YES YOU CAN Measure Social Media

Even though I am a creative at heart, so it strikes a lot of people as strange that I’m caught so often discussing measurement and analytics. Here’s the thing: I’m also strategic and an activator. And because of my strategic side, I’ve been doing a lot of work over the last year on social media analytics and ROI models. Social media is unlike any other medium we’ve seen before, and so we’ve got to measure it differently.

But I DO believe we can borrow established methodology (why reinvent ALL the wheels?)Â from Word of Mouth, PR, and advertising models and we can approach measuring social media in the same exact way we measure other marketing programs – by tying them to business goals and using Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s). Identifying business objectives, how we establish KPI’s and what information we pull, that’s where the details are. There is no accepted “right or wrong” way to measure social media, but I do believe that measuring and tracking are important. No matter what type of measurement you establish, the key is to stick with it and let the metric tell the story.

I’m really proud of the ROI model I’ve developed for use with my clients. I feel it takes into account the different areas in which social media can impact (PR, Digital Marketing, Product Development, Customer Service), and even more importantly, it gives the client some flexibility to weight certain elements so they reflect the business goals of their company. In a presentation last week at Social Media Club of Hawaii (SMCHI) I presented the audience with my “Road Map” for developing KPI’s and an ROI model. I’ve added the slide show here for your review.

I also had the pleasure of joining Rob Bertolf and Hal Wilkerson on a panel to discuss social media measurement at the Social Media Summit of Hawaii (#SMSHI). If you watch the video, you’ll get to see me having a “Klout Conniption” which is my reaction to using Klout as a business tool. I’ve also added my slides for measurement and ROI. This presentation gives you an overview (a roadmap) of how to develop you’re own Metrics and ROI.

If you are interested in discussing social media analytics further or would like to have an ROI analysis on your program, please feel free to contact me.

Aaaand..now for our show: