Webinar Notes: “Web 2.0 How to Measure Social Engagement: Blogs Podcasts and RIAs”

My summary of Webinar by AMA on Social Media Measurement
This post is a summary and analysis of Charlene Li’s summary of Social Media and Measurement Webinar on Jan 18th, 2007 which I attended as a guest. I’m here sharing this info for those that did not attend, as well as adding supplemental information as appropriate.

Thanks to Jake the Community Guy for sending me this webex event hosted by Marla Chupack, Akin Arikan and the always succinct Charlene Li provided by AMA

After some phone technical difficulties the event got started, below is just some of the highlights of the presentation. I believe they will be posting the full recording which I recommend you check out.

Terminology
This presentation was really about Social Media more than Web 2.0 so I really struggle that this presentation so loosely used the term “Web 2.0″ as it’s a term that’s not descriptive and may end up causing more confusion. I’d rather they use the term Social Software, Social Computing or best term Social Media. Since Blogging has been around before the term Web 2.0 came about, it doesn’t hold as accurate. I do realize for the uninitiated, the term Web 2.0 in this context will generate the most signups. They had over 1700 registered so it worked.

The Web is Changing

Web pages are the delivery tool for apps, not just serving content

Pages views aren’t’ accurate measurements

Audio and Video media is very engaging and interesting, how do you measure this?

Measurement is such a challenge with these new tools

Gives example of widgets (small embedded web applications in blogs and websites)

Challenges with Ajax and Flash as they don’t accurately measure page views

Gives example of how the Yahoo homepage has heavy Ajax and the impacts of Web Analytics

Audience Poll: Usage of Social Media
There was a live poll using the webinar tool to measure which tools which members were using in, members could select more than one.

Question: What Web 2.0 Technologies does your company currently use?

Answer Options:

Blogs

Podcasts

Videocasts

Wikis

Do not currently use, plan to use this year

No Plans to use Web 2.0 Technologies

Answer Responses:
I’ve converted to percentages for your convenience.

Blogs: 245/715 (34%)

Podcasts: 176/715 (24%)

Videocasts: 162/715 (22%)

Wikis: 127/715 (17%)

Do not currently use, plan to use this year: 210/715 (29%)

No Plans to use Web 2.0 Technologies: 43/715 (6%)

Analysis
Aprox 1/3 of the audience has already deployed blogs, and about a sixth have deployed audio or video media. Wiki deployment trails low. Interesting how a very small amount (less than 5%) had no plans to deploy any of these tools.

Apparently some users message the hosts and asked “What are Wikis?”. In this recent Wiki Showdwn event I live blogged at that hosted the major wiki vendors we also came to the conclusion that awareness is very low.

Challenges in Measuring tools with many different purposes
There are many goals of blogging, (ranging from outreach, support, marketing, brand impacts)and therefore many ways to measure success. therefore there is no one way to measure success. I’ve also notated the difficulties in measuring Social Media.

Engagement metrics are the holy grail

Standard site metrics

time spent on page or site

total time spent per user

frequency of visits

depth of visit (% of site visited)

More on Social Media Measurement
Two months ago, we gathered the top minds on Social Media and had an in depth roundtable. We learned that Engagement is the key metrics in this roundtable hosted with Factiva. I’ve catalogued my other thoughts on Social Media Measurement with this category tag.

Segment your audience based on how much they participate

Creators (smallest group)

Critics

Collectors

Couch Potatoes (largest group)

Charlene makes the final summary that the real business goals are participation, as the web is no longer ‘read only’.

Measurement tactics and tools
Akin Arikan stepped to the mic, providing an list of companies that measure Social Media and Measurement.

In his presentation he recommends to first define business goals, ranging from Community, Attract more visitors, to Engaging. For some companies it’s for Commerce, build trust, convert/conversion, higher margins, or for repeat customer usage. There are other opportunities to learn more about market preferences.

Akin provides some suggestions on proper tagging of key attributes and components of your website for ease of measurement.

Summary
This was a great presentation that demonstrated awareness of Social Media tools, usage, and helped those who deploy that there are challenges in measuring this people based medium. Thanks Charlene, Akin, Marla for this wonderful webinar, I hope to be invited to future events.

Recommended Reading
Please learn more about the discoveries of this Social Media Measurement Roundtable hosted in Nov with Factiva.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 19th, 2007 at 7:29 am and is filed under Social Media, Social Media Measurement, Web Marketing, Web Strategy, Web Theory, Web Usage. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.