How to Develop Meaningful Social Media Metrics
Editor’s note: The following is an excerpt of an op-ed published in the July 2012 issue of Direct Marketing News. Read the full opinion piece here.
By Steve Goldner | @SocialSteve | Senior Director, Social Media
There is no shortage of debate on social media ROI. Social media sales attribution is difficult given the reality of Facebook privacy settings and the challenges of tagging media that brands don’t own. This is true for many word-of-mouth consumer behaviors.
For example, how easy is it to attribute a customer visiting a new restaurant because of a friend’s recommendation?
But that doesn’t mean brands shouldn’t measure social media and get meaningful information on the performance of their campaigns. Like an old boss once told me, “That which is not measured, does not get done.”
When utilized properly, social media generates awareness, consideration, loyalty and advocacy — all of which can be measured. Brand managers and CMOs should be concerned with seeing measurable results in each category.
The four consumer psycho demographics listed below are inherently tied to the ultimate key performance indicator: that of sales. Consider the following parameters that can be easily captured and measured:
- Awareness: Number of brand and URL mentions.
- Consideration: Website visits, page views, Facebook and Twitter click-throughs, social network page views, Twitter replies and blog views.
- Loyalty: Fans, followers and community members, RSS subscriptions, Facebook interactions, Twitter mentions, blog/community comments and return visits to site.
- Advocacy: Retweets, re-blogs, brand mentions, comments on a brand’s assets and Facebook “likes.
Read the full op-ed in Direct Marketing News.
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