Measuring Social Media Effectively

Measuring Social Media Effectively Tactics for monitoring, measuring and analyzing social media campaigns Wednesday – July 22, 2009

Today’s Social Media Marketing Webinar Discussion

The State of Social Media Online

The Power of Influence & Identifying Influencers

Understanding Social Velocity

The ROI (…or “ROP”) of Social Media

Measuring Social Media Marketing For Success

Recap and Q&A

Five Trends for 2009

Brands’ target audiences are on social networks – There will be an estimated 44% more social network users in 2013 than in 2008*

Brands need to keep information fresh – In order to keep users engaged, brands must ensure to keep their content fresh and updated*

Other types of social networks will emerge – Viewers will continue to look for networks that enable them to share and spread information*

Explore the impact of social networks on shopping – Consumers are increasingly relying on social networks to get product related information; brands must link this to the purchase process*

Two-way conversation – The old model of the one-way conversation is over. Users want to be part of the dialogue, so make sure you’re listening

*Source: eMarketer: Social Networks Five Consumer Trends for 2009 February 2009

What Does This Mean for You?

Word of Mouth will always be the best form of advertising for your organization

Friends will always take advice from friends (trust)

But with Social Media, the definition of “Friends” has changed drastically

It’s not a question of if but when you will join the conversation

More importantly, how will you be able to determine if social media has been effective

Regular Members Regular Members Best Members Regular Members Best Members Influencers Regular Members Best Members Influencers

Identify Personas

The success of your viral campaign will depend greatly on how well you have researched the marketplace and analyzed your target demographic

Creating customer personas allows you to determine one or more key target groups into a simple demographic profile

Characteristics Persona 1 Persona 2 Persona 3 Gender Ethnicity Zip Code Age Education Level Internet Usage Habits Goals Problems/Needs

Whose Word of Mouth Matters? *Source: eMarketer: Whose Word-of-Mouth Matters? June 2009

Social Velocity is a formula methodology that describes exponential growth and predicts the organic virility of content. Social Velocity is controlled by four primary variables: The 4Cs Content, Connections, Community and Conversions Understanding Social Velocity Traditional Advertising Social Velocity (Viral Growth) TRAFFIC AD SPEND

Example: Social Velocity

Some Critical Considerations

Your brand no longer belongs to you

If you don’t control the conversation – someone else will

If you can’t control the conversation – you must at least become an authentic part of it

A little bad pushes out tons of good

Talking to existing audiences/members in MUCH more valuable than trying to solicit new ones

Value exchange is critical for engagement

How Can You Measure Social Media Effectively?

(R O P )

RETURN ON PARTICIPATION

Is ROP Important

Consider it this way…

Think about all of the people in your life including friends and family. How much would you be willing to pay to keep them in your life?

When it comes to relationships, ROI is NOT the metric.

What is the ROP in Social Media

Brand building

Relationship management

Service development

Reputation management

Audience interaction

Audience feedback

Customer support

Community building

Measuring Social Media Marketing for ROP Success

Advocacy Measurement

What Is It?

Advocacy: “act or process of advocating or supporting a cause of proposal”

Advocates actively recommend products/services to others

Advocacy Measurement: processes used to measure the act of advocacy

What Should I Measure?

How often your product/service is recommended

Number of times a survey about your product/service is completed

What motivates people to become advocates for your product/service

What topics are advocates of your product/service discussing

From unknown to center stage! Creates awareness

It’s all about interaction – when and how they want. Gives them an edge

Helps build their personal brand 150,142 and counting real supporters… err friends!

Conversation Volume & Share

What Is It?

Conversation Volume: measures overall amount of word of mouth a product/service receives within specific time period

WOM equivalent to Sales Volume

Conversation Share: looks at group of similar brands and the amount of conversation each has compared to the total amount

What Can I Use To Measure?

Syndicated Research (Research Firms, 3 rd Parties, Etc.)

Custom Research (Use own resources and advocates)

Conversation Volume & Share: Diet Coke & Mentos Example

Conversational Reach

What Is It?

Enables an understanding of how far a given marketing message spreads

Provides marketer with opportunity to determine other outcome based metrics (sales, awareness, etc.) to wider population

Referring to number of people who’ve been exposed to a social media brand related message through peer-to-peer connections

Why Important?

Utilize Power of Influence

Enjoy benefits of Viral Cycle & Total Referability

Conversational Reach: Total Referability

Total Referability: Sum of all referrals that come from an initial advocate

For Example:

Consumer 1 referred 2 people

1 of those 2 people was Consumer 2 who referred 5 people

Consumer 1’s Total Referability = 2 + 5 = 7

Important to monitor each level to determine best advocates

Online Methods For Quantifying Conversation Reach

URL Analytics Tracking of Website Visitors

Email Analytics Tracking

Refer-A-Friend/Send-To-A Friend Tracking Platform

Blog Reader Surveying

Generational Conversation Validation & Tracking Platform

What To Consider When Measuring

WHO : Personas of Participants (Demo & Psychographics, Credibility)

HOW : The “Action” (Social Velocity, Conversation Volume & Share)

WHAT : The “Item” (Timeliness, Clarity, Depth)

WHERE : Location (Reach, Awareness, Audience)

RESULTS : Key Performance Indicators (Goals, ROP)

Final Measurement Points To Remember

Traffic to site can be measured by referral sites, organic listings, etc.

Amount of conversation threads – number of comments you receive

Overall brand image - if one month they slam your brand, and the next they are singing your praises, that is a success

Amount of times something is shared with other people

Using analytics, set up goals to track conversions through KPI paths

Number of inbound links to a page or site – which can subsequently affect your natural search rankings

Helpful Tool # 1: Twitalyzer

Unique tool to evaluate the activity of any Twitter user and report on relative influence, signal-to-noise ratio, generosity, velocity, clout, and other useful measures of success in social media.