How do you measure the effectiveness of a community? What is engagement? What is the value of a conversation and how do you communicate the impact for your brand?
Well, next week in Toronto a group of smart folks will gather to discuss the state of Social Media Measurement. The intent is to build a better dashboard and establish common ground on how we measure the effectiveness of our efforts in the Social Media space. The diverse range of people at the roundtable have backgrounds in Marketing, Analytics, Communications, Public Relations and , of course, Social Media. It should make for an excellent day of conversation.
Full disclosure, Joseph Thornley of Thornley Fallis Communications is the driving force behind the roundtable event. I work for TFC and will be participating in the roundtable. Joseph posted on his blog, ProPR , a while back about the issue of measurement in Social Media and it got some great traction that has led to the roundtable.
My call to action to readers of The Client Side is: “What are your views on Social Media Measurement?” If you were at the table , what questions would you want answered and/or what would you have to say on the topic of measurement?
For those of you who may not know my full background, I have been steeped in database and direct marketing for my entire career. Measurement was (and still very much is) my mantra. While at Scotiabank, one of the reasons I was able to play in the Social Media sandbox was because all the campaigns and initiatives I touched were measured. Everything we did had a spreadsheet attached with numbers going in and coming out. Banks tend to like that kind of analysis.
Social Media marketing was the odd duck in my efforts. Communicating success and applying measurement did not always resonate with executive. They had a hard time relating to something they did not know about first hand and could not compare with. It is tough to say “it works, trust me” because that does not sustain and grow a marketing budget. And, many other corporate folks running Social Media programs face the same situation. There are very few examples held up for executives to use as their beacon in the new marketing.
So where does that leave us?
Well, I’m quite excited to be part of the roundtable because the discussion is happening. And, having the discussion is a big step to begin making the results of our efforts a better understood part of the marketing and communications landscape.
One of the outputs of the roundtable is to achieve a guideline for a social media measurement dashboard and an outline of the elements, components and weighting within social influence marketing, communities and engagement that can act as a common denominator for reporting/communicating success.
Going into next Tuesday’s event, I would love to hear from you and your thoughts. So, again, let me know “What are your views on Social Media Measurement?” If you were at the table, what questions would you want answered and/or what would you have to say on the topic of measurement?
Leave a comment or call The Client Side Podcast comment line at 1-206-666-2242.
Technorati Tags: Social Media Social Media Measurement Marketing Analytics Communications Scotiabank Thornley Fallis Communities Community Engagement Conversation
Our SM2 service provides brand managers and PR and marketing professionals with the means to track and analyze brand-relevant conversations across the social media eco-system. You might be interested in checking out the free version to see how it works- there's sentiment analysis, demographics including mapping, extensive keyword options and a lot of reporting and analysis flexibility.
Coincidentally we are talking to Scotiabank via a rep we have in Toronto, Dayna Coppins.
Martin, thanks for the comment, but not exactly the answer to the question I was looking for.
I did not ask about products or services that track this - there are many including Radian 6 and Custom Scoop to name a couple. I asked about your thoughts and ideas on measurement and creating a better means of measuring, defining and communicating the value of what takes place in Social Media.
I've let your comment through in hopes that you will provide more thought and context in your answer.