The challenges of measuring social media
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There are many challenges to measuring social media. Platforms and tools make it easy to measure information that is not relevant rather than measuring what matters. Irrespective of this, no two platforms provide the same data anyway. To get maximum benefit, a PR pro must stick to the basics, focussing on goals, objectives, strategies and tactics. Armed with this they can identify what success looks like and shape the metrics accordingly.
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The challenges of measuring social media
- 1. The Challenges of Measuring Social Media Richard Bagnall, Metrica
- 3. 2007
- 4. 2010
- 6. Some conversations are private
- 8. Bob Garfield
- 10. “ The herd will be heard”
- 12. Where to start, what to do?
- 13. Clear obstacles
- 14. Listen
- 15. G oals O bjectives S trategy T actics
- 17. Some social media monitoring challenges
- 18. Volume & Relevance Co. A Co. B Co. C
- 19. Coverage by channel Co. A Co. B Co. C
- 20. Speed & Delay Co. A Co. B Co. C
- 21. Sentiment Accuracy Co. A Co. B Co. C Metrica (without analysts) ‘ CHANCE’
- 22. Volume - Forget absolute numbers Beware scoring systems Who matters? Influence v relevance. Treat automated metrics with caution Private conversations Query string is crucial Measure appropriately Summary of the challenges
- 23. A final thought
- 25. [email_address] www.metrica.net/measurementmatters www.twitter.com/richardbagnall www.linkedin.com/in/richardbagnall Let’s keep in touch:
Editor's Notes
- Slowly and smiley! Next – Hands Up!
- A lot to get though Let’s start with a quick show of hands. HANDS UP IF! You’re currently using Twitter, MySpace, Facebook etc For Business purposes ? Who is measuring what they’re doing? Who is happy with it? And who has set clearly defined goals and objectives? OK, interesting, so lets take a look in more detail
- Social media as we know it really began only a few years ago By 2007 – A map of internet social networks
- By 2010 it has changed Empires come (Twitter, Foursquare) and Empires fall (MySpace, AOL) There is so much content , it’s unstructured and is uncontrollable For brand managers this is a major challenge Next: no wonder our marketing departments are worried
- And it gets more difficult for them still – not only are audiences fragmenting as content proliferates… But there are other challenges too Next; some conversations are private
- The fact that they always have been doesn’t deter some from wanting to listen in. Next - Worse, when the audience isn’t talking in private, it talks back
- It can be loud, two way, and permanent. Suddenly the audience is mobilised, well grouped and in control. It can talk about the brand, in public - in the media - whether the brand is involved or not After years of limited say, now they want their voice to be heard. Next Bob Garfield
- Who has heard of Bob Garfield? He’s actually an incredibly smart guy – US journalist / broadcaster – Advertising Age, USA Today, ABC News etc Also an author
- The Chaos Scenario Highly recommended Next; As Bob describes it: The herd will be heard
- Bob likes to summarise the challenge as “ the herd will be heard” Next: to summarise
- It’s a fundamental shift for communicators , but also for the measurement profession It takes us from measuring out puts – to measuring – the out take – and in some cases doing – the outcome . Effectively it has become like market research It’s a discipline that PR should rightfully own It’s about communication Target audiences Reputation And now we can see and hear what our audience actually think Next: so how to start
- So great, lets jump in! But first, where to start Next: Clear obstacles
- Clear the business obstacles : buy in of: Legal IT Your bosses Write guidelines and policies Establish the structure of the team you are going to use Then listen
- Probably most common advice anyone hears. Listen to understand what’s been said Like being at a party you listen before speaking. - free tools & platforms great for listening While you’re listening take the time to plan – Think about: - how you’re going to speak - to whom and to say what? - who are you trying to influence? - what success would look like? Best way: GHOST
- Then plan Advice all over the net, including Gorkana last week
- David Phillips on Gorkana just this week
- So now it’s time to monitor and measure Beware of platforms and free tools To illustrate this for you I wanted to share the results of a recent trial we have undertaken of the three leading platforms Our findings were startling. Two week trial, one detailed search string
- Total numbers differ by almost 100% On average 40% of coverage is irrelevant Overlap between any two aggregators is only around 20%
- Aggregator volumes differ across channels No aggregator is comprehensive Next: speed / timeliness
- Only one company was finding most content in acceptable time frame. Two were taking about 24 hours to find some content – on average! Two of the companies suffered outages during our trial! Next tone
- Automated sentiment analysis was not very good One company performed worse than random base line! The others didn’t perform much better than 50:50. Recent project work : One years worth of data Aggregator supplied 94,910 After removing irrelevant pubs & dupes = 70,000 After our own Boolean searches = 40,000 After human analysis of all clips = 33,662 Next: summary of challenges
- There’s masses of content, growing all the time - Forget Absolute numbers – they don’t exist in social media Beware scoring systems – they’re always flawed Who matters? Influence v relevance . – Your target audience is what matters! Automated sentiment analysis is not there …yet Closed conversations - Some content is private – deal with it Query string is crucial – get help with it Focus on the language of your business, ask yourself at the outset what success looks like and measure v your objectives . Measure what Matters – not just what’s easy
- Don’t let us be bombed back to the dark ages
- Just as we’re on the cusp of a new era in measurable communications
- Thank you.