The Problem with Social Media Measurement
What Color is this Image Above?
Not everyone thinks Social Media Measurement is great idea, or it can be done, mixed reactions here. I understand why it’s not a good idea, but we’re going to have to do it anyways. Clients will need it to make decisions, and one of those decisions is to determine how to best use their resources.
In my heart of hearts:
- I know Social Media is about people, not numbers on a graph.
- Social Media Measurement is impossible until you can measure society.
- There are so many colors, you can’t interpret classify, categorize, or label people cleanly or accurately.
- Attempting to measure what is happening helps those that are participating to tell the story.
- Everyone may see different colors depending on their angle.
Yesterday, Johnathan Carson, CEO of Nielsen Buzz Metrics left some comments on my blog listing some competitors and emailed me a friendly hello. Thanks John, that’s inspiring.
6 Comments so far
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Ummm Green? No wait Red? God I hate pop quizzes.
[…] The Problem with Social Media Measurement (tags: socialnetworks analytics) […]
Jeremiah, I completely disagree with the premise that, because something is difficult, it can’t be done. Take your question about the image, for example. Ask an engineer familiar with remote sensing and satellite based measurement of vegetation and water conditions and he or she will give you a range of techniques for capturing a set of measurements that can be used to compare changes over time in a meaningful way. I believe the same will be true of measurement of social media related processes. If you define a context, measurement techniques can be developed.
No, they won’t be able to peer into anyone’s soul, but at least they’ll be able to see into people’s wallets!
Jeremiah - spot on!
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