Soc`ial Media Metrics

Jamie MurphyUniversity of Western AustraliaMurdoch University

Summary

• Social Media Hype•Metrics Overview•Metric Myopia versus Metric

Madness• Free Tools•Digital Goals and Metrics•Closing Thoughts

Social media is like teen sex

Everyone wants to do it.Nobody knows how.When it’s finally done, there is surprise it’s not better.

Avinash Kaushik - Analytics Evangelist, Google

Metrics Overview I

• Behavioural measures• Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)• Often ratios (CTR, Conversion) and trends• Seek continuous learning and subsequent

improvement•Many digital measures• Only one Magic Measure

Metrics Overview II

•Actionable insights rather than digital trivia• Should be simple and easy to obtain•Must align with objectives•Help measure, assess and explain•Cost time and money

ROI: The Magic Measure

Benefits/Gains – Costs ------------------------

Costs•Media and channel agnostic•Types of benefits and gains•Types of costs•Benefits > Costs

New Media, and Metrics, DailyStumble blindly with few metrics or measure many things?

Less Is More

• Paralysis by analysis•Metrics cost time and money to gather•Meaningless or meaningful metrics• Actionable?• Test an idea or campaign• Measure results• Tweak idea or campaign• Repeat the process (A/B testing)

Free Tools | Google• Analytics (install now | bounce rate)• Search filters (try now)• Blogs• Discussions• Length

• Insights• News• Blog Search• Alerts• Website Optimizer (A/B) testing• Keyword Tool

Free Tools | Other

• Facebook Insights• Technorati to search and rank blogs• Del.icio.us • Feedburner fors ubscribers• Compete|Alexa for website traffic• Digg|Stumble Upon for social bookmarks • Boardtracker/Twing for forums

Qualitative Goals

Easy to understand, hard to set and measure• Loyalty• Trust• Passion• Interaction• Brand Awareness

Social Media Players

• VISITOR – voyeurs, customers and competitors• CONTRIBUTOR – interested, opportunists,• DISTRIBUTOR – evangelists/passion,

opportunists/profit

Digital Objectives | Measures

• Sales, online and offline (sales, traffic, conversion)• Publishing|Advertising revenue (visitors, page

views, time on site)• Community building (engagement, influence,

sentiment, posts, other interaction)• Targeting|Segmenting (member ranking,

influence, velocity, comments/post

Digital Objectives | Research

• Find conversations, themes, evangelists, opportunists, buzz and opportunities•Watch competitors• Baseline and assess trends• Track changes• Platform specific and generic

Share of Voice (Altimiter)

• Percentage of brand mentions in social channels (i.e., articles, blogs, comments, Tweets, videos, etc.) in a competitive set• Establish the percentage baseline on

existing market share such as revenue or customers• Segment by social media channel

Engagement (Altimiter)

• Percentage of visitors who participate such as comments, likes, sharing and links.• A leading indicator for dialog about a

specific topic or product. • Variations Audience Engagement help

identify hot and cold issues and topics.

Conversation Reach (Altimiter)• Unique visitors who participate in a

specific conversation across one or more social media channels. • Align the conversation with a specific

marketing initiative, topic or keywords. • As reach depends on the topic, benchmark

and examine trends.

Promote Advocacy (Altimeter)• Percent Active Advocates• Advocate Influence• Advocacy Impact• Direct or indirect contributions of advocacy on

conversions.• Identity conversions, such as sales, document

downloads, or queries • Track referral information

In Conclusion

• Ongoing process• Align expectations with organizational

goals for each social media channel • Benchmark and monitor trends• Simplify, simplify, simplify• Automate, automate, automate

Thank-you | Questions