Social Media Measurement Techniques and Tips discusses various techniques and tips for measuring social media engagement and success. It begins by noting that different organizations prioritize different metrics, such as engagement for P&G or donations for the Humane Society. It then discusses outdated metrics like AVEs and emphasizes the importance of goals and key performance indicators. The document provides examples of engagement, relationship, and revenue metrics as well as tools for measurement like content analysis, surveys, and web analytics. It outlines a seven step process for measuring social media return on investment and emphasizes the importance of analysis and insight.

1. Social Media Measurement Techniques and Tips October 14 , 2009Katie Delahaye PaineCEOkdpaine@kdpaine.comwww.kdpaine.comhttp:/kdpaine.blogs.comMember, IPR Measurement Commissionwww.instituteforpr.org

2. What Matters? To P&G: Engagement To the Humane Society: Donations To ComCast: Happier customers To Best Buy: Better informed employees To WMUR: Faster, more complete, more relevant stories To Dell: Sales To Molson: Better messaging

3. What Doesn’t Matter? AVEs Eyeballs HITS (How Idiots Track Success) Couch Potatoes # of Twitter Followers (unless you’re a celebrity) # of Facebook Friends/Fans (unless they donate money) Page 3

4. Page 4 You are a party planner, not a communicator 21st Century Old School

5. Page 5 Social Media renders everything you know about measurement obsolete Old School PR 21st Century Role of PR The definition of timely has changed The definition of reach has changed GRPs & Impressions are impossible to count (an irrevelvant) in social media The definition of success has changed The answer isn’t how many you’ve reached, but how those you’ve reached have responded

6. Some really scary numbers* if you’re an ad agency More respondents spend more time on daily personal Intent usage than watching TV 53% of DVR owners watch at least 50% of content on replay – skipping ads all together Consumer Internet ad spend outpaces TV spend by 3X 26% of US respondents have already contributed content to social networking sites. 32% said they follow recommendations from friends 2 out of 3 ad execs expect ad revenue to shift from impression-based to impact based metrics within three years *The End of Advertising as we Know it , IBM 2009

7. Signs that it’s the end of measurement as we know it 11 Moms make a bigger difference than 11 million 1 person on Twitter changed the reputation of Comcast 1 CEO’s blog is changing the face of healthcare in Boston Facebook USERS translated the site from English to Spanish via a Wiki in less than 4 weeks and cost Facebook $0 Dell has made more money on Twitter than Twitter has Ex-employee networks are helping companies lower costs and speed response times The Epping, NH police department is on Twitter

8. The New Rules of Communications You aren’t in control and never have been There is no market for your message You become what you measure She/he with the most data wins Behind every Tweet or Post is a person Empower employees, rely on customers Enable the conversations—it’s going on, with or without you Spin is dead, long live transparency – you can’t fake it so be who you are and see who is pleased Crowdsourcing will beat outsourcing every time

9. The Engagement Decision Tree

10. Goals for Social Media Marketing/leads/sales/ Mission/safety/civic engagement Relationship/reputation/positioning To fix this Or get to this

11. Goals drive metrics, metrics drive results 11 Goal Metrics

12. Change the conversation, improve your reputation Improve your reputation Listen first, then respond Stop doing stupid things

13. Negative coverage over time

14. Goals, Actions and Metrics

15. The 7 steps to Social Media ROI Define the “R” – Define the expected results? Define the “I” -- What’s the investment? Understand your audiences and what motivates them Define the metrics (what you want to become) Determine what you are benchmarking against Pick a tool and undertake research Analyze results and glean insight, take action, measure again

16. Step 1: Define the “R” What return is expected? – Define in terms of the business or mission. What were you hired to do? What difference are you expected to make? If you are celebrating complete 100% success a year from now, what is different about the organization? If your department was eliminated, what would be different? 16

17. Step 2: Define the “I” What is the investment? Personnel Agency compensation Senior Staff time Opportunity cost Raw costs/hr costs vs material costs. 17

18. Step 3: Define your audiences and how you impact them There is no “audience.” There are multiple constituencies Should you blog or Twitter? Don’t ask me, ask your customers List every stakeholder Where do they go for information? What’s important to them? What is the benefit of having a good relationship with that stakeholder group? What’s important to them? Where do they go for information? What do you want them to know? Understand your role in getting the audience to do what you want it to do Raise awareness Increase preference Increase engagement 18

19. Step 4: Define your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) 19 The Perfect KPI Gets you where you want to go (achieves corporate goals) Is actionable Continuously improves your processes Is there when you need it KPIs should be developed for: Your own properties Different tactics Other influential sites

20. Step 4: Define your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) carefully because you become what you measure Cost savings Efficiency Cost per message communicated Cost per new lead/customer acquired Productivity: Increase in employee engagement/morale Lower turnover/recruitment costs Engagement: Ratio of posts to comments % of repeat visitors % of 5+min visitors % of registrations Trust: Improvement in relationship /reputation scores with customers and communities (Loyalty/Retention) Thought leadership: Share of quotes Share of opportunities Message penetration Positioning on key issues Improvement in favorable/unfavorable ratio Improvement in Optimal Content Score (OCS) 20

21. KPIs for External blogs and other Consumer Generated Media Share of positioning Share of rants vs. raves Share of positives/negatives Share of visibility Share of quotes Share of brand benefits mentioned Types of conversations Engagement – ratio of posts to comments Optimal content score

22. Revenue KPIs Cost savings Cost per click thru, downloads, engagement vs other marketing channels Cost per message communicated vs other channels Lifetime value of engagement Cost per customer acquisition

23. Engagement metrics % increase or decrease in unique visits In the past month, what % of all sessions represent more than 5 page views % of sessions that are greater than 5 minutes in duration % of visitors that come back for more than 5 sessions % of sessions that arrive at your site from a Google search, or a direct link from your web site or other site that is related to your brand % of visitors that become a subscriber % of visitors that download something from the site % of visitors that provide an email address Ratio of posts to comments Courtesy of Eric Peterson

24. For all institutions, most postings were simply making an observation or distributing media. Page 24 cx

25. Share of conversation vs share of engagement Page 25 Share of Engagement by Subject - ,External Blogs Share of Subject Students 23.6% 33.2% 22.1% 21.1% Staff 100.0% Research, Social Sciences 1 4 1 Research, Social Sciences 4.4% 95.6% Campus Life Research, Physical Sciences 1 38.3% 2.3% 31.0% 28.4% Research, Other Institution, Overall 2 1 3 Research, Life Sciences 13.0% 20.8% 13.0% 53.2% Policies 2 Research, Earth Sciences 86.8% 13.2% Research, Agriculture 4 Research, Agriculture 100.0% Projects, Non - Research Other 28.6% 28.6% 28.6% 14.2% 1 Policies 100.0% Legal News Peer 1 1 2 Partnerships Michigan State Admissions 1 1 Peer 1 Other Peer 2 Staff Michigan State 1 Legal News 43.3% 56.7% Peer 3 Inventions Peer 2 Research, Life Sciences 1 1 2 1 3 Peer 4 Institution, Overall 5.8% 94.2% Peer 3 Alumni Topics 1 1 Financials 68.7% 12.5% 18.8% Peer 4 Financials 2 1 2 Faculty 15.3% 34.9% 6.3% 43.5% Projects, Non - Research Events 1 1 1 2 Courses 28.6% 71.4% Research, Earth Sciences 1 2 2 Community Relations Courses 1 2 Campus Life Research, Physical Sciences 3 2 4 6 Alumni Topics 96.8% 3.2% Admissions Students 33.3% 66.7% 5 2 1 7 Faculty 2 6 2 2 6 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

26. The vast majority of discussion in external blogs is neutral. Page 26

27. Emerging benchmarks Past Performance Think 3 Peer Underdog nipping at your heels Stretch goal Whatever keeps the C-suite up at night Step 5: Define your benchmarks 27

28. Non-Profit industry benchmarks in social media 28

29. Overview of Key Metrics Peer 1 was the competitive leader in all but YouTube, where Peer 4 and Peer 3 led. Actions attributed to individuals were responsible for most content, except on YouTube.

30. Few subjects appear across all forms of social media, so tailor outreach accordingly

31. Benchmarks put numbers in perspective Page 31

32. Step 6: Pick a tool Content Analysis Survey Web Analytics

33. Step 6: Selecting a measurement tool 33

34. Content Analysis requires: A content source: Google News/Google Blogs, RSS feeds Technorati, Social Mention, Twazzup, Cyberalert, CustomScoop, e-Watch Radian 6, Techrigy, Sysymos, Visible Technologies, Scout Labs 34

35. A way to analyze content Automated vs. Manual Census vs random sample The 80/20 rule – Measure what matters because 20% of the content influences 80% of the decisions Dashboards to aggregate data 35

36. A coding methodology Tonality What messages were communicated How you’re positioned on key issues Dominance/Prominence/Visibility Subject of the article/posting Who was quoted? Products, events, initiatives, battles mentioned

38. Giving a shout-out

39. Making a joke

40. Making a suggestion

41. Making an observation

42. Offering a greeting

43. Offering an opinion

44. Putting out a wanted ad

45. Rallying support

46. Recruiting people

47. Showing dismay

48. Soliciting comments

49. Soliciting help

50. Starting a poll

51. Validating a position

52. Acknowledging receipt of information

53. Advertising something

54. Answering a question

55. Asking a question

56. Augmenting a previous post

57. Calling for action

58. Disclosing personal information

59. Distributing media

60. Expressing agreement

61. Expressing criticism

62. Expressing support

63. Expressing surprise

65. Why an Optimal Content Score? You decide what’s important: Benchmark against peers and/or competitors Track activities against OCS over time Positive: Mentions of the brand Key messages Positioning Visibility Negative Omitted Negative tone No key message 39

66. How to calculate Optimal Content

67. Building Measures Units of content Overall theme (when many messages are combined) Entire message (e.g. article, blog post, etc.) Message parts (brand mentions, paragraphs, sentences) Types of content Manifest: on the surface Latent: the meaning or interpretation of the content Latent Pattern: meaning determined by surface observations Latent Projective: meaning determined by coder interpretation

68. Building Measures (cont.) Variables are exhaustive/ mutually exclusive One can always be selected, and only one Types of variables Nominal: categories, “buckets” Brands mentioned, organizations mentioned, messages communicated Ordinal: categories with an order or scale Tonality, prominence, dominance Numbers: number of words (zero means no words), number of brand mentions

69. Surveys require: A defined sample A list – a way to get to that sample Agreement on what questions you need to answer A survey instrument/questionnaire A test A way to analyze data SPSS SAS 43

70. Aspects of relationships Control mutuality Trust Satisfaction Commitment Exchange relationship Communal relationship 44

71. Control Mutuality The degree to which parties agree on who has the rightful power to influence one another. Although some imbalance is natural, stable relationships require that organizations and publics each have some control over the other. 45

72. Questions that test Control Mutuality This organization and people like me are attentive to what each other says. This organization believes the opinions of people like me are legitimate. In dealing with people like me, this organization has a tendency to throw its weight around. (Reversed) This organization really listens to what people like me have to say. The management of this organization gives people like me enough say in the decision-making process. 46

73. Measuring Trust One party’s level of confidence in and willingness to open oneself to the other party. Includes: Integrity: the belief that an organization is fair and just Dependability: the belief that an organization will do what it says it will do Competence: the belief that an organization has the ability to do what it says it will do. 47

74. Questions to measure trust This organization treats people like me fairly and justly. Whenever this organization makes an important decision, I know it will be concerned about people like me. This organization can be relied upon to keep its promises. I believe that this organization takes the opinions of people like me into account when making decisions. I feel very confident about this organization’s skills. This organization has the ability to accomplish what it says it will do. 48

75. Measuring satisfaction The extent to which each party feels favorably toward the other because positive expectations about the relationship are reinforced. A satisfying relationship is one in which the benefits outweigh the costs. 49

76. Questions to Measure Satisfaction I am happy with this organization. Both the organization and people like me benefit from the relationship. Most people like me are happy in their interactions with this organization. Generally speaking, I am pleased with the relationship this organization has established with people like me. Most people enjoy dealing with this organization. 50

77. Measuring commitment The extent to which each party believes and feels that the relationship is worth spending energy to maintain and promote. 51

78. Commitment I feel that this organization is trying to maintain a long-term commitment to people like me. I can see that this organization wants to maintain a relationship with people like me. There is a long-lasting bond between this organization and people like me. Compared to other organizations, I value my relationship with this organization more. I would rather work together with this organization than not. 52

79. Measuring relationships Exchange Relationship In an exchange relationship, one party gives benefits to the other only because the other has provided benefits in the past or is expected to do so in the future. Communal Relationship In a communal relationship, both parties provide benefits to the other because they are concerned for the welfare of the other -- even when they get nothing in return. 53

80. Exchange Relationships Whenever this organization gives or offers something to people like me, it generally expects something in return. Even though people like me have had a relationship with this organization for a long time; it still expects something in return whenever it offers us a favor. This organization will compromise with people like me when it knows that it will gain something. This organization takes care of people who are likely to reward the organization. 54

81. Communal Relationships This organization does not especially enjoy giving others aid. (Reversed) This organization is very concerned about the welfare of people like me. I feel that this organization takes advantage of people who are vulnerable. (Reversed) I think that this organization succeeds by stepping on other people. (Reversed) This organization helps people like me without expecting anything in return. 55

82. How to implement relationship metrics Step 1: Conduct a benchmark relationship study Step 2: Implement PR program Step 3: Conduct a follow up relationship study Step 4: Look at what’s changed

83. Web Analytics Require: Google Analytics/Web Trends/Omniture Unique URLs Data delivered in parallel with content analysis Ability to correlate and integrate data SPSS/SAS 57

84. Step 7: Analysis - -Research without insight is just trivia Look for failures first Check to see what the competition is doing Then look for exceptional success Compare to last month, last quarter, 13-month average Figure out what worked and what didn’t work Move resources from what isn’t working to what is 58

85. Ask for money Get Commitment Manage Timing Influence decisions Get Outside help Just Say No Actionable Conclusions 59

87. Post-2007 media monitoring has not included a social media dimension due to funding constraints, but this will be important to trend as feasible in the future.Share of All Coverage Definitions: YouTube: a video sharing site. Social Bookmarking: a site where members can display media they have found on the web. Facebook: a social networking site. Institutional Blogs: blogs hosted and owned by schools studied. External Blog: any blog post that is not hosted by an institution.

88. Best Practices: Correlations to bottom-line impact Donations Memberships Sign-ups Leads Using SMM for planning Define the time frame, market/topic you want to study Use Google News, Technorati or Radian6 to identify the conversations around the topic Analyze the conversations for type, tone and positioning Look at share of positioning, tone or conversation Benchmarking against your peers Looking at what the best do Setting goals accordingly Use data to persuade recalcitrant spokespeople Social Media in Crisis Listen instantly to a wide range of influencers Identify weaknesses in communications, customer service, or in the product Improve your reputation Listen first, then respond Stop doing stupid things

89. Using SMM for planning The environmental scan Defining issues in a market Selecting a positioning that works

90. Benchmarks put numbers in perspective Page 63

91. Diversity dominates C-M discussions in Social Media Page 64

92. Where people get the content they share on Facebook Sources of content Genre of content

93. Understanding brand ownership of online video content Use ownership to signal brand participation Provide alerts for possible brand management issues

94. 8 ways to do research without a budget Become someone’s research project Involve your board of directors and volunteers Research something that HAS a budget Take advantage of free offers Become a case study Team up with peer organizations Analyze data that already exists Use blogs and social networks to listen to conversations 67

95. Thank You! For more information on measurement, read my blog: http://kdpaine.blogs.com or subscribe to The Measurement Standard: www.themeasurementstandard.com For a copy of this presentation go to: http://www.kdpaine.com Follow me on Twitter: KDPaine Friend me on Facebook: Katie Paine Or call me at 1-603-868-1550