“The official rules
of social media
measurement”
- By Matt Granfield and Some other
Smarter People

This is a webernated version of the presentation I put
together on measuring social media for The Social
Media Club Sydney chapter on July 20, 2009. I’ve
added some notes, messed around with it a bit and
deleted some bits so no-one sues me. Enjoy
@mattgranfield

This is the agency I work for, I wanted to
briefly introduce myself and explain what
we do... We’re quite famous in Queensland
for fruit campaigns, and helping IceBreak
iced coffee out-sell Coke...

Social Media People
Digital Guys who Me
always stand
at The Back
Advertising People
People in client
People in Suits
service who wear PR People
without Ties
short skirts

Me = Creative/Digital
Strategist
So I’m And not necessarily
good with as good at crunching
Ideas... numbers

So I asked some of these...

How they created these...

Happy American stock Client service dude
photo library client pretending he
understands the
people who just happen results
to look like Malcolm
Turnbull Interns
Results

This was the answer
from the agency CEO

1. PR Value of coverage received = actual ad
This was the value x 3 – this is an old technique, I don’t
like it and it’s actively discouraged by the
answer from PRIA.
the head of PR 2. Cost per person reached – This is good for
companies who compare their ad spend
directly with their PR spend.
3. Setting objectives and timeframes for each
individual campaign. This is the most
effective way as every company wants
something different.
– eg. “Coverage in ‘top 5’ key media +
speaking engagements at 2 conferences
+ promotions in 3 key cities”. This way
we’re managing the clients expectations
and we both have a definite goal in mind.

This was the answer from
the head of search

I asked Cristian Staal, Art Director from Cummins Nitro on the
multi-Cannes-Grands-Prix-winning best job in the world
campaign how they measured its success...
• He said it was incredibly hard to get a figure because the
government can only accept the lowest estimate of reach
• They got to $250,000,000 as the amount of free media
generated based on airtime but it would have been more than
that because they only pay to get stuff monitored for a set
period of time and people are still talking about it
• Also measured hits to website
• He met the head of CTV in Canada at Cannes who told him
that their station had shown 6 hours worth of footage of
Queensland because of the campaign
• And if that was just Canada, imagine how much actually got
shown around the world

I rang* my mate Seth Godin and asked him what
he thought about the subject of measuring social
media and he said:
“I’d rather be in front of 10 people who are the
right people than 10,000 who aren’t...”
“Selling to people who actually want to hear from
you is more effective than interrupting strangers
who don't...”
*That’s a lie, I didn’t ring him, but I did interview him via email
once for my blog, and he did actually say those things to someone
else, but not to me, but it might as well have been me, so it’s still
valid

“I do not regard advertising as
entertainment or art form, but as a
medium of information. When I write an
advertisement, I don’t want you to tell me
that you find it ‘creative.’ I want you to find
it so interesting that you buy the product.”
- David Ogilvy

Based on those conversations, I distilled the
Official Rules of Social Media Measurement
3. The CEO won’t get it at first, but that’s not an
excuse to sit on your arse.
4. Create objectives for each campaign
5. Reaching lots of people is good. Reaching the right
people is better.
6. Awards get you recognition but sales make the
client happy.
7. If you’re big in Canada, you’re doing something
right

How do you calculate reach
and know you’re reaching
the right people?

You need a social media
monitoring tool...

Here’s one I prepared
earlier...

Things to write down if you
would like more info or a
free trial:
www.dialogix.com.au
matt@dialogix.com.au
http://twitter.com/mattgranfield