Measuring the “social” in social media
A presentation for the Knight Digital Media Center
Transforming News Organizations for the Digital Now
July 19-21, 2009
Dana Chinn
Lecturer

Social media rules
1. Listen
2. Engage
3. Measure
• Audience
• Engagement
• Loyalty
• Influence
• Action
Metrics should map to goals. Period.
From “What the **** is Social Media - One Year Later,” Marta Kagan, Espresso|Brand Infiltration, July 16, 2009. Some explicit words.
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Not only are the technologies new,
but the metrics are as well.
--Online Media and Marketing Association Metrics and Measurement program, June 2009
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An investment in social media also
implies an investment
in the resources needed
to monitor and measure it.
You can't just let it run by itself,
without intervention or participation.
--Sarah Hofstetter, VP, Emerging Media & Client Strategy, 360i
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Investing in social media metrics
1. Align social media services with business objectives
2. Define the participants in each community
3. Decide on features based on touch points
4. Use Key Performance Indicators
Set benchmarks....goals....fail levels
5. Measure ROO in addition to ROI
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The right words determine what to measure
A social media service (not just a site)
serves participants (not just readers or users)
in a community of people
who group themselves
by their interests (not just by demographics or geography)
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Social media:
a constant stream of calls to action
For consumers
the true value of a network
is measured
by the frequency of engagement
of the participants.
-- Interactive Advertising Bureau Social Media Ad Metrics Definitions, May 2009
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Asking the right questions
service Does the
service
uniquely participants
fulfill Are members contributing and
needs? communicating with each other?
Wants?
community of people
who group themselves
by their interests
Are the key people - the
influencers - in the community?
Do people feel they belong?
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A social media evolutionary spectrum
Awareness Engagement
Long-term
...just using Twitter investment
as an RSS feed for your site in building
is a missed opportunity ...a listening infrastructure audiences
--Tim O’Reilly, O’Reilly Media
--Jerry Needel, SVP, BuzzMetrics, Nielsen Online
...a catalyst,
...a third news cycle participant in
that starts communities
before blogs and
traditional media
--Bastien Beauchamp via Steve Rubel
What type of metrics will track your progress?
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Understand Twitter,
understand how social media is measured
Even in
the most simple channel,
all users are not equal
in
power,
reach,
authority
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Twitter Grader:
Going beyond counting followers
No. of followers
Power of followers
Follower/Following ratio
No. of updates
Update recency
Retweets, references, citations
Power of user retweeting you
Make Tweets less than 125 characters so “RT @username” and “via @username” is easier.
Missing: hashtags, links, content, quitters
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Track links, use custom shortened URLs
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Review hashtags,
keywords, sentiment
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Twitter metric tools are easy to use,
but are they useful?
If tracked over time, they may allow you to see if
• increases or decreases in time and effort made any
difference
• where you stand vs. other participants, competitors
• influencers, trends are emerging or fading
Because Twitter metric tools use usernames, they give the most info. for decision-
making if they’re used for a specific topic/person (e.g., nytimesarts, not @nytimes).
See a chart of 20 free Twitter metric tools at http://www.newsnumbers.com/socialmedia.html
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A social media metrics methodology
1. Align social media services with business objectives
2. Define the participants in each community
3. Decide on features based on touch points
4. Use Key Performance Indicators
Set benchmarks....goals....fail levels
5. Measure ROO in addition to ROI
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1. Align social media services with business objectives
• Name of the service
a slug rather than a sentence
• Purpose of the service
What will the service actually do?
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Types of social media channels
Sharing
Networking
News
Bookmarking
Reviews
-- “Five essentials for social media marketing,” by Lisa Wehr, CEO/Oneupweb, iMedia Connection, July 17, 2009
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1. Align social media services with business objectives
• Impact on business objectives
• News/information objectives
Attract new audiences; retain current ones
Increase site traffic, engagement
Deepen the connection with our communities
• Financial objectives
Increase revenue (advertising, other)
Note: A social media service may not have any direct impact on financial
objectives.
• Opportunity costs
What will you give up to provide this service?
What will you not do?
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If you start it, you must maintain it
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Friends of Mahal Facebook group, July 17, 2009
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2. Define the participants in each community
• Primary, secondary audiences
Be specific so you can measure them, set realistic goals
Who - by name - are the influencers?
• Dominant characteristics
Most important: How do they use social media?
Use age, gender, Forrester Groundswell Consumer Profile Types
as a starting point, framework
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Type of participation varies
http://www.forrester.com/Groundswell/profile_tool.html
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Use market intelligence to help define audiences,
but adjust - or guess - accordingly
Teens don’t use Twitter
because it’s too public and
not a closed network like Facebook
--TechCrunch 7/13/09 story about a Morgan Stanley report written by a 15-year-old intern in the U.K.
Is this report
an opinion (not a study)
about a small group of teen boys
in the U.K.?
Even if it is just an opinion,
does this finding
identify something
you should find out
about your target audience?
Bottom line:
Do most teens
in your target audience
or community
use Twitter?
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2. Define the participants in each community
• Geographies
• Other characteristics or behaviors
that the service should address
• Social media competitors,
particularly niche services, mobile apps
• Approximate size of each group of participants
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Understand the limitations
of your data sources
The Facebook ad
application only
gives you people on
Facebook who filled
out the form.
You don’t know
how many:
didn’t give details
or
updated their status
or
told the truth
or
aren’t in Facebook
or...
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3. Decide on features...
• List features and the needs, wants each fulfills
• Decide which channels you should use
Sharing, networking, news, bookmarking, reviews
• Assess your role vs. other participants’ roles
Other participants include influencers, competitors
What unique value do you bring
that is needed, wanted
by the participants?
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Touch points are measurable calls to action
Did they see it, like it, participate?
• Stories: PV/visit; visits/UV; bounce rate; comments
• Blogs: Google Alerts; TrackBacks; RSS feeds; buzz
• Twitter: usernames; hashtags; links; retweets
• Facebook: fans/friends; discussion topics; wall posts; comments to wall
posts; photos; videos
• Photos/slideshows: percent of show viewed; no. posted; comments
• Videos: views; ratings; comments; pass-along (viral)
• Events: sign-ups; attendees; buzz
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Advertisers: proof of audience, participation
• Targeted audience reach, frequency
• Audience profile
• Unique visitors, active users; page views; visits, return visits; time spent
• Growth; “conversation reach”
• Content relevance
• Author (journalists, others) credibility; content freshness; influence
• Calls to action answered
• Passive: downloads; games played; videos viewed; alerts subscribed/
unsubscribed; widgets installed
• Info submitted: comments posted; topics/forums created; photos, videos
uploaded; poll votes; ratings, reviews, recommendations; contests entered
• Interaction: friends reached; in/out links; reposts
Derived from Interactive Advertising Bureau Social Media Ad Metrics Definitions, May 2009
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Analyzing content
• Who - influencers vs. detractors
• What are the conversations that are connecting
people?
• Sentiment - positive vs. negative
• Problems unrelated to the service that need to be
addressed
Tools:
Free: Google Alerts, SamePoint, SocialMention, PostRank, Facebook Lexicon,
Trendrr, Addict-o-matic
Paid: Radian6, Spiral16, Chat Catcher
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4. Key Performance Indicators
The data you need to make decisions
What does success look like?
Ratios, percents indicate participation, engagement
• Content: comments/post; bounce rate
• Twitter: PVs/URL; tweets/influencer; retweets/tweet
• Facebook: Percent of fans in target audience; discussion topics/influencer; wall
posts/fan
• Photos/slideshows: percent of show viewed; percent of target audience who
posted; comments/slideshow
• Videos: views/UV; percent of UVs who rated
• Attitudes: transparency; trust; are you adding value to the conversation?
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5. Measure the Return On Objectives
Were the benefits from the service
worth the time, money and effort?
• KPIs
• Panels, usability studies - particularly with influencers
• Online surveys - current participants
• Audience surveys - future participants
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Setting KPIs
• List all of the touch points by feature
• Decide what the KPI for each touch point is
• Weight each feature/KPI based on:
• its importance to achieving your objectives
• whether it leads to better decisions
• whether you have the resources, ability, authority to manage it
• Set benchmarks, goals, fail points - and dates
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Dana Chinn
chinn@usc.edu
213-821-6259
Blog, bookmark word cloud:
http://www.newsnumbers.com
Analytics for news orgs bookmarks:
http://www.delicious.com/danachinn
Slides, worksheets, Twitter tools chart, video metrics:
http://www.newsnumbers.com/socialmedia.html
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