Social media metrics are still in their infancy and I believe we are going to witness some tangible improvements in the short term. Having said that, the concept of ROA is not without value. This is what I think David Meerman Scott is at least partially referring to when he talks about the demise of ROI in the social media: it is not about selling units but about participating in the conversation and taking it to new ‘viral’ levels.

To my mind traditional ROI still has a part to play, but not in the strict sense we have got used to in ‘traditional’ offline marketing and advertising. The same argument could of course be applied to traditional accounting, with the advent of the so-called ‘social’ and ‘environmental’ accounting.

In the end, we are all ready and expectant for social media metrics to emerge as a distinct and credible new field that can add value beyond justifying investment on new platforms and channels.

@best relations ¿Tiene sentido la medición en medios sociales? [link to post]

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RT @best relations ¿Tiene sentido la medición en medios sociales? [link to post]

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So somehow we’re compelled to create our own mythical social media number to apply to the work we do to prove the value that we’re creating, all based on an advertising theory that was applied and skewed by PR 20-30 years ago. It makes no sense.

I see elements of social media developing into a customer service role – what then is the value you can put on a brand helping out a customer? What is the value to a brand of having a call centre where people are actively talking to customers to solve their issues? Have any brands tried? No.

With social media, we’re turning to providing the same sort of function – it’s a one to one transaction.

ROA is an interesting alternative but i don’t think brands are ready to adopt anything like it because there’s no direct monetary attributable end product. It’s only when brands wake up and realise that there’s more to the service they’re providing than lining the pockets of their executives, such as offering first class customer service AND a good product, that we’ll see this ROI debate begin to diminish.

I think this is why smaler brands are more confortable taking on social media and using it as a marketing tactic – they need to build relationships with their customers to retain business and grow, which brings another interesting question: Is Return on Attention the same as Return on Relationship?

¿Tiene sentido la medición en medios sociales? [link to post]

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The world of communications is rapidly changing. And the most simplistic way to think about social media measurement is this: 10 years ago, brands would have willingly paid good money for any analysis of what conversations took place about them in pubs/living rooms. Now they can get it for virtually free. That they could, and should now be measuring these online conversations is, in my humble opinion a given.

BUT – the issue then becomes a) how to interpret the data, and b) how to present it back to CMOs/CFOs in a way which is relevant to their business objectives. That’s a whole different discusssion. It’s not about measurement, it’s then about analysis. And just because we haven’t nailed it yet across the board doesn’t mean we shouldn’t measure what we can and try and interpret it – be it via econometric modelling, NPS, dwell time, or growth in number of “followers” or whatever KPIs we think they’ll be most interested in.

We’ll all have different interpretations of the relative importance of all those metrics depending on what the activity was designed to achieve in the first place, but hey – that’s no different from any comms campaign already isn’t it?

I do get a bit uptight when (traditional) advertisers belittle social media measurement, given the volumes and data involved. Not quite social media measurement I know, but I recently worked on a campaign in Habbo Hotel which had over 30,000 demographically-spot-on respondents to a series of questions. 30,000! Compare that to the average research group sample size. Or the number of homes with Barb boxes in them. Or the numbers of people in an average tracker sample… I’m totally with Tim Whirledge on that one.

And where I have been able to measure ROI of social media results against paid-for, from first awareness through to purchase, social media has won hands-down. Admittedly it didn’t got the volumes of paid-for, but I’m confident that will change in due course.

Yes, there’s still work to do. Yes we need to harmonise how we present what we measure, but to suggest that social media measurement is useless is risible. I shall now jump off my high horse…

Perhaps there is an interpretation that says that now, whilst social media measurement is undefined, it can be rendered meaningless – if only by virtue of the fact that there are so many convoluted ways to measure KPIs and ROIs that the non-uniformity of views within social media mean there is no meaningFUL way to date. As a single set of measurement tools.

Being a member of the IAB social media council i am actually heading up a sub group that will seek to set these measurement parameters (at least) in place. I am under no illusion that we can set a true definitive measurement prospect without the input of a wider social media community, and as such i would call for as many people to join me in this quest and contribute their views.

Also, as an aside, i suspect that Amy presented a contrary POV because, quite frankly, she likes to incite dsicussion. I seke to prover her wrong…

Discussions about social media measurement always become bogged down in tactics. No one measurement system fits all, just as no one set of KPIs will suit all businesses.

Key to this discussion I think is the definition of measurement and value. I’m yet to work on a campaign of some kind where there was no meaning or value placed in the output of that campaign.

This is only my view, but I think it’s a common sense approach – I think you just need to find the right way to explain a campaign’s results to the business you are doing it for. Whether that’s a traditional value or the opposite, whatever that might be. It’s pretty simple, and without that, why do it in the first place. Just imho

Now on to more pressing matters; measurement. In my opinion, there are three key routes to unearthing a value to what we do; benchmarking, creative KPI setting and arguing.

Benchmarking; four types; against competitor brands activity, against other marketing activity that claims to be able to answer the brief but in a different way, against similar activity that has been done by another brand, against previous activity.

KPI setting; too many people over promise and under-deliver in social media agencies. We all know here that brands don’t ‘do’ social media- setting up a twitter feed is not an idea nor a strategy. We have to think longer and harder about what it is we are trying to do. This means we have to think beyond ‘traffic’ as a metric and number of followers etc we put in front of our client’s noses. Traffic is a means to an end (sales) but perhaps your activity can drive efficiencies in other ways which reduce costs for the business, which ultimately will affect profitability. e.g. because you’ve built a community of 1,000,000 people on twitter, DM spend could be reduced as your cost per contact on twitter has been reduced. Ok, bit crude and it’s late, but if it helps educate the client and shows progress; show it. I guess the point being is that there is a lot of stuff we CAN measure, we just need to think more creatively about how we use these metrics as KPIs.

Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, to answer the question in your title (the answer is no by the way!), every other marketing discipline has arrived at a commonly accepted set of processes and metrics which enable them to perpetuate their case for spend. TV advertisers use a little box on a few people’s telly to see what they like watching. OOH uses footfall therefore X many people saw our ad etc etc. DM uses cost per contact. Again, I’m being crude (and it’s even later), but my point is that no measurement system is going to be able to tell a client 100% that it was their activity that drove conversion and ultimately ROI. The phone number that was exclusively on the mailer for sure was the avenue the sale came through but it doens’t mean that it was the mailer that caused a change in behaviour and drove acquisition. He/She could have been motivated by the ATL or a forum post. We’re human beings. We get influenced a lot. By lots of things. And people. Offline and online.

As a group of people who are passionate about the possibilities for socially enabling tools, I think we need to stop looking at the things we can’t measure (like influence for example= ooo, another can.worms.opened), and start looking at the things we can, assigning objectives and KPIs to the behaviours we can change and MEASURE which will ultimately depend on how your campaign looks to utilise social media tools.

So social media measurement is not pointless. Of course, we have to keep asking the question, about creating industry standards, KPIs, metrics, benchmarking, ROI, etc. But ultimately, no measurement system in the history of marketing is flawless, so we may as well crack on.

Is social media measurement really meaningless?: I’ve been reading and re-reading this article over the past few.. [link to post]

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Another way to look at SM ROI – RT @Soc3: Is social media measurement really meaningless? [link to post] (via @LisaSullivan)

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RT @LisaSullivan: Is social media measurement really meaningless? [link to post] (via @SocialMediaComm)

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RT @litmanlive Is social media measurement really meaningless? [link to post] Me: its different http://bit.ly/3gQ0kQ

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RT @SocialMediaComm: Is social media measurement really meaningless? [link to post]

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RT @SocialMediaComm: Is social media measurement really meaningless? [link to post] (intrstng read; always fascinated by this topic)

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.. and more @bitchbuzz RT’s @Litmanlive on @magnersuk comp [link to post] and win £50 outlet gift card: http://bit.ly/pAGfi

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RT @CupCate: Social media measurements w/ analysis of the @bitchbuzz / @magnersUK “win a case a day” competition: [link to post]

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Great ideas on social media measurements w/ analysis of the @bitchbuzz / @magnersUK “win a case a day” competition: [link to post]

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Is social media measurement pointless? Nice post by @LitmanLive [link to post] Wonder what @kdpaine would have to say.

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Is social media measurement really meaningless? [link to post] < valid points

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