social media measurement

The tools to measure social media and community engagement

October 15, 2008 By Dan Thornton

If only it was that simple! But to make it easier, I’ve finally started compiling a list of the tools and resources for the measurement of social media and community marketing and engagement – ranging from free to paid options, and Web Analytics to Buzz Metrics.

It’s in no way a comprehensive list, but as I was compiling material to add in to the MeasurementCamp project, I thought I might as well list it here and get comments and additions from some of the measurement mavens I know lurk in the comments!

I’m also debating whether the list would be improved by my personal opinions about the tools I’ve trialled and used, and those I continue to use – I’d be interested in peoples views for and against – although there is the caveat that I’m nowhere near the expert I’d like to be…

Anyway, comments and additions can be put in the comments on this post, the comments on the Marketing Measurement Tools page, or via email from the About page.

The Measures of Engagement meme (Convincing the disconnected)

September 22, 2008 By Dan Thornton

Another week, another meme! And it’s another one that not only has some real value, but it also bloody tricky to answer in a way that’s not rehashing the work of other intelligent people looking at social media. Dave Cushman started it off as Measures of Engagement – convincing the disconnected, and I think it’s important to keep the second part of the title in mind. As Cush says, if you’re blogging, tweeting, and building your own widgets already, you get it – but there are millions out there that don’t, and if you want companies etc to get involved in the right way, it’s down to us to show some leadership and go outside the comfort zone of the social media echo chamber.

I disagree slightly with Cush when he says those that get social media don’t require the numbers. Case in point – the Adage Power 150, Google analytics, Feedburner stats, Twitter follower counters and all the other things we adorn blogs with. The lack of yardsticks is one problem that currently affects social media usage within businesses, and it’s one of the reasons why I’m a keen supporter of MeasurementCamp‘s proactive focus on sharing case studies and numbers. It’s fine to quote Zappos and WillItBlend ad infinitum, (and I have), but the more relevant and close to your market you can find examples, the more useful it is in convincing the disconnected. And sometimes that’s the approach you need to take, because not every manager is just waiting for you to persuade them onto Twitter or Facebook.

So measurement is a given:

The next stage is to look at what the end result should be. Is it sales conversions or advertising clickthroughs? Are your conversion mechanisms on your website, or are they affiliated via widgets?

Either way, there are two things that work across traditional and new businesses – conversions and the numbers of them.

This is where the battle begins. Social media is an emerging and labour intensive skill. It’s unlikely to drive the same numbers as an SEO campaign, unless you’re really lucky/gaming the likes of Digg.

So what we need is to start tracing the steps of the engaged and the disengaged, and be able to compare the conversion rates – that’s pretty good evidence of the power of social media (If it works…humans have a horrible habit of doing the exact opposite of what you want, at the worst possible moments!).

And controversially, that begins with the traditional web analytics package, whether that’s Google, or a paid service like Webtrends.

That’s something that’s easy to forget in the rush to start driving traffic to the site, and worrying about sentiment. If you’re already using search traffic for relevant keywords to drive conversions, you’ve already got an effective way of getting large numbers of interested people.

So does social media make your boss money?

So you need to be able to show where social media efforts site between someone accidentally browsing round your site because they’re bored, and those coming because they want to buy something that minute. And where in the process social media can enhance the conversions for people arriving via search – is it product reviews, or a Q and A section, or customer service?

Why do we want users chatting?

And if you’re relying on click-throughs, you’ve got more impetus for social media. After all, if people are arriving for content rather than purchases, then it’s down to the content, and the strength of your brand and values to convince them that clicking on a third party will give them what they’re after. If I see a shoddy site, unrelated adverts, and no community or loyalty, then I’m going to distrust that banner stuck in the right hand column and leave for somewhere else before I can be tempted into clicking on anything. That’s where the ‘onsite engagement’ is important.

Isn’t a Facebook fan page a waste of time?

And then it’s onto ‘external engagement’. That’s the bit where you make yourselves available where ever an interested person might be, and do the utmost to serve their needs, in the hope they’ll get to know you and your brand and value it over your competitors. And the basis for this comes from the stats showing how social media efforts increase conversions, and clickthroughs from the first two.

So why bother with trying to get numbers?

If SEO is hugely effective for people finding stuff, and when they arrive they’re engaged and converted, then why bother with the outreach?

Firstly, depending on traffic levels, and the advertising model you use, a traffic boost from a social network (the second biggest source of traffic after search engines) can really drive a particular promotion or great piece of content. And if you can show engagement delivers a high percentage of conversions and a big traffic boost, then you’re really set.

Secondly, not everyone is using search any more. I can’t remember the last time I actively searched for a product review before making a purchase. I still read reviews, but I start by asking my network for people with relevant knowledge that I trust, and then follow their recommendations to extra content.

If you’re not getting recommended, you’re going to be paying more to get search traffic, and you’re not getting the recommendation traffic. Effectively you’re trying to run a marathon with your eyes shut and your fingers in your ears. It’s still possible to win, but it’s going to get pretty tough!

This is the bit where the new tools come in.

You can start monitoring terms via Google news alerts (And almost every social media person has a personal vanity search set-up I’ll wager!). That can get pretty time consuming pretty quickly, which is where buzz monitoring comes in, e.g. Radian6, Brandwatch, Onalytica, Nielsen etc (apologies for anyone I’ve missed). These tools provide various ways for aggregating and managing all the mentions of your brand across the internet. The one downside of having a variety of useful tools is that it prevents some of the useful comparisons – e.g. sentiment between brands using different programmes – but I’d expect the market to slowly coalesce as social media matures…

This is also where you hook into available APIs, and allow people to promote your content on the social aggregators.

And that’s about where I’ve got to!

(I should say in my defence, this has been a bit of a stream of conscious post due to upset babies, meowing cats and other distractions, so I’m really interested in as many comments as possible to help distill the right parts out of this..)

Now the more fun bit…tagging some people who will probably struggle less with this than I did at the start of my social media journey within a large media company.

If it’s measurement, then I have to tag Katie Paine, without any implied buzz monitoring favouritism I haven’t chatted to Giles for a while. I’ll also tag Ste Davies, Luke for a personal brand approach, and Chris because he normally likes to get all argumentative.

Edit: I was going to tag benrmatthews but there was some blog address confusion, which has now been resolved…So he’s back on the list!

Consumers and bosses…

June 12, 2008 By Dan Thornton

Apologies for the slightly cryptic and unexplored post yesterday – a reminder that sometimes an idea needs a bit more fleshing out before clicking the Publish button!

What was foremost in my mind is something that is vitally important to my current role, and social media/community as a whole. And that’s the fact that, despite the growth in Web 2.0 technology, and adoption of community techniques – it isn’t half as widespread as you might assume from within the tech/blogging bubble. Plenty of people, even within the digital world, find it hard to see the reason for investing time in social networking and how it applies to them – and outside that area or department, it’s even more of a leap.

And what has come out of my work, attending valuable gatherings like Measurementcamp, and reading great blogs such as Web Strategy by Forrester Senior Analyst Jeremiah Owyang, or KD Paine’s PR Measurement blog, is that it’s the reporting, measurement, and justification of any community work is as vitally important as doing it in the first place.

And being able to show the measurable aspects of community/social media work, and explaining the direct and indirect effects on the bottom line is absolutely essential in changing the way companies think – particularly the larger, more institutional companies.

If you need a refreshing reminder about making things clearer for the rest of your company, and particularly more senior management, bosses, and CEOs, Avinash Kaushik has some good posts on Occam’s Razor which can feel like they pour a bit of cold water on the evangelical aspects of community and social media – but actually really help clarify the most useful methods of making things simple and effective – rather than relying on enthusiasm, buzzwords, and what it’s easy to assume is the inescapable logic of enagaging communities. Particularly this one, and this one!

I certainly don’t have all the answers – although the benefit of facing these challenges to varying extents in my day job means I’m slowly understanding more of the solutions – but what really interests me is how other people are tackling the challenges, what case studies people are willing to share, where people have found value, and what levels of commitment companies, particularly larger institutions, are actually committing to community engagement – is anyone finding the returns and solutions that make community pervasive through their company – or are large companies forever destined to limit it to experimenting via the fringes of what they do? And how much real effect does that have? And is technology – targeting adverts, engaging via Twitter etc, actually moving further ahead of where the biggest value is?

Personally, I think there’s a balance between using the tool of community marketing, and traditional digital and offline marketing. And that the trick is to be ahead of the mainstream by a small amount in order to establish and experiment in a space to ensure you’re on the right track before the crowds turn up – but what views have you got?

So are you in a large or small company? Or working as an individual?

Are you attempting to convince others – particularly management of the value of community and social media?

And are you targeting the early adopter communities right now? (e.g. Twitter, Plurk, Seesmic etc), or are you going with more mainstream efforts? (Facebook, Myspace, Digg, Stumbleupon).

The cost of social media

May 31, 2008 By Dan Thornton

When you’re looking at why companies might be reluctant to use social media and blogs properly, and why measurement is so important, it’s important to remember there’s a very real cost involved to them.

It’s something I’m acutely aware of, both in my professional role, and particularly in my personal life at the moment. My blogging and use of social networks has definitely been affected by my other commitments, whether it’s doing work on our house, sorting the bills, fixing the cars, or taking care of our pets. And the biggest commitment is to our baby son, which has had a big effect on how I can justify spending time online.

And in my professional role, I’m very aware that although implementing social media work has no direct financial cost, it has a real cost in terms of allocating time and resource.

Just as I wouldn’t expect to pay for something I didn’t receive, it’s unreasonable to expect a company to pay for for staff, and all the additional costs (office space, broadband, etc, etc,) to pursue social media engagement without them receiving a return which exceeds that value (increase in sales, website traffic etc). That’s where planning, measurement, and being realistic all come into play…

(And even this post has taken twice as long as it used to, due to my son needing attention!)