Whitepaper
LET’S TALK:
Social Media ROI
With Connie Bensen
A New Paradigm for PR
Measurement:
The ROI of Using a Social
Media Monitoring Tool
7th in the Social Media ROI Series

A New Paradigm for PR Measurements
The ROI of Using a Social Media Monitoring Tool
Executive Summary:
The Public Relations industry has changed radically. A whole new industry of social media monitoring has evolved from it! The advent of the
social web has caused a paradigm shift that has forced agencies to reconsider how they approach the practice & delivery of their services.
Some have been proactive and adopted the transition in stride, while others are reactive and driven by client requests.
There is a steady shift towards the incorporation of social media channels into public relations efforts. The social media press release is an
effective and efficient method for sharing a message in a variety of formats to multiple social channels. This white paper will explain why a
social media monitoring tool is essential for successful public relations. Let’s Talk! about how social media monitoring will augment your
public relations efforts.
© 2010 Alterian. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.

A New Paradigm for PR Measurements
The ROI of Using a Social Media Monitoring Tool
Introduction Katie Paine, founder of KDPaine & Partners LLC and author of Measuring Public Relationships has
frequently said, “Public relations measurement is no longer about eyeballs.” Social networks have
revolutionized an industry that used to rely on clippings. Engagement has replaced the clipping days.
Engagement is not measured by the number of eyeballs, hits, impressions, Twitter
Since the summer of followers, LinkedIn connections or Facebook friends. Engagement is about how a
2008, Edelman has message is shared and spread online & offline. Social media monitoring tools were
been following the key created for the PR industry. Three to four years ago there was a vision to measure online
conversations around interaction. A listening tool is the key to efficiently making your public relations efforts
effective and measureable in the following ways:
Chevron and the energy
industry online. They • Engagement
have been using Alterian SM2 to analyze • Reputation and Sentiment
• Influence
the focus, volume and sentiment of the
• Reach
online conversation about these issues
Effective public relations isn’t about impressions, it’s about relationships. The nature of
across blogs, discussion forums and social
the industry is based on increasing trust and regard; the question is how to measure that
networks, including sites such as Twitter,
on the social web. It’s impossible to count impressions in social media, but engagement
Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo and Flickr. can be measured. Who cares about the reach of clippings when you can measure
Chevron has been using the information revenue? A social media monitoring tool allows you to discover, map and measure
to stay informed about energy topics that relationships. You can measure your public relations efforts for each of the four areas
are important to people participating in listed above.
the online community. The public report
and related videos provide excellent
Engagement
examples of how a brand can utilize a
Engagement translates into creating closer relationships with consumers and, in turn,
social media monitoring tool to measure
generating more revenue. There is no standard definition of engagement, but it is agreed
its digital footprint online and the
that engagement consists of offering some type of interaction which results in a desired
sentiment around issues that matter to its response. There can also be various levels of engagement. For example, one person may
consumers. just browse your content, while another may comment and share it.
A listening tool provides information on consumers by highlighting real conversations. It
allows one to identify a target market and create a customer profile. What motivates
them to interact online? What are they interested in and more importantly, what types of online activities
do they actively participate in now? A social media monitoring tool can also identify:
• The types of social networks and communities they participate in
• What is important to your target market
• Where they are going for their information
• The best formats to use for content that engages your target market
It is easy to create a set of metrics based on the level of engagement and your objectives. The following is
an example of a hierarchy used to measure engagement:
© 2010 Alterian. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.

A New Paradigm for PR Measurements
The ROI of Using a Social Media Monitoring Tool
• Lowest - % unique visitors - This can be measured by your web analytics tool. Take note of where your
visitors are coming from and investigate what is driving them towards your site. It is generally an
opportunity to join the conversation.
• Repeat - % repeat visitors - Again, this is measured by web analytics. Ask how you can engage with this
group. Identify where they’re coming from. What are they silently engaging in? Ask yourself how you
can extend that process.
• Engaged - % comments, friends, followers (did something more than visit) - At this level you can start
to see people in action, and it can be measured by a social media monitoring tool. This type of
measurement is invaluable because you can see how they are sharing the messages on the web,
beyond your site and expressing how and why they’re finding value. Spend time with this group, as
their enthusiasm will encourage others to follow suit.
• Highly Engaged - % repeat comments, retweets, thread participation, questions answered, etc. A
monitoring tool is necessary to measure this. It can also identify your influencers. They have the power
to motivate others.
• Addicted - % advocating, recommending, and expressing positive sentiment - It is important to
choose a tool that measures sentiment. This can greatly reduce the amount of hours spent on manually
scoring items, thereby increasing your return on investment. Brand advocates are golden; show them
that you appreciate their support of your brand, and ask how you can support them. Your online efforts
should be focused on increasing the latter percentages. Those consumers will drive more unique
visitors to your content, and create an enviable PR and marketing machine.
PR Measurement: JetBlue could have had a major PR headache on their hands when the JetBlue flight attendant pulled the
A Case Study emergency chute in August 2010. The following examples include the 39,511 results from the social web.
You can see that the incident was discussed heavily for a few days and then dropped off. An article in the
SocialTimes.com outlines the incident and JetBlue’s response.
The graph below represents an example of how JetBlue might measure those that are “Engaged” in the
discussion surrounding the event.
© 2010 Alterian. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.

A New Paradigm for PR Measurements
The ROI of Using a Social Media Monitoring Tool
One would assume that there would be heavy criticism of JetBlue when the flight attendant quit. In reality,
however, there was almost as much positive opinion as negative sentiment.
The sentiment graph below could be used to measure advocators by looking at the Category “Very
Positive”
© 2010 Alterian. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.

A New Paradigm for PR Measurements
The ROI of Using a Social Media Monitoring Tool
Reputation and Sentiment The social web has opened a new channel that has an incredible power to sway public opinion. It is
powerful because the people themselves are in charge. The most incredible opportunity lies in the ability
for brands to interact directly with consumers. At the same time, however, there are some inherent
dangers in this type of direct communication. It is imperative to follow the norms of the community in each
social network. In this new social media game, consumers have the ability to opt-in, so if brands are
spamming or pushing their message, people will opt-out and view it as another channel to ignore.
Measuring sentiment and tone is straightforward with a social media monitoring tool. It provides a baseline
as well as trends over time. The trend over time should be monitored closely to identify potential brand
crises. It’s always easier to put out small fires rather than experience a firestorm. It’s also important to
establish a presence in the social networks where your target markets are interacting so you are prepared
to interact, should an issue flare up.
The graph below shows how sentiment was trending over time in regard to the JetBlue incident. It is
possible to drill into each point to see why the sentiment is trending negative. The negative trending needs
to be watched closely on an ongoing basis because it is an early indicator of public relations nightmares. In
this case, it shows that JetBlue handled the incident in the correct manner and the negative discussion
quieted down.
The most valuable aspect of a brand monitoring tool is the ability to see the most negative conversations
as well as the most positive. Both provide the opportunity to engage directly with the author. Those
conversations will provide a wealth of feedback relating to customer service, product performance, tech
support, advertising and marketing messaging, and innovative ideas.
© 2010 Alterian. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.

A New Paradigm for PR Measurements
The ROI of Using a Social Media Monitoring Tool
Measuring sentiment on the social web can be done in a number of ways:
• % positive mentions versus negative (remove the neutral ones)
• Number of positive mentions
• Number of retweets
• Assess customer satisfaction: there are many free or low cost survey tools available such as
surveymoney.com or zoomerang.com
Influence Every organization, no matter its size and no matter whether it’s for profit or not, needs to find new
stakeholders. That’s a given. The challenge is to find the influencers and brand advocates behind a brand.
Once you have accomplished this, they will pick up the ball and run with it.
Traditional public relations and marketing have relied on celebrities as influencers. Today on the social web,
an influencer is anyone who is passionate about your brand. A social media monitoring tool will quickly
identify those that are creating the most content about your brand. It will also deftly show what level of
influence they have online. Once those details are provided, the rest is straightforward. It’s simply a matter
of asking how you can help them if they’re a brand advocate. If they’re an influencer in your industry, then
the question to ask yourself is, ‘What can I give them that they would find value in and share the message
with their community?’
It’s tempting to only consider influencers as the ones with the most following or greatest
Tip: social presence. However, consider the people who are passionate about your brand but
Keep in mind that those with the largest aren’t necessarily living and breathing the internet 24/7. These people may be your most
valuable influencers. They have the time to contribute to your efforts because they don’t
following aren’t always your best potential
have a huge following, and they will be thrilled to be offered the opportunity to support
brand advocates. Once you get to know
your brand if they’re already fans. Turn them into ‘raving fans’ as Jeremy Epstein refers to
your customer segment, the influencers them.
will be obvious.
In addition, keep in mind that influence occurs offline as much as online. It is thus
important to interweave the online interactions with offline events. Consider how you can
connect your influencers with each other online and offline and support them in carrying
your message. If they are united and equipped with the necessary tools, they will take your staff and run
with it.
Measuring influence generally depends on the type of social network.
• Twitter: number of followers, following
• Blogs: number of readers, number of backlinks
• Video & photo sites: number of views, comments
© 2010 Alterian. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.

A New Paradigm for PR Measurements
The ROI of Using a Social Media Monitoring Tool
Reach Reach is the final area to consider. How far is your message going? Are you saying something on Twitter
but could just as well be standing in a dark closet with the door shut (talking to yourself)?! Reach is the
ripple that happens when your message is picked up and carried throughout the social web.
There are a couple of ways to measure reach:
• volume over time
– The distribution across various social networks over time
– This will also show the velocity of your message. How quickly did the message spread?
• Number of retweets, comments on a blog post, comments on a forum post
This chart below shows the distribution of the conversations about the JetBlue incident over various social
networks.
A social media monitoring tool can provide a sense of the reach, but it is an interesting exercise to
calculate the potential reach when considering the retweets and how many followers each person has.
Another interesting application of the tool entails using historical data to review the reach and effectiveness
of campaigns or programs run in the past. This will provide invaluable insight into whether they should be
further continued or revised to achieve greater reach. A cancer hospital, MD Anderson, for example, found
the historical data to be very helpful in deciding not to run another program on Prostrate Cancer. Based on
the response online, they chose to offer a program on men’s health and nutrition, which was better
received. You can read more about that case study here.
Start small because if you can't measure it, you can't manage it.
© 2010 Alterian. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.

A New Paradigm for PR Measurements
The ROI of Using a Social Media Monitoring Tool
A framework for a social media campaign from a public relations perspective:
• Use a social media monitoring tool to do a brand audit
• Identify the objectives based on the target market’s needs
• Potential outcomes
• increased awareness – % increase in daily volume
• % increase in traffic to site
• % of increased # of blog posts on web
• increased mentions on Google - increased SEO
• increased # of projects submitted (or some type of user generated content)
• % increase in registrations at site
• Increased attendance at event
• Create the strategy based on how you intend to encourage the behaviors that you’re measuring above.
Some activities (but make sure they will help achieve what you’re going to measure above):
• Do a blogger outreach – share your message along with the requested call to action (be creative
here! Or you may be ignored)
• Send the call to action to your mailing list
• Share the message with Twitter (make sure that you build a following first)
• Create and promote a hashtag
• Podcast interviews – post on blog
• Reach out to journalists and influencers
• Real life meetups – promote on Twitter and Facebook
• Request user generated content - Repurpose this content so that your community can benefit from it
• Build community by sharing information using shareable sites such as YouTube, slideshare, etc.
Conclusion Integrating sales, marketing and public relations efforts across social media is invaluable and will greatly
affect your ability to maximize all opportunities in regard to engagement, sentiment, influence and reach.
Defining your objectives carefully will drive the metrics. What are you trying to achieve? A social media
monitoring tool is then needed to benchmark and measure your efforts over time. It will provide you with
the overview of patterns and trends. More importantly it will provide both quantitative and qualitative
results. The social web has changed how consumers perceive and interact with brands. Public Relations
professionals need to understand this shift and incorporate their ability to measure their efforts.
© 2010 Alterian. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.

A New Paradigm for PR Measurements
The ROI of Using a Social Media Monitoring Tool
About the “Let’s Social Media marketing is providing a whole new dimension for brands to connect with consumers. The
Talk” Series with social web is a vast entity and every marketer needs a tool to harness the information in the most cost
Connie Bensen effective and efficient manner. A social media monitoring tool offers the ability to maximize the digital
portion of your marketing budget in order to create, execute, measure and report on a social media
strategy.
The Let's Talk Series, by Connie Bensen, is a series of 10 whitepapers describing the variety of ways that
marketers can increase the ROI of their marketing efforts. Topics will include how to use a social media
monitoring tool for SEO, Lead Generation, Social Media campaigns, Customer Service, Competitive
Insight, Corporate marketing, PR and reputation management, etc.
Connie is the Director of Social Media and Community Strategy at Alterian, which provides marketing
software to help brands engage with their customers. She is a key voice amongst online Community
Managers. Her blog, www.conniebensen.com is recognized as a leading resource for cultivating online
communities, providing best practices for this emerging role and it is listed in Forbes.com as one of the 20
Best Marketing and Social Media Blogs by Women.
SM2 Social Media Alterian’s SM2 is a social media monitoring and analysis solution designed for PR and
Marketing professionals. SM2 helps you track conversations, review positive/negative
Monitoring (SMM) sentiment for your brand, clients, competitors and partners across social media channels
such as blogs, wikis, micro-blogs, social networks, video/photo sharing sites and real-time
alerts.
About Alterian Alterian (LSE: ALN) empowers organizations to create relevant, effective and engaging experiences with
their audience that help build value and reinforce commitment to their brand, through the use of the
Alterian Integrated Marketing Platform. Alterian drives the transformation of marketing and
communications, making it practical and cost-effective for companies to orchestrate multichannel
engagement with the individual.
Alterian’s unprecedented integration of analytics, content and execution through industry leading tools,
such as the Dynamic Messenger email platform, SM2 Social Media Monitoring platform and the award
winning Content Management solutions, enables companies to build integrated communication strategies
which create a true picture of the individual.
Alterian works with marketing services partners, system integrators and agencies who recognize the need
to plan and deliver coordinated customer engagement services in partnership with their clients. For more
information about Alterian, products within the Alterian Integrated Marketing Platform or Alterian’s Partner
Network, visit www.alterian.com or the Alterian blog at www.engagingtimes.com.
© 2010 Alterian. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.

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