Presented October 2nd at Digital East 2012 in the Advanced Social Media Track. Discusses the need for robust SM metrics while emphasizing the importance of rigorous analysis and sound business strategy as guiding principles for social media.

1. Social Media Measurement
Daniel Backhaus
08/22/2012
@InTheBackhaus
#DEast12
#DE12Infuz
October 2nd, 2012
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2. 01 SOCIAL MEDIA MEASUREMENT
THE CHALLENGE
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SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY
BEGINNING WITH THE END IN MIND
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WHAT TO MEASURE
QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE METRICS
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ANALYSIS
GETTING PAST DATA AND INFORMATION TO REAL INSIGHT
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EXAMPLE APPROACH
TOOLS, TECHNIQUES AND SOLUTIONS

3. Interdependence is and ought to be as much
the ideal of man as self-sufficiency.
Man is a social being.
Mahatma Gandhi
01 SOCIAL MEDIA MEASUREMENT
THE CHALLENGE

4. Social Media – It’s Like Free Advertising, Right?
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5. There’s no Free Lunch and Other Facts of Life
Turns out, earned media has to be earned.
Earning it is hard.
And time-consuming.
And expensive.
And, like any other investment, it needs to be justified. And that requires
measuring it, assessing its effectiveness, its cost and ROI.
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6. GDP vs. GNH
GDP – like traditional ad buys – is familiar and based on hard data
GNH – like social media – is foreign, poorly defined and squishy
Measuring – and valuing – things like engagement, sentiment, influence
and affinity is difficult
Social media success – like happiness – will mean different things
It’s free, right? No, but like happiness, it can’t be bought
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7. Web Metrics & Analytics
Many large, sophisticated companies are just starting to get a handle on
effective Web Metrics & Analytics and few have truly mastered it.
Lack of Tools?
Lack of Data?
Lack of Investment?
Possibly, but doubtful.
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8. Measuring Success
Measuring the impact of social media is just like measuring other online
initiatives
only more so. Way more so, in fact.
More Channels Many touchpoints, all interlinked, countless access paths
More Interaction Interaction is the heart and soul of social media
More Data Each channel, every touchpoint, each interaction spawns
data and then this data spawns more data.
More Complexity The end result is vastly more complexity. This is what hinders
meaningful measurement more than lack of data or tools.
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9. Social Media Shifts Conversion Funnel to an Ecosystem
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10. Social Media is Part of the Larger Ecosystem
Track the path-to-conversion
Identify optimal channel mix
We monitor each consumer touch point to
track the full path-to-purchase and identify
the optimal channel mix
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11. My Personal Social Media Universe

12. The Complete Social Media Universe
By Brian Solis
and JESS3
v3.0 available at
http://jess3.com/the-conversation-prism-v3/

13. Strategy without tactics is the slowest
route to victory.
Tactics without strategy is the noise
before defeat.
Sun Tzu
02 SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY
BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND

14. Business Goals Should Drive Social Media Goals

15. Social Media Goals Should Drive Everything Else
SM Platforms A youth-oriented consumer brand will target different people on
& Targeting different platforms than a financial services company. Likewise,
your goals and objectives will also affect platform choice.
Approach If your primary goal is to drive brand equity, your approach will be
different than if you’re trying to generate leads or drive sales.
Metrics Your choice of platforms, targeting, and approach will determine
& KPIs relevant metrics and KPIs.
Tools & Tool selection and organizational structure should be driven by
Structure your situation, goals and needs. If you’ve done your homework,
you will find suitable tools.

16. Which Platforms / Channels Are Most Important?
Who Are Consider your business, the strength of your brand, the nature of
You? your product or service, and your corporate culture.
Who Are You Your target audience may affect your platform focus as well. Teens
Targeting? will dwell in different places than mid-career professionals.
What Are Your Are you looking to drive online transactions or build brand affinity?
Goals? Effective and realistic goal-setting is crucial to proper targeting.
What Can You Social media can be hard. And time consuming. Not to mention
Support? expensive. Do you have the right resources and enough of them?
Doing less, but better, will often deliver better results.
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17. Measure what is measurable,
and make measurable what is not so.
Galileo Galilei
03 WHAT TO MEASURE
QUANTITATIVE & QUALITATIVE METRICS

18. Some Quantitative Social Media Metrics
• # Facebook Fans • # Blog mentions • # YouTube subscribers
• # Facebook Fan Pages • # Inbound links • # YouTube Comments
• # Facebook Likes • # del.icio.us Bookmarks • # of reviews
• # Facebook mentions • # diggs • # of Shares
• # E-Mail subscribers • # Twitter followers • # Downloads
• E-Mail Open Rate • # Twitter mentions • Earned / Paid Traffic
• E-Mail CTR • # @mentions • Inbound links
• E-Mail Forwards • Unique visitors • SERP rankings
• Impressions • Unique commenters • Klout Score
• Traffic • Registrations • # LinkedIn Followers
• Page Views • visit / session length • # SlideShare Views
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19. Some Qualitative Social Media Indicators
Here’s where the squishy part comes in a lot of these will depend on
who you are, what your goals are, why you’re doing it, and who your
target audience is.
Many qualitative insights can be derived from quantitative data but others
will require surveys, research and benchmarking to ascertain:
• Sentiment • Loyalty • Advocacy • Respect
• Affinity • Influence • Tone • Authority
• Preference • Engagement • Attitude • Credibility
Klout attempts to take these factors into account in their algorithm and,
while imperfect, it is probably the best off-the-shelf proxy currently available.
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20. It is much more difficult to measure
nonperformance than performance.
Harold S. Geneen
04 ANALYSIS
GETTING PAST DATA AND INFORMATION TO INSIGHT

21. People Over Technology
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22. The More Things Change
The more they stay the same. When you’ve been around as long as I have
You’ve seen most problems before
and sometimes several times.
Allow me to introduce you to Dr. Russell Ackoff, often referred to as the
father of modern systems thinking.
“Managers who don't know how to measure what they want settle for
wanting what they can measure.”

23. Evolving ain’t Easy or Optional
Wisdom builds on our past to give us new
Relationship Wisdom understanding and, by incorporating values,
judgment and experience, the ability to predict.
Principles
Understanding is cognitive and analytical. It is
Understanding the process by which one can synthesize new
knowledge from what was already known.
Causality
Knowledge is information aggregated to a point
Knowledge where it has meaning and purpose – the how
Patterns
Data becomes information when it has meaning and we understand
Information context and relationship – the who, what, where, and when
Relations
Data Relevance
Source: Ackoff, Russell L., "From Data to Wisdom",
Journal of Applied Systems Analysis, Volume 16, 1989 p 3-9.

24. For every complex problem there is an answer
that is clear, simple, and wrong.
H. L. Mencken
05 EXAMPLE APPROACH
TOOLS, TECHNIQUES AND SOLUTIONS

25. Build Target Audience Profiles Based on Goals
3rd Party Data
Target Audiences Social Relevance
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26. Refine Audience Profiles with Quantitative Research
Audience research and insights will be used pre, during and post
campaign to inform creative and targeting strategies
Search (Intent)
Social Sharing (relevance)
Geography
Demographic
Interests
Website Affinities
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27. Enhance Audience Profiles with Qualitative Research
We use surveys and more to collect
qualitative data about:
Awareness
Stage in consideration process
Intent to purchase
Usage
Sentiment towards brand
Satisfaction with experience
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28. Develop Experiences Based on Audience Profiles
• Develop strategy, value proposition and user
experience based on audience profile research
• Develop communication strategy for the entire
consumer lifecycle of each profile across channels
• Develop a test roadmap to hone and perfect key
business questions related to consumer messaging
(tone, value proposition, offer, etc)
• Test, measure, optimize
Audience Profiles
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29. Target Relevant Content Across Channels, Measure
•The “P” shown above represents the tracking pixel being placed. This pixel allows us to monitor behavior and engagement.
•The “T” shown above represents a tracking tag being included in the link. This tag allows us to monitor engagement.
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30. Develop a Test Roadmap to Optimize Performance
Test #1 Test #2 Test #3 Test #4
A V B A V B A V B A V B
s. s. s. s.
Audience Participant Influencer Lover
Need / Motivation Difference / Value Offer / Incentive Anxiety / Friction
Imagery Copy Value Functionality
% Lift % Lift % Lift % Lift
+ Conversions + Conversions + Conversions + Conversions
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31. Analyze Engagement Across Digital Channels
Set up and manage digital analytics to deliver insights
across all digital efforts, including social media
Audience: Insights on visitor demos, behaviors and
social interactions
Channels: Insights on channel traffic, engagement and
conversions (SEO, Social, Website analytics)
Content: Insights about content, page flow and site
interaction events
Conversions: Insights and optimizations based on
defined goals and KPIs
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32. Analyze Engagement Across Social Tools
Dashboards monitor social chatter
volume, sentiment, demographics
and influencers.
Measure all social chatter
• Monitor sentiment
• Identify influencers
• Align social with online sales
• Monitor social impact on sales
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33. Compile Data into Executive Dashboards
We create custom data dashboards for
each management layer to integrate online
data sources with offline sales data and/or
customer data.
Customization: Set up custom views of
data sources for key stakeholders
Integration: Monitor trends between
online and offline activities
Distribution: Easily distribute the data
among your organization without the need
for platform access / logins
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34. Example of a Custom Tool: STL Tweets
www.STLTweets.com
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35. Example of a Custom Tool: STL Index
www.STLIndex.com
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36. Example of a Custom View / Report: STL Index
http://report.stltweets.com/
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37. Example of a Custom View / Report: STL Index
http://report.stltweets.com/
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38. Thank you!
Daniel Backhaus
VP, Marketing
@inTheBackhaus
Daniel.Backhaus@infuz.com
404.819.2694
www.infuz.com
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