ConvoTrack The why, what and how of social media measurement — Danny Whatmough.com

The why, what and how of social media measurement

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…


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Category: social media | Tags: , , , , , Comments

  • KDPaine
    Great post and I think IBM and P&G are leading the way already, changing the metrics from "eyeballs" to "engagement." What I think is important is that measurement should continuously improve a program, not just justify it. Too many people are just trying to justify their Soc. Med. spend. with out any measureable goals that tie into business goals. Followers, friends and eyeballs are not business outcomes. Revenue is.
  • I agree with your last point. The continuous improvement bit is crucial too - and, like much of this stuff, doesn't just apply to social media marketing. All too often though marketers neglect ongoing monitoring once a campaign is live, which is dangerous.
  • Google will tell you that there's no such thing as too much data. But then Google are minted, so they can spend huge amounts of money chasing after metrics all they want. For the average guys 'n' gals out there, such pursuits have a finite budget.

    The problem will perception (brand or otherwise) is that it's exceptionally difficult to measure unless you know your target audience inside out, and have goal funnels, user studies, surveys etc all lined up, like some kind of marketing gauntlet, designed to tease out every last drop of data from those people.

    Again, for the regular folk, this just isn't feasible. So for the time being, the ROI of social media is still a big challenge.
  • Thanks Wayne. I agree (as above) it's a challenge, especially with the vast amounts of data you mention. However, that is still no reason not to try. Indeed, I believe that if you're not even going to try then you shouldn't be trying.

    And I'm not suggesting you should measure anything. Quite the opposite. I think the above strategy means you should very careful identify what you are trying to achieve and concentrate your measurement (and therefore success goals) on this aim.
  • I have a client who I've talked into going down the social media route, and it's going to be a challenge. They're big, but there's an argument (internally amongst the senior management) that they're too big to be concerned about social media, since they know every competitor and every customer on their industry — they're that big.

    I think the most important data we're going to be tracking is sentiment and website engagement, which I hope will help sell social media inwards and upwards.
  • Interesting stuff Wayne. I'd be interested to know how it goes.
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