The estimable David Berkowitz has an excellent article in measuring Social Media on MediaPost's Social Media Insider at:
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=1...
Here's the post:
100 Ways To Measure Social Media
by David Berkowitz, Tuesday, November 17, 2009
If there's anyone out there left who says you can't measure social media, here are a hundred answers.
At most of the events I've been to lately, measurement continues to be a hot topic. The first question that comes up is, "What can I measure?" That's where this cheat sheet can come in handy: a list of 100 thought-starters.
Some entries here can be interpreted several ways. Depending on how you define them, some of these metrics may seem redundant, while others may seem so broad that they can be broken out further. Many of these can be combined with each other to create new metrics that can then be tracked over time. It's a start, though, so dive in and consider which ones may apply to programs you're working on.
1. Volume of consumer-created buzz for a brand based on number of posts
2. Amount of buzz based on number of impressions
3. Shift in buzz over time
4. Buzz by time of day / daypart
5. Seasonality of buzz
6. Competitive buzz
7. Buzz by category / topic
8. Buzz by social channel (forums, social networks, blogs, Twitter, etc)
9. Buzz by stage in purchase funnel (e.g., researching vs. completing transaction vs. post-purchase)
10. Asset popularity (e.g., if several videos are available to embed, which is used more)
11. Mainstream media mentions
12. Fans
13. Followers
14. Friends
15. Growth rate of fans, followers, and friends
16. Rate of virality / pass-along
17. Change in virality rates over time
18. Second-degree reach (connections to fans, followers, and friends exposed - by people or impressions)
19. Embeds / Installs
20. Downloads
21. Uploads
22. User-initiated views (e.g., for videos)
23. Ratio of embeds or favoriting to views
24. Likes / favorites
25. Comments
26. Ratings
27. Social bookmarks
28. Subscriptions (RSS, podcasts, video series)
29. Pageviews (for blogs, microsites, etc)
30. Effective CPM based on spend per impressions received
31. Change in search engine rankings for the site linked to through social media
32. Change in search engine share of voice for all social sites promoting the brand
33. Increase in searches due to social activity
34. Percentage of buzz containing links
35. Links ranked by influence of publishers
36. Percentage of buzz containing multimedia (images, video, audio)
37. Share of voice on social sites when running earned and paid media in same environment
38. Influence of consumers reached
39. Influence of publishers reached (e.g., blogs)
40. Influence of brands participating in social channels
41. Demographics of target audience engaged with social channels
42. Demographics of audience reached through social media
43. Social media habits/interests of target audience
44. Geography of participating consumers
45. Sentiment by volume of posts
46. Sentiment by volume of impressions
47. Shift in sentiment before, during, and after social marketing programs
48. Languages spoken by participating consumers
49. Time spent with distributed content
50. Time spent on site through social media referrals
51. Method of content discovery (search, pass-along, discovery engines, etc)
52. Clicks
53. Percentage of traffic generated from earned media
54. View-throughs
55. Number of interactions
56. Interaction/engagement rate
57. Frequency of social interactions per consumer
58. Percentage of videos viewed
59. Polls taken / votes received
60. Brand association
61. Purchase consideration
62. Number of user-generated submissions received
63. Exposures of virtual gifts
64. Number of virtual gifts given
65. Relative popularity of content
66. Tags added
67. Attributes of tags (e.g., how well they match the brand's perception of itself)
68. Registrations from third-party social logins (e.g., Facebook Connect, Twitter OAuth)
69. Registrations by channel (e.g., Web, desktop application, mobile application, SMS, etc)
70. Contest entries
71. Number of chat room participants
72. Wiki contributors
73. Impact of offline marketing/events on social marketing programs or buzz
74. User-generated content created that can be used by the marketer in other channels
75. Customers assisted
76. Savings per customer assisted through direct social media interactions compared to other channels (e.g., call centers, in-store)
77. Savings generated by enabling customers to connect with each other
78. Impact on first contact resolution (FCR) (hat tip to Forrester Research for that one)
79. Customer satisfaction
80. Volume of customer feedback generated
81. Research & development time saved based on feedback from social media
82. Suggestions implemented from social feedback
83. Costs saved from not spending on traditional research
84. Impact on online sales
85. Impact on offline sales
86. Discount redemption rate
87. Impact on other offline behavior (e.g., TV tune-in)
88. Leads generated
89. Products sampled
90. Visits to store locator pages
91. Conversion change due to user ratings, reviews
92. Rate of customer/visitor retention
93. Impact on customer lifetime value
94. Customer acquisition / retention costs through social media
95. Change in market share
96. Earned media's impact on results from paid media
97. Responses to socially posted events
98. Attendance generated at in-person events
99. Employees reached (for internal programs)
100. Job applications received
There you go. I welcome other entries in the comments. It's also just the start of the answer to the broader question: "How do I measure it?" Ultimately, you need to start with figuring out your business objectives and then apply these metrics accordingly.
Collected comments on David's post
19 comments on "100 Ways To Measure Social Media"
1.
Kate M?ynarczyk from SmartPR
commented on: November 24, 2009 at 8:26 AM
Great job David! Thanks for your help and feedback. The question of mesurement of Social Media is not as hard anymore! Looking forward to your next posts!Greatings from Poland
2.
Jim Dowling from Cake
commented on: November 19, 2009 at 12:56 PM
Quality list - thank you.
None tell me if someone is more likely to buy a product though, do they?
3.
Anissa Wardell from The Publicists Assistant
commented on: November 18, 2009 at 5:35 PM
Great list David. As someone who has been asked that same question by clients, I find it interesting that it even comes up. Honestly, I didn't have that long of a list, but the fact of the matter is that many businesses don't even have a complete answer to What is the problem? and What is the solution? for their business. If they had those answers and took the time to do some research on the different search engines with their keywords they would have a better grasp of how to measure social media. All they have to do is take a little time maybe invest in tools or hire it out, but it all comes down to researching what others are saying about you (or your brand/business). Conversations are going on out there, and if you aren't being found, then whatever marketing and pr you think you have done must not have been effective. Start a conversation and engage others....if its a good message or conversation it will go viral.
4.
Linda Ziskind from Z2 Consulting, LLC
commented on: November 18, 2009 at 9:45 AM
David, Great, great list. But now you have to write a Part II listing the actual tools people can use to measure these metrics, otherwise it's just great theory.
5.
Tara Anne Michels from MessageDriven
commented on: November 18, 2009 at 8:34 AM
Terrific list! It's amazing how social media has just taken over the media landscape!
6.
Anil Singh from Interactive Avenues
commented on: November 18, 2009 at 2:34 AM
Very helpful for Social media marketer ......
7.
David Berkowitz from 360i
commented on: November 17, 2009 at 9:51 PM
Thanks so much for all your feedback - I'm still digesting all this too and will respond more in detail to some soon, but I am reading and really appreciate every comment.
8.
Les Blatt from Freelance New Media Person
commented on: November 17, 2009 at 7:54 PM
Amazing job, David - great ideas, great starting points for conversations about measurement.
9.
Jonas Halpren from Federated Media
commented on: November 17, 2009 at 7:47 PM
David, this is a great way to illustrate your point. Marketers need to step back, look a their business and determine what metrics they need to push it forward. So many timesMarketers are unclear or unsure of their goals, and a successful program is deemed a failure because, wait for it "it didn't click well".
10.
Mark Allen Roberts from Out of the Box Solutions, LLC
commented on: November 17, 2009 at 6:51 PM
Great job of addressing a much needed topic.
I would be interested in learning how many companies, after reading your content have decided they have an effective social marketing roadmap based on returns…or they have been listening to “smores: ( social media whores) that take big dollars and produce no value as I discuss in my blog : http://nosmokeandmirrors.wordpress.com/2009/10/28/20-top-entrepreneurial... and click #15.
Great job,
Mark Allen Roberts
11.
Robert Petersen from BarnRaisers Group
commented on: November 17, 2009 at 6:46 PM
This is a great list. While I'm sure we can all kick the tires, I think the real question is if traditional channels like TV, print and outdoor had to come up with their lists, could they even get half as far as David has.
12.
Thomas Siebert from HUGE
commented on: November 17, 2009 at 5:55 PM
Really impressive effort -- good, hard, smart work. Thank you!
13.
Jonathan Hall from American Pop
commented on: November 17, 2009 at 4:53 PM
The effect of marketing in social media depends on what the consumer expects to get from social media. Therefore, it makes sense to measure everything! I think the baseball "Slugging Percentage" is a good comparison to how a good social media campaign can be quantified.
14.
Frank Moester from Sock Puppet Heroes
commented on: November 17, 2009 at 4:45 PM
What about retweeting your tweet about this message? #101? ;) Looking forward to your post ""How do I measure it?". Tnx, great list!
15.
Howie Goldfarb from Sky Pulse Media
commented on: November 17, 2009 at 4:39 PM
First of all great list. It proves that social media is not that much different than all the other forms of media for many of the list items. But some of the measurements are not concrete. I can buy friends and fans by the 1,000's from specific companies that provide this service (makes one wonder if the Twitter and Facebook account volume/unique visitors are false eh?) and I can buy buzz from the same vendors! Some items you listed are absolutely unique to social media and invaluable like using it for research and listening to customers/feedback etc. You can also use it to scope out competition. But some you list I don't agree are measurable at all or are related to social media. Like change in market share and impact on sales except in very specific unique circumstances. Don't worry I say the same thing when it comes to digital and traditional not picking on SM there. That all being said it really helps to have every bullet point laid out so that brands can use SM as a tool for the areas that SM should be used for. Bravo!
16.
walter Sabo from Hitviews
commented on: November 17, 2009 at 4:26 PM
That's about 99 more ways than one can measure prime time TV. I grow weary of the question. Thanks for the cheat sheet of answers. Terrific. WS
17.
Brian Walker from Walker+Stivers Analytics Consulting
commented on: November 17, 2009 at 4:14 PM
Great list. Very exhaustive. More proof that this is more of an art than a science.
18.
Scott Brinker from ion interactive, inc.
commented on: November 17, 2009 at 4:11 PM
Awesome list. Some are more measurable than others, of course, but this is a great way to recognize just how broad social media metrics can be.
19.
Evan W from Experience ADvertising, Inc.
commented on: November 17, 2009 at 4:08 PM
Great list David..way to rock it out.