Interesting white paper that puts in place another piece of the jigsaw. Trying to measure the effectiveness of social media is a ‘social science’ akin to trying to measure the effectiveness of employee communications or employee engagement (I’m an internal communicator). Yet the consistently higher quality of thought and conjecture around this topic is stimulating. Not sure what the ultimate aim is – an equation, a chart, a set of questions, a methodology, a way of thinking – but I’ll see you when you get there.

Now an industry index would be great. Adoption will be the key because corporates love to compare! First and right are crucial: Gallup have made a lucrative market providing a straightforward approach to measuring ‘employee engagement’, with the impact being that many companies equate an increase in the score as the aim of employee engagement. Yet many internal commuincators – who will responsible for utilising social media – are not yet sure what employee engagement is, let alone that Gallup is the way to go. The more who are aware of the process/theory/trial, the better.

I am a SM measurement skeptic, but am all for trying new ideas out. So, after reading this, I applied the only metric discussed in the paper that was in fact applicable, Stowe’s CI. For a nascent company blog that has not been promoted, I got a very pleasing result. Good conversation taking place, pointing toward a bright future (with the attendant “ifs”).

The rest of the paper was interesting, but when it comes to measurement, as opposed to ‘paths of investigation’ perhaps, you need that number at the end of the equation, that ‘graphable thingfish’ (I believe the mathematicians call it). Or, as Lark called it, “a list of business-related metrics that demonstrate tangible business value.”

I will attend the discussion as it progresses. As I said earlier, there is a problem with cobbling together metrics on something that is as resistant as a duck is to water. We need, if we’re going to worry about measurements (again, I get to reaching for the Ativan when I hear that word) a credible ways of finding those graphable numbers across the experience, so we can mix and matched based on our companies’ needs.

Of course, I’m relatively new to this element of the discussion, so I’m still educating.

Thank you for sharing this paper which does an excellent job of summarizing the difficulty of measuring the effectiveness of social media.

I find it ironic though that the text of the report is locked into a pdf file and thus cut off from the indexing and tagging that would allow it to take part of the debate which it is trying to resolve.

Jeremiah, this will be incredibly valuable to me. Australia is struggling with social computing adoption and having something concrete to use will help immensely.

jeremiah,

The background image comes out as a big black image which covers up all the text behind it…

The image I mean is the one with the different squares.. although it’s nicely in the background in the pdf the image seems to challenge my printers…

thanks for having answered, speaks for you! I’m a big fan of this site.

martin

Jeremiah,

I have been a traditional lurker on your blog. Here’s my 1st post!

This paper is a big step forward from where we were a year ago. At that juncture, we were still trying to learn more about social media and its measurement requirements. It was good to meet and learn from the movers and shakers in the space.

We are actively enhancing our product roadmap to develop techniques and tools that better addresses the uniqueness of social media measurement needs. We don’ claim to have all the answers; however we are listening and participating.

I look forward to this conversation moving on and stimulating more food for thought.

Hey Jeremiah

Finally surfacing after a couple of days at a CRM conference in NY. It’s great to see a lot of participants in the conversation and particularly a few posts from somewhat unexpected quarters. All further testament to the need to understand how to truly measure impact, or reach, or that pesky “influence.”

What’s the “value” of this paper reaching an audience in Australia, or reaching the legal community, via some of your commenters above? I’d sure like to know, and the more people recognize that this hidden value is truly real, the more critical mass the effort to measure it will gain.

Look forward to seeing you in SF next month!

As I posted here I was one of the folks at the session that spawned this white paper. We went in there hoping to find some good fodder for an accurate way to measure influence on the blogosphere. As far as I’m concerned, we’re still looking. But it might be that there isn’t a way of measuring influence because it’s not something that can even be defined. Or perhaps because it means a different thing to each person there isn’t a practical way of standardizing it.

Jeremiah, could you advise if there has been an update or another look at this subject since 2007? Please advise link?