Web Strategy: How to Measure your Social Media Program

Categories: Social Media Measurement, Web StrategyPosted on June 7th, 2007

I’ve been meeting and interviewing some of the top thought and practice leaders in the Web Metrics and Social Media space. I’m seeing a trend, and want to document it in order to help others. I’ve also had to measure a blog program at my previous job, so I know the challenges

Situation:
You run a social media program at a corporation, and you need to measure to improve your program, but more importantly to show to your bosses that this ‘new media’ program is worth it’s weight.

Challenges:
You see the immediate value of a community program but your management is unconvinced. Furthermore, the brand police and the traditional hard-liners don’t like your ‘open-thinking’ type of revolt. There may be other challenges too: lots of activity but few people, or you simply don’t know where to start.

Goals
Deliver a report that demonstrates the value of a social media program as well as helps you improve the program over time.

Key Concepts:

Define goals of program
Why are you doing this community program? Why did you launch your blog? That needs to be determined ahead of time, or there’s simply nothing to measure against. Was it to: reach customers, drive awareness, listen, be human, respond to crisis, or build better products?

Social Media Measurement from the start
Measurement should be baked into your program before you launch it. It’s not an afterthought, it’s part of the process.

Measuring all of it may be inefficient and avoid paralysis
I’ve had some discussions with some of the leaders in this industry, and we don’t want you to be stuck in “Paralysis Analysis”. Shel Israel suggests that we don’t measure the value of a phone anymore –we know the value. At some point, business blogging will be like email –everywhere.

Start with the low hanging fruit
There’s quite a bit of free tools to initially measure, you should consider these right off the bat: Web Analytics, RSS Analytics, Technorati ranking. You should also be monitoring who’s linking to you (Technorati) and setup Google Alerts with keywords of company, products, and key employees.

Reporting vs Alerting
Reports is different from alerts, you’ll need to monitor too, marketing is in real-time now. A negative meme, a exploding battery could shatter your brand, are you watching in real time?

Attributes to measure
There are many attributes to measure, which will be determined based upon your goals, here’s a partial list (learn more from this roundtable):

-Activity (Web Analytics of blog or site)
-Tone (Sentiment)
-Velocity (Spread over time, URLs, Trackbacks)
-Attention (Duration on site)
-Participation (comments, trackbacks)
-Many qualitative attributes (comments, what did they say, what did they mean)

Measurement processes will always differ, depending on goals
You may never measure the same way for each program, the goals of each program will change the method in which you measure. the attributes will stay the same, but you’ll just use them in different ways to create a new report.

Learn to tell a story
I hear that CEOs are rarely satisfied with reports from Marketing as they don’t tell a story, the same applies to telling a story with your social media program. A bunch of facts and figures are not good enough to tell the story. What happened, where are we now, and where are we going. Did more folks come into the forum? how? and why? What are they doing now?

Qualitative is just as important as numbers
What really matters are the opinions, voices, and experiences that people are sharing. The written anecdote that persuades prospects to customers (or the other way around) is very important. Be sure to monitor and use these in your reports.

Case Studies:
I used to provide reports to stakeholders for my business blogging program. It would include blog site metrics (visitors, page views, top views, top commented posts, IP locations, etc) It would also have lists of qualiatitatve comments and discussions that needed to be answered out on the blogosphere, I’d also send alerts to teams when users were talking about products.

Additional Resources

We recorded our panel on Social Media Measurement at the New Media Summit, (Video)

Web marketing has spread off the corporate domain

Social Media Measurement Roundtable with Factiva

Forrester’s analysis on Blog ROI: GM Blogs

List of companies that measure social media (It’s growing fast)

Practical measurement and ROI attributes and concepts from Sean

I will add additional concepts or ideas over time, feel free to add a comment or start a meme from your own blog, if it adds to the conversation I’ll add it to this list and link to you.

Share This Post:

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 7th, 2007 at 7:57 am and is filed under Social Media Measurement, Web Strategy. 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.

Thanks for the mention, Jeremiah. I think more relevant than my comment is that KD Paine, the PR measurement expert agrees that you cannot measure the value of a blog. But like me, she notes,you will immediately “feel he impact.” Unfortunately CMOs and CIOs tend to not be interested in such a human measurement.

Posted by shel israel on June 7th, 2007 at 11:15 am

It SO depends on the motivations behind starting a blog and the goals of the marketing program. With http://www.coosconversations.com, while the ultimate goal of the communications program may be to create jobs and generate more inquiries and tourism revenue, the immediate goal of the blog is to get people talking, so right now we’re measuring comments and visitor traffic.
For a high-tech company, the objective might be to generate ideas.
The point is that there will never be a “Nielsen” for social media so we need to stop looking for it. Instead, we need more good case studies of how people are measuring and what they’re doing with the data when they get it.

Posted by KD Paine on June 8th, 2007 at 2:51 am

It’s always a pleasure KD! Thank you for the mention from your blog.

Good point about non-standardization.

Posted by jeremiah_owyang on June 8th, 2007 at 6:42 am

As the understanding of media measurement (both mainstream and social) is maturing among PR and marketing practitioners, the trend is for something more sophisticated than just quantitative results. Quant is the easy first step. But there is no doubt your analysis is only half done if you don’t have qualitative data. You need to understand all the things Jeremiah listed (sentiment, reach, message movement, etc.). I’ve seen two types of clients in the past couple of years – those that have been doing media measurement for years and have their own practices and processes for qual measuring (either home-grown or via a vendor and often using complex statistical modeling) and those that are just getting into the practice of methodically measuring their message. The second set often doesn’t want to think about qual until they get their hands around quant, mostly because they are too busy trying educate their internal clients about the benefits of measuring.

Posted by Glenn Fannick on June 8th, 2007 at 6:54 am

Glenn, thanks, your insight is always valuable as you’re so close to the customers and the industry.

Posted by jeremiah_owyang on June 8th, 2007 at 7:24 am

[...] How to find the right Corporate blogger Employees can start a blog anytime they want, however most marketing departments isn’t going to let anyone post on the corporate blog, here’s some suggestions on finding the right one (hint: they often self-select) How to measure your social media program This is key to setup as your program gets started, measuring and listening are should come before talking and answering. [...]

Posted by Web Strategy by Jeremiah » Social Media Strategies For June 2007 on June 8th, 2007 at 12:04 pm

[...] sentiment, influence, and the coveted engagement. Here’s that post I mentioned at the end: Web Strategy: How to Measure your Social Media Program. The sound is certainly not pro quality, as I was sitting on a park bench at Stanford using skype [...]

Posted by Web Strategy by Jeremiah » Podcast Interview: Social Media Measurement, what is it, new attributes and getting started on August 7th, 2007 at 5:49 am

[...] vs. objective measures and what the near term future might look like. Jeremiah shares several tips on getting started with measuring social media (follow the link for a write-up of these). Thanks [...]

Posted by Podcast: Interview with Jeremiah Owyang on Measuring Social Media | C. David Gammel, High Context Consulting: Unleashing the strategic potential of the Web. on August 7th, 2007 at 6:32 am

[...] for referrer logs to your website from Twitter, and use search tools to gain intelligence. Read Social Media Measurement strategy for more information. About the Author Jeremiah Owyang, Web Strategist, has submitted other [...]

Posted by Web Strategy: What the Web Strategist should know about Twitter on September 4th, 2007 at 4:34 am

[...] is in your hands; if you’re not proactive, you will not be able to see ROI. I read about how to show to your bosses that this ‘new media’ program is worth it’s weight, but its missing one important [...]

Posted by How to sell social media to your boss « e-Bizz by Christopher Salazar on September 22nd, 2007 at 2:19 pm

[...] Web Strategy How to Measure Your success [...]

Posted by Dewitts Media » Blog Building 101 on September 27th, 2007 at 4:55 pm

[...] Plus, of course, Jeremiah Owyang’s whole list of posts on Social Media Measurement. (Start with the basics here: Web Strategy: How to Measure your Social Media Program) [...]

Posted by The Waving Cat » Blog Archive » Do You Know How to Use the Web to Innovate? on October 13th, 2007 at 11:01 am

[...] Web Strategy: How to Measure your Social Media Program [...]

Posted by This Week’s Links on Ma.gnolia | ::HorsePigCow:: marketing uncommon on October 15th, 2007 at 12:00 am

[...] Pour finir vous pouvez lire un brillant article sur la façon de bien mesurer un programme social. [...]

Posted by Revue de Liens : Google, Paypal, cartographie et Réseaux Sociaux. « Content web et bien plus … on October 15th, 2007 at 1:29 am

[...] Web Strategy: How to Measure your Social Media Program Liked this comment at the post from Glenn Fannick too - “Quant is the easy first step. But there is no doubt your analysis is only half done if you don’t have qualitative data.” (tags: glennfannick socialmedia roi jeremiahowyang socialmediastrategy metrics measurement) [...]

Posted by Conversations with Dina » links for 2007-10-18 on October 18th, 2007 at 9:26 am

[...] the past year, people like Jeremiah Owyang, Kami Huyse, Scott Karp, Christopher Carfi, Mike Manuel, the Research Fellows at the Society for [...]

Posted by "Community Project: Roundtable on Social Media Measurement" from Pro PR on December 26th, 2007 at 10:39 am

[...] How to sell the value of social media to your boss - Rohit Bhargava - Influential Marketing Blog Web Strategy: How to Measure your Social Media Program - Web Strategy by Jeremiah 10 Reasons Why Social Media Marketing Sucks - Collective Thoughts - Andy [...]

Posted by How to Really Sell Social Media on February 20th, 2008 at 9:48 am

[...] on the web. Or better, how do we demonstrate tangible business value through social conversation? Jeremiah Owyang’s musings on the topic come to mind. As I’ve previously noted, we could count the number of comments a post has [...]

Posted by Links and Algorithms behind Blog Statistics: BlogBabel reopens. | Antezeta Web Marketing on July 20th, 2008 at 12:36 pm

[...] possiamo dimostrare valore tangibile di business tramite le conversazioni sociali? I riflessioni di Jeremiah Owyang sul tema vengono in mente. Come ho già spiegato, possiamo contare il numero di commenti di un post ha [...]

Posted by I Link ed Algoritmi dietro le Statistiche Blog: BlogBabel riapre. | Antezeta Web Marketing on July 20th, 2008 at 12:39 pm

[...] for referrer logs to your website from Twitter, and use search tools to gain intelligence. Read Social Media Measurement strategy for more [...]

Posted by twitter and b2b : B2B Relevance on November 6th, 2008 at 9:54 am

Posted by Usefull Links About Twitter and Business | homer gaines on December 3rd, 2008 at 9:22 pm

[...] How to Measure your Social Media Program (Web Strategy by Jeremiah) [...]

Posted by How to Sell Social Media … to Clients, CEOs, and other Skeptics « I Crashed The Web on January 30th, 2009 at 2:02 pm

[...] How to Measure your Social Media Program From Web Strategy by Jeremiah: Excellent discussion of how to measure the success of your social media program and how to use these metrics to sell the value of social media to others. [...]

Posted by HOW TO Sell Social Media to Cynics, Skeptics & Luddites - Tips, Resources & Advice on February 2nd, 2009 at 4:27 am

[...] How to Measure your Social Media Program From Web Strategy by Jeremiah: Discussion of how to measure the success of your social media program and how to use these metrics to sell the value of social media to others. [...]

Posted by Social Media Metrics Superlist: Measurement, ROI, & Key Statistics Resources on February 3rd, 2009 at 7:08 am

[...] would definitely be worth a read. In his post Jeremiah links to another blog entry of his about measuring the impact of your social networking initiatives. A useful contribution to the tricky question of metrics in [...]

Posted by Twitter and your web strategy « Market Intelligence for Librarians on April 5th, 2009 at 1:52 am

[...] media planning is to figure out how you’re going to measure success.. You want to identify your challenges, goals and concepts to determine how “buzz” will be quantified. Is it blog comments, conversions, links, Twitter [...]

Posted by Creating Your Social Media Plan | Using Social Media for Business on May 19th, 2009 at 6:37 am

[...] program is in your hands; if you’re not proactive, you will not be able to see ROI. I read about how to show to your bosses that this ‘new media’ program is worth it’s weight, but its missing one important [...]

Posted by San Diego Web Site Design and Web Development | Keystone Media » How to Sell Social Media to Your Boss on June 7th, 2009 at 8:43 pm

[...] ubiquitous Jeremiah Owyang provided an excellent guide on how to measure your social media programme as far back as 2006. (Don’t let that put you off though: it’s still completely relevant.) He [...]

Posted by ROI in social media - where are we at? - A Sense of Community - Blogs - Brand Republic on June 30th, 2009 at 2:56 am