Only Three Social Media Metrics That Matter

The Only Three Metrics that Matter A Sanity Plea for Social Media Measurement recorded Webinar available at: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/950448491 Eric Anderson VP of Emerging Media White Horse

Instant Poll: Are you facing pressure to justify social media programs through stronger metrics?

Yes

No

No social media programs underway or planned

N/A

Accountability is good, but the risk is that complexity will lead to paralysis. Therefore, a sanity plea:

Thou shalt not over-quantify

Thou shalt not make a false god of direct response

Thou shalt not freak out about ROI

1. Thou shalt not over-quantify. There are seemingly as many social media measurement tools as there are social media tactics. These tools all claim to give you an at-a-glance read on your social media presence. © 2009 White Horse Productions, Inc. Content may not be reused without permission.

1. Thou shalt not over-quantify. They’ve taken their cue from the Web analytics industry with two main features: 1. Proprietary terms. 2. Dashboards. Lots and lots of dashboards. Online Promoter Score Sentiment Analysis Brand Association Map (BAM) Community Health Index © 2009 White Horse Productions, Inc. Content may not be reused without permission.

1. Thou shalt not over-quantify. These tools are great for scraping social media for your brand terms. But we like the free ones even better. © 2009 White Horse Productions, Inc. Content may not be reused without permission.

1. Thou shalt not over-quantify. The fallacy lies in relying on these tools for analysis ; your true social media presence is far too nuanced to be captured by software. Let’s test that… Which would you rather have? © 2009 White Horse Productions, Inc. Content may not be reused without permission. Chicken McNuggets Bird Flu

1. Thou shalt not over-quantify. When analyzed with a leading social media monitoring tool, bird flu has a more positive reputation than McNuggets. © 2009 White Horse Productions, Inc. Content may not be reused without permission.

Instant Poll: How are you currently measuring your social media presence?

Using a subscription monitoring tool

Manually compiling data and/or using free tools

Outsourcing the task to an agency/contractor

Not currently measuring

Other/NA

2. Thou shalt not make a false god of direct response. Social media is about interaction, not direct action. Insisting on direct response results will destroy its potential for marketing. We’ve been down this road before, and it wasn’t pretty. © 2009 White Horse Productions, Inc. Content may not be reused without permission. Banner advertising average response rate (CTR)

2. Thou shalt not make a false god of direct response. Besides, the whole notion of direct response changes once we acknowledge that we don’t always need to drive people to our own site. © 2009 White Horse Productions, Inc. Content may not be reused without permission.

3. Thou shalt not freak out about ROI. “ There is not enough ROI for figuring out ROI. It is an intellectually bankrupt exercise.” - Andrew McAfee, Harvard Business School © 2009 White Horse Productions, Inc. Content may not be reused without permission.

3. Thou shalt not freak out about ROI. A UGC promotion adds about 10% to the production cost of a broadcast campaign, and 0% to the media cost. The ROI risk is negligible, and the potential rewards are great. © 2009 White Horse Productions, Inc. Content may not be reused without permission.

3. Thou shalt not freak out about ROI. Jeremiah Owyang, Forrester Research Yet the direct ROI pressure persists. This is how bad it’s gotten. © 2009 White Horse Productions, Inc. Content may not be reused without permission.

3. Thou shalt not freak out about ROI. Intuitively we all know that many good marketing tactics aren’t easily measured. But we still need easy ways to sell them in. © 2009 White Horse Productions, Inc. Content may not be reused without permission.

If we can agree that social media marketing…

Is more qualitative than quantitative

Is more about connecting with consumers than converting them

Is more about reforming traditional marketing than replacing it

Impressions! The world’s simplest litmus test: does including social media in a marketing program produce more impressions than not including it? Source: Fox Interactive Media , Never-Ending Friending, 2007 © 2009 White Horse Productions, Inc. Content may not be reused without permission.

Impressions are…

A universally understood cross-channel metric

The essence of brand-building

The minimum attributable benefit of social media.

Impressions come in three flavors. The differences are important; they determine how you’ll use the data across your organization. C-level Brand Marketing Digital Marketing PR Customer Service © 2009 White Horse Productions, Inc. Content may not be reused without permission.

1. The Good. These are the moments of true brand evangelism, when users actively carry your brand message forward. C-level Brand Marketing Digital Marketing PR Customer Service © 2009 White Horse Productions, Inc. Content may not be reused without permission.

1. The Good. What matters is not the quantity of good stuff (a very shaky metric), but the breakdown of its content . On the brand front, it tells you what positioning you can own. © 2009 White Horse Productions, Inc. Content may not be reused without permission.

2. The Bad The differences are important; they determine how you’ll use the data across your organization. C-level Brand Marketing Digital Marketing PR Customer Service © 2009 White Horse Productions, Inc. Content may not be reused without permission.

2. The Bad The bad stuff tends to get buried, but it’s critical to get it in front of your brand team so you can steer a course around it. © 2009 White Horse Productions, Inc. Content may not be reused without permission.

2. The Bad In many cases you need to address the bad stuff directly. When it’s done right, you can make a virtue of it. © 2009 White Horse Productions, Inc. Content may not be reused without permission.

3. The everyday The everyday is vital stuff; it’s a measure of how well your brand is woven into the fabric of everyday life. C-level Brand Marketing Digital Marketing PR Customer Service © 2009 White Horse Productions, Inc. Content may not be reused without permission.

3. The everyday The brand equity inherent in the everyday is what makes a facial tissue a Kleenex and a bandage a Band-Aid. © 2009 White Horse Productions, Inc. Content may not be reused without permission.

3. The everyday Better than any tracking study, the everyday tells you how far your brand has extended within a given community. This tells you where you can take advantage of that equity, and where you need to push it further. © 2009 White Horse Productions, Inc. Content may not be reused without permission.

3. The everyday The everyday is the truest and by far the most frequent word of mouth datum. It won’t register as such in the “Engagement” models currently being proposed, and yet it is a very deep form of brand engagement. © 2009 White Horse Productions, Inc. Content may not be reused without permission.

THANK YOU! I’d love to hear about your experience and perspectives on social media measurement. The r ecorded Webinar that accompanies this deck is available at: https ://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/950448491 Eric Anderson [email_address] Big list of free monitoring tools: http://measurementcamp.wikidot.com/tools-for-measurement More eloquent sanity pleas than mine: Calculating Twitter’s ROI for Marketers by Pete Blackshaw Perhaps Social Media Shouldn’t Matter by Jason Falls © 2009 White Horse Productions, Inc. Content may not be reused without permission.