Clients, colleagues, and managers are always asking for ROI reports. This is especially true when it comes to social media. We’ll walk through the use and abuse of social media metrics—that is, both the wrong way and the right way to analyze your analytics. You’ll leave equipped with a firm understanding of how to best capture and illustrate a relatable yardstick for any digital initiative.

1. How to measure social media

2. “Terence Winter said that when he was writing
The Wolf of Wall Street,he was forever trying to
explain even limited Wall Street terms … like IPO,
before finally concluding that it didn’t matter.
‘People don’t care,’ he said.‘The techno-speak
goes in one ear and out the other. What people
will remember is that in the Madden deal, Jordan
Belfort made $23 million in two hours.”
— JOE NOCERA

3. The Status Quo
Spreadsheets vs. Stories
Dos and Don’ts
6 Tricks

4. PART 1
THE STATUS QUO

5. 80%That’s how many chief marketing officers say they’re “deluged” with
data about their customers, but aren’t sure how to measure them.

11. The metrics,
they are a’changin’.

12. Page Views Unique Visitors Shares
Time Spent Scroll Depth Recirculation

13. “What you see in the industry now is people
jumping around and trying to find
the God metric for content.”
— JONAH PERETTI

14. Metrics tell only
part of the story.

15. TOBY
More college kids think they’ll see UFOs than
Social Security checks.
BARTLET
But they don’t tell you how many believe in
UFOs—that’s the number we ought to be
worried about.
— THE WEST WING

16. OF COND MS AND
KIDNEY STONES

18. “There is a subtle difference between clickable and
shareable content.You might click,for instance,on a
story about the dress mishapAnne Hathaway
experienced while stepping out of a car,but you may
not want to add it to your Facebook feed,lest your
aunts and former classmates think you’re a creep.”
— MATTHEW LYNCH

21. OF BAMACARE
AND FERNS

24. CONTEXT

25. Let’s Recap
 The metrics, they are _’_______’.
 Metrics tell only ____ of the story.

26. PART 2
SPREADSHEETS
VS. STORIES

27. Keep it human.

28. “If I look at the mass, I will never act.”

29. “If I look at the one, I will.”

30. “The death of millions is a statistic.”

31. “The death of one man is a tragedy.”

32. The World Reacts to the Crisis in Syria

33. The World Reacts to the Crisis in Syria

34. The World Reacts to the Crisis in Syria

35. The World Reacts to the Crisis in Syria

36. The World Reacts to the Crisis in Syria

37. The World Reacts to the Crisis in Syria

38. Use analogies.

39. The U.S. federal budget is about $4
trillion a year.

40. The U.S. federal budget is about
$11 billion a day.

41. The U.S. federal budget is about
$500 million an hour.

42. The U.S. federal budget is about
$7.5 million a minute.

43. The U.S. federal budget is about
$127,000 a second.

44. In one second, the federal
government spends what two
typical American families earn in
an entire year.

45. Every two seconds, the federal
government spends enough
money to buy the average house.
That’s your 30-year mortgage paid
off in less time than it takes to
breathe in.

46. In the time it takes you to read this
sentence out loud, the federal
government spent enough money
to buy about half the homes on
your block.

47. Every six weeks, the federal
government spends enough
money to buy Apple, the most
valuable public company in
America.

48. Five more weeks of spending, and
it could also buy ExxonMobil.

49. Grams of Fat
USDA Daily
Recommendation
One Bag of
Movie Popcorn
0 10 20 30 40

50. + +
=

52. Let’s Recap
 Keep it _____.
 Use _________.

53. PART 3
DOS AND DON’TS

56. /USChamber Facebook Page

57. Referral Traffic to FreeEnterprise.com

58. • 158,000 mentions
• 115,000 outbound tweets and direct messages
— PR DAILY DIGITAL PR AND SOCIAL MEDIA AWARDS 2012

59. • Did Twitter serve as an early warning system to
identify problems before they spiraled?
• How many issues did tweeting help you resolve
in real time?
• How many corporate testimonials—i.e., happy
customers—did your tweets give rise to?

61. “Measurements are a means to find the essence of
something.They are not the essence itself.”
— ERIC ELDON

62. 6.5million
That’s how many social interactions nytimes.com generated in
October 2013.

63. The Most Viral Websites

64. This past week, there
were over 1,800 tweets
that mentioned the
Chamber, including 319
that highlighted our
infrastructure and
cybersecurity
messaging.
This past week, the
Chamber earned
retweets from
influencers such as
Christine Lagarde, the
managing director of the
International Monetary
Fund (157,000
followers), and the
Democratic National
Committee (267,000).

65. 332,000
That’s how many fans the Chamber’s Facebook page has.

66. Facebook Pages of
Pro-Business Trade Associations

67. Facebook Pages of the
Top Trade Associations

69. That’s how many monthly active users Facebook has.
1.3billion

76. PART 4
6 TRICKS

78. More people have
a mobile phone than
a toilet.
Only 4.5 billion people
have access to a clean,
working toilet.
WATERAIDUK

79. More people have
a mobile phone than
a toilet.
Only 4.5 billion people
have access to a clean,
working toilet.
WATERAIDUK

81. More than 350,000
women die during
pregnancy or childbirth
every year.
THEHUFFINGTONPOST

82. Awoman dies every 90
seconds of pregnancy-
related causes.That’s
1,000 women a day.
More than 350,000
women die during
pregnancy or childbirth
every year.
THEHUFFINGTONPOST

84. 64 million girls are
forced into child
marriage every year.
CARE

85. In some countries,a girl
is more likely to be
forced into child
marriage than learn how
to read.
64 million girls are
forced into child
marriage every year.
CARE

87. One billion people
around the world are
hungry.
GLOBALCITIZEN

88. One billion people
around the world are
hungry.That’s more
than the population of
America,Canada,and
the European Union
combined.
One billion people
around the world are
hungry.
GLOBALCITIZEN

90. It would cost $30
billion a year to end
global hunger.
CARE

91. It would cost $30 billion
a year to end global
hunger.Sounds like a lot,
right?American
consumers spend nearly
half of that on Super
Bowl goodies alone.
It would cost $30
billion a year to end
global hunger.
CARE

93. In launching the Kindle,
Jeff Bezos boasted that
the Kindle library
contained 90,000 books.

94. To own a Kindle is to
have a Barnes & Noble
bookstore at your
fingertips.
In launching the Kindle,
Jeff Bezos boasted that
the Kindle library
contained 90,000 books.

95. Let’s Recap
 Draw a __________.
 Translate big numbers into ____.
 Use “____ or ____ likely” logic.
 Cite __________ data.
 Hit them where it hurts: their ______.
 Stress ________, not features.

96. Questions?
• @jrick
• hi@jonathanrick.com
• linkedin.com/in/jrick