicate success. Then they question is: how will you measure this success?
No golden bullet
There is no shortcut to success here, but it’s worth trying and worth persevering with. If we don’t measure what we are doing, then we have no way to demonstrate success and no way to improve.
Amy doesn’t really mean measurement is meaningless, she means that meaningless measurement is meaningless. And this is spot on.
As Michael states:
“It may not be in the traditional marketing sense of what ‘value’ is but for me, social media requires new metrics and benchmarks than to what has been tried and tested in years previous. Success now looks different. Instead of looking purely from a numbers perspective and at additional sales, is there value in increased levels of brand perception and awareness, along with the conversations and connections made because of the company activity?”
Just as social media is a new and emerging discipline, so is the way we measure it. But measure it we must, even if the way we go about it needs us to ask more and more questions – the why, what and how…
picture credit
But Orange doesn’t seem to be too far behind. Only hours after the announcement, @
