Getting started in measuring social media is no different than your experience as a communicator in measuring any other platform, you have to start with being sure you are working with a sound communications strategy, understanding what outcomes you need, and aligning tactics that use the appropriate social media platform to the strategy. (and don't forget your audience need to live on that platform). Getting the measurements then becomes a process of selectively choosing measurements that will be best able to allow you to measure and monitor performance in a sustainable way. Given at PRSA Buffalo 8/11/09 by Rebecca Bernstein (@virtualr), University at Buffalo Web Team Leader and Web Strategist

1. Everything I knowI learned in Com 101 Measuring Social Media Rebecca Bernstein UB Web Team Leader

2. Trust your instincts Years of experience building sound communications strategies and measuring effectiveness, but a new platform throws our confidence. Why is that?

3. You know what to do. You just need to thoughtfully apply your strategies to your audiences who use social media platforms and measure. Huh?

4. OK take a platform TV Print Billboards Radio

5. would you invest? Why?What?How? would you measure? would you monitorresults?

6. Social Media 101 How do you gain expertise? Yourself? Draw from your team? Hired guns? Why is social media any different? Because it’s ”free”?

7. Our conversation should not only be about should we experiment with social media, but the consequences of the opportunity loss of not getting in front of the effort. It’s already started.

8. Q: How do I measure success? A: What do you hope to accomplish?

9. Think. Key reason to think about a social media strategy (framed and supported by a strong communications strategy): We all know what we want to accomplish. We want coordinated efforts that support our brand experience and deeply connect to and build bonds with our audiences.

10. Strategize. Coordinate, collaborate and communicate within our organizations so that our social media brand presence has a gestalt built on a thoughtful set of investments that leverage the unique flavor of each platform and the skills of each social media brand ambassador.

11. Strategize. Social Media should not be the driver for building a communications strategy, it should be a tactic applied.

12. Communication Plan and Social Media Sweet Spot Rebecca Bernstein 2009

13. http://blogs.forrester.com/groundswell/2008/10/new-2008-social.html

14. Audience. Adults who have a profile on an online social network site has more than quadrupled in the past four years. Users >65 years up by 58% over last year. Average social networker goes to social sites five days a week and checks in about four times a day for an hour each day. - Pew Internet & American Life Project 7/09

15. Profile the Platforms. Connect with users on the playing field of their own interest and build on that relationship. Match the platform to your objectives.

16. Platform. x Seth Godin’s Blog August 5, 2009

17. Facebook Many charitable and religious organizations are remarkably successful leveraging Facebook, while Fortune 1000 companies struggle. Recommending your favorite charitable cause to your friends is completely non threatening and socially acceptable. Trying to advance a product recommendation isn't. Personal life Friends and family Median Age: 24-27 and aging daily Pew Internet 3/09 What Your Favorite Social Network Says About You. Ad Age Digital 7/8/09

18. Facebook 45% will link only to family or friends 18% will link only to people they've met in person Almost two-thirds associate only with people they know offline More likely to be married, white and retired than other social networks Second highest income Late adopters Pew Internet 3/09 What Your Favorite Social Network Says About You. Ad Age Digital 7/8/09

19. Linkedin Some executives will not accept work related Facebook friends while they readily do so on their Linkedin account. Use for business or work, citing keeping in touch with business networks, job searching, business development and recruiting as top reasons. Like news, employment info, sports and politics. More likely to be into the gym, spas, yoga, golf and tennis. Work life Career-focused, Networking Male Highest income More likely to watch soap operas, own electronics, gamble Median Age: 40 Pew Internet 3/09 What Your Favorite Social Network Says About You. Ad Age Digital 7/8/09

20. Twitter Twitter's social graphs, "opt in" follower model and micro-broadcasting lend better to business thought leadership or expert advice. Interested in a wide breadth of subjects, especially pop culture, with music, movies, TV and reading, ranking higher than average. Super users. Mindcasting and Lifecasting Network based on interests and connections Porn abounds Teens don’t tweet. Pew Internet 3/09 What Your Favorite Social Network Says About You. Ad Age Digital 7/8/09

21. MySpace The young, the fun and the fleeing. More likely to have joined for fun and interested in entertaining friends, humor and comedy, and video games. Seek out parenting information more than any other platform. Personal life Hobbies and pix Not into exercise Lowest income More likely to be single, black, hispanic or a student than other social networks Median Age: 24-27. Pew Internet 3/09 What Your Favorite Social Network Says About You. Ad Age Digital 7/8/09

22. Tactics Focus. Be selective. Choose simple metrics that support your strategy and that you can sustain monitoring. “Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.” -Einstein

23. Tactics Baseline. Assess your brand. Identify metrics to assess brand perception on an ongoing basis. Know what works. Invest your time for maximum ROI.

24. Tactics Leverage. Understand influence. Identify the priority influencers and build relationships. More users do not = more value. You aren’t going to gain anything from people that don’t truly care about what you have to say. Drive users back to your site. Monitor activity.

25. "What world are you living in if you don't know where your users are flocking to?" @jayrosen_nyu on Webstats Tactics Listen.

26. Tactics Listen. Monitor your site. Understand your site rhythms. Build on existing behaviors. Use tracking. Watch where people go. Monitor other sites. The most important conversation about your brand may be happening elsewhere. Monitor the competition. “Know thy self, know thy enemy. Ride the wave. Identify opportunities generated by other sites.

27. Tactics Be Patient. Design for ROI. Quick hit? Or building long term loyal relationships. Give it time. It’s not about fast, it’s about sustainable.

28. Case Study Wedding dance. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-94JhLEiN0

30. Waverider. Monetized by running Click-to-Buy links over the video. Click-to-Buy CTR for "Forever" music video, increased by 2.5x in the last week. http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/i-now-pronounce-you-monetized-youtube.html

31. Case Study Building UB. Issues management by JIT tweaking

39. Issue Unveiled: How are you going to do this in a tight fiscal environment?

41. Case Study WOM. Rewarding conversations, building an internal community.

50. Case Study Go Bulls. Carpe Diem! Fanning the fan flame, riding the wave in a perfect storm.

53. Get this party started. Some interesting places to visit: Getting started on Twitter http://business.twitter.com/twitter101 Mashable How To lists: http://mashable.com/category/how-to-web/ Social Media: http://mashable.com/category/social-media-lists/ Audience trends: Pew Internet & American Life Projecthttp://www.pewinternet.org/topics/Social-Networking.aspx?start=11 WTF Is Social Media? What do you say to someone who doesn’t get it? http://www.slideshare.net/mzkagan/what-the-fk-is-social-media-one-year-later And for the ROI number crunchers among us:http://www.slideshare.net/karlynmorissette/implementing-technology-with-an-eye-on-roi-presentation?type=powerpoint

54. Measure Social Networking Sites * Number of fans/friends/contacts acquired * Number of comments/likes to updates on status * Number of discussions started on groups or pages * Number of fan videos uploaded and comments on them * Number of fan photos uploaded and comments on them * Number of comments left on profiles * If you create an application: # of downloads/installs * Number of questions answered * Number of answers to questions posted Video and Photo Sharing Sites * Number of times the photo or video has be viewed * Number of times the photo or video has been favorited * Number of friends/subscribers to your account or channel * Number of links/embeds to photo of video * Number of comments photo or video has obtained * Number of video responses * Rating level of video or photo by users Forums and Message Boards * Number of active members * Number of new subscribers * Number of posts made * Number of replies to posts you make * Number of friends acquired * Number of private messages you receive/answer Remember true ROI has to be connected to impact on the brand.

55. Monitor Grow Bigger Ears in 10 minutes. Get a gmail account. – http://www.gmail.com Log in to Google Reader. This will become your home base for listening. Note the position of the “Add Subscriptions” button (mid top left) – http://www.google.com/reader Go to Google Blogsearch. Type in your query about your company, your organization, your competitors, and the like. We’ll use the results in the next step. – http://blogsearch.google.com. Note the “Subscribe” links on the bottom left of the page. Right-click the RSS link, and select copy. Go back to Google Reader, click Add Subscription, and select paste. Repeat this for as many variations of searches you want for blogs. Go to Technorati. Perform the same queries there. Neither Google nor Technorati finds it all, so cross-posting works. – http://www.technorati.com Go to Twitter Search. Do the same. – http://search.twitter.com Fine tune your searches by seeing what inaccurate results come from your first attempts, and replace bad searches with better ones. Take the payload of all that raw searching and SORT it using Google Reader. By this, I mean the following: when you find something to note, either Share it (Shift S), or email it to a core team ( type E on the keyboard). Send only the important stuff. Then, let internal employees see the RSS feed of the shared items, or just use the email feature. Whichever works best. This is how you sort the larger pile of info into the smaller and more useful packets that your organization can consume. Most important to the process – DO something with what you’re learning. Figure out the business value of the listening you’re doing, and route it to the right places. Listening isn’t for marketers. It’s for the organization. It’s for customer service, for product management, for the senior team, etc. Social Media Monitoring suggestions by Chris Brogan

56. Tools. Try these. Google Analytics Twitalyzer JamiQ Alexa Social Profiles http://www.forrester.com/Groundswell/profile_tool.html RSS feeds Google Alerts Google News Search Google Blog Search Google Trends Yahoo! News Search Yahoo Alerts Bloglines Search Digg Technorati Commentful BlogPulse Blog Pulse Trendrr Bit.ly Twellow Twitterstats TweetStats CoTweet Twittorati