Questions, Variables & Meseaurement of Social Media

Be aware! This post will show how much the comprehensive exam I had weeks ago is still haunting me. :)

So this week, I started to think about how to measure the value of social media, and I couldn't help thinking about operationalization, that is, to specify the measurement on variables in relation to a concept.

The concept is obviously social media. Variables are multiple depending on what questions you've asked. You may ask what is the increase in traffic to the organization's web site with the implementation of social media; or you may ask how is the interaction going between the social media users and you; or you may directly ask what is the sales driven by the social media. Other variables may include and are not limited to attention, retention, perception, engagement, etc.

With different questions, your inquiry will look much different. Some more qualitative, and others more quantitative. Various measurement tools are attached to both approaches.

Qualitative
Perhaps you want to know something about the reputation of your business/product/service, the ongoing conversations, and customer relationship. You may ask-

"Do we have a voice in the conversation about our product/service/overall industry?"
"How is our voice different from our competitors?"
"Are we making monologue or having a dialogue with our key publics?"

In-depth exploration and human analysis are involved to catch interaction and competition, and get answers to this kind of questions. Also, tools such as Sentiment analysis and opinion tracking may be used to get a picture about the conversation.

Quantitative
If your questions mainly address numbers, ROI, sales, profits, traffic, SEO ranking, you may take a more quantitative approach. Tools such as Google Analytics and Feedburner can help analyze blog traffic, subscriber count, keyword optimization, etc. I recommend this article if you want to learn how to use some of the most advanced tools and metrics. Also, for reference, this article introduces more than 50 tools designed to track traffic.

The key takeaway is that organizations need to ask clear questions, specify variables before they get down to choosing tools and metrics to measure social media successes.

Inform CEOs: Social Media ROI is Measurable!

This Wednesday I attended the Triangle Game Conference which featured a panel discussion on the use of social media for gaming companies. While expressing the passion for social media, the panel of investors and CEOs expressed concerns over the use of social media to market and promote products, a reason being lack of measurement on success, with success majorly perceived as return on investment, or ROI.

This tells me several things. First, in order to successfully including social media in the communication strategy, businesses need to be able to determine whether or not a social media program is moving products or making impacts. Second, the management tends to think that social media ROI is not measurable at the monetary level. Third, the burden of education and operationalization is on us communication professionals. We need to help the dominant coalition understand the value of social media by clarifying the fact that social media success, even when it is defined as ROI, is measurable, and below are a few initial thoughts on how to do that-

1. Well communicate goals and objectives.
It is important to touch base with the management what should be realized with the implementation of a social media program. Is the investment expected to be returned by higher sales, more profits, more leads or otherwise better retention? Knowing what needs to be quantified is the first step to proving a social media strategy is beneficial to businesses. Choosing the appropriate tools to quantify successes though, is another topic I'd like to discuss with my next blog.

2. Measure baseline.
To demonstrate ROI, it is essential to let the number speak. That's how statistic-based metrics comes into play. To ensure the dominant coalition see how much difference the social media makes for the business, a before/after picture needs to be depicted. Thus, we need to not only measure the gain after social media is introduced, but also where the business currently stands at- what is the sales now, how much customer attention we are getting now, etc.

3. Well translate the data.
It is better to provide to decision makers data-driven insights than to provide raw data. Explain with your data how social media help accomplish goals and objectives. For instance, if your ultimate goal is to increase sales, it is important to explicate the correlation between social media use and increased sales with your data- how much more traffic is driven to the e-commerce site after a new Facebook message or new Tweet, and how much increase in sales do you see with that extra traffic?

I believe in the value of having open discussion about how to best measure social media impacts. Ultimately, it is important to let key decision makers see such impacts can be measured beyond ROI. But I tend to believe ROI will always be on their mind, so we can figure out ways to start from there.